Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Cont'd)

It was also during the summer of 1987 that I started helping Steve Stafford with his Strat-o-Matic Baseball team in a league at The Epic Gallery hobby shop. Steve's team in that league was also known as the New York City Corporate Raiders. We made the playoffs, but were eliminated in the first round.

We continued the APBA baseball league during the summer of 1988. Steve Stafford had to drop out because of a lack of time, so his team was taken over by Richard Philipak. Richard re-named one of the teams the Spectres. Also, Frank dropped out half-way through the season, and his teams were taken over by Kenn Leucke and Steven Erdmann. Al's two teams made it all of the way to the World Series, and the Medflys beat the Neanderthals to win the championship.

I moved away from St. Louis in August of 1988 to start graduate school, and although we finished a draft prior to a 1989 season, the season itself was never started, and our second attempt at a table-top baseball league came to an end.

In 2003, we decided to give it another try. I had bought Strat-o-Matic back in the 1990s just to see what the game was looking like. When I received the mailing in February 2003 I talked to Al and Dennis about starting a league, and we decide to give it a try. In addition to Al's (Greenwhich Meridians), Dennis's (Montauk Fighting Rainbow Trout) and my team (the St. Louis Crusaders), we were joined by Steven (The Gallifreyan Timelords), Jeff White (Metropolis Supermen) and Rick (Dallas Diamonds). The Crusaders won the 2003 World Series (defeating the Trout) and Al won the 2004 World Series (defeating the Diamonds). Mid-way through the 2005 season, we fell behind in our games, and we decided to jump straight to a playoff round. The Diamonds ended up winning the World Series (defeating the Timelords).

I don't honestly see us ever trying another league. However, I do think that we learned a number of lessons over the years. (1) It's important that league members reconcile themselves to the fact that "owners" vary in the amount of time that they can devote to the league. Members should have honest discussions prior to starting a league about the time commitment that's expected. Gung-ho members may need to accept the fact that not everyone shares their priorities. If they prefer a league with more games and/or extensive bookkeeping, they need to either find like-minded people or be prepared to accept a lower commitment level. (2) Members should think when creating the league about how to handle team openings. Members' lives will change, and people will move, gain new family commitments or just want to quit. (3) Every game's rules has "loopholes" that can be exploited -- things that allow players to "work the system" in an unrealistic manner. League members need to have in place a solid process for resolving these issues before they arise.