Bouton, "Ball Four" Inspire 1969 Seattle Pilots APBA Replay

Took the opportunity this past summer to re-read "Ball Four," Jim Bouton's classic tell-all baseball book focusing primarily on his exploits with the 1969 Seattle Pilots.

I have to admit a morbid curiosity for the one-year wonders of that Seattle squad, who would go on to ditch the Emerald City and become my favorite team -- the Milwaukee Brewers -- the next season.

Throughout the book, Bouton complains about his lack of playing time, both as a starter and reliever, despite his growing proficiency in tossing the knuckleball and what little toll it took on his ancient arm.

So that got me to thinking ... What if the Pilots had listened to Bouton and used him more often on the mound? Would it have significantly improved the outcome for a team that finished last in the new AL West Division with a record of 64-98? Spoiler alert: The answer is ... no.

Through the magic of the APBA Baseball Game, I took it upon myself to answer that age-old question posed by Bouton, who is convinced he could have made a difference had he been given the chance.

Before embarking on this expedition, let me note that this would be my first one-team season replay using a losing team. Like many other APBA replay enthusiasts out there, I don't see any fun in the prospects of replaying a season for a team that wasn't finding any joy in real life. Previously, I relished replaying winning seasons for the 2008 Brewers as well as the 1969 Cubs.

In addition to eliminating any limits on using Bouton, I wondered what would have happened had the Pilots not traded rookie of the year Lou Piniella to the Royals before the start of the season. So, Piniella became the Pilots left fielder and away we went ...   

One of the great things about APBA's reprinted 1969 card set is that it includes every player who took the mound or batted at least once, making it possible for me to use the actual lineups of the Pilots' opponents. With few exceptions, including Bouton's added starts, I used the Pilots' actual pitching rotation, then managed the rest of the squad as I saw fit. I limited all other players to 110 percent of their actual at-bats and innings pitched. I also worked in the team's other transactions, so there was somewhat of a revolving door in the personnel I could use throughout the season.

So, how did it turn out? First of all, it was a joy playing this team, partly because it was such an interesting collection of players, from base-stealing maven Tommy Harper and Tommy Davis to Mr. Versatility Diego Segui, who was equally good as a starter or ace reliever. Besides, 1969 was a great year for the AL, with the seemingly unbeatable Baltimore Orioles and the heavy-hitting Minnesota Twins, making it just plain cool to replay.

Predictably, I didn't fare much better than ill-fated Pilots manager Joe Schultz. I guided them to a 68-94 record, which just goes to show that expanding the role of your knuckleballer and adding one potent bat in the three hole does not a contender make. Nice try, however.

Bouton (rated a DX starter and a C* reliever) got 9 more starts and 62 more innings for the Pilots, which resulted in a 6-8 record, better than his 2-1 in actuality. He matched his save total: 1. (Note: Toward the end of August, I granted Bouton's trade to the Astros, bringing to the Pilots Dooley Womack, who piled up some decent stats in 27 games out of the bullpen.)

Piniella also exceeded expectations. Sweet Lou batted .306/.352/.437 in 142 games, scoring 71 runs and leading the team in runs batted in with 89. He hit 30 doubles, along with 10 triples and 7 home runs.

What this team lacked in power, it more than made up with speed, swiping 194 bases, compared to only 122 homers. The speed brigade was led by Harper, who stole 95 bases, which helped him score a team-high 105 runs. First baseman Don Mincher lead the team in home runs with 26.

Overall, the team batting average (.242), slugging percentage (.354), ERA (4.33) and other stats pretty closely matched the real-life Seattle stats for the year, just another testimonial to the accuracy of the APBA game.

In addition to Segui, who went 8-10 with 5 saves; Bob Locker lead the team with an 11-6 record and 8 saves. Gene Brabender was the hard-luck hurler, going 4-14 in 29 starts and 192 innings.

Despite the disappointing, yet predictable, win-loss record, this was still among my most satisfying APBA projects. It reinforced the fun that can be had when you tweak reality by playing "what if ..."

I think Jim Bouton would be OK with the outcome.

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Note: Click here for the complete replay stats.

Note II: Here's a great link to a new post by baseball historian John Thorn, "Jim Bouton: An Improvisational Life."

RIP Jim Fregosi

Growing up, Jim Fregosi was one of those players whose baseball card you always seemed to have in doubles, even triples. I never really thought he was much of a player, though he had a cool name.

Part of my ignorance was that he was pretty much past his prime when I got interested in baseball in the mid-1970s. By then, the six-time all-star was mostly a backup for the Texas Rangers, his stellar years with the Angels a mystery to me.

Upon his death Friday, however, I learned just how good he was -- an outstanding, gold-glove caliber shortstop on an otherwise average team. A .265 hitter, he also had 151 home runs over an 18-year career. He was anything but a light-hitting shortstop, batting in the middle of the lineup for many years. Heck, the Angels retired his No. 11 jersey.

Mostly I remember him as a manager, first with the Angels and then with the White Sox, Phillies and Blue Jays. And he was pretty decent, leading the Angels to their first playoff appearance in 1979 and the Phillies to the 1993 National League pennant. In 15 years as a manager, his teams won 1,028 games. (Ok, they also lost 1,094 games.)

The best Jim Fregosi APBA card in my collection is his 1969 card, when he was rated a fast shortstop (10). He batted third for the Angels that year, batting .260 with 12 home runs, 78 runs scored and 47 RBI. When your No. 3 hitter amasses only 47 RBI, is it any surprise the Angels only had 67 wins that year? Fregosi did have a .381 slugging percentage and a higher-than-average on-base percentage of .361.

The Angels were a good match for my favorite team in 1969, the one-year wonders known as the Seattle Pilots. One of the great things about the 1969 APBA reprint set is that it includes a card for every player that year. The Pilots, in all their ineptitude, practically overflow the team card envelope, with 45 marvelous players to choose from. Of course, many of those are for D pitchers and other guys even I've never heard of.

My affinity for this lowly Pilots squad that tallied a 64-98 record during their single season in Seattle is that it allowed car dealer Bud Selig to whisk them away to Milwaukee, where they became the Brewers, my favorite team. Among the players who went on to endure some of those brutal early years in Milwaukee were Tommy Harper, Mike Hegan, Skip Lockwood, and Gene Brabender, a Wisconsin native who suffered 15 loses in the Brew Crew's inaugural season.

As I mentioned earlier, Fregosi stands out most in my memory as one of those '70s Topps baseball cards that are now immortalized in Josh Wilker's often-hilarious book "Cardboard Gods," published in 2010. Wilker's website of the same name includes a gem of an entry about Fregosi when he was finishing up his career with the Pirates.

As often happens, this week's news about Fregosi made me look up his APBA card and find a game to replay. On Sept. 12, 1969 the Angels and the Pilots managed to tie 1-1 in a 10-inning game that was the second game of a doubleheader at Sick's Field. Perfect!

With Fregosi batting third, as usual that season, the Angels managed to win the replay 4-1. Pitcher Rickey Clark (DW) got the win, which would have been his first and only that season in his lone start. Ken Tatum finished the eighth and retired the Pilots in the ninth for the save.

Fregosi went 0-for-4, getting on base in the first inning on a two-base error by second baseman John Donaldson. Sandy Alomar and Jim Spencer, two other Angels regulars from that era, provided the bulk of the Angels offense in the replay. Alomar, the leadoff hitter, got on base three times, stole three bases and scored three runs, two of them on singles by Spencer, who drove in three runs.

Also noteworthy in the Angels' lineup was Aurelio Rodriguez, one of my favorite APBA players over the years. First, I had no idea Rodriguez played for the Angels. He'll always be the Tigers third baseman to me. Second, though he was never a high-average hitter (.237 lifetime), he always seems to come through in the clutch. And it never hurt that he was a gold-glover at third. In this replay, he contributed as usual, reaching base on an error and scoring.

For the Pilots, Lockwood got the loss, though only allowing a pair of runs in his five innings. First baseman Don "The Mule" Mincher drove in Steve Hovley for the Pilots' lone score. The Pilots totalled only four hits. No wonder only 5,085 turned out for the game!

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