The APBA Legend of Hennepin Canal

As I wrote a couple days ago, I spent this past weekend at Commissioner Mike Bunch’s house playing some Illowa APBA League games.  It was a homecoming of sorts as Mike hosted the very first IAL get together I attended at the tender age of 16 (that was back in 1980 and it was the draft weekend and god, I had no idea what I was getting myself into).

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Those dice are there somewhere

Now Mike and his family (heh, current league member Marcus Bunch was in diapers at the time) live right next to the Hennepin Canal.  This man-made waterway eventually empties into the Rock River.  The story goes that during an IAL weekend before my time, Mike had particularly bad luck with the dice as he is prone to do.  When the weekend was over, Mike is said to have thrown his dice into the Hennepin Canal with disgust.

Mike loves telling this story at league conventions.  It’s a fun one.  I related this story to Brando on the way home this past Saturday.

“No doubt,” I told him,  “those dice are still there with two sixes facing up.”

Thomas Nelshoppen

I am an IT consultant by day and an APBA media mogul by night. My passions are baseball (specifically Illini baseball), photography and of course, APBA. I have been fortunate to be part of the basic game Illowa APBA League since 1980 as well as a frequent participant of the Chicagoland APBA Tournament. I am slogging through a 1966 NL replay and hope to finish before I die.

One Comment:

  1. Papa Bunch’s friggin dice, probably sitting at 12!!!

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