30
October

NCAA Cards Available for College Baseball fans

I blogged about this a while back on The Baseball Zealot but it’s worth a mention here.  For those who are both APBA players and fans of college baseball (I fit both categories… Go Illini!!), you might be interested in Steve Guthrie’s NCAA Baseball Cards web site. 

Using Brian Davis’ Card Generator, Guthrie created sets for most of the Division I teams out there.  Using Excel, you can print them out. 

The sets available are for the year 2007. 

These are teams available:

Set 1: SEC, Atlantic 10, Wright State, Hawaii-Hilo

Set 2: ACC, Ohio Valley, Oral Roberts, Bethune-Cookman, Florida A and M, North Carolina A and T, Dallas Baptist, Prairie View A and M

Set 3: Big XII, Sun Belt, Mountain West

Set 4: PAC-10, Missouri Valley, Southern

Set 5: Big East, Ivy League, America East, Texas-Pan American

Set 6: Conference-USA, Colonial, West Coast

Set 7: Big West, WAC, Metro Atlantic, Army, Navy

Set 8: Big 10, Big South, Atlantic Sun

Set 9: Southland, Mid-American, Illinois-Chicago, Lafayette, North Dakota State, South Dakota State

Here is the entry point for Steve Guthrie’s NCAA Baseball Cards site

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29
October

League Draft Order methods

 

There are a few ways APBA keeper leagues can determine draft order for rookie drafts.  Depending on how it’s done, it can emphasize league parity or competition.  I thought I’d run through the methods our league (the Illowa APBA League) has tried (or considered trying) throughout our history with their advantages and disadvantages. 

The IAL has never used a division format so I’d love to hear from any division league and how they do it. 

 

Worst-to-First

Put simply, the draft order starts from the last place team (or the team with the worst winning percentage) and moves on up till you get to the first place team (the highest winning percentage). 

Of course, the biggest benefit is that this method helps the teams that need it the most.  As someone who has had some cellar-dwellers, I can speak with some authority on the subject.  The first pick in the draft will help a last place team right itself either by picking a franchise rookie or even by trading that pick. 

The disadvantage of Worst-to-First is that assuming a team is out of playoffs, there is a built in incentive to lose.  Yes, we’re all grown-ups here and no one intentionally loses.  But that said, does every team pull out every stop to win when they know they will be penalized?  It depends on the maturity of the league. 

 

Race for the First Pick

This method depends on how your league is structured but worked well for us for a while.  We were an eight team league at the time.  Instead of the last place team getting the first pick, the 5th place team would.  The draft order would simply would go 5-6-7-8-4-3-2-1. 

The advantage is that everyone is still fighting all year round.  Even those in the bottom division would have an incentive for winning.   It was kind of like a second race to follow which was fun in a way. 

Similar to the advantage to the first method, the disadvantage to this is that teams stuck at the bottom just might not get the help they need. 

 

Throw them in the Hat

One idea we tried (or at least considered) was taking the teams in the bottom half of the standings and just randomly choosing the draft order.  After that, the top half would go in reverse order with the winningest team picking last. 

Consider this only if you can’t make up your mind collectively.

Are there other ideas out there I haven’t even come close to?  

Leave a comment if you have one.

8 comments

27
October

APBA Card of the Week: 1953 Al Kaline

kaline

This week’s APBA Card of the Week is 1953 Al Kaline (reprint).  This was Kaline’s rookie year playing for the Detroit Tigers and even judging by his card you can tell it made from a small sample size.

Year  Tm    G   AB    R    H   2B 3B  HR  RBI  SB CS  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG
+---------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+----
 1953 DET  30   28    9    7   0  0   1    2   1  0   1   5  .250  .300 .357

Like the current year, the 12 landed on 41.  His 42 is based on one hit by pitch in 30 plate appearances.

Interestingly, other than the noticeably missing 6s, it’s a pretty representative card for Kaline for much of his career.  Maybe a tad high on the steals side and low on the 14s.

3 comments

27
October

APBA Hockey

I got the APBA Game Co. monthly eNewsletter today.  Highlighting their communiqué was the announcement that we can pre-order Pro Hockey Board Game.

I’m not a huge hockey fan (but I’ve been known to watch a game or two) and I’ve never played APBA Hockey.  That said, when I was at an APBA Convention some ten years ago with my buddy DonS, I watched a bit of an APBA board hockey tournament going on and I have to say it did look like a lot of fun.  I mean these guys were experts and playing with blazing speed and I had no idea what they were doing half the time. 

Are there any hockey leagues out there?  I’m curious.

FYI… for anyone who hasn’t been out to the site yet.  You can PRE-order the 2008 card set.  They’re 39.95 for the set and 19.95 for the XBs.  Entry Link for the Baseball Card Sets

2 comments

20
October

League Profile: Patriot League

Steve Liles contacts us from back East about the Patriot League.  An interesting facet about this Virginia-based, master game league is the salary structure they use which also implements the salary cap. 

Here’s the scoop on the Patriot League:

League Name

Patriot League
Contact Person Steve Liles
Sport Baseball
# of teams 10
Year of inception 1981
Basic/Master/Computer/
Combination		 Master
Out of the box or with
modifications?		 with modifications
Geographic location Hampton Roads area Virginia

 

Steve Liles says:

 

The Patriot League is face-to-face basic dice game using master game pitching numbers, lefty-righty factors, and a variation of the base stealing. We have a salary cap and a salary structure based on BA and HRs and pitcher rating. Each manager keeps 12 players from a base team (e.g. Yankees) and drafts 13 players from teams not being used, staying within the salary cap. We have playoffs and a World Series. We’re always looking for new managers in the Hampton Roads area.

 

Maybe we’ll convince Steve or someone else at the Patriot League to write an article on how they do the salary structure.  That might be an interesting read.

 

If you want to brag about your league, we’re listening!  Tell us all about the league you are in and we’ll post a profile about it.  In the meantime, read about other leagues who have written in.

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18
October

Mark Miller has the goods for the APBA replayer

At the last Illowa APBA League All-Star weekend, fellow manager, CLuke told me of this cool website he ran across that makes available team rosters, transactions, lineups and pitching rotations for pretty much every year of modern baseball.  He said he used it to help with his 1959 APBA replay.

Then just yesterday I ran across a link for Mark Miller’s Baseball Goodies web site.  And lo and behold, that website certainly does deliver for the APBA baseball replayer!  With the help of Retrosheet, Miller has been able to glean valuable info that is helpful for anyone who wants to simulate an accurate replay.  His site includes:

  • Rosters (both opening days and complete)
  • “as-played” lineup files
  • transaction lists

On top of that he includes “Auto-play” excel files which aid in replaying seasons.  In Miller’s words:

Use Auto-Play to determine winners and losers for as-played and as-scheduled schedules.  You can roll some games and let Auto-Play play the others.  You have the option of using actual results or Log5 method to determine who wins.

Mark Miller’s Baseball Goodies is definitely worth a look for anyone who is into APBA replays.

On a related note, we at Baseball Zealot Radio did an interview with Mark Pankin from Retrosheet. A good interview to listen to get a inside look at the how the organization works.

[Update 7-05-10] I’ve updated the url to Mark’s website.  You can find it here now.

2 comments

17
October

APBA in the Wild

I always enjoy seeing APBA mentioned in the news media even if it’s just briefly.  First, any PR for the game is good, in my opinion.  Second, it’s interesting to see which sportswriters/athletes have played or encountered the game. 

This time it’s Tim Griffin who interestingly covers college football for ESPN.  His article about nicknames which ran a couple weeks ago invoked his childhood memory of playing APBA baseball.  The nicknames on the top of many of the cards seemed to stick with him. 

Says Griffin:

 

I love nicknames and always have. I think it started when I was a kid playing APBA baseball and football and found the occasional nickname found on a player card. It always seemed to give a player a little more color and pizzazz back in those pre-cable television days when I’d be lucky to watch one or two games a week.

 

I admit, nicknames do add a bit of "color" to the APBA cards. 

3 comments

16
October

Book: "The Eastern Colored League"

Seamheads.com has a book review of "The Eastern Colored League" by David Lawrence and Dom Denaro.  I haven’t read the book but it has an APBA twist to it. 

 

The monograph project started with the authors wanting to improve upon the APBA set of 20 Greatest Negro League Teams by finding a methodology that would allow the Negro League compiled statistics, at least the fragment that has been compiled, to be converted into statistics that would have the Negro League APBA player cards play ‘realistically’ with MLB APBA cards.

The book is published by AJ Publishing and goes for a measly 9 bucks. 

3 comments

15
October

League Profile: Transcontinental Baseball League

tbl Steve Stein and Walter Hunt both wrote in to tell us about their league, the Transcontinental Baseball League.  True to its name, the 24-team league spans both the USA and Canada.  One thing that struck out about this league was its yearly publication.  It’s very professionally done and slick!

League Name

Transcontinental Baseball League
Contact Person Walter H Hunt and Steve Stein
League Website http://www.tblhome.com/
Sport Baseball
# of teams 24
Year of inception 1982
Basic/Master/Computer/
Combination		 Combination
Out of the box or with
modifications?		 with modifications
Geographic location mostly New England and New York, but all over the U.S. (Steve says Canada too)

Walter says:

“I have been a member of the Transcontinental Baseball League since 1987, and have recently been informed about this blog.

Our league is a 24-team, 162-game continuous owner league using the current card set; we have an amazingly stable roster (we recently had a managerial change – first time in more than two years!) and a tremendous crew of committed and knowledgeable managers.

I am the editor of a league annual magazine that is published in book form for league members and is available on the web at http://home.comcast.net/~RMurph3/TBL2008ReviewForWeb.pdf. Back issues from 2003 forward are also available at http://www.geocities.com/r_murph3/.

66s,

Walter H. Hunt

APBA fan since 1970.”

I love hearing about leagues that have been around for so long.  Leagues like these have a rich tradition and no doubt have some good stories to tell!

thanks to Walt and Steve!

If you want to brag about your league, we’re listening!  Tell us all about the league you are in and we’ll post a profile about it.  In the meantime, read about other leagues who have written in.

2 comments

14
October

2008 baseball excel stat file… useful for APBA fans

MLBSTATS

Thanks again to our fantastic commish at the IAL, we have the MLB stats in Excel format (zipped).

The spreadsheet includes:

  • pretty much all hitting and pitching stats
  • games played at position
  • pitchers’ hitting
  • a plus for APBA fans, certain offensive stats/36 PA so you can approximate hitter’s APBA cards.
  • plus a lot more!

Plus those with Excel skills can sort and filter to their hearts’ content.

You can download the Excel file here. I hope you all can find it useful.

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