Another example why I love playing historical replays

[Tiger Fan]

Here is why I love playing this game.

Using historical replay with full minors you get the opportunity to learn so much about the history of the sport, and those that played it at various levels. You also just have to love how the career trajectory compared to real life for a random minor leaguer I came across.

I decided to look closer at Bob Crues, a real life career low-level minor leaguer, because he managed to surpass the 50 homerun mark 3 times in my sim while playing in the West Texas-New Mexico League. What I found when I dug deep was in real life Crues set an amazing minor league record with 254 rbi's in a season. In my sim, just like real life he started as a pitcher, suffered an arm injury, missed a number of seasons and came back as a hitting star with numbers pretty close to real life. But the one difference in the sim was his offense in the low minor leagues got him a cup of coffee with the New York Yankees.


BOB CRUES - Real Life
Seeing all of the big offensive numbers from the West Texas-New Mexico League caused me to research the league and some of the stars in my replay. The league itself ran from 1933-1955 with a 3 year break due to WWII. It began as Class D and was upgraded to Class C in 1946 and for it's final year was considered a Class B league. Offense was the name of the game in the league with Bob Crues leading the way with an organized baseball record 254 rbi's in 1948 - a season in which the league averaged 8.12 runs per game. Crues also held the league homerun record by hitting 69 in 1948. He hit .404 that season so you figure the triple crown was a lock - not in the WTNM league where his average failed to crack the top 3 that season.

He began his career as a pitcher and had good success in the WTNM League, going 20-5 in 1940 and earning a minor league contract from the Boston Red Sox. Unfortunately, while in the Class A Eastern League as he was sitting in the dugout he was hit in the soft part of his right shoulder near his neck and the injury never fully healed. He pitched with little success the next couple of years before joining the army in 1943. After the war, Crues caught on as an outfielder in the WTNM League with Amarillo, and hit .380 with 52 homers and 178 rbi's in 1947 before having his record setting 1948 season. After his baseball career he became an excellent competitive bowler.

There is a good bio of Crues on the SABR website here http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/a8b82ed5


BOB CRUES - My replay
In the sim Bob Crues would pitch for 3 seasons with the Lamesa Lobos, going 18-14 as a rookie and 17-11 his second season. He suffered an arm injury in May of 1941 ending his season. With many leagues suspending operations due to the war, Crues would sit in the free agent pool until 1945 when he retired from the game at the age of 25. However, in 1948 when a record number of leagues appeared I manually unretired all players under the age of 30 to avoid the need for ghost players so it just so happened to give Crues his second chance at baseball - just like he had in real life after WWII.

Crues would sign with the Amarilo Gold Sox of the West Texas-New Mexico League for the 1949 season and hit 63 homers that year. He would thrive in the offense-heavy league, belting 71 homers in 1950 and a league record 80 homers and 230 rbi's in 1951.

His numbers would catch the attention of the New York Yankees, who signed Crues in the winter before the 1952 season. He went to spring training with the Yankees, and was 2-for-9 with no extra base hits during some brief spring action with the big club. He broke camp with the major league team.

Crues made his MLB debut on April 16th at Philadelphia, coming in as a defensive replacement after shortstop Bobby Brown was pinch-hit for in the 7th inning. He drew a walk off of A's starter Don Newcombe in his first plate appearance but was stranded at first in a 5-1 Yankee victory. He would be used a few times as a defensive replacement or pinch-runner over the next couple of weeks but would not get another plate appearance before being sent to AAA Kansas City on May 2nd. He would get another brief MLB call-up in late May but again did not get an at bat.

However, on August 3rd he was called up as an injury replacement and made his first major league start, playing both ends of a doubleheader against the St Louis Browns on August 3rd. Crues went 1-for-4 with a single in a 9-8 loss in the opener and 1-for-3 with a single and 2 rbi's in the second game before being lifted for a pinch-hitter. The Yankees won that game 11-10. By the end of the week he was back in Kansas City and finished the season with the Blues.

Crues would play 64 games for the Blues, hitting 13 homers but batting just .223. In 10 major league plate appearances, he had 2 hits and 3 walks with 2 rbi's. I have yet to play out the next season but Crues will be 34 years old heading into the 1953 season and that might have been his one and only taste of major league baseball.

[Willie McCubby]

Nice post, Tiger Fan. You captured perfectly one of the reasons I am so drawn to OOTP.

[Ryan W.]

I've been reading Tiger Fan's recaps for 15+ years and I always learn something new. Love hearing about these guys!

[Motorhead667]

Tiger Fan, thank you for the great post.
Very good read.

[JoBoxer]

Yes that's pretty sweet. I'm getting ready to replay the 1996 MLB season. Jeter's ROY season. Interested to see how that goes...