Month: April 2005

Just got here and checked into the IAL Convention hotel. I’m the first one here so that gives me a chance to update the blog a bit.

To me, the one thing better than a weekend playing APBA is an APBA weekend topped off attending an MLB game.

So, this is a shout out to my buddy, TD who scored me a ticket to Sunday’s Sox/Tigers game. He just happened to have an extra ticket on hand and when he found out I was coming up, offered it to me. Thanks buddy!

TD and I are both Cubs fans but baseball is baseball and we’re willing to go root for the South-siders.

Mental note: Can’t forget to pack the camera.

Friday morning, bright and early, I take Amtrak for Chicago. This weekend is the May convention for the Illowa APBA League. The IAL is a simulation baseball league using the APBA baseball game. For details on what exactly the IAL is and what we do and why we do it, check out our About Page.

The ten of us plan on playing 30 games each this weekend My team, the Twin City Thunderchickens, was doing fairly well till our last series when we went 1-8. That put us at 18-21 and fighting to get back in top division.

Nevertheless, win or lose, we all have a good time. Rolling dice, talking baseball and hopefully winning a few games.

I’ll have access to the Internet at the hotel we are staying at so I plan to update the blog throughout the weekend. You may have to put up with some IAL convention talk mixed in about the real thing. I’ve intentionally not made thebaseballzealot.com an “APBA” or “IAL” blog but for weekends like these, exceptions have to be made. :)

Go Thunderchickens!

Did you all catch the article by George Will in the back of the latest Newsweek? It’s entitled The Artistry of Mr Maddux. I normally don’t read Will since he far too right wing for me but when he writes about baseball, I read it. The one thing he and I have in common is love of baseball. And when you read his stuff, it shows.

You can find the article online here.

Here’s an excerpt I found interesting:

One year in spring training, facing a Met who had hit him hard the previous season, Maddux told teammates he would throw dinky sliders to encourage the Met to hit a home run. Maddux figured that hitters remember, and subsequently look for, what they crush. The Met homered—then, always looking for the same pitch, went hitless against Maddux in the regular season.

Leading 8-0 in a regular-season game against the Astros, Maddux threw what he had said he would never throw to Jeff Bagwell—a fastball in. Bagwell did what Maddux wanted him to do: he homered. So two weeks later, when Maddux was facing Bagwell in a close game, Bagwell was looking for a fastball in, and Maddux fanned him on a change-up away.

by Teddy Ballgame

The other night when visiting the Cell I bumped into Moose Skowron. Shook his hand, he stopped, and we chatted. This BIG guy said to be gentle when shaking his hand as he was still suffering from recent shoulder surgery. They had to reattach some stuff to the bone. This couldn’t keep Moose from joking, “The ole lady wants me to do some stuff around the house. She thinks I’m jaking it”.

by Teddy Ballgame

Way back in 1969 when I was just 13 years old I went out to visit my cousins. I was fascinated by the dice baseball game they were playing called APBA. First off the dice were very small, one slightly larger red die & one extremely small white die, were mesmerizing as they tumbled across the table. Then there were player cards representing every single major league baseball player. These cards had almost mystical numbers on them beside the dice rolls, 11 through 66. There were four charts with every base situation from bases empty to bases loaded. My cousins were actually managing real live major league baseball players playing actual games. The randomness of the dice created unpredictable outcomes along with statistical accuracies that were hard to believe. After each game was played the results were recorded into spiral notebooks, each player having his own page on which his statistics would magically accumulate.

Richard Seitz first played APBA as a boy in 1932 and then later in the barracks while he was in the service. But it wasn’t till 1951 that APBA came to life as Seitz wanted to recreate the 1950 baseball season in which his beloved Philadelphia Phillies captured the National League Pennant. Whenever APBA games were played in the barracks an enthusiastic crowd would gather to watch the intense competition as dice & cards would create the baseball action. It was at this point that Richard realized he might have something here.

Twenty years later I got my first APBA game as a Christmas present. And what a Christmas present it was! I could hardly wait for the UPS guy to deliver the game before I was ripping open the package, looking at the cards, and playing baseball. Baseball in January was a dream come true for this baseball crazed kid!

Dang! Dang! Dang!

Just read in the paper that Fergie Jenkins will be in town at the grand opening of the Home Depot signing autographs. Unfortunately, I will be out of town this weekend.

I learned to be a baseball fan by watching the Cubs of that era. I bet I could list their starters by memory. Let me try:

C: Randy Hundley
1B: Ernie Banks (saw him hit a grand slam once, also went to see him inducted into the Hall of Fame)
2B: Glenn Beckert
SS: Don Kessinger
3B: Ron Santo (I know a couple guys who have met him in person. They say he is the nicest guy)
OF: Billy Williams
OF: Jim Hickman
OF: Joe Pepitone

UT: Paul Popovich

SP: Fergie Jenkins
SP: Bill Hands
SP: Milt Pappas
Who am I missing???

Anyway, not bad considering I was what, 6 or 7 at the time?

Maybe I’ll send my wife to get an autograph :)