Interview with Bruce Norlander, prediction guru and minor league carder

by Mike Estep

We are honored to have as our guest an APBA fan who has been keeping alive the history of past minor league seasons by producing APBA cards for past minor league seasons. We will be interviewing Mr. Bruce Norlander.

Mike: Hello Bruce, welcome to the APBA Blog.

Bruce: Hi, thanks for having me. I love the APBA Blog.

Mike: How long have you been an APBA fan and when did you begin playing APBA?

Bruce: I guess I was introduced to APBA over 40 years ago by my brother and some neighborhood friends. We started with All-Time sets and the first year I remember a full season set was 1970. I still play in a BBW keeper league with my brother and the two brothers who started it all.

Mike: What made you decide to produce APBA cards for past minor league seasons?

Bruce: At first I did it to scout minor leaguers for my BBW teams but my love for minor league baseball started in my hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. We had the Duluth Dukes, a Class C team back then an affiliate of the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox. The Northern League had some great players come through like Aaron, Brock, Cepeda, Palmer, Carlton and the Tigers McLain, Freehan, Northrup, Horton and more. I wanted to make cards for those players and once I got the stats I did a Greatest Northern Leaguers set.

Mike: Where did you find the stats for those past minor league seasons?

Bruce: Now most everything is online at Baseball Reference but at first the stats needed to make accurate APBA cards were in the Sporting News Baseball Guides but I didn’t have them. Then I found books by Marshall D. Wright with all the stats from a large number of seasons for the American Association and International League and I started buying the Baseball Guides on ebay or getting stats from people that have the guides.

Mike: What do you find exciting about playing with the minor league sets?

Bruce: There are several things, like seeing what Joe DiMaggio’s can hit in the 1935 PCL when he batted .398. or Willie Mays in 1951 hit .477 for Minneapolis before his promotion to New York and Ted Williams who won the Triple Crown for Minneapolis in 1938. I also love learning about players I knew nothing about including one of my favorites from Minnesota, Joe Guyon, an NFL Hall-of Famer who hit .329 in his 12 year minor league career. Another thing that drew me to doing minor league sets was the rivalry between the Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints in the American Association thus the name ArchRivals Baseball.

Mike: What leagues have you produced so far and what will be coming out in the near future?

Bruce: I started doing minor league sets in 2001 and have done over 50 sets. I have Great Team sets for all the top minor leagues, 1938 American Association (Ted Williams’ Triple Crown Season, 1951 American Association (Mays, Mantle), 1952 Northern League (Hank Aaron’s first year) and many others including my latest project, the 1959 season for all AAA and AA levels. I just completed my yearly Futures Game set and I am currently updating some older sets like the 1957 PCL and 1970 International. I am still looking at the next project…maybe the 1961 season?

Mike:  What is your favorite minor league team of all time and why?

Bruce:  I have a few but my favorite would be the 2002 Edmonton Trappers. Being a Twins fan the Traps won the PCL championship, had a 81-59 record and had prospects and power. They hit 202 HRs led by an outfield of Michael Ryan with 31 HRs, Michael Restovich hit 29 and Michael Cuddyer hit 20. Thirdbaseman Casey Blake hit .309 with 19 HRs, catcher Javier Valentin added 21 HRs and 1B Todd Sears hit .310 with 20 HRs. Pitching was led by 12-0 Scott Randall, #1 pick Adam Johnson won 13 games and Johan Santana was 5-2, 3.14 ERA.

Mike: Your annual card predictions on APBA Between The Lines Forum have become extremely popular. What led you to start doing those predictions and sharing them on the forum?

Bruce: Well I suppose it was the long winter days in Minnesota waiting for the mailman to finally deliver the new APBA cards that we started predicting what the cards would look like. We read the APBA Journal and got the card making formulas but pitching was tough to predict so I started to reverse engineer the numbers and ask questions especially after the old formulas didn’t work. I figured out an accurate way to do control ratings and then MG grades. About 15 years ago I just threw my ratings out on the forum and have ever since.

Mike: I will not ask you to divulge any of your card making secrets, but given your popularity on your forum posts each year, your method appears to be right on target! In your opinion, what makes you the “go-to guy” for APBA baseball fans once a year? The fans maybe needing a fix in regards to their psyche before the cards come out?

Bruce: I think that’s one of the things. We just can’t wait, can we? I’m glad people enjoy my predictions. I try to be as accurate as I can but the formula always seems to change or something else is accounted for like win percentage or the W is given more weight in determining a grade. It’s fun to see the debate and sometimes it makes me see things different. Others do predictions but I put my butt out there every year.

Mike: How might someone get in touch with you that is interested in your sets?

Bruce: You can email at and I can send a list of all my sets. I will post frequently on the Between The Lines forum and my sets are also listed on the APBA Yahoo Group under Files. I wish I had a website but I’d rather spend my time making sets. [ed. here is a list of sets in pdf format]

Mike: Thank you Bruce for agreeing to being interviewed. Thanks for delving into the too often overlooked area of minor league baseball. I am enjoying my set of American Association cards representing the year 1959. They are tremendous fun.

Bruce: That’s why I do them, for fun. There are many minor league fans that remember the old minor league days in their city like New Orleans at Pelican Stadium or Nashville at the Sulphur Dell. There are also minor league fans from today like those in Lancaster, PA who wanted to play their championship team from the 2006 Atlantic or those who would like to play a 2012 season and see if Billy Hamilton can break the stolen base record.