1983 Detroit Tigers Replay

I am about halfway through the season of my 1983 Detroit Tigers Strat-O- Matic replay. I play all my seasons in solo fashion, with several modifications to simplify play.

Using Retrosheet, I use the final scores of all other teams games, just as they happened in real life. For example, if the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians on May 10th, 6-5, the Yankees would have that win entered in the standings.

All the Tigers games against American League East opponents are rolled, and those results, rather than the actual life results are entered in the standings.

The Baltimore Orioles won the American League East Division in real life by 6 games over the Detroit Tigers. That could change in the replay, obviously, depending on how Detroit fares, especially versus the Orioles.

Because I am using my original sets, which contain just 20 players per team, I have set some ground rules. First, injuries are ignored. Pitching staffs will be for a four man starting rotation. Because of this, innings pitched and complete games are likely to be very high. The most important modification will be that because of the limited rosters, no pinch hitters, or defensive substitutions will be allowed. Relief pitchers will be allowed to replace starters, but they must have a relief designation on their card. Bench players will get occasional starts, but once in the starting lineup, will play the entire game. Also, there will be a designated hitter used in all replays, National League as well as American. This eliminates the need for pitcher’s hitting cards, and greatly speeds up play. I have a modification of the so called “dot” rule, for pitcher endurance. What I do, is if the pitchers endurance inning is 6, he can pitch a full six inning before the “dot” rule comes into effect. I will keep individual stats of the team featured in the current replay only, in this case, the ’83 Tigers.

I usually do a stats update at the end of each month of play.

Here are the current American League East Standings:

Team GM# Won Lost Pct GB

Baltimore 96 57 39 .594 –

New York 95 55 40 .579 1.5

Detroit 97 55 42 .567 2.5

Milwaukee 96 53 43 .552 4

Toronto 97 53 44 .546 4.5

Boston 98 53 45 .541 5

Cleveland 98 42 56 .429 16

Detroit’s next game will be the 7/29/83 game vs the Kansas City Royals.