APBA Fan Profile: John “Stray” Corrado of the MWBL

Name:  John “Stray” Corrado Leagues: Mid-West  Baseball League and the Mid-West Winter League From:  Detroit, Michigan Claim to Fame:  Commissioner of MWBL and MWWL

If you haven’t read the write-up on the Mid-West Baseball League, take a minute and do so.  It’s quite an organization.  With 28 teams around the country the BBW league it implements a pretty unique minor league system that I’ve never seen before. 

The man behind MWBL (and its sister retro league, the Mid-West Winter League) is John “Stray” Corrado.  Stray is always willing to talk about APBA and his two leagues so I asked if he would be willing to answer a few questions.  He happily agreed and I’m glad he did.  The story of the MWBL is quite interesting (his wife Stacy is quite a trooper). 

Thanks to Stray for taking the time to answer these questions! 

The APBA Blog:  Stray, give us a little bit about your history.  How did you come to APBA and what games do you play?

Stray Corrado:  I grew up playing baseball anywhere I could and not just with a bat and ball.  My best friend (who still is today some 37 years later) and I started making up baseball games with cards when we were 7 or 8. We’d sit all summer long in my garage and play baseball with a regular deck of cards. We kept stats and had teams – it was a great time growing up. 

During High School I played a game my friends grandpa developed and learned more about statistics and how important those stats were to the history of the game.   Around 1989 a group of us started paying rotisserie (Fantasy) baseball but it wasn’t enough.  I got into computers around that time and found Micro League Baseball for my Commodore 64.  

After a couple of years, I ventured out and joined an APBA DOS League called the Iowa Baseball Confederacy.  Hal Peabody was the Commissioner of the IBC at the time and gave me a team.  The Chicago Mobsters were formed.   I played in the IBC until 1997 when I decided to form my own APBA / BBW League.  I created and started the Mid-West Baseball League in 1997 and have been the active Commissioner since the leagues inception. I’ve never played the Dice Version of APBA, and I can’t say I understand the Cards, or the Charts as Baseball for Windows has been my mainstay into APBA.  Although, I am truly hoping for a new version someday soon.

TAB: The Mid-West Baseball League seems to be full of innovations (you call them “unique”) like a 12 man minor league system.  That sounds like a great idea.  Can you give us a sense how that works? And how WELL it works?

SC:  Well, our 12 man minor league system was born in the IBC League (Mentioned above) so I can’t really call it unique, but it’s one of the best parts of the Mid-West Baseball League.   The MWBL has 28 franchises.  Each team carries a 38 man Major League Roster, and the 12 man minor league one.  That’s 50 total players (X) times 28 franchises which gives the MWBL a total of 1400 players that are owned.   Major League Baseball’s 40 man rosters (X) times 30 franchises (=) equals 1200 players.  So we’re just as deep if not deeper in some respects as MLB.   So the fun part of the 12 man Minor Leaguer system is that you have to do your homework and prepare for the Draft (more info coming on the MWBL Draft later).  Prospects drafted can be High School, College, Minor League, or Foreign players who have yet to play MLB.   They get drafted anywhere from 1st overall to 336th (Our last pick on Draft Day).  Here’s the twist and a very tricky part of our minor league system; the prospect has to make it up with in (3) three years’ time or you lose his rights.  So when you draft a prospect you are stuck with him for 3 years if he doesn’t make it to MLB.  Also since were drafting this deep, you usually take a player 2-3 years before he makes any impact at the major league level. 

Some examples for my Chicago Mobsters team; I drafted Josh Beckett in 2000, a full year and a half before he made his major league debut.  I took Felix Hernandez in 2004, a year and a half before he made his major league debut.  I drafted Aroldis Chapman in 2009, while he was still in Cuba, about a month before he pitched in the World Baseball Classic in the United States.  As you all know the story Chapman defected that summer in the Netherlands, and made it to MLB in his three year window for the MWBL & now pitches for my Chicago Mobsters. 

The homework for minor leagues can be extensive and overwhelming, but it’s a great part of our league and hobby.

TAB:  Describe the atmosphere during draft day in the MWBL.  It must be pretty intense with the added innovations.

SC:  One of the best parts of Draft Day for me in the MWBL is that my wife (Stacy) actually runs the Draft for us.  About 6 years back she watched me trying to run the Draft, – Draft my own team, and still try to enjoy myself.  She said that would be the last time I ran the Draft & that next year she would take it over.  Well we came along way in those 6 years.  She’s ran every draft since then.  9+ hours on a Saturday in February she takes control of a newly developed data base exclusively for the MWBL and she keeps all the boys in line.  

Every 2 minutes a pick is made and she makes sure the guys are on time with picks and that they are formatted in the proper order.  (Important when you’re drafting Cubans, Japanese, College or High School players).  The Atmosphere at the Draft ranges from intense to comedic.  We have so many lap tops and I-Pads going that we actually do look like a war room for MLB.  Usually we have 6-10 owners on hand (In cold Detroit Michigan), plus Stacy and our IT Specialist on hand in case we have any problems.  It’s the best day of the year.  We have a chat room set up so everyone can see who is picked, and our MWBL Info Center which Stacy runs, updates everything instantly on the web.  It’s almost like real baseball.

TAB:  You have managers in the MWBL from all over the country.  What methods do you use to stay in contact?  I assume email, right?  Do you employ methods like Facebook or Twitter?  Do you ever have face-to-face contact? 

SC:  Most of our contact is web based.  We use E-Mail for most everything, but we do use other programs as well.  We chat a lot with instant messenger, and use Facebook.  We have owners ranging from Southern California, to New Brunswick Canada, & down to Florida.  A man portion of our league is located in the Detroit Michigan area.  We have seven members here.  One of the very cool things in our league is that we play our Playoff games (Plus many regular season) head to head using a program called join.me  – this allows us to control and manage our teams when they are on the road, so you don’t have to rely on Micro Managers.

TAB:  Tell us a little about the Mid-West Winter League.  It’s a retro-league?

SC:  The Mid-West Winter League started off as a 1970 league with 12 franchises.  It’s bloomed to 20 franchises (More expansion planned for 1990’s) and we are currently into the 1985 season.  We keep between 19 & 22 keepers from year to year (Based on order of finish).  The league is run very similar to the MWBL (Except that we only carry 19-22 players forward each year).  The big difference is that in MWBL you do not know what a player will do beyond the next year.  In the MWWL you actually do know (Or have a very good guesstimate) of how your team will perform in the future.  We’ve completed 15 seasons now and usually play out 3 years of MWWL in 2 years of real life time.  So one day when I am old and gray(er), we might actually catch up to present day.

TAB:  As commissioner of both of these leagues, you must be a busy guy.  Do you have time to concentrate on your own team? Any luck with postseason success?

SC:  Busy isn’t quite the word.  We do so much in both leagues that it literally is a second (And third) job for me.  We have so many great features. We have yearly awards, a Home Run Derby, a Hall of Fame, General Managers Meetings, Etc.  We track every player’s Career Statistics, every Draft, every Trade – we have a Futures Feature & we literally never take any time off.  It’s always baseball season in the MWBL and MWWL.  A couple of the lucky things I can say about being Commissioner of these two leagues are; I have a great Deputy Commissioner (Steve Cutler) who helps me with so many things on every level of our Leagues.  I have a wife who supports me in my hobby and actually helps with it.  I also have a GREAT GROUP OF OWNERS, who understand the commitment that we put into this.  The members of the league are so good at turning things on time and keeping the Leagues running smooth that we never miss a beat.  As for myself and my Chicago Mobsters (MWBL) I’ve been to the World Series twice winning once.  In the MWWL the Chicago Demolition I’ve been three times and winning once as well.

TAB:  What’s the best part of APBA to you?

SC:  Without a doubt it’s the friendships that are made, kept or reconnected.   I’ve made so many new friends, and kept up with so many old friends through APBA, Baseball and these two Leagues. I’ve been to places all around the country now and when a League member finds out I am coming close to them, they always want to hook up for dinner or a ball game.  I can’t say how much it means to me to have my best friend in the league, and that my wife supports me with my hobby.  It truly is a great game this game of baseball, and APBA has made my life much more enjoyable on so many different levels.

Thanks again to Stray!  I really enjoyed his answers.   The MWBL has some pretty amazing innovations when it comes to player development. 

There are several other APBA Fan Profiles that I’ve done in the past if you want to read them.