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jksander · 11-01-2025, 03:41 PM

April 7, 1947: Four spring games remain, and today we faced the bottom-dwelling Philly Athletics, with Jack Kramer looking at his final start of the spring. Aside from trading runs in the second (Wally Judnich hit a solo homer for us, Buddy Rosar hit an RBI single for them) the game was tight early on. In the bottom of the eighth, still knotted 1-1, Sam Zoldak took over on the mound, and we took the lead in the top of the ninth when he hit an RBI single to give himself the lead! Three quick outs in the bottom of the inning and he sealed the 2-1 win for us. Zoldak improved to 5-2 with a two inning one hit effort, improving his ERA to 2.17, while Kramer had his best start of the spring, pitching seven innings with four hits a walk and a run, throwing 95 pitches as he improved his ERA to 4.32. We outhit Philly 10-5, led by Judnich and Zoldak, whose homer and RBI single won us the game.

April 8, 1947: Ned Garver got the start for us in today’s game against the White Sox, giving him a shot at proving whether he or Stan Ferens have what it takes to be long-reliever / spot starters this year (Ferens will start tomorrow’s game). The White Sox scored in the top of the first, a solo homer by Eddie Joost doing the trick, but we tied it in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI double by Garver, who seemed to be trying singlehandedly to will us back into this one. He got us through the sixth safely, and in the bottom of the inning Ellis Clary got us the lead with a two-run single, Les Moss later scoring off a sac-fly by Garver to give us a 4-1 lead as Al Jurisich came out to relieve the exhausted starter. Jurisich pitched the remainder of the way and we were able to hold on to win 5-2. Garver (2-2, 5.67 ERA) took the win after a solid six inning effort, allowing five hits, five walks and a run with just one strikeout through 102 pitches, a good audition indeed for that final bullpen spot. We outhit Chicago 9-7, led by Clary, who hit three times with a run and two RBIs.

April 9, 1947: Stan Ferens got the start today against Washington, and he found himself locked into a pitching duel with Senators starter Claude Passeau, the two pitchers combining for just three hits through five scoreless innings. Ferens kept it scoreless through the sixth while pitching around runners on the corners, and after the stretch we brought out Sam Zoldak, the score still knotted up with nobody on the board. I was impressed with our defense -- they’d outhit us by a significant margin, but we were still in there fighting like hell. In the end we came up short -- Zoldak gave up a hit to Ed Stephens on two outs, George Myatt coming around from second to score the game’s only run in our 1-0 loss. But we fought hard as hell, and I liked seeing it. Zoldak took the loss, but he pitched 2.2 innings with four hits, a walk, a strikeout and the one earned run, following Ferens, who had 6.1 innings with four hits, two walks and four K’s while letting nobody in. We were outhit 8-3, so being in such a tight battle of wills was a sign of our improvement. Arky Vaughn led the offense with a hit and two walks, but just couldn’t get around.

April 10, 1947: It’s the final game of the spring training stretch, and we’ve decided not to use Olivo or any of our other starters ... since our final cut is going to have to come from the pitching side, I’m going to give our bullpen one more chance to show who deserves to make that final difficult cut. Al Jurisich will get the start today against the Yankees, but our plan was to hopefully get two or three good innings from him and then let Ferens and Garver split the remainder. Alas, Jurisich gave up four runs to the Yankees in the bottom of the first without even getting an out (Henrich single, Lindell single, Dimaggio single, Berra GRAND SLAM) ... and Garver had to come out to salvage things way earlier than planned. He got us into the top of the second down 5-0, and pitched through the fourth without giving up more runs. Zoldak relieved him in the botom of the fifth, and instead of using Ferens, who was more worn down from yesterday than he was willing to admit, I brought out Tom Seats to pitch the remainder of the game, taking the ball in the bottom of the sixth and pitching until we finished the 7-1 loss. We finished the spring dead even, 15 wins, 15 losses, the loss going to Jurisich (2-2, 6.63 ERA) as we got outhit 11-5.

Opening day isn’t for four days, and we don’t play again until the 15th. Detroit finished 18-12 in spring games, tied with the Yankees, while Cleveland finished 17-13 and Washington was 16-14. We beat out Boston, Chicago and Philly, and while competing for a penant is so wildly beyond what our team has accomplished in recent history (not counting the 1944 season during which most of the league’s best were still fighting across the European and Japanese theaters) it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that we could be competitive enough to finish in the top half of the table ... which aside from ’44, hasn’t happened since ’42 (and before that, ’29). Not counting ’44, we haven’t beaten out the league since the late 1880s, so our main focus this year will be on building a foundation for future success. And not finishing last. I’ll be damned if we can’t at least beat out the Athletics!

April 12, 1947: After much debate among my coaching staff, I’ve decided to demote 25-year-old Al Jarisich to AAA, though as he’s out of options he’ll have to pass through waivers before we can officially send him to Toledo to play with the Mud Hens. With one additional player needing to be moved down, we’ve chosen to demote 26-year-old Paul Lehner (left field) as well ... Lehner only managed to bat .187 in his limited spring appearances, and that’s not good enough to be a legitimate option off the bench.

As such, here is our opening day roster:

Lineup
C - Joe Schultz
1B - Wally Judnich
2B - Jackie Robinson
3B - Vern Stephens
SS - Arky Vaughn
LF - Phil Cavarretta
CF - Harry Walker
RF - Wally Moses

Bench
C - Les Moss
1B - Joe Grace
2B - Johnny Berardino
3B - Bob Dillinger
SS - Ellis Clary
LF - Dick Whitman
CF - Tommy Glaviano
CF - Jerry Witte
RF - Al Zarilla

Zarilla, Whitman, Witte and Moss will be our primary pinch-hitters, with Dillinger, Glaviano, Zarilla and Whitman being our primary pinch-runners.

Starters
1 - Diomedes Olivo
2 - Dutch Leonard
3 - Fred Sanford
4 - Tom Seats

Bullpen
L - Sam Zoldak (Stopper, Middle Relief)
L - Stan Ferens (Middle Relief, High Leverage)
R - Ned Garver (Long Relief, Setup)
R - Jack Kramer (Doubleheader SP, Long Relief)

I like the idea of a four-man rotation in this era ... there are a lot of double plays in this era of baseball, but that’s where a solidly qualified fifth man out of the pen can be a regular spot starter. I’ll be expecting my starters to anchor games, and since the closer doesn’t exist yet, Zoldak will be our primary “stoppper” and will likely still get the lion’s share of three-inning saves when they are a necessary evil. Ferens and Garver will get plenty of innings in games where the starters fail to deliver, but this is a time in baseball where even having four guys in the pen is something of a luxury. But with Olivo, Leonard and Sanford our obvious top three, beyond that Seats and Kramer are decent but inconsistent ... so I want to make sure we have the bullpen arms to help keep rough starts from becoming automatic losses.

April 14, 1947: Our top pick in last year’s draft, center fielder Richie Ashburn, was named the 16th best prospect in baseball and has been tearing it up for the Springfield Browns in the AA Illinois-Indiana-Iowa league, hitting .426/.507/.656 through 14 games and 61 at-bats, including six doubles and four triples. I have decided to promote him to AAA Toledo in the American Association ... I don’t expect he’ll make it up to the bigs this year, but if he rakes like that against AAA pitching, we may end up needing to find a spot for him sooner than later.

The Associated Press and the Sporting News have predicted that we will finish 78-76, tied with Boston for fourth in the AL. They’re anticipating another Subway Series, with New York (92-62) facing off against Brooklyn (90-64), with the NL race finishing tighter (St. Louis expected to win 86) though in our league Cleveland (84-70) and Detroit (83-71) are predicted to be both fighting hard for a shot. The Phillies have been picked to finish last in either league with 64 wins, while the Washington Senators were surprisingly picked to finish with 65 wins, tied for last with the White Sox (the Athletics are expected to win 73, which would be surprising based on how their players looked all spring. But you never know ... when was the last time these guys ever picked the leagues correctly before any of our 154 games were played?

Opening day’s tomorrow ... bring on the Tigers! Our upcoming schedule for the first three full weeks:

4/15-17: vs. Detroit
4/18-20: at Chicago (Sunday DH)
4/22-23: at Cleveland
4/24-25: at Detroit
4/26-27: vs. Chicago (Sunday DH)
4/29-30: vs. New York
5/1-3: vs. Washington
5/4: vs. Boston (DH)

11-01-2025, 03:41 PM	#16
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,668	April 7, 1947: Four spring games remain, and today we faced the bottom-dwelling Philly Athletics, with Jack Kramer looking at his final start of the spring. Aside from trading runs in the second (Wally Judnich hit a solo homer for us, Buddy Rosar hit an RBI single for them) the game was tight early on. In the bottom of the eighth, still knotted 1-1, Sam Zoldak took over on the mound, and we took the lead in the top of the ninth when he hit an RBI single to give himself the lead! Three quick outs in the bottom of the inning and he sealed the 2-1 win for us. Zoldak improved to 5-2 with a two inning one hit effort, improving his ERA to 2.17, while Kramer had his best start of the spring, pitching seven innings with four hits a walk and a run, throwing 95 pitches as he improved his ERA to 4.32. We outhit Philly 10-5, led by Judnich and Zoldak, whose homer and RBI single won us the game. April 8, 1947: Ned Garver got the start for us in today’s game against the White Sox, giving him a shot at proving whether he or Stan Ferens have what it takes to be long-reliever / spot starters this year (Ferens will start tomorrow’s game). The White Sox scored in the top of the first, a solo homer by Eddie Joost doing the trick, but we tied it in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI double by Garver, who seemed to be trying singlehandedly to will us back into this one. He got us through the sixth safely, and in the bottom of the inning Ellis Clary got us the lead with a two-run single, Les Moss later scoring off a sac-fly by Garver to give us a 4-1 lead as Al Jurisich came out to relieve the exhausted starter. Jurisich pitched the remainder of the way and we were able to hold on to win 5-2. Garver (2-2, 5.67 ERA) took the win after a solid six inning effort, allowing five hits, five walks and a run with just one strikeout through 102 pitches, a good audition indeed for that final bullpen spot. We outhit Chicago 9-7, led by Clary, who hit three times with a run and two RBIs. April 9, 1947: Stan Ferens got the start today against Washington, and he found himself locked into a pitching duel with Senators starter Claude Passeau, the two pitchers combining for just three hits through five scoreless innings. Ferens kept it scoreless through the sixth while pitching around runners on the corners, and after the stretch we brought out Sam Zoldak, the score still knotted up with nobody on the board. I was impressed with our defense -- they’d outhit us by a significant margin, but we were still in there fighting like hell. In the end we came up short -- Zoldak gave up a hit to Ed Stephens on two outs, George Myatt coming around from second to score the game’s only run in our 1-0 loss. But we fought hard as hell, and I liked seeing it. Zoldak took the loss, but he pitched 2.2 innings with four hits, a walk, a strikeout and the one earned run, following Ferens, who had 6.1 innings with four hits, two walks and four K’s while letting nobody in. We were outhit 8-3, so being in such a tight battle of wills was a sign of our improvement. Arky Vaughn led the offense with a hit and two walks, but just couldn’t get around. April 10, 1947: It’s the final game of the spring training stretch, and we’ve decided not to use Olivo or any of our other starters ... since our final cut is going to have to come from the pitching side, I’m going to give our bullpen one more chance to show who deserves to make that final difficult cut. Al Jurisich will get the start today against the Yankees, but our plan was to hopefully get two or three good innings from him and then let Ferens and Garver split the remainder. Alas, Jurisich gave up four runs to the Yankees in the bottom of the first without even getting an out (Henrich single, Lindell single, Dimaggio single, Berra GRAND SLAM) ... and Garver had to come out to salvage things way earlier than planned. He got us into the top of the second down 5-0, and pitched through the fourth without giving up more runs. Zoldak relieved him in the botom of the fifth, and instead of using Ferens, who was more worn down from yesterday than he was willing to admit, I brought out Tom Seats to pitch the remainder of the game, taking the ball in the bottom of the sixth and pitching until we finished the 7-1 loss. We finished the spring dead even, 15 wins, 15 losses, the loss going to Jurisich (2-2, 6.63 ERA) as we got outhit 11-5. Opening day isn’t for four days, and we don’t play again until the 15th. Detroit finished 18-12 in spring games, tied with the Yankees, while Cleveland finished 17-13 and Washington was 16-14. We beat out Boston, Chicago and Philly, and while competing for a penant is so wildly beyond what our team has accomplished in recent history (not counting the 1944 season during which most of the league’s best were still fighting across the European and Japanese theaters) it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that we could be competitive enough to finish in the top half of the table ... which aside from ’44, hasn’t happened since ’42 (and before that, ’29). Not counting ’44, we haven’t beaten out the league since the late 1880s, so our main focus this year will be on building a foundation for future success. And not finishing last. I’ll be damned if we can’t at least beat out the Athletics! April 12, 1947: After much debate among my coaching staff, I’ve decided to demote 25-year-old Al Jarisich to AAA, though as he’s out of options he’ll have to pass through waivers before we can officially send him to Toledo to play with the Mud Hens. With one additional player needing to be moved down, we’ve chosen to demote 26-year-old Paul Lehner (left field) as well ... Lehner only managed to bat .187 in his limited spring appearances, and that’s not good enough to be a legitimate option off the bench. As such, here is our opening day roster: *Lineup* C - Joe Schultz 1B - Wally Judnich 2B - Jackie Robinson 3B - Vern Stephens SS - Arky Vaughn LF - Phil Cavarretta CF - Harry Walker RF - Wally Moses *Bench* C - Les Moss 1B - Joe Grace 2B - Johnny Berardino 3B - Bob Dillinger SS - Ellis Clary LF - Dick Whitman CF - Tommy Glaviano CF - Jerry Witte RF - Al Zarilla Zarilla, Whitman, Witte and Moss will be our primary pinch-hitters, with Dillinger, Glaviano, Zarilla and Whitman being our primary pinch-runners. *Starters* 1 - Diomedes Olivo 2 - Dutch Leonard 3 - Fred Sanford 4 - Tom Seats *Bullpen* L - Sam Zoldak (Stopper, Middle Relief) L - Stan Ferens (Middle Relief, High Leverage) R - Ned Garver (Long Relief, Setup) R - Jack Kramer (Doubleheader SP, Long Relief) I like the idea of a four-man rotation in this era ... there are a lot of double plays in this era of baseball, but that’s where a solidly qualified fifth man out of the pen can be a regular spot starter. I’ll be expecting my starters to anchor games, and since the closer doesn’t exist yet, Zoldak will be our primary “stoppper” and will likely still get the lion’s share of three-inning saves when they are a necessary evil. Ferens and Garver will get plenty of innings in games where the starters fail to deliver, but this is a time in baseball where even having four guys in the pen is something of a luxury. But with Olivo, Leonard and Sanford our obvious top three, beyond that Seats and Kramer are decent but inconsistent ... so I want to make sure we have the bullpen arms to help keep rough starts from becoming automatic losses. April 14, 1947: Our top pick in last year’s draft, center fielder Richie Ashburn, was named the 16th best prospect in baseball and has been tearing it up for the Springfield Browns in the AA Illinois-Indiana-Iowa league, hitting .426/.507/.656 through 14 games and 61 at-bats, including six doubles and four triples. I have decided to promote him to AAA Toledo in the American Association ... I don’t expect he’ll make it up to the bigs this year, but if he rakes like that against AAA pitching, we may end up needing to find a spot for him sooner than later. The Associated Press and the Sporting News have predicted that we will finish 78-76, tied with Boston for fourth in the AL. They’re anticipating another Subway Series, with New York (92-62) facing off against Brooklyn (90-64), with the NL race finishing tighter (St. Louis expected to win 86) though in our league Cleveland (84-70) and Detroit (83-71) are predicted to be both fighting hard for a shot. The Phillies have been picked to finish last in either league with 64 wins, while the Washington Senators were surprisingly picked to finish with 65 wins, tied for last with the White Sox (the Athletics are expected to win 73, which would be surprising based on how their players looked all spring. But you never know ... when was the last time these guys ever picked the leagues correctly before any of our 154 games were played? Opening day’s tomorrow ... bring on the Tigers! Our upcoming schedule for the first three full weeks: 4/15-17: vs. Detroit 4/18-20: at Chicago (Sunday DH) 4/22-23: at Cleveland 4/24-25: at Detroit 4/26-27: vs. Chicago (Sunday DH) 4/29-30: vs. New York 5/1-3: vs. Washington 5/4: vs. Boston (DH) __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)