Yankees vs. American Giants Game 2

Game 2: Yankees 6, American Giants 4

The second game in my best-of-seven series between the two 1927 league champions was a tense battle. With the game tied at 2-2 in the sixth, NY catcher Pat Collins doubled home Joe Dugan to give the home team the lead. The following inning, the Yankees added three more after Ruth homered, Gehrig reached on a HBP, and Meusel and Lazzeri ripped back-to-back doubles. However, two late-inning errors from Ruth allowed the American Giants to narrow the gap to just two runs. With the tying run at the plate in the ninth, New York reliever Bob Shawkey struck out Chicago pinch hitter Larry Brown to preserve the win for Waite Hoyt (8 IP, 2 ER). 

The series moves to Schorling Park in Chicago for Game 3.

Recent Game Results

My two most recent games played with Diamond Legacies 1927: 

Yankees 6, Pirates 1 - A replay of the 1927 World Series combatants saw Waite Hoyt toss an 8-hit complete game for New York. No homers from Murderers' Row, but Tony Lazzeri reached base four times with a single, double, triple and a walk. Ruth went 2-4 with an RBI and Gehrig went 1-4 with two RBI. On the other side, it was a tough day for the Waner brothers who combined for only two hits in nine at-bats. 

American Giants 4, Yankees 1 - In a matchup pitting the Negro League champs against the MLB champs, Bill Foster shut down the Bombers on just six hits. Gehrig managed two hits, but Ruth struck out three times against the dominant southpaw. Chicago first baseman Jim Brown provided the big hit of the game, drilling a three-run homer off Urban Shocker. Adding to the Yankee frustrations, the elite fielders on the American Giants robbed three hits from NY hitters. That's the most robberies I've seen by one team in a single Diamond Legacies game. 

I'm thinking I'll continue this matchup of MLB and NNL champions as a best of seven series ...

Now Available: Diamond Legacies 1927

The new volume of Diamond Legacies is published! Rosters are provided for all 31 major league teams in 1927. That includes the National League, American League, Negro National League, and Eastern Colored League. 

Diamond Legacies 1927 is available in paperback and as a Kindle e-book.

 

Black Friday Sale

Happy Thanksgiving! It's a big day for football, but let's not forget baseball ...

The publication of Diamond Legacies 1927 is just days away!

Black Friday sale: The Kindle versions of all of my nonfiction baseball books will be on sale starting Friday and going through the weekend.

Diamond Legacies Update

Work has moved into the final stages for the second volume of Diamond Legacies. Stats have been added for all 31 big league teams in 1927. Spoiler alert: the Yankees were pretty good that year! 

Soon more than 600 players will be added to the Diamond Legacies roster lists. That could set up some spirited "what if" battles between teams from the different years. Perhaps the Gas House Gang vs. Murderers' Row.

Diamond Legacies 1927 will be available by the end of this month!

 

Video Review of Diamond Legacies 1934

The Hexed & Countered channel reviewed Diamond Legacies on YouTube. Many thanks to Joe for reviewing and demonstrating how the game is played.

Diamond Legacies 1927

The second volume of Diamond Legacies is on the way! This upcoming book will include rosters for all major league teams in 1927. That's four leagues (AL, NL, NNL, ECL), for a total of 31 new teams!

Diamond Legacies 1927 will be available in November.

Diamond Legacies 1934: A Baseball Simulation Game

My new book is published! And this one is a game ... a game nearly four decades in the making. My senior year of high school, I received The Baseball Encyclopedia for Christmas. In the months that followed, I developed a baseball simulation game based on the actual player statistics that had become available to me in the Encyclopedia (Internet didn't exist back then). Percentile dice determined the outcome of plays and at-bats. A spiral notebook served as my scorecards. It was a lot of fun replaying the World Series from different years and having star players from different eras square off against each other.

I played the game off and on through college and graduate school. It never had a name, just "My Baseball Game." The original rules were scribbled in pencil on a sheet of notebook paper (BTW, I still have that sheet from 1987!). After finishing grad school, my job and writing pursuits took precedence. Years passed and the diamond legends of yesteryear took the field less frequently. 

Then about a year ago, I thought about a baseball history scenario that I could play out in my game. It was a "what if" season in which the 1936 St. Louis Browns signed Negro League stars Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Bill Holland. Also in my fictional season, the Browns owner convinced Connie Mack to sell him Jimmie Foxx, rather than sending him to the Boston Red Sox as happened in actual history. In the simulated 1936 season I played, the "improved" Browns won the AL pennant and the World Series.

The experience was a lot of fun. So much so, it got me thinking that maybe others might enjoy this game. So I revised, expanded, and clarified the rules I had been using. This effort eventually became Diamond Legacies 1934. This first volume includes the rules of the game and ratings for players on all the major league teams in 1934 (AL, NL, NNL). Future volumes will contain ratings for players in other years in baseball history. 

Diamond Legacies 1934 is available at Amazon as a paperback and a Kindle E-Book. I hope you have a lot of fun recreating your own baseball games!