As of the last APBA National Convention which took place on June 26-28 in Alpharetta, Georgia the APBA Hall of Fame grew again. That weekend, three members of the APBA community were enshrined into the Hall which includes some rather esteemed individuals.
Kevin Cluff, the hard-working moderator of the APBA Between the Lines forum, sent me bios of each of the three new Hall members. Please welcome the APBA Hall of Fame Class of 2015!
Steve Skoff (2015) APBA Ambassador
Steve has been and continues to be a consultant on the APBA hockey game engine, and tested and proofed the new (2015) hockey game. Steve presented a seminar on 2015 version of APBA Hockey at 2015 Convention and is the organizer and developer of the inaugural APBA Hockey Tournament which is scheduled for the APBA 2016 convention.
Steve is an editor on the Zack Handbook committee.
Steve is active in bringing APBA to the community through efforts such as the annual Baseball Tournament with the Boys and Girls Club of Bridesburg, PA. Steve also sponsors multiple club attendees at each event.
Steve is a two-time champion of APBA Convention Baseball Tournament, and was the first (and so far, only) back-to-back champion, winning it all in 2012 and 2013. Steve won the second annual APBA Convention Baseball Home Run Derby championship (2015).
John Duke (2015) APBA Ambassador
John attended the APBA Conventions in 1975 (New York) and 1976 (Philadelphia) and has been a regular convention attendee since 2005. John is a two time APBA Convention Baseball Tournament Champion, winning it all in both 2007 and 2009.
John is the Commissioner of the North American Baseball Conference (NABC) Draft League. The League started in 1977 as a Basic Game League, combination Face-To-Face and Mail. John joined in 1979 and took over the reins as commissioner in mid-season. John has deftly guided the league ever since, over-seeing the shifts to the computer (originally DOS and now BBW 5.75) with 18 franchises.
John is a replayer also, completing season replays with BBW, playing every game for all teams manually. He has completed 1956 and 1964, currently playing 2004. John is no stranger to the APBA Golf and Football games (previously a member of the Super Football League for 17 seasons).
Paul McEvoy (2015) APBA Ambassador
Paul was an alpha/beta tester for APBA Presents Baseball for Windows (BBW) and has continued programming in the computer language used for BBW.
Paul has been an APBA Baseball player since 1982, and when he retired in 2011 he planned to spend his retirement replaying seasons in BBW. However, BBW 5.5 was in need of an overhaul to become 64 bit friendly (to run on the new versions of Windows). Paul initiated discussions with APBA and both parties agree that Paul was the right man to work on the old BBW 5.5 code, and make the necessary changes and upgrades. This project has been and continues to be an unmitigated success, allowing legions of APBA Baseball fans to continue to enjoy APBA baseball on their computer!
Paul has continued working on updates and adding features since the original release of BBW 5.75.
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Congratulations to Steve, John and Paul!! Thanks for all you do for the APBA community!
