The Krusher Question: HRs or Strikeouts?

With major league rosters expanding from 25 to 40 players on September 1st, just three SP78 days away, I realized that utility infielder Lenn Sakata, ‘The Kalani Krusher’, would soon be returning to the Milwaukee Brewers as a pinch-hitter and defensive backup for starting second baseman Paul Molitor. Which means I now have a decision to make: do I keep his erroneous home run range of 24-32 intact, for the sheer entertainment value of it, or do I move it to where it should rightfully be, if Avalon Hill hadn’t misprinted it, to his strikeout range?

For those of you unaware of the situation, here it is in a nutshell (or you can read the full story here). Sakata had zero home runs and eleven strikeouts in his 30 games played for Milwaukee during the actual 1978 season, yet his Statis Pro card displays a 24-32 range for home runs, and an identical 24-32 range for strikeouts. Which meant that whenever I drew a FAC number during one of his at-bats, if the number was between 24 and 32, the home run line would be the first I’d see. Thus, he cranked an HR in his first game played, and it wasn’t until the following game that I noticed the card’s discrepancy. Since I already had two more-productive backups for Molitor in Don Money and Jim Gantner, I soon sent the bogus slugger to the minors.

Now, with his return to the parent club imminent (well, perhaps 2-3 years in real time), I need to decide whether to keep this astronomical home run range intact, or keep his card numbers consistent with his ’78 stats, and move those numbers to the strikeout line. A part of me wants to keep the homer parameter right where it is, and have some fun with it, while the more level-headed part says to keep those crazy numbers where they belong, in the K range, and prevent the pennant-chasing Brewers from gaining any unfair advantages.

So what do you think? Let me know below…do I give the Krusher a month of glory, or keep things real? If I do give him that home run range, should he then take over for Molitor and become the new starter at second base? Right now, Molitor is batting .288 with 63 stolen bases over 119 games, while Sakata is batting a lofty .391 in just thirteen games (which is surprising, based on his non-HR card numbers), with one stolen base. Both are equal defensively, with a rating of E2.

 

Plunked!

A few days ago, my friend Steve P and I were having a discussion about former Expos second baseman Ron Hunt, who set a modern major league record when he was hit-by-pitch fifty times during the 1971 season. No, that’s not a typo…fifty times, in one season!

So then we wondered: Who were the current HBP leaders in my SP78 season? I didn’t know off-hand—either the player or the number—but my educated guess for the number was somewhere between 10 and 15. So today I went through every team’s current stats, and came up with the Top 5 for each league…and as it turned out, my estimate was correct, for both leagues:

National League

1) Dave Cash, Expos – 14
2) Willie Stargell, Pirates – 11
3) Gene Tenace, Padres – 9
4) Andre Dawson, Expos – 8
5) Tim Foli, Mets – 8

American League

1) Don Baylor, Angels – 12
2) Chet Lemon, White Sox – 9
3) Butch Wynegar, Twins – 8
4) ReJackson, Yankees – 8
5) Six tied with – 7

A long way to go, in a month’s time, to catch up with Hunt and his record…unless I start purposely plunking Cash and Baylor in every remaining game. And in case you’re wondering: pitcher David Clyde of the Indians leads the AL in hit-by-pitches delivered, with nine, while Mark Lemongello of the Astros leads the NL, with seven.

The Grease Game

For those of you visiting this post because you happened to see the heading above, thinking this was an article about a charity softball game with teams managed by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, I apologize…this is definitely not that article. Instead, this is a story about a Statis Pro baseball game played nearly forty years ago, outside of the confines of my SP78 Replay season, between two teams managed by my brother and his friend, and played while they snacked on a decidedly non SP78-sanctioned snack item.

The date was July 8, 1981. My brother Scott was at our house on Palacio Place in Rancho Bernardo, California, hanging out with his friend Matt, while I was at a screening of Superman II at our local multiplex with my friend Brent. At some point during the evening, the two decided to play my Statis Pro Baseball board game, with Scott taking the reins of his favorite team, the Dodgers, against Matt and the hometown Padres.

The SP78 Table of Mystery

So what the heck is going on here? Take a look at the photo below, taken in late December of 2016, and tell me why I played an SP78 game under these strange but necessary conditions:

Yes, I played the entire Padres-Mets match-up for August 15th with three of the four chairs pulled away from the table. But the question is, why? Did I leave the game for a bathroom break before the first pitch, only to find poltergeist activity had taken place while I was away? Did the table shrink during the first inning? Did three impolite friends I’d invited over to watch the game suddenly stand up and leave, without bothering to push in their chairs?

Before clicking on the ‘continue reading’ link, see if you can come up with a plausible (or perhaps even not-so-plausible) answer to this puzzler, then tell me in the comment section below what you’ve guessed.