What am I thankful for? Besides 66s, of course.

In the spirit of the season, five things APBA-related that I’m genuinely thankful.
 

Yeah, Albert Pujols.  As a Cub fan, I’ll admit it.  Somewhere out there on the interwebs, there’s even a picture of me in a Pujols jersey.  Here’s why.

Six years ago, I had the fortune of having the first pick of the rookie draft in the Illowa APBA League.  Their were other rookies with potential (Ichiro, Dunn) but to me, the choice was clear.  And he hasn’t disappointed.  Albert has been my cleanup hitter ever since.

This will be his seventh year in on my Thunderchickens and he’ll have driven in 100 runs each of those years.  Most likely, he’ll break 300 homeruns as well.  My team lives or dies with Pujols in the lineup.
 

At this point in the season, the Twin City Thunderchickens are 52-83 and in last place.  Our only consolation is that we have six draft picks for the 2009 rookie draft.  Literally, half of my pitching staff retired or won’t get a card (Rich Hill, Rodrigo Lopez, Ruddy Lugo, Pat Neshek and Akinori Otsuka).

Four months ago, we were some 10 games behind the next team and pretty much guaranteed the the first pick in the draft (Hellloo, Geovany Soto!) but we’ve been fighting back and now we’re only a game back.

Nonetheless, draft picks are the best friends of a manager of a rebuilding team and given the rich crop of rookies in 2008, this should be fun.
 

God, isn’t this the truth?  I remember back in the old days when I would type  up my stats on my Smith Corona typewriter.  When I would make a mistake, out comes the Liquid Paper.  Then after what seemed like hours, when I would finish, I’d slip it in an envelope and send in via postal mail.

We’ve come a long way, baby.  Excel has revolutionized the way I’ve kept stats.  I’m sure I started out with a standard worksheet but now I use a more complicated version adapted from something my buddy Brando who manages the Rising Bamm Beanos came up with.  It essentially keeps a game log for each player and calculates the stats from there.  Very handy for keeping an eye out for stuff like streaks and the like.

And I don’t need to tell anyone about the usefulness of email in keeping a league organized.  Our phone bills were outrageous during trade season in the pre-computer age.

The technology is stopping either.  Last year, I made my first trade via text message.   Other methods of social networking like Twitter (by the way, here’s my Twitter page) and Facebook (and yes, my Facebook page, don’t update that one much) allow for keeping track of each other almost to the point of ad nauseum.
 

I’ve written about my fondness of Mr Glavine in a previous post.  The fact that he’s been on the same APBA team for 17 years is pretty remarkable.  I acquired him in 1991 and since then he’s been 228-184.

Another amazing stat:  for his career in our league, he has 2709 strikeouts (the R isn’t helping this year, Lancaster).

I have no illusions about Glavine.  2008 is probably going to be his last graded card.  But I’ll hold on to him till he retires.
 

Some leagues have good commissioners.  Others just get by with what they got.  The IAL got lucky.  We got the best.

Mike Bunch gives everything he’s got, spending his time in his office doing the newsletter, updating the league spreadsheets, and doing all the things that make the IAL a great league.

This is what we wrote on his plaque when we inducted him into the IAL Hall of Fame:

Founding member of the Illowa APBA League and President for many years, Mike has had a direct impact on the IAL. As President, his selfless devotion of his time, energy, and talents as well as his sense of fairness have made the IAL what it is today. In addition, his baseball knowledge, amiability and good humor have made Mike a distinguished part of this League

Every bit of it true.

Not to mention, he’s a pretty decent guy, too.

As you reflect on your APBA year, what do YOU have to be thankful for?