APBA Fan Profile: SCBL’s Dan Velderrain

For this APBA Fan Profile, I had the pleasure to get to know Dan Velderrain of the Southern California Baseball League.  I’m glad I did and it makes me wish I could meet him in person (that really goes for pretty much everyone I’ve interviewed.  The fan profile is one of my favorite parts of doing this blog).  When I announced his upcoming interview on the APBA Blog Facebook page, it was met with quite a favorable response.  “Sgt Dan” is held in high esteem it seems and I can see why.

Dan initially contacted me a while back to put up SCBL’s league profile up on the APBA Blog.  Recently though, we got chatting on Facebook about APBA leagues and found that our two leagues were quite similar in age and structure.  The kicker was when we found out that he and I both had Tom Glavine on our respective teams for his career.  The ties that bind!

By the way, for Dan’s fan profile, I’m trying something new.  In addition to some of the normal questions, I’ve asked him some ‘rapid fire’ ones.  Quick questions with short answers and if we’re lucky, maybe not a thought put into them.  :-)

The APBA Blog:  Hi Dan, tell us about who you are when you’re not playing APBA.

Dan Velderrain:  Hello Tom and Thank You for offering me this interview opportunity. I enjoy reading this feature on The APBA Blog and now it really is an honor to actually know that I will be a part of it as well.

I am 47 years old and live in Southern California… in Orange County to be more specific. I am married to my wife, Kristine for the past six years, I do have two children, Amelia who is 15 and Adam who is 12. I am employed as a Sergeant with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and have been there for more then 23 years. My outdoor hobby is golf and my indoor hobby is APBA. I have been doing playing both for more than twenty eight years. I am truly a baseball fan and can actually find something I like in ALL 30 MLB Franchises…. However if forced to pick just one team, then count me as an Angel Fan. I attend several games each year but the highlight of my baseball season is attending the All-Star Game. I have been to six of them, including the last three in a row and I am not sure if I will miss another one… They really are amazing to attend live.

TAB:  Tell us your APBA story. How did you start playing and what games do you play?

DV:  Well, in 1983, while a Junior in High School, I purchased a Street & Smith Baseball Preview. As I was reading through every page of that magazine, I noticed many Table Top Baseball Game Advertisements, including APBA, Strat-O-Matic, Pursue the Pennant, etc. If I recall correctly there were like six or seven different games out there. I actually requested information from all of them and within a few weeks I was receiving several letters as if I were being recruited by Major League Teams. After reading through them all, a few times each, APBA seemed to be the clear cut choice for me. What got me I think was how they worded it. “You can run a Major League Team.” I can recall how disappointed how, in my opinion, the California Angels were under achieving. Fresh off the heals of a 1982 ALCS loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, in a series they were leading two games to none. I just knew I could get the Angels into the World Series and I was going to use the APBA Baseball Game to prove it…… However, the $30.00 price tag, the game company wanted for their game seemed just a bit high for someone who was spending all of his money trying to fix up his 1967 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and the game just never got ordered.

I graduated high school in 1984 and enlisted with the United States Air Force. In 1985 my parents got me the APBA Baseball AND Football Games for Christmas that year…. I still count that Christmas and the years I received my Atari 2600 and my Webco BMX Bicycle as the top three best Christmas’ of All~Time.

On Christmas morning 1985 I broke out the baseball game that included the 1984 season. I played the Dodgers against the Angels. In that first inning, Rod Carew singled to lead off the game and a couple of outs later, Reggie Jackson came up and rolled 66 and I have been hooked ever since. I currently own 81 complete seasons and hopefully someday will have them all.

As far as what APBA games do I play? Let’s see I own the APBA Baseball Basic and Master Games, APBA Football, APBA Basketball both new and old, APBA Golf, APBA Saddle Racing and APBA Boxing….. But pretty much play the APBA Basic Baseball Game Exclusively.

TAB:  The league you are in, the Southern California Baseball League, has been around for 35 years. Give us a little history on the league and what makes it so great. What is its secret for its longevity?

DV:  I know there are a lot of leagues out there and some have even been in business longer then the SCBL. But this league holds a special place in my heart. Other than my career with the Sheriff’s Department the SCBL is the one thing that I have done the longest in my life. My team, the Saddleback Sharks is older than my children, been around longer then my wife…. I was a young Deputy Sheriff when I was given this franchise in 1991 and I have had it ever since.

Four friends and teammates on the Cross Country Team at Orange Coast Community College in the city of Irvine in Orange County, started the, “Runners League” in the Spring of 1977. These four young men, each managed two teams, their “A” team and their “B” team. They played a small schedule but didn’t keep stats other than simply, wins and losses. In 1978 they changed the name of the league to the Long Beach APBA Baseball League, gave their A Team and B Teams actual names and started keeping stats. In 1979 the league name was changed to the Southern California Baseball League. As a result of an advertisement placed in the APBA Journal the league grew to 9 members and the SCBL was officially born and underway. League Membership has been as high as 16 although today we are currently at 15 teams.

The SCBL is a Face to Face Basic Game League with many Modifications. We play an 84 game schedule consisting of 14, six game series between March and September. I don’t know if I really know what the “secret” would be…. The SCBL has always been fortunate to have had Managers who truly care about Baseball and APBA with the competitive nature and desire to run their own Major League Franchise but were a little short on the cash, Like me… So the SCBL is the next best thing!

TAB:  Give us an example of a modification or idea that the SCBL has used that might be unique to the league.

DV:  We use quite a few. I’ll share two of them in regards to pitching…..

Pitchers are assigned a Hits Rating based on their hits allowed per nine innings pitched. For A pitchers who give up 6.50 hits per nine or less receive a Low or L rating. If they give up 7.50 or more hits then they receive a High or H rating. If there hits per nine fall in between 6.50 and 7.50 then they are neutral or do not receive a rating. For B pitchers the cutoffs are 7.50 and 8.50, for C pitchers the cutoffs are 8.50 and 9.50 and for D pitchers the cutoffs are 9.50 and 10.50.

The L and H ratings ONLY come into play with the Bases Empty Board. With a play result of 36, 37, 38, 39 or 40 against a neutral pitcher the result is a strike, ball or foul ball. Against a L pitcher it would be a ground out and against a H pitcher it would be a single. This way pitchers who are the same grade in APBA, yet don’t give up as many hits as others in real life, get a little bit of a benefit with this modification.

Another one we recently put into place, is the addition of five new pitching grades: A&B-, A&C-, A-, B- and C-, using the Master Game Pitching Ratings. Below is a Table that we use:

For example, if a Right Handed A pitcher gets a 17, 18 or 19 in the Master Game then he is a True A. For the pitcher who gets a 15 or 16 he is an A-. An A- will be an A against all right handed hitters and a B to all left handed hitters and so on with all of the pitching grades except for the D.

So in our league it isn’t uncommon to see a Pitcher who is an A-XZH. In a league, using only 10-16 teams on any given season we all tend to have some pretty strong pitching staffs. We have found both of these modifications even it out somewhat and produce a few more base hits without really altering the pitching grades to much.

We also use a called steal with the move to first ratings and catchers throwing arm ratings and we use individual defensive ratings as opposed to total team fielding ratings as in the basic game.

It has been nice because we have increased some of the realism of the Master Game while keeping the simplicity of the Basic Game. This blend has gone a long way in maximizing the whole APBA experience.

TAB:  Finally, if you aren’t playing APBA Baseball, what do you like to do that’s sports related?

DV:  When I am not working, spending time with the family, playing league games during the season and various solitaire projects in the off season, I really enjoy going to Major League Baseball Games in person and playing golf. I play about once a week and go on some type of golf trip at least once a year.

Lastly, I would just like to say thank you to you, for writing the APBA Blog and to whoever is responsible for the APBA Baseball page on Face Book. Through these outlets, I have met and became friends with several others who are crazy about this game just like me. On one hand it is probably a good thing we all live so far apart, but then again, Man what kind of league could we put together if we all lived closer??? Oh Man!!! Go Sharks!!!

Many thanks to Dan Velderrain for his time in answering these questions!