10
January

APBA Fan Profile: Doug Burg of YABL

669 Name:  Doug Burg

League:  Yesterday APBA Baseball League

Claim to Fame:  Maintains the APBA 12 Publication List

Doug Burg has a few good reasons to be known in the APBA community.  One, he is the commissioner of the Yesterday APBA Baseball League.  In its 11th year now, YABL is one of the premiere retro leagues out there.  Doug is also known as the man who put together the famous APBA 12 Publication list.  The “12 List” has been a quite indispensable resource for a lot of us APBA fans (I know I refer to it pretty much every week to properly identify cards for Monster Card Monday). 

Doug was born and raised in Lancaster, PA, the original home of APBA.  He now lives in nearby Willow Street, PA.  A graduate of Penn State and University of Illinois, he now works as an organic chemist in the aerospace industry. 

Thanks to Doug for answering a few questions!


The APBA Blog:  How long have you played APBA? Do you remember how you got introduced to the game?

Doug Burg:  I was introduced to APBA in high school.  In speech class we had to do an instructional speech.  One of the students showed this game, APBA Baseball, and described how to play it.  Being a baseball fan I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.  I asked for it for Christmas and received the APBA Baseball game and the 1974 season card set.  From there I found out that the game company was local and that a lot of my friends played it.

TAB:  According to its website, the Yesterday APBA Baseball League is a “retro league that progresses backwards through history”. How exactly does that work? What are the major differences to a standard continuous ownership draft league?

DB:  YABL is a continuous ownership draft league but we do go backwards.  When I started the league in 2001 I was planning on starting in the early 1900′s to learn about baseball history.  I wanted to avoid expansion and adding managers/teams so I figured expansion wouldn’t take place until I was gone.  The manager that convinced me to start the league wanted to play in the ’50s so we compromised and started at 1959 and went backwards.  That also meant we avoided/delayed the early 1900 seasons that APBA had not issued.  If the league lasts it will run out around 1900 but that won’t be my problem.  The backwards part just means we have "rookie" drafts where the players are drafted in the last season they played MLB instead of the first.  Then their careers play in reverse.  Not much different than a standard retro league we just have different rookie classes.

TAB:  I read that YABL uses the ABNRML modified boards. What are the main differences in those boards and why did YABL decide to go with them?

DB:  YABL doesn’t use the ABNRML boards.  We use any APBA Company issued boards.  The home manager decides which boards he wants to use for his home games but the same boards must be used for the entire season.  I do have the ABNRML boards on the YABL website for download.  The first mail league I played in was ABNRML (APBA Baseball Nostalgic Retro Mail League).  Jack Downing was the founder and Commissioner and he created these boards specifically for the ABNRML.  The boards incorporate parts of the master game and make fielding more important.  There are added dice rolls.  At the start of the game and when a relief pitcher enters the game you use his master game rating and roll to see what basic game grade he will pitch at.  Pitchers can move up or down one letter grade depending on their master game grade.  There are other dice rolls throughout the boards for fielding to better differentiate good and poor fielders.  There is now an advantage to being a SS-10 instead of a 9 (better than fielding 1) and a disadvantage to being a SS-6 instead of a 7 (worse than fielding 3).  The catcher’s rating is more important as base stealers can actually be thrown out on an 11 play result with a good fielding catcher.  I played a 1975 Orioles replay and I used the ABNRML boards.  It is the only replay I have conducted as I mostly play in draft leagues.

TAB:  Your favorite players to manage?? I’ve asked this in other interviews but as a retro league manager, you’ll have some unique answers, I’ll bet.

DB:  My favorite player to manage in YABL was Eddie Mathews.  He never won an MVPlayer award but he did lead the Whomping Willows to two YABL Championships.  He was my #1 pick in the initial stocking draft in 1959.  He "retired" after the 1952 season (before 1951) as the leader of most of the Whomping Willows offensive categories.  Yogi Berra is also a favorite.  Yogi was my #2 pick in 1959.  He always says the darndest things.  With a few extra seasons to his career, Berra will pass Mathews in most team offensive categories.

TAB:  You have been responsible for maintaining the famous APBA Card 12 Publication List. I can vouch that has been a great resource for APBA fans. It’s certainly handy for identifying older APBA cards quickly. How did that list come about? Do you get help from other APBA fans in getting data?

DB:  I noticed that there were a few 12 lists out there.  But they were not up to date.  So I took one popular list and the list in Zack’s "The Handbook for APBA Baseball Cards", updated it, checked the list against the cards I owned, corrected a few mistakes, made the list available to anyone who wanted it and that is how I became the keeper of the 12 list.  I used to buy all the card sets APBA issued so I just added the updated information when I bought the cards.  I don’t buy every set any longer so if I don’t get a set then I ask on APBA Between The Lines for the information.  I do have a source who sends me the 12 location, it seems, a few weeks before the disk is issued.  He must have access to some inside information.  The 12 list is a collaborative effort by the APBA community so it belongs to everyone.  The YABL website I kept on Geocities had the up to date 12 list and the ABNRML boards for download. When Geocities closed I could no longer update the website or the 12 list kept there.  I can’t delete the website either.  So it is on cyberspace forever with old information.  I now keep the up to date 12 list on an APBA Yahoo group site  . It is under the miscellaneous files section, the file is APBACards2.xls.  Or anyone can email me and I will send the up to date file to them.  I can send the ABNRML boards on request also.

TAB:  Willow Street Whomping Willows? That’s got to be on my top ten list of favorite APBA team names.

DB:  The Whomping Willows comes from the Harry Potter Series of books/movies.  There is a Whomping Willow tree at Hogwarts that thrashes its branches at those who approach it.  I thought it would go well with Willow Street.

Doug also added:

“I am very interested in how and where Mr. Herson takes the APBA Game Company.  He looks very hands on and interested in keeping the company moving forward.  I think it is great that Mr. Herson has the goal in mind to have all baseball seasons carded by APBA available for customers to purchase.  While I don’t play the computer baseball game, I do think it is a step in the right direction to have the game updated to work on current computer platforms which will allow for more game updates in the future.  I am happy to see APBA in the hands of someone who wants to keep issuing the products that we APBA Fanatics love and crave so much.”

Thanks to Doug Burg for his time in answering these questions!  It wasn’t until this interview did I realize that Doug was a fellow U of I alum.  Small world!

There are several other APBA Fan Profiles that I’ve done in the past if you want to read them.

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10
January

One for Five posts a manifesto for a draft league

Paul Dylan over at One for Five is already thinking about his endeavor to organize his APBA Soccer league.  He’s giving it lots of thought and has posted a manifesto of a successful league.  In my opinion, it’s not specific to any sport and can be applied to any APBA League. 

His manifesto includes sections on “Why Have a League at all?”, “What makes a League Successful?” and “What are the Fundamental Components of a Draft League?”.

A definite read for those thinking of starting a league or even those of us who are in an existing league. 

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9
January

Monster Card Monday: 1953 Roy Campanella

TEMPLATE apba baseball card 1953r NM

I like this Roy Campanella card.  This particular one comes from APBA’s 1953 reprint set which was published in 1985.  In addition to the power (1-1-5-6) and the all-around hitting (55-7), he’s got that nasty Catcher (9).  I think that’s what puts it over the top for me.  If that wasn’t enough, throw in the 15-10 and a decent on-base (four 14s) and you have a fantastic card. 

That year he broke the single season record for putouts by a catcher.  Offensively, he also broke the record for homeruns (41) and rbis (142) by a catcher in one season.

The writers liked Campy in 1953, too.  Enough to vote him NL MVP that year.  This was his second of three MVP awards he would get in his career. 

Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP SLG
1953 Totals 144 590 519 103 162 26 3 41 142 4 67 58 .312 .395 .611
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/8/2012.

 

A couple of interesting stats about Campanella:  of the 10 years he played in the majors, he made the All-Star team in 8 of them.  He also received MVP votes in seven of them. 

Also, despite being a power hitter, Campy consistently walked more than he struck out.  For his career, he had a 533/501 walk to K ratio. 

Now for your viewing pleasure, a Roy Campanella homerun trot:

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8
January

APBA Game Co. launches new Facebook page

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If you haven’t seen it yet (and you have an account on Facebook), check out the APBA Game Company’s new Facebook page.  I personally like the new look. 

Recent entries on the page have photos of boxes of card sets ready to be shipped out.  Nice touch. 

It seems CEO John Herson is trying to open himself up as much as he can to the APBA fans.  First he starts a regular “Ask John” thread on the Between the Lines forum which has been very popular.  Now we see a revamped Facebook page.   All this can only be good, in my opinion.  Kudos, Mr. CEO.

But hey! I don’t see a photo of Herson himself. :)

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6
January

First APBA Soccer League on the horizon?

It’s not often that one can say that history is being made in the realm of APBA Leagues.  However according to Paul Dylan who blogs over at One for Five, he is organizing the very first known APBA Soccer draft league. 

Paul says:

“I am excited to announce the forthcoming formation of a new APBA Soccer play-by-mail draft league, using the 2011/2012 English Premiere League cards.

The League Constitution is still in very preliminary stages, and at this point we have about a half-dozen interested parties.  Our intention is to begin play in September with EPL cards based on the season currently in progress.”

If you’re interested, contact Paul (there are details in his article). There’s also info in a Between the Lines forum thread.  He’s already getting some interest there. 

I haven’t played the Soccer Game yet.  I’m late to the game (no pun intended).  That said, I hope this league succeeds and thrives.  No doubt, I’m sure John Herson and APBA will be keeping an eye on this league, too.  It is the first of hopefully many from their perspective.  This “Grandaddy of them All” as Paul refers to it, to help shape how future soccer leagues are formed and run. 

I’d love to hear updates on how the league is doing.  I’m especially interested in the league administration process.  All of us in baseball leagues know how much we help each other.  At times, we learn not to re-invent the wheel and reproduce what works for other leagues.  Paul Dylan won’t have that luxury to a point.  For example, he won’t have another soccer league’s constitution to look over and use as a template.  It’s all new territory. 

So good luck, Paul and everyone else who participates in this league (does it have a name, yet?).  And of course, have fun!!

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4
January

Teddy Ballgame’s Top Ten Tips on Drafting in an APBA Baseball League

2011 ial draft 148With the disk out and the cards shipping, I had this idea of writing this article on drafting in APBA Leagues .  I emailed fellow IAL manager Tedd M (aka Teddy Ballgame) and asked him for some quick draft tip suggestions.  By the next day, Teddy had practically written the article for me. 

Take Teddy’s advice to heart.  He’s drafted luminaries such as Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Jeff Bagwell, well the list goes on… 


1) Watch real life baseball games, in person if possible, otherwise get the MLB package & watch as many games as possible.  Look at the rookies that you’re considering drafting.  You must like baseball if you’re playing in a dice baseball league, so then watch & know who you’re drafting.  When a friend saw Curtis Granderson’s first at bat, Ryan Howard as a pinch hitter (he was stuck behind Jim Thome), and Brandon Webb pitch as a rookie versus the Reds, with excitement in his eyes he said, "Teddy Ballgame, These guys are gonna be something!"

2) There is so much data out there on rookie talent.  It wasn’t always that way, but today there are experts on every corner.  Beware there is hardly any criticism when it comes to rookie talent.  Look for subtle, below the radar, comments, when reading scouting reports.  The only sure thing is these young guys will get older. 

3) Look at the stats.  Review the minor league & major league stats, as well as collegiate statistics (there will be an adjustment from aluminum to wood bats).  The stats will give you a glimpse as to the career you can expect from the rookie you’re drafting.

4) How old is the rookie?  Consider age when selecting a rookie to draft.  Often times younger high school & Latino prospects are competing against collegiate athletes.  Sometimes younger players just need to grow into their bodies.

5) Check out walks & strikeouts, both for hitters and for pitchers.  This will give you an idea of whether a pitcher will have control or a hitter will have a .400 OBP.  As a rule, don’t select a pitcher without at least one strikeout letter.

6) Injuries cannot be ignored.  There are many great rookie prospects that have had their careers derailed due to injuries.  Also there are young players who have dealt with injuries, who gone on to stardom once their injuries are in the past.

7) Take into consideration whether the minor league stats were produced in a hitters friendly or pitchers friendly park and/or league.

8) Don’t ignore the gun, speed kills, and the best pitch is still a well located fastball with movement.

9) Don’t ignore the obvious.  Many times there’s a proven youngster who gets bypassed because you know in your gut this other rookie will be great.  Taking the proven commodity will pay off more often than not.

10) When all else fails, draft an Aries, my birthday is April 14th, same birthday as Pete Rose & Greg Maddux.  Also Taurus pitchers seem to do quite well.  Whatever you do, avoid Pisces pitchers like the plague.

Thanks, Teddy!  Your advice is golden! 

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2
January

Monster Card Monday: “Hot” Hitting 1966 Ray Sadecki

IMAG0086

I’m excited about this week’s Monster Card Monday.  Not only is it the first one of 2012 (and we haven’t had one for two weeks) but it comes from the new 1966 card set I just bought. 

I focused my search for the MCM on the National League since I ‘m pretty sure that’s the league I’m going to do my replay.  It didn’t take too long to find him.  It was Ray Sadecki.  SF Giant Sadecki certainly wasn’t an All-Star pitcher in 1966 going 5-8 with a 4.80 ERA.  But he could hit. 

Sadecki hit .341 in 41 at-bats in 1966 with 7 rbis and 7 runs.  He hit a total of three homers with a double and a triple thrown in.  Those are great season stats but it was his hitting in the month of July that really brought those numbers up.  In July, he went 5 for 11 with two HR with the double and the triple.  Four of the seven rbis came in July, too.  Definitely a “hot” hitter. 

 

Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP SLG
1966 Totals 32 45 41 7 14 1 1 3 7 0 1 7 .341 .357 .634
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/2/2012.

 

Sadecki’s card is pretty juicy.  His power numbers are 1-1-3-5 and he has a 7 on 15. That puts the last 9 on the 42.  Runners on pretty much any base any he has a what we call a “BTR” (Better Than Ruth) card. 

After looking at Ray Sadecki’s pitching stats, it occurred to me that I never realized how long he really played in the majors… and he didn’t do too badly on the mound. Ray pitched for 18 years in the bigs as a split starter (1960-1977), appearing in 563 games and starting 328. He came up a winner in the end with a 135-131 record. His ERA of 3.78 in 2500+ innings shows he got the job done. Yet, he played for six teams in those 18 years so he wasn’t much of a household name.

For his efforts, Ray Sadecki was inducted into the Polish Sports Hall of Fame, though. Below is an interview done during the induction process.

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And for those curious, he wasn’t a bad hitter for his career (.191) but he never really approached his 1966 numbers both in terms of average or power.

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1
January

Six resolutions for 2012 I will try not to break

Happy New Year to everyone out there!! 

Now that the new year is upon us, I guess it means it’s time to reflect.  Here are my resolutions for 2012 (the APBA-related ones, at least): 

1. Update my league’s web site more frequently

I’ll admit it.  Our league’s website is kind of in a state of disarray. It has some great features like its all-time register and leaderboards as well as its Hall of Fame. But it doesn’t get updated as quickly as it probably should.

You’d think with someone like me who runs a site like The APBA Blog as well as a few others, I’d be all over that but I sort of let it slide. With my league’s help (hint, hint, if you’re reading this guys), maybe I’ll do better in 2012.

 

2. Do a Season Replay

I’ve been a pretty solid APBA baseball league participant for some 30 years now. Yet, I haven’t done an honest to goodness baseball season replay for some five or six years. My buddy Brando and I had a 1979 NL replay going pretty good for a while (we passed the All-Star break) until we just burned out. These days, he and I will occasionally pick out a couple of teams and do a mock World Series but that’s been the extent of it.

However, I’m on my way to rectifying this. I’ve already bought the 1966 season from APBA (I even did a stop motion video of me unpacking the box). I haven’t decided exactly what the parameters of the replay will be. To me, that process is part of the fun. No doubt, you will read about it here on the blog.

 

3. Provide coverage on APBA sports other than baseball on The APBA Blog

I think the APBA Blog has grown a lot in the past year. There’s more traffic, more interaction, and people just seem to be having more fun here. But let’s face it, it’s primarily a baseball-only website. Not only that, it’s focused on the boards and dice game ignoring computer APBA. That’s not intentional. It’s what I know. And you know what they say… “Write what you know”.

I have made some overtures to some “experts” if you will, on other APBA sports (and computer APBA). I’ve been asking them if they’re interested in writing a post or two about their particular topic of interest. I’ll be pursuing this more in the coming year to make this truly an “APBA” blog.

 

4. Get those league stats in on time (or earlier)

To Mike Bunch, my dear commissioner who is the best one in the world, I commit to getting my league stats in earlier. This past month, I sent my stats in four hours before they were due. Sometimes, I cut it even closer.

Mike takes a lot of time out of his life for our league. The least I could do is get them in a more timely fashion.

 

5. When it comes to my team, don’t go for the quick fix

You all probably know what I’m talking about.  You’re in your annual league draft and instead of picking the outfielder with lots of future potential but has no playing time and a crappy card, you pick the A* reliever who’s probably already got a bum arm going into the next year. 

Wait, you don’t do that??

In last year’s league draft, I dropped Jacoby Ellsbury in lieu of a rookie draft pick. Arggh!  We all know how Ellsbury turned out this year (1-4-5-6 and two 11s). No more will I draft “cards”. In 2012, I resolve to look to the future for my Twin City Thunderchickens.  With two last place finishes in a row, it’s time to get some franchise players on the team (Ellsbury would have been nice, eh?)

How’s this for a start? According to our rules, Stephen Strasburg is eligible to be dropped for a rookie pick. Nope, he’s taking up a roster spot all year. I’ve learned my lesson.

 

6. Have fun!

This one is easy. I love APBA.

Again, I wish everyone a happy new year.  May all your dice rolls in 2012 turn up 66s!

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31
December

APBA in the News: Golf gets a mention at The Bleacher Report

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Yesterday, contributor Peter Imber posted an enjoyable article for The Bleacher Report entitled “Winter Golf: I’ll Be Rolling the Dice Without Tiger”.  Imber talks about going “old school” and playing APBA Golf as a kid.

Imber writes:

  “For a table top game, APBA was the top of the line. PGA players had individual cards that were created to reflect their abilities and tendencies. In the original set of 32 there were the Big Three: Palmer, Nicklaus and Player, as well as forgotten pros like Joe Campbell, Ted Kroll and Johnny Pott.”

I admit to playing a few rounds of APBA Golf myself.  I even bought new “cards” from the APBA Journal which included Tiger Woods.  It’s a fun game though it would have been more fun had I been a golf fan and known the golfer’s strengths and weaknesses a little better. 

Nice to see the ol’ Golf game getting good press after all these years.

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30
December

BBW 5.75 to begin beta testing

Just before Christmas, APBA Company CEO John Herson made an announcement:  There is appreciable progress on APBA’s Baseball for Windows. Titled BBW 5.75, alpha testing has concluded and beta testing will commence in January. 

Here is Herson’s announcement:

“Alpha testing has wrapped up on BBW 5.75 – the update for BBW 5.5. The next step will be a round of beta testing to begin in January.
Advanced Draft, League Manager, Stat Master, and the game itself, BBWin32 are being updated to run natively under all versions, 32 and 64 bit, of Windows XP, Vista, and 7. All 4 of the BBW programs have been updated and are fully functional. Compatibility issues with 5.5 are minimal and will be handled with a stand-alone utility. The testers have successfully run full-season replays, drafts, checked stats, used AIM, created organizations, and much more. Some user interface features have been added – right-click menus, mouse wheel scrolling to name two. The primary focus on this update had to be on converting BBW 5.5 from a Windows 3.1 application, which is what it is at heart, to one that could run on Windows 7. This has been accomplished. You won’t need to run in compatibility mode, you won’t need to "run as administrator", you won’t need XP-Mode or virtual machines. It will run on Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. One of the braver testers has successfully run it on a Windows 8 preview version.

More work remains, more testing will be done, to insure a successful release.”

You can read Herson’s announcement and all the responses to it on the Between the Lines forum. Later in the thread, Herson did go into detail on what will be fixed and improved:

“Some fixes that will be in 5.75 include:

1) The 2nd column 6 issue (along with 2 other similar ones).

2) Hitters will need to have a ’1′ somewhere on their card for a PRN-6 to be changed to a homerun against L/M rated pitchers..

3) Positive Park Effects have been fixed. Testing will need to be done in the upcoming testing round.

Draft will have some new features:

1) Ability to view a player’s card.

2) Improved sorting by clicking on the header row.

3) A Filter feature for the main player’s list”

Beware, some are bit testy towards Herson in that forum thread right now.  There’s something about BBW that makes everyone’s engines run a little hot. Whether or not, it’s called for is your call (I’ll admit, I’m not much of a computer APBA player). 

No doubt, it’s good news though any way you look at it.  I understand the concerns of everyone there (I think, remember I’m not a computer APBA player).  The idea of an improved product on the table is a good idea.  More importantly, it gets people talking about the product (and I know Herson pays attention to what APBA fans are saying on these various forums). 

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