July 1 - How's it Going? NL Pitching Leaders

 

Atlanta's 1-2 punch of Phil Niekro and Carl Morton have kept the Braves close in the NL West. They have combined for 25 wins, 14 of them by shutout. The Braves also have ERA champion Buzz Capra in the rotation but he isn't pitching quite this well.

At this pace there should be a lot of 20-game winners in the National League.

Crazy Day for Roric Harrison

 

On April 18, Roric Harrison had quite a day. He not only pitched a three-hit shutout, but he homered twice! Not bad for a grade 3 pitcher.

 As of July 5, Roric is pretty close to his real life record. With two more starts to go, he is 7-10 with a 5.52 ERA. He has hit three home runs (same as in real life). He was 6-11 with a 4.71 ERA in real life.

Knucksie Off to A Great Start

 

Phil Niekro started off the season in great fashion. He pitched four shutouts in a row, including a one-hitter against the San Diego Padres. He allowed a total of 11 hits in the four games.

But, alas, all good things must come to an end. In his fifth start Phil was bombed by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Who Is Supposed to Win?

 

According to Baseball Digest, here is who "should win" in 1974. In real life, they got three of the four divisions right. We'll see how they did with this replay.

Baseball Digest also did a quick summary of each team's strengths and shortcomings:

It's interesting how it says that Houston needs starters. The team ended up with four B starters and a C.

Trying to Relive Some Memories

 In 1974 I got my first awareness of the great sport of baseball at the age of seven. It was the first year I:

* watched games on TV. 

* was aware of players and teams.

* read the morning paper and kept track of standings and statistics.

* collected baseball cards.

A while back I started getting back into the APBA Baseball game after a long vacation. I got a hold of the old DOS game and a few data disks. I decided to do some replays. The first year will be 1974. I'm using a virtual DOS thing so that it will work on my computer.

I will post highlights of the replay along with standings and stats at key times. For some reason I didn't save the stats at the end of the month in April, May, and June. I wish I would have done that.

I hope you enjoy the little journey through a year long gone.