It’s the second go-round. APBA Game Company CEO John Herson has again agreed to answer a few questions for The APBA Blog.
I put out a call for questions a few days ago and even polled my league (hey, do they all read this blog… who knows?) and got a really good response. In fact, only two of these questions are actually mine. So thanks to the readers of The APBA Blog for helping form the discussion you see below. The questions are very good and I’m sure Mr. Herson appreciates the frankness of them.
For the record, Mr. Herson answered every question I submitted to him. He even wrote a message to the fans of APBA discussing the move and the current state of the company which you’ll find below.
On to the interview…
The APBA Blog: APBA has done very well the last few years in meeting the expectations of their baseball customers, but we remember years in the not too distant past when cards were way too late for our league. When do you anticipate shipping the 2011 baseball season disks and cards? (Others have asked the same and are also wondering about the release of the carded player list and player disk).
John Herson: The expectations are the disk and cards will be available at the same time as they have in the past. We are planning to be open on a Saturday (this year it was January 8th I believe to fill walk up orders. More information will be coming on this in the future) One change in the process is we are not going to be taking pre-orders until we have a publication date. I don’t think taking pre-orders is fair to the customers. The idea of pre-orders has always troubled me.
Skeet just told me the carded players list will be available by the end of October, if not sooner.
The same people involved in the process of making the cards in the past are still making the cards. They have been working together making the card set for over 25 years. The only change in the process is the printer we are using this year. The printer did a nice a job on the 1960 and 1964 seasons. They have been timely in their responses. The new printer’s process is much more efficient than the old printer. We review PDF files now instead of proto types of the actual cards.
TAB: What is the current situation with the computer game? It’s probably not in APBA’s budget to do it well, so why don’t you license the game engine out to whoever is capable to implement the game.
JH: This is the reply I’ve been using to answer the first question:
“Thank you for your question about Baseball for Windows. Despite issues with the newest computer operating systems, there are many users. APBA appreciates your continued support of BBW. We have currently been working on an upgrade for the last couple of years. To prevent raising unrealistic expectations or false hopes, we will remain mum on a projected release date until we’re just about ready to release. APBA continues to support BBW with the release of new season disks while working on making BBW compatible with the new computer operating system.”
I’m receptive to licensing the rights however the proposals we have received to date are nothing we would consider. It can’t be I know some guys or I’m a long time APBA player. In addition, a significant upfront payment is required. This way the “licensee has skin in the game”. We have gone down this path before with no upfront payment. The licensee walked away and APBA had wasted 18 months working with someone. A professional well thought out proposal from a team with the appropriate skills and the financial wherewithal to execute the project would be considered. The project has to be done right
TAB: Will you use similar criteria when creating the cards as past years?
JH: Yes.
TAB: Who will be the ones ultimately responsible for making up the cards?
JH: The same people that have been making the cards for the past 25 years.
TAB: Are you happy with the progress of the soccer game? Are there any tweaks in store? In other words, am I wasting my time getting hooked on what I feel is a fun 
game?
JH: Yes. I’m committed to the soccer game. APBA needs to attract younger customers. My goal is to have the sales of APBA baseball grow and have both football and soccer sales equal the baseball sales. The soccer sales for the three months exceed the first year sales for APBA Baseball when baseball was first introduced. Almost 25% of our soccer customers have also bought the baseball game. FYI, the reported sales figures for soccer are significantly understated.
Are there any tweaks in store? We have a rare play chart in development that we are testing. We need to improve the game packaging to survive shipping to Europe.
Electronic Arts sells 3 million units of Madden annually in North America and 3.5 million units of FIFA soccer. Soccer is here to stay. If anyone has a local soccer pub and you want to be a APBA soccer coach for the pub, please contact me via customer service.
TAB: Also, is there still a new product release on the horizon?
JH: Not at this time. We need to make sure the transition to Georgia is working smoothly first.
TAB: Though there have been a few detractors on the message boards, there have been good suggestions as well. For example, an improved Web site, downloadable color brochures, etc. Do you have plans to make things like that a reality?
JH: We plan to improve the website to make it better and more ABPA-like with its look and the colors. I want to take advantage of APBA’s heritage and history of 60 years. I would like have the old brochures on the website where fans can go to read them and/or print them out. However, APBA has none of the old mailing materials. Past ownership never set up an archives.
TAB: Now that you’ve situated the company in the Atlanta area, how are things shaping up generally? Are operations running pretty smoothly?
JH: It’s too early to tell. Every day gets better. We did a good job getting the 1960 and 1964 season orders out. Until we successfully handle the 2011 baseball card and disk orders, it will be too soon to make any judgments.
Things can always be better. Our primary focus is to file orders as quickly and accurately as we can. Every day we are getting better. Sometimes we have a disconnect with the inventory on the floor and the amounts in the order entry system. We still need to get the website “cleaned up” to at least to reflect the recent changes.
TAB: There were card printing issues earlier this year. Have they been addressed?
JH: I hope so. Going to digital printing will help. The internal glitches I can’t explain. We just messed up.
And a final message from APBA CEO John Herson
I know some people are not happy with the move from Lancaster to Alpharetta or “APBAretta” as someone emailed me. APBA is not a location. APBA is the memories and the friendships that our fans have developed over the past sixty years. The location of where your orders are filled does not matter. We will do our best to provide the highest quality products and service. We will make mistakes. Let us know. We will correct them. The only way we can get better is to know when we mess up so we can correct it.
I have received several calls regarding the status of the 1941 season. While there has been no official announcement of this set, I guess there has been some unofficial announcements. APBA will be releasing the 1941 set at the end of October. This will be a new release.
While I’m talking about baseball seasons, I want to explain the 1957 and 1962 seasons and subsequent reprint sets. These sets are reprints of APBA’s latest release for that season. The card tables are the same on both cards. The reprint will have the statistics lines and the new pitching ratings. The old model of selling a season out and then waiting five years or more years to issue a new version ( a fine tuned version) of the set doesn’t make sense. If APBA has offered a season, we should either have it in inventory or be able to print the set in a short period of time. These sets play fine. The biggest complainers about this change are those folks who offer cards with the same card tables the reprints have for $100s on the secondary market.
After the 1957 and 1962 baseball seasons, we will be offering the 1951 and 1952 seasons. Our goal is to have every season APBA has offered available by June 2012. The reprint sets will not have extra players or new master symbols.
It was not an easy decision to close Lancaster. However it was necessary. If you have a question or a concern ask us. If we can answer we will, if we can’t we won’t. If you are in the Atlanta area, please stop by the new space. We are open from 9 to 5. If you want to buy product, please let us know beforehand so we can make sure we have the product available or can print it before you come.
We appreciate your support of APBA.
Regards,
John
I would like to personally thank Mr. Herson for taking the time to address these questions. It is much appreciated. And everyone, let’s do our best and use our comments to move the discussion forward.
Good interview. Well done. I am glad to hear that the next baseball season will most likely be just as good as prior seasons. Same criteria and personnel involved with the cards and disk is very good to hear.
Good to hear John’s comments about the 2011 season baseball products.
Very strange comment about the computer game, though. He apparently thinks that a programmer who worked 18 months and got nothing out of it doesn’t have “skin in the game”. Ludicrous. So he wants someone to pay an up-front license fee as well? This makes me very pessimistic about ever seeing another computer product out of APBA.
Based on the comment about the card-makers being the same as the last 25 years, which of the Lancaster employees are still employed with APBA?
I notice Marc Rinaldi still administers the APBA Facebook group, and references in this interview to Skeet Carr.
Just wondering.
Thanks,
–mk
It’s great to see John Herson is out there, wanting to hear from the APBA community.
I’d be very interested to know whether he played/plays APBA and why he decided to buy the APBA Game Company?
I totally understand that by & large the APBA community is steeped in tradition, but I think, we’d all agree there are some tweaks, which could easily be made to the game we love, to make it a more realistic game.
Here a few things I’d like to see incorporated into the APBA Baseball game; 1) Error Chart & Unusual Play Chart, 2) Basing pitching grades (including MG pitching grades into the basic game) on opponents batting average rather than wins and/or ERA (Having the pitcher’s manager roll dice to determine his pitcher’s grade for each batter faced), 3) Stolen bases should be determined by a combination of factors (the pitcher’s ability to hold runners close, the catcher’s ability to throw out runners, & the base stealer’s ability to steal), 4) Fielders should be rated on range & errors committed, it makes no sense that a poor outfielder may commit 30 errors or that a top rated shortstop will make that many as well, 5) There should never be an instance where a being a weaker fielder produces a more advantageous result, and 6) Pitcher’s home run allowance should be a part of the basic game.
Maybe I’m going overboard with some of my “tweaking” ideas and I’m sure there are lots of suggestions out there to improve the game we love. Suffice to say, I have been a loyal APBA customer since 1970, and would like to see more young kids pick up dice & play some APBA!!!
Amen to that.
After being involved in the process of doing the interview, I stepped back and read it again.
For the most part, I was very pleased and heartened by what Mr Herson says. Perhaps he could have expanded a bit on a couple answers but I came away with a good feeling about APBA.
My takeaways:
– there should not be any interruption in the card delivery schedule
-there should not be any drastic changes to the cards themselves.
– there are plans to upgrade the website (downloadable brochures would be great!)
-there will be some linkage to the traditions and heritage of APBA
-it should be emphasized that APBA has a CEO that actually takes the time to answer questions and respond to customers. I for one, appreciate that.
Steve, I’m not a computer APBA player but I feel your pain. He is lawyer and he knows licensing more than any of us. That said, it’s been a long time.
What’s he going to say?? That printing is an issue and not sure if new cards will be done on time?? As the saying goes the proof is in the pudding! Lets see if carded player list comes out on time(Skeet working part time is a good omen). Lets see if cards come out on time. As for as “APBA is not a location. APBA is the memories” what a bunch of lawyerspeak!! Lancaster IS APBA or I guess was now. Dick Sietz is turning over in his grave!!! Moving APBA out of Lancaster was necessary?? Why?? So Mr. Herson has an easier commute?? That’s the only necessity I see here.
I noticed nothing was said about the Golf Board game. What are the plans for continuing to support the golf game with new courses and cards?
Allan Bendert
Barry, your questions are fair and it’s always good to be a little skeptical. But I don’t necessarily hold that APBA has to be in Lancaster.
For me, the proof is in the pudding. As long as the company keeps up the schedule, the cards are in good shape and the 12 isn’t on 66, it shows the company is on the right track.
Baseball Zealot: Cool put the 12 at 66!! I’d never hit into that dp again!!! We agree the proof is in the pudding!! Next 3 years put the 12 at 66, 11, and then 33!!!! What a great idea!!! Just set a personal record by rolling 4 consecutive 2nd column singles!!! SO… put that 12 at 66 APBA go ahead I dare you!!!
“Cool put the 12 at 66!! I’d never hit into that dp again!!!”
LOL!
These comments prompted me to look up Doug Burg’s 12 Chart (http://webspace.webring.com/people/fb/burgda/apbacards2.html) and see just what number was the best one that the 12 was placed on. I’d say the 42 comes out the winner (1965, 1970R, 1985, 1996). I’m young enough to remember the 1985 and 1996 seasons.
Oh how frustrating it was to roll a 42 and for a split second think you may have a walk or maybe even a hit. Only to have it taken away and replaced with a double play.