13
May

Pre-convention news including Nationals game

At the Between the Lines forum, Francis Rose has some news regarding a pre-convention get together:

The convention opens Friday evening, July 20, in Lancaster.  Information at www.ConventionForAPBAFans.com.

I am hosting a Pre-Convention Warmup at Nationals Park in Washington, DC on Thursday, July 19th vs. the Mets.  First pitch is 12:35 – plenty of time to see the whole game and beat DC rush-hour traffic to head up to Lancaster.

I am offering tickets to the game for $10 to registered convention attendees.  If you’re not going to the convention, you’re still welcome to join us at the game for $15.  All of our tickets will be together.  I haven’t purchased the tickets yet, but face price will be at least $15, probably more.

You can mail payment to
Francis Rose
Convention for APBA Fans
9001 Edgewood Drive
Gaithersburg, MD  20877
or you can e-mail me at francisrose2 AT gmail dot com for electronic options.

Thanks
Francis

Sounds like a great deal!

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21
April

2012 APBA Convention registration fee goes up on May 1: Sign up now!

I just want to give people heads up that if you want to get the discounted registration fee for the 2012 APBA convention, April 30 is the deadline.  Starting May 1st, the fee goes from $75 to $85.  According to the convention website cancellation can be made up to June 20th without penalty. 

You can get info on registration and more (don’t ask me, I won’t know) from the convention website. 

Oh and for those in my league who say they haven’t heard about a convention this year…  Don’t you read my blog? :)

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3
April

Rules posted for the 2012 Convention Tournament

Francis Rose announced that the rules for the 2012 Convention Tournament have now been posted.  You can see them at the Convention website. 

Nothing too dramatically different.  First of all, you’re not limited as far as team selection:

“Any STOCK team from a complete season card set issued by APBA from the 1901 season through and including the 2011 season will be eligible, be they original issues or re-issues. However, ALL team rosters will be limited to 20 players.”

Only the Great Teams of the Past will not be eligible. 

As far as actual playing rules, everything looks pretty standard if my memory serves.  3-man rotation, Long and short relievers, and the DH will be used.  There will be a usage limit of three times for the hit and run per nine inning game.  Also, a shaker or tower must be used for all dice rolls.  No hand rolling, guys!  Things do get a little Bud Selig-esque at one point. 

All games will be limited to ten (10) innings. Games tied at the end of the regulation 10 innings will be resolved in the following manner: The roll for the “11th inning” lead-off batter will be made with the result being, at the minimum, a double. That is, the batter could hit a triple or a homerun, but any other result puts him on second base regardless of what result was rolled. ALL SUBSEQUENT BATTERS WILL BE FACING A GRADE C PITCHER WITH NO STRIKEOUT OR WALK LETTERS AND A FIELDING RATING OF ONE (1). Once the Visiting Team has completed its turn at bat, the Home Team will follow the same procedure.. The process will be repeated until the tie is broken.

I kid. I kid. I understand the reason for it.  Got to keep everything on schedule.

Thanks to Francis Rose and all the other convention organizers for their hard work on this!!

What team do you all plan on managing?  I’d love to hear a roll call.

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17
February

Organizer Nick Braccia talks to us about the upcoming 2012 APBA Convention

I connected up with Nick Braccia who is one of the organizers of this year’s APBA Convention scheduled for July 20-22, 2012.  He graciously answered a few questions about the event.

The APBA Blog:  How did the idea for the 2012 convention come about? What APBA fans are the driving forces behind it?

Nick Braccia:  It was a group of APBA buddies decided to run a convention this summer. The Game Co. was not going to run one. John Herson really didn’t want and when we approached him, he said “go right ahead”. We have his full support.

The group of people running this start with Francis Rose. He has run two conventions in the past, so he was an obvious choice to be the front man. The rest  of the group  consists of myself, Michael Davidson (Pengy), Dom Provisiero, Randy Eagan, Roy Langhans, Jim Sce and John Kalous.

 

TAB:  I see that there will be a tournament as usual. Will it follow the normal structure and rules as it has in past years or will you shake things up a bit?  Will there be any other fun events planned?

NB:  We are going to make some changes in the tournament, but we have not finalized anything yet.

The Game Co will not represented at the Convention. That’s why there will be no  Q&A on Friday night about the Game Co. There will be no bashing of the Game Co either.

 

TAB:  I know it’s early but what has the response been so far from APBA fans?

NB:  There are over 20 people registered already. We are hoping for 85-100.

 

TAB:  Is there anything we as APBA fans can do to help make this a successful and fun convention?

NB:  In order for the Convention to be successful, we need folks to attend. It is always a great time. Meeting the people who post on BTL and the other APBA sites is always great.

 

TAB:  Finally, if anyone has any questions, who can they contact?

NB:  Any questions they can contact me or visit the website. 

Nick Braccia enjoys playing solo and has a large collection of APBA and Skeetersoft sets. He was a Police Officer in Stamford, CT for 37 1/2 years. 

Thanks to Nick for taking time to answer some questions and for helping organize this year’s convention!

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12
February

Check out APBAGames’ YouTube channel!

 

Facebook’s APBA Football’s  Geoffrey Giordano alerted me to a great YouTube channel that has videos from the 2011 APBA Convention.  The channel is put up by user APBAgames and at this writing has six videos from the Lancaster get-together. 

Here’s a good example showing pretty much everyone who was there:

 

Great stuff! 

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11
February

Some info on the 2012 APBA Convention

There will be an APBA convention this year.  It’s being billed as the “2012 Convention for APBA Fans: Celebration of Heritage” and will be held in Lancaster, PA.  It’s not clear to me who all is organizing it other than Francis Rose who says he is helping out.   

The quick details:

  • When:  July 20-22
  • Where:  Heritage Hotel Lancaster, Lancaster, PA
  • How much:  $75 ($85 after May 1)
  • Heritage Hotel Lancaster will offer a special rate of $109 per night for convention attendees.

For those who are interested in finding out more or registering for the convention, check out the convention website. 

I am attempting to get a quick Q&A with one of the organizers to find out more information.

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17
July

Brian Cavanaugh sends us a 2011 APBA Convention report

This article was submitted by Brian Cavanaugh who attended the 2011 APBA Convention.

After months of preparation and anticipation it was finally time for the convention and tournament. We had a smooth ride out that helped to ease the nerves of the situation. We left Philly around 7:30am and made great time arriving in Lancaster around 8:45am.  After checking in and helping the kids set-up we were ready to roll. Before we could get started the introductions began and several other players approached us and introduced themselves to us. I was impressed that everyone had known about what we have been doing at the club with our league.

The kids and I were impressed with the number of players using teams from the early to mid 1900′s. One player named Steve even offered to let us use some of his classic teams for the next tournament if we attend (which we will try to do). Other players continued to come by and made conversation with the kids about their teams. One person who stopped by had an easily recognizable name, two-time tournament champion Brian Wells whom the kids enjoyed sharing strategy with.

We started to play and we were all in a division with each other. I opened play against Josh Rhoades who plays with the Jump Ropers in our league. We split (my 1997 Orioles vs 2010 Cardinals) 1-1 with me winning the first game behind a strong performance from Mike Mussina  and fine performance in the lead-off spot by Brady Anderson. My good fortune continued with a 2 game sweep of new league member Frank Bryan and his 2010 Yankees. After 5 games and a 1 hitter from Scott Erickson against new league member Steven Szambelak and his 2010 Blue Jays my record was at 4-1, tied for second in our division. After a tough loss to the 2010 Reds managed by Joe "Rodriquez" Rivera I squared off with Ian Mcardle who manages the Convicts in our league. I always enjoy playing Ian because we always have good competitive games and this would be nothing different. Ian entered the game with his 1997 Braves at 5-0 and with first place on the line. I jumped out to a 2-0 lead off of Greg Maddux after 1. Mike Mussina was dazzling and fought out of a few jams and we took the 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 7th, when the wheels fell off. Ian put up 5 off of Mussina in the 7th and 2 off of Armando Benitez in the 8th while Maddux shut down the O’s for a solid 7-2 win. Sadly though, our good time had to come to an end and we soon d to head home as t clock neared 7pm.

The day ended with Ian as our league champ at 7-1 after finally falling to Saiir Jackson and the 2010 Phillies. Ian took the crown by 1 game over Joe Rivera and the 2010 Reds. Ian’s Braves will be played by Brian Wells in the elimination rounds tomorrow. Brian and Ian spoke before we left about the line-up and rotation before we left. We were even told that if Brian should lead the Braves to the title than the trophy would be shipped to Ian, yet another nice gesture by the people at APBA.

More good fortune cam our way by way of Roy Langerhans who bought 8 game books for us after he had heard that we were going to buy them after the tournament. Each member from our league who was present thanked him personally for his generosity. It was a great experience and was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. It was nice to put some faces with some names that I have been conversing with for the past 8 months. It also felt good to see the other players intact so freely and openly with the other players like they had known them for years. I could tell that the kids had a lot of fun which is the most important thing. We are hoping to attend next year. Our league is still in full swing and going strong. We have now added about 8 new teams and the play is going on strong. APBA is alive and well at the Boys and Girls Club and will be for a long time!!!!

Brian is in the Bridesburg Boys and Girls Club Baseball League.  The APBA Blog thanks him for writing this!

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14
July

On the eve of the convention

This weekend is the 2011 APBA Convention in Lancaster, PA.  I wish I could go but alas, scheduling and finances didn’t allow it. 

Have heart though.  The APBA Blog has a roving reporter.  Brian Cavanaugh (from the Bridesburg Boys and Girls Club Baseball League) will be attending and he has graciously agreed to write up a summary for The APBA Blog.  Maybe he’ll even get some photos for us. 

So if you’re attending the convention, introduce yourself to Brian… I’m sure he’d love to chat. 

And even though I won’t be attending, I WILL be playing APBA.  Fellow Illowa APBA League manager DonS will be coming down from Iowa on Saturday and we’ll be playing a nine-game series.  We’ll be thinking of you all. 

Good luck to everyone in the tournament and HAVE FUN!

66s

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