29
October

Rose selling the APBA Journal

Francis Rose is selling the APBA Journal. 

Citing lack of time to devote to it, entrepreneur Francis Rose is attempting to unload the periodical dedicated the game of APBA.  AJ, which has been around since I was kid, was a great resource for those who played in leagues as well as solitaire replays. 

 

aj

a 1979 edition of the APBA Journal

 

I credit the APBA Journal for getting me into my current league, the Illowa APBA League.  Back when we didn’t have the Internet, email, or online forums, we had the APBA Journal Directory.  It was an annual directory opt-in list of APBA players that came out in the APBA Journal.  The IAL saw my name and cold-called me.  The person that called me??  Teddy Ballgame. 

That all said, the APBA Journal has pretty much been a shell of its former self recently.  The few times I’ve been to it recently, I didn’t really get much out it.  I missed the days that Eric Naftaly edited it. 

According to Rose, here is what’s available for sale if you want to make a go of bringing the APBA Journal back to its former glory:

 

1) the only known collection of original copies of the AJ – from the very first issue in 1967
2) almost every AJ from 1969 through 1980 in digital format (either JPGs or PDFs)
3) hard copies of all the reference packs sold by the former owner of the AJ
4) unlimited publication rights to all AJ content
5) contact information for customers with a history of purchasing Journal-related products
6) internet domain-name rights for several related web sites

Sound good?  Give a go!

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28
October

10/28/09: Strat-O-Matic in the Chicago Sun Times

stratomatic

I have been playing APBA baseball since 1970, players cards were based on the 1969 baseball season, but before I ever picked up a pair of APBA dice, I was rolling three dice, playing Strat-O-Matic.  I was first introduced to dice baseball by my cousins, who lived in Johnsburg, Illinois.  They had the Strat-O-Matic cards based on the 1967 baseball season.  My first purchase was the Strat-O-Matic cards based on the 1969 baseball season.  Following my cousins lead I purchased my first APBA cards based on the 1970 baseball season.

Even though I switched from Strat-O-Matic to APBA, I’ve always remained Strat-curious, perhaps because it was my first experience into dice baseball.  But while APBA remained pretty much the same over the years (with the exceptions of the Master Game and APBA for Windows, the computer version), Strat-O-Matic has been more innovative.  The best part of playing APBA is ease of playability and a good roll is a good roll is a good roll, a drawback is that better pitchers only prevent basehits & walks, but have no impact on power.  The good things about Strat-O-Matic is how each card (player & pitcher) is truly unique, also there is a far superior lefty/righty breakdown.

Also Strat-O-Matic seems to be much more mainstream, they seem to be more out there, and have, as a result, taken over the dice baseball world, more so than APBA.  Although both games seem to have their niche, but it seems as though kids today are more into video games than rolling dice.

Whether it’s APBA or Strat-O-Matic, it’s always cool to see dice baseball in the news.  It’s kind of like, even if it’s not my kid, hey at least I know that kid.  So it was cool to read a story about Strat-O-Matic in today’s Chicago Sun Times regarding, Bringing the Negro Leagues to Life.

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25
October

Champs GM Will Have Many Sleepless Nights

andrew baileyI’m already tossing & turning about the upcoming IAL Rookie Draft, which isn’t until March, 2010.  The upcoming crop of rookies seem to be a very good one, with five B starters, a A&C* relief pitcher, a star catcher, thirdbaseman, & shortstop available, along with four fulltime outfielders (one may be moving to 2B).  What to do?

Last year I even caught myself by surprise when I selected reliever (A&B* K) Joey Devine over the dominant 20 year old lefty starter Clayton Kershaw.  My bullpen was a glaring weakness going into last year’s draft, so passing on Devine would’ve been very difficult.  Later in the draft we bolstered the pen further by selecting Cory Wade & Sergio Romo.  In the past we’ve chosen Julian Tavarez & Guillermo Hernandez in the first round, the Highlanders have taken one year stop gap graded A*’s Armando Benitez, Jorge Julio, & Mike Gonzalez, you can never go wrong filling a team need & helping your ballclub in the now, i.e., drafting a card.  So it looks pretty clear, if Andrew Bailey’s still on the board, we’ll take him.

But then there are the other talented rookie options out there that keep me up at night, what to do!  Tommy Hanson & David Price are the real deal, unfortunately I don’t think either pitcher will fall to me.  Then there are B starters J.A. Happ & Randy Wells, both proved their worth, and don’t look to be one hit wonders, they probably won’t be there when I pick.  There are still a couple of more B starters, Brad Bergesen & Josh Outman, both are limited, both were injured, but both are B’s.  Then there are good young starters Rick Porcello, Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Brett Cecil, Jeff Niemann, Homer Bailey, Tommy Hunter, & Clayton Richard.  Surely some of these gems will fall beyond the first round, because there are also alot of talented position players in the draft.

Matt Wieters looks like the 2nd coming of Joe Mauer, or as CLuke points out, maybe Brian McCann.  Over at the hot corner (or maybe a future SS) is Gordon Beckham, who is not just a pretty bat, this kid can pick it.  Shortstop Elvis Andrus is young, only going to get older (& better), maybe he’s Edgar Renteria, or when he grows into his body, Hanley Ramirez.  Four outfielders stand above the rest, one is Chris Coghlan, batted .320, but might move to 2B.  Another is Dexter Fowler, who can fly, but is that enough to be a regular outfielder in the IAL?  And then there’s the Bucs Andrew McCutchen, maybe he’ll be an important building block to the Pirates resurgence, or another talented youngster to be dealt when payday rolls around (he won’t be taken by DonS as he doesn’t draft from losing ballclubs, went against his rule drafting Cincy pitchers last year, don’t think he’ll do that again).  Don’t overlook St. Louis Cardinals power hitting outfielder Colby Rasmus.  It’ll be hard to overlook oldster Garrett Jones, who really showed he could mash, when given a shot in Pittsburgh, plays OF/1B.  Then there’s my hyped outfielder Travis Snider, will he be the next Brad Komminsk or Cory Snyder?

The funk of this whole draft day situation is that there are managers in the IAL (I’m sure you have them in your league as well), who’ll go to the rookie draft with their prospect book in hand, and say, “I’ll take that phe-NOM from Tommy Hanson.  Is he a righty or a lefty & what team does he play for anyway?”  Hey, where can I get one of those prospect books & a bottle of sleeping pills?

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20
October

2009 APBA Card Predictions

Every year at the end of the MLB season and when APBA releases their carded player list, our league gets a pretty good idea how the APBA baseball cards will look like for the following year.  Like clockwork, our tireless commissioner, Mike Bunch, releases his predictions for the IAL league players. 

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… some guy just slaps some numbers together, right?  All I know is Mike has been doing this for years and all of us in the IAL agree he the best. 

Caveat:  he predicts just the players in the IAL (but you’ll find a good amount of the starting players from the MLB in the list):

Here are his predictions (in pdf form).

I will say this… predicting baseball APBA cards seems to be getting harder in the last few years.  The APBA Game Company seems to be

  1. varying their formula just a tad
  2. perhaps being a little more inconsistent
  3. and implementing unconventional methods (first column 6 on a double column card comes to mind,  varying combinations of 8s and 9s, too)

APBA used to be SOOOO easy to predict.  Ok, maybe not easy but it seemed to follow a certain formula.  Not so much anymore. 

Oh, if you must know, my team in the prediction sheet is the Thunderchickens.  Unfortunately, Mike is probably spot on with my pitching forecast.  I had three starting pitchers who either retired or were out with injuries for the year. 

Time to rebuild… again. 

6 comments

18
October

Half a Season in Under 24 Hours

arod

October baseball, ya gotta love it! MLB is down to four teams standing, two from LA, one from NY, and then there’s the defending champion team from Philadelphia. There is a big contrast played between games on the east coast and those played in sunny California. The Angels have had to battle the elements as well as the Bronx Bombers, they’re currently down 2-0 heading back to Anaheim. While Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino needed to change his jersey during game two because it was soaked with sweat, the two teams head to the City of Brotherly Love with their series knotted at one. Of the teams left playing ball, I’m probably more of a Phillies fan than anything else, because I watch them alot during spring training in Clearwater, FL, although I think the Yankees will win it all, money talks!

The Illowa APBA League is finally on its way to achieving parity, there is no longer such a thing as the big two. Before our two October series, nine games each, we were fortunate enough to have amassed a seven game lead, with 36 games to play. Three teams were tied for 2nd place, followed closely by a team eight games out, with another ballclub ten games behind. Our October opponents featured two heavyweights, the Three Rivers Gamblers (8 out) and the Northside Hitmen (7 out). More nerve racking was the fact that we would be playing these series Friday night/Staurday morning, within a 24 hour window.

First up a Skype series from Pittsburgh to Chicago, the Gamblers against the Champions. Both teams started their aces in the opener, C.C. Sabathia for them, Tim Lincecum for us. Sabathia nailed a homer off Lincecum, Justin Morneau jacked one off Sabathia for us, but the winning run scored in the bottom of the 9th when Morneau lined an RBI double off Jensen Lewis, 4-3 win. Mark Buehrle didn’t have it for the Champs, Armando Galarraga had it for them, Victorino hit two long balls & drove in four, one game apiece, 9-3 score, bad guys. Three Rivers outlasted the Champs in 11, 7-6, Jose Arredondo blew the save, but picked up the win, and Joey Devine picked up the L, another bad guy winner, 7-6. Champion hitters pulled out the big lumber against John Lannan in game quatro, evening up the series at two, two homers each by ARod & Ryan Doumit, driving in all 9 runs, for a 9-5 victory, Greg Maddux went five for the win. Game #5: Josh Beckett was in charge, taking no prisoners, 3-1 Chicago winner, now leading the series 3-2, we were the home team for the first half, now it was time to take our act on the road. Freak Lincecum got lit up for six runs (a three run dinger for Gregg Zaun & a two run shot by Sabathia) in five innings and the Gamblers held on to the “pitcher’s dual” win, C.C. got the victory, Craig Breslow got the save, taking over the team’s closer role, 6-5, even at three, with three games to go. In the 7th game Buehrle again got clocked for eight extra basehits in four innings, including four homers, accounting for 12 runs, as Galarraga cruised to a 12-4 win, 4-3 them. Matt Cain & three relievers brought the series back to even with a 2-1 win. Lannan faired much better in his rematch against Maddux in the series finale, we couldn’t overcome 2 two run homers, losing 4-3, and dropping the series 5-4.

Now the race for postseason in the IAL was tightening up a bit, no time to lick our wounds, the Northside Hitmen were dropping by Crackerjack Park to play shum APBA. JRoll hit the first pitch over the wall off Boof Bonser, and we never looked back, Josh Beckett cruised to the complete game victory, even hit a two run tater, 8-4 us. JRoll again hit a leadoff homer, a two run 8th inning blast by Ryan Doumit provided the difference as Lincecum notched the 6-4 win, 2-0 series lead. Maddux went the first five & Lincecum pitched the last four, for a 2-0 victory, three zip good guys. The Hitmen scored seven unearned runs, they counted none the less, ARod’s two HR & 5 RBIs weren’t enough, 9-5 them, 3-1 in Chicago, time to head over to the Northside. Neither starter Cole Hamels, nor Lincecum were around when the 5th game was decided, in 12 the Champs won 5-3, Sergio Romo picked up his 1st career victory going two, ARod ripped a two run double, 4-1 us. Beckett went six, Devine got the save, 4-2 Champions, 5-1 in the series. Cain didn’t have it in the 7th game, down 4-0 after one, Carlos Delgado with a three run first inning Del-got-it shot, bad guys win it 5-2, series at 5-2 still us. Maddux got ripped for five runs in three innings, 4 coming courtesy of a Miggy Cabrera big fly with the bags juiced, 6-3 winner for Jake Peavy, series slips to 5-3 lead, still us, but barely. Now with one game to go the Champs were in danger of kissing their sister BIG TIME, an 18 game split, which wouldn’t be the worst thing, but it could’ve been better. We hit for the cycle of A.J. Burnett in the 2nd inning, a 3 run blast by JRoll, another by B.J. Upton in the 3rd, and a complete game win by Mark Buehrle, for a 6-3 series winner, good guys, YES!

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17
October

List of 2009 rookies

For those who will be entering draft time sometime soon, here is a list (in pdf form) of the 2009 rookies that our commissioner put together. 

For the players, it includes playing time including games at secondary positions.  For pitchers, it includes playing time as well as W-L record and ERA. 

One warning:  the list does NOT include rookie players under 125 at-bats and pitchers who are both under 21 games and 50 innings (those are our limits in the IAL).

Hope you find it useful.

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9
October

09 carded list out!

The APBA Game Co has just realeased the list of carded players for the 2009 baseball set.  Here is the link to the list (in pdf form).

I’m just getting a chance to look at it for the first time right now.  I’ll probably have some comments on it later. 

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