27
September

Remembering Seitz

seitzPaul Dylan from One for Five brings up a poignant matter.  It was twenty years ago today when Dick Seitz, founder of the APBA Game Company, passed on.  Maybe it’s me being old but it seems so much longer ago. 

Some of us hard core APBA fans probably give Dick Seitz a larger than life image because we though we didn’t know him personally, we are most intimately aware of his legacy. Maybe that’s not fair to Seitz the man but that’s only natural. His game which has been around officially since 1951, defined tabletop sports.

Seitz is revered by many long time APBA fans similar to how we Americans revere our “Founding Fathers”.  Indeed, Dick Seitz was the founding father of APBA.  He grew the business before the days of marketing, focus groups and modern technology.  He did things like using his bar drinking buddy as a t-shirt model and marketed the game the way that he probably would want it marketed to him (YOU be the Manager!). 

For those interested in more information on Dick Seitz, you can find a good bio of him on the APBA website.

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28
May

Snapshot of 1994 IAL Newsletter

I found this old Illowa APBA League newsletter from the 90s in my office.  It was the first newsletter of the 1994 season when yours truly was the president of the league.  Back then kiddos, it was printed out on paper in booklet form and sent via postal mail.

Here’s the cover with standings and leaders:

IMAG0094

This is like a snapshot of the ‘Roids Era.  Not my team though.  I remember our team slogan back then.  Twin City Thunderchickens:  These Chicks have Legs!!  With Lofton, Alou and DeShields we were a speedy team.

Earlier this year, I posted the 2012 IAL draft review by Tedd Mallasch.  Yes, he was doing it even 18 years ago.  Here’s the first page of the Review.

IMAG0095

Tedd was right on two counts:  Piazza did hit for .300 with power and Salmon was a fixture in the Bombers outfield.  He retired as a Bombers 12 years later.

You may wonder why an APBA buff like me doesn’t win more league championships.  Maybe it’s because I pick rookies like 26 year-old Pirate outfielder Al Martin when pitchers like Pedro Martinez are available.  I think I was enamored with Martin’s 1-3-6 rookie card.

Martinez wasn’t going to amount to anything, anyway.

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21
November

APBA ad from 1962: “Want To Manage in the Majors?”

“You can Do it in Your Own Home!”, it proudly states.

apba ad

The wording and format in this ad seems somewhat archaic perhaps.  Yet at the same time, I can sense the pride that Dick Seitz had in his product.  So much so that he wanted to go into detail on how to play the game (“you coach the runners” and “you set your infield “deep” or “in”.)

I note that it has the James St. address (before the Millersville Rd location that I’m so familiar).

Thanks to John Heneghan from Naperville, IL for passing on this gem!

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15
November

Let’s get J. Richard Seitz on Wikipedia

I was doing some general research the other day and I noticed that APBA founder J. Richard Seitz does not have his own entry page on Wikipedia.  Maybe it’s me but I thought that was a glaring omission.  Besides being the founder of one of oldest tabletop sports games out there, it was my impression that Seitz was a pretty upstanding citizen of the Lancaster, PA community.

If you check out APBA’s entry on Wikipedia, you’ll see that it links to a starter page for Seitz.  However, Seitz’s page just doesn’t have any information about him on it.

I’m not a member of the Wikipedia editing community so I thought I’d reach out and see if there was anyone out there who was.  If so, let’s get some info about Dick Seitz on his Wikipedia page.  A good source of information is from APBA itself.  They have a good bio page on Seitz.

Any takers?

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16
December

Blast from the past: photos from 2002 APBA convention

2002apbaconv1

I was re-organizing my photo gallery this afternoon and I ran across some photos from the 2002 APBA Convention.  I remember this trip fondly.  My buddy Brando and I drove out to Lancaster for the convention.  On the way and on way back we saw some minor league games.  The home teams we saw were the Indianapolis Indians, Reading Phillies, Harrisburg Senators plus the big league Pittsburgh Pirates. 

Plus we got some APBA played.  We were in the middle of our 1979 NL replay and we took time out at roadside parks to play a series or two. 

heh, then there was the tournament at the APBA convention.  I had the Milwaukee Braves of ’65 I believe.  I remember thinking that Joe Torre and his APBA smarts would bring me luck. 

Nope, Eric Naftaly and his ’59 Giants took care of me pretty well in the first round. 

 

2002apbaconv2

If memory serves, 2002 was the year the kid won the tournament.  Does anyone remember his name? 

I uploaded all the photos I found to the IAL photo gallery.  Take a look. 

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