Interest in Perfect Team on Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) 19 has died down quite a bit now that OOTP 20 is out. The marketplace is not nearly as active as it was prior to the release of the latest version. My interest has waned as well, particularly after so many seasons. Therefore, I will give a brief update on the Apalachin Attack through the 20th season of play in the Perfect Team leagues. After a disastrous 2033 season, my team was relegated back to a Diamond Level league. I stopped bothering to keep up with the competition through careful research and targeted player acquisitions in the marketplace. Instead, I began buying player card packs whenever I accumulated enough player points. As is typical with collectible card games, the odds of getting rare cards is not very good. Over the course of these five seasons, I bought 30 packs and only got a few gold cards and one diamond card; I never saw a perfect card. Unfortunately, the diamond card was third baseman Josh Donaldson and I was already strong at 3B with Nolan Arenado.

2034 - 82-80 (.506), 17 GB, 3rd Place. It was good to be back in a Diamond Level league. We were competitive again and turned in a winning record (barely). Other than Giancarlo Stanton, I was pleased with almost everyone in the lineup. Staff ace Randy Johnson pitched well for us: 15-10, 3.43 ERA, 233.1 IP, 72 BB, 244 K.

2035 - 83-79 (.512), 8 GB, 3rd Place. We did even better in 2035 and finished only eight games back in the division. All in all, the team played similarly to the season before. I acquired one new pitcher late in the year to bolster the bullpen. Lefty Felipe Vasquez replaced James Pazos. Vasquez did a very nice job in the ten games he pitched: 1-0, 1.64 ERA, 13 K.

2036 -72-90 (.444), 14 GB, 5th Place. Things fell apart somewhat in 2036. Although our pitching was pretty consistent, the offense was abysmal. We hit .242 as a team and only scored 636 runs compared to .258 and 741 runs scored the previous season.

2037 - 78-84 (.481), 12 GB, 3rd Place. I tweaked our lineups a bit and tried to play the hot bats to make the most out of a roster that hadn’t changed in years. It paid off as our team batting average went up 12 points to .254 and we scored 728 runs, well ahead of last year. Cal Ripken and Kyle Tucker had fine seasons but Carl Furillo was easily the team’s standout hitter. Furillo set a team record for runs batted in and he won Apalachin’s first league batting title. His stat line speaks for itself: .328, 37 2B, 3 3B, 27 HR, 70 R, 110 RBI.

2038 - 74-88 (.457), 10 GB, 4th Place. For some reason, Randy Johnson just couldn’t catch a break in 2038. He had a dismal season with a 6-18 record and 4.90 ERA. Fortunately, Gaylord Perry picked up the slack with an excellent season, going 17-9 with a 3.98 ERA. Carl Furillo didn’t quite match his 2037 numbers but he came pretty close: .311, 52 2B, 0 3B, 18 HR, 80 R, 89 RBI.

It’s been about a month since I posted my last update on the Apalachin Attack baseball team. After winning the Diamond .386 League Championship, Apalachin was promoted to a Perfect Level league, the Perfect .401. Ugh! We only had one diamond player on the team and no “perfect” players at all. With extremely fierce competition, it was going to be a tough year.

2032 - 72-90 (.444), 13 GB, 4th Place. Despite posting the worst record in team history, we at least managed to stay out of last place. Desperate to stay competitive, I took a gamble on a major acquisition by signing Randy Johnson from the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks. The Big Unit made an immediate impact as our staff ace. Even without much run support, he put up solid numbers against Perfect Level opponents with a 13-10 record and a 3.98 ERA. Johnson was our only starter without a losing record. Offensively, Will Clark was one of our few standouts: .272, 36 2B, 2 3B, 24 HR, 74 R, 75 RBI.

2033 - 53-109 (.327), 42 GB, 5th Place. The wheels really came off in 2033 as the Apalachin Attack had a disastrous season. Playing in the Perfect .418 League against teams stacked with hall of fame players, we struggled to win even one-third of our games. We scored the fewest runs in team history (637) and our pitching was pounded as we surrendered the most runs in team history (848).