I got an email from reader Chris D about how leagues get their games played when they can’t play face-to-face:
I play the game solitaire but interested in league play. how does play by email league work?
First of of all, back in MY day, we didn’t have email. We used postal mail and we liked it. :) Man, how technology has changed our life.
Seriously, Chris raises a good question. While many of us have the luxury of playing face-to-face, sometimes that’s not an option. Either travel costs are too much or quite simply, managers live on the other side of the country so travel isn’t even an option. So what does a general manager of an APBA league to do?
There are a couple options:
Skype (or other online audio/video voice and video service)
This is a favorite with the IAL when F-T-F isn’t possible (here’s a post about fellow IAL manager Tedd and I playing APBA over video Skype). When we need to play a series of games and can’t get together, the two of us meet virtually on Skype and can play that way. Sometimes we use the video feature, sometimes we don’t. It works real well for us and allows for the back and forth banter that occurs during a F-T-F series.
Over the phone
With cell phone plans, this is a realistic option especially if you can use a speakerphone. Believe it or not, we would occasionally do it in the old days with long distance charges and all. It was cheaper than making the trip.
Play by mail/email
To get to Chris’ original point, sometimes it works best to send instructions via email and have the opposing manager play a portion of the games. In the IAL, our series are broken up into home and away games. In these cases, the home manager simply plays his home games.
With no interaction from the visiting manager, there needs to be set of comprehensive instructions sent before the series so the home manager can play the team the best he can. This includes:
- A lineup (some will include separate lineups for different pitcher grades)
- A starting rotation
- Bullpen instructions (listing closer, mop-up man etc)
- offensive instructions (when to pinch hit, pinch run, hit and run etc)
- defensive instructions (when to play close, defensive substitutions)
And usually, the instructions end with “in other cases, use your best judgment”.
When the series is over, the stats are sent back to the opposing manager along with copies of the boxscore if possible.
I’ll be honest, the play by email method is not as popular in our league anymore. The prospect of playing against your opponent even if it’s online over Skype, is much more appealing. If we do play by email, we usually find a local person to help out by managing the team for them. It’s just more fun that way.
Anyway, that’s my take on it. I’m interested in how other league members do it. Thanks for the question, Chris!
Sometimes real life causes long time League Members to move away but they want to remain in the League…….one of the ways we play long distance is to utilize an online program called rolz which is a random dice roller program. Put the landline on speaker phone and you are good to go….both players can see the dice numbers on the screen.
Our league (TBL) uses the “play solitaire with email instructions” method, and it’s OK but not great. Instructions are hard to write and even harder to follow. I find myself second-guessing constantly, and it’s not a pleasant experience.
For my recent playoff series, we used the phone. An hour for a regular game. Somewhat longer for the 2 extra-inning affairs that were games 5 and 6. We have a mixed league – the opposing manager uses the computer game and described it over the phone. I use the boards, and we used a chatroom to “roll” the dice – if you’re in an AIM chat room and type “//roll”, a bot will generate a 2d6 result that you both can see.
This was much preferable to doing the series by mail.
I hold out hope for a fully internet-capable computer game. Other companies have this. APBA has never been able to make it work, though.