Modern baseball fans reading this are surely thinking “Tom Seaver,” but Detroit Tigers pitcher Tommy Bridges was pretty terrific, too, back in the day. In 16 years in Detroit, he won 194 games, including three straight seasons (1934-1936) with 20 or more. In my APBA mini-replay of the 1932 baseball season, which takes place 12 years before Seaver was even born, Bridges is 3-1 after throwing eight shutout innings, allowing just two hits, in a 3-0 win over the Athletics that keeps the Tigers a game off the pace in the American League pennant race.

Bridges pitched out of danger in each of the first three innings. After he retired the first two A’s hitters, he walked Mickey Cochrane and Al Simmons, but struck out Jimmie Foxx to get out of the inning.

Then, after walking Mule Haas and giving up a double to Eric McNair to start the second, he got Jimmie Dykes to line into a double play and coaxed a fly ball off the bat of Rube Walberg to end the threat.

Max Bishop led off the third by drawing a walk¹Bridges leads the league in walks in the replay. He was second in the AL in real life, one of seven seasons in which he finished in the top nine in the league in bases on balls. and Doc Cramer sacrificed him to second, but Bridges got Cochrane to fly to center, walked Simmons again and then induced Foxx to hit a ground ball to third²By virtue of being a “B” pitcher. to keep the game scoreless.

Earl Webb homered off Walberg with two out in the fourth for the only run the Tigers would need, and that seemed to settle Bridges down. He retired 15 of the next 17 hitters (walking just one) and had a 3-0 lead after Billy Rogell hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh off Tony Freitas. With Bridges due up to lead off the bottom of the eighth, but with him already well over his fatigue limit³APBA has an optional starting pitcher fatigue system that can vary from start to start., Tiger manager Bucky Harris took no chances, pinch-hitting with Heine Schuble.

The Tigers didn’t score in the bottom of the eighth, and reliever Chief Hogsett made things interesting by walking Foxx and Haas to start the ninth. With the tying run at the plate, Hogsett retired McNair on a fly to center, then got Dykes to hit a comebacker to the mound that he turned into a 1-6-3 double play to end the game.

Bridges was a southerner⁴As were about 26 percent of the carded players in the 1932 replay. If you count Kentucky and Missouri, who were claimed as Confederate states but never actually seceded from the Union, that number rises to 33 percent., born in Gordonsville, Tennessee in 1906, 41 years after the end of the Civil War. But he was named after both an U.S. and a Confederate president, as his given name was Thomas Jefferson Davis Bridges. (He’s the only 1932 player I know of who shares a name with two different heads of state⁵Depending on how you want to classify the CSA, which was never officially recognized, either by the USA or any foreign nation.. Braves catcher Pinky Hargrave – born William McKinley Hargrave – may be the only other 1932 player who shares a name with a president, but McKinley didn’t enter the White House until March of 1897, more than a year after Hargrave’s birth, so it seems to be more a coincidence than an homage.)

The Tigers finished fifth in real life in 1932, 29 and a half games off the pace. Obviously, in a shorter season, anything can happen, and Detroit is in the thick of the pennant race just past the halfway mark thanks to Bridges and outfielder John Stone, whose seven home runs are third in the league behind Foxx and Babe Ruth. Bridges’ 3.10 ERA is ninth-best in the league.

In other games on July 19, 1932⁶None of the dates in my replay match up with reality, because the software I use to score games and keep stats requires a date, but I’ve spread the 336 games of my regular season out among the months of the year instead of replaying actual games played on a certain date., the Yankees pummeled the Senators to stay in first place, the Cubs lost their fifth in a row and Mel Ott homered twice to lift the Giants over the rival Dodgers and keep New York within five games of the NL lead.

Results, standings and notes are below:

National League Scores

Hitting Stars

• Ben Chapman (NYY) – Went 4-for-4, scored twice, drove in two and stole a base filling in for ill Ruth.
• Ski Melillo (SLB) – Four hits in five trips, two RBI and a triple in win at Boston.
• Red Worthington (BSN) – Went 4-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI in win at Pittsburgh.
• Dale Alexander (BOS) – Nearly hit for cycle, with ninth-ining clout hitting off wall for a double.
• Mel Ott (NYG) – Hit two home runs at Polo Grounds to provide margin of victory against Dodgers.

Pitching Stars

• Tommy Bridges (DET) – Allowed just two hits in eight shutout innings against first-place A’s.
• Phil Collins (PHI) – Gave up one unearned run in firing four-hitter against Cubs, drove in three runs.
• Chad Kimsey (SLB) – Earned third save with two shutout innings at Boston.
• George Pipgras (NYY) – Improved to 3-1 with complete game win at Washington.
• Hal Schumacher (NYG) – Picked up first win of season with seven strong innings against rival Dodgers.

Dale Alexander Slowly Makes His Move

In yet another example of APBA imitating life, Red Sox firstbaseman Dale Alexander has found a midseason season trade to Boston to be very good for his batting fortunes.

Alexander hit .367 to win the 1932 American League batting title under circumstances that were very different than today. The rule at the time was that a player had to play in 100 or more games to qualify for the batting crown, and Alexander played in 124. But under today’s rules, his 454 plate appearances would be 23 shy of qualifying⁷Though I am staying true to scoring rules of the time in this replay on some things – like no sacrifice flies – I am adhering to the 3.1 plate appearances per scheduled game qualifier for the batting titles. At the moment, Alexander has 51 plate appearances, 20 shy of the 71 he would need to qualify..

In the real-life 1932 season, Alexander was a seldom-used reserve for the Tigers (coming to the plate just 22 times in 23 games) when he was dealt to Boston along with Roy Johnson on June 13 for Earl Webb. He caught fire in the friendly dimensions of Fenway Park⁸Alexander hit .394 in 50 games at Fenway that season. and ended up hitting .372 for the Red Sox.

In the replay, Alexander was 1-for-6 (.167) in eight games for Detroit before the trade, and started slowly (with just four hits in his first 24 at bats) with his new club. But after getting three hits in an Independence Day doubleheader at New York, he seems to have found his stroke. He’s nine for his last 16 (.563) to get his average with the Red Sox to .333 and his season mark to .311.

In the July 19 game against the Browns, Alexander nearly became the first player to hit for the cycle in my many years of playing APBA. He doubled leading off the second (and was later forced out at home plate), tripled and scored in the third, singled leading off the sixth, hit into a fielder’s choice and scored in the seventh and came to the plate in the ninth with one out, his team down by two and needing only a home run to complete the cycle⁹Alexander only hit eight home runs in 1932, but had hit 45 for Detroit in his first two years in the bigs.. Facing reliever Chad Kimsey, Alexander hit a towering fly ball that just missed clearing the Green Monster¹⁰Which would not actually be painted green until fifteen years later. It was covered in advertisements for most of its first 30+ years. and dropped back onto the field for a double.

The next hitter, Johnny Watwood, hit a fly ball to deep right that looked like it might reach the seats for a game-tying homer, but Showboat Fisher, who had entered the game as a pinch hitter in the eighth and stayed in to play right, made a spectacular grab for the second out. He then fired to third and caught Alexander trying to tag and advance to end the game.

I’d say that sums up the Red Sox’ dismal season to this point, but they don’t usually even come that close to winning. They’re wretched, but Alexander might be worth watching for the rest of the campaign.