…and by ‘goodness’, I mean ‘confusing rules and regulations’.
Let me start by saying that unlike most league members, I generally like our Illowa APBA League meetings which happen once a year during the All-Star weekend. It’s the one time a year that we all talk as a group about the future of our league. We do it civilly and even try to follow Robert’s Rules of Order (second, anyone?).
This weekend, however, we have our work cut out for us. A lot of managers have made proposals via email and each one of those has been seconded by another.
If you’re wondering, there is no secret ballot in the Illowa APBA League. You raise your hand if you support the proposal.
Looking at the list, we have a total of 15 proposals to vote on. Many thanks to Dennis Jennings and Nick Tegeler for their work in making sense of these proposals and helping putting them in some organized fashion for the league.
Roster expansion
A few of them are conflicting proposals which will work themselves out. In short, we are voting on expanding our rosters which are currently at 30 players. How we exactly do that is up for vote.
There is a proposal which would expand rosters by one player, simple as that. Another is up for for vote which will expand the roster by five with a September call-up. Those two are the simplest forms.
Others are short-term solutions like expanding the rosters by five then cutting back after a year. No, I don’t like that one at all. Nothing like putting your fingers in your ears and saying ‘la-la-la’.
I will be voting to expand. My buddy Brando proposed to expand to 35 players some 10-15 years ago and was called a heretic. I was the only one who seconded his proposal.
More dice rolling
This year, a manager is proposing to use the Unusual Play Card and Error Chart again in the IAL. This was voted down many years ago because it was too much too much dice rolling and disrupted the flow of the game.
I agree with the sentiment of the UPC (i.e. the ‘funny number card’) and the Error Chart but one of the strengths of the APBA game engine is its rhythm. I honestly don’t know how I will vote for this. It’s not a deal breaker for me either way.
Put a guy on second
One proposal is to “Follow major league rules for extra innings.”. That is, “In all regular-season extra-inning games, a runner will be placed on second base to begin the 10th inning, and in every subsequent extra inning after that, until a winner is determined”.
I don’t like this MLB rule. But I will vote for this APBA league rule. Why? Our league uses MLB players and portends to be a “baseball league”. We can pretend the rule doesn’t exist but for how long?
I didn’t like the designated hitter but I knew our league had go to it once MLB adopted it. And you know what, it wasn’t horrible.
Other miscellaneous
A few other rule proposals made concerned playoff matters. I’ll leave that to those who know better. I’ll stay out of that fracas since they obviously don’t pertain to the Thunderchickens.
Some other proposals regard mundane matters such as the number of starting pitchers per series and who gets to name which team is home first.
My guess is that for all the trouble, only a few of the fifteen proposals will get passed but one of the roster expansion versions will be one of them.
Time will tell. Now, someone tell me how to vote!
Hi Tom,
Here are my thoughts on this. The one weekend event I really enjoyed was the all star weekend. Even though I usually lost most of my games, the energy level of the all star game was always an emotional boost, but the “owners meeting” was the real highlight. Watching the managers explain their thoughts sometimes allowed me to see how their team strategy worked, and I would occasionally implement that in my own way.
So, regarding expansion I would say without knowing what is driving this would say no, but based on what you have shared I would prefer the 1 player addition for now and see how it affects overall roster issues.
If it does not solve the issue with one player it is easier to expand to total of 5, and if it causes other problems is easier to fix
Error chart no. While I understand it provides more “randomness” to the craziness, in the end you are still dealing with a finite number of results, so to me it’s just a time drain for no real benefit.
Taxi runner HELL NO. Just because the MLB commissioner hates baseball there is no need for your league to follow suit. As someone who hates the DH, and called the NL implementing it 3 years in advance I voted for it because it would benefit league hitting, which is very suppressed overall.
I would suggest in place of this perhaps implementing the Chicagoland tournament rule of after 10 innings all pitchers are D with no letters.
The “callup” proposal. No. While this sounds great in general, and allows a borderline team to fix the one issue keeping them out of contention, how will this affect rookie status if chosen? Do all players go back into the pile of cards next season?
The league misses you Scott! You have all the answers. :)
Tom,
Thank you for saying this, but if I had all the answers I would have finished better in the standings over my time in the league. Even though others may or may not agree with me, I enjoy the fact that even without saying it they are following the old APBA motto.
“You are the manager”. Play how you want. I don’t remember the exact quote, but I hope this is close.
On unusual play and error card: no one has a big problem rolling again with double columns and the UP and error probably happens less often. What value is it – stops lineup construction impacted by these numbers. Firstbasemen have led off more often in ILLOWA than in majors, and those are ugly funny numbers on SS if they are a power hitter you’d like to hit in the middle of lineup. Remember when SS never would be considered for batting 3rd or 4th.
Uh oh, league members are reading this ;)
I know one person who had a problem rolling again but he’s not in the league anymore so that’s not so much an issue.