From left to right: Steve Stein, Thomas Nelshoppen, Walter Hunt, and Bob Jordan
This has been a busy week in the APBA community (and I will get that soon) but let me tell you about fun meeting I had last week. My wife and I took our daughter to her new college in Massachusetts for freshman orientation. From Illinois to New England, it was a fun vacation but it definitely had it definite purpose for an important person in my life.
For one night though, APBA took center stage.
Last Thursday, my wife and I had the chance to meet three members of the Transcontinental Baseball League. Steve Stein helped set up at a local restaurant. We had a chance to meet Steve, Walter Hunt and Bob Jordan. As it turns out, a couple of the guys live very close to where my daughter will be going to college!
Steve Stein is holding a printed TBL Annual.
First, a quick word about Steve Stein: Many of you know Steve as the brains behind Steve’s APBA Card Computer website. I know many APBA baseball fans hail that tool as a great indicator of how cards will turn out. For me, Steve Stein is one of two people who followed the APBA Blog from the very start (if you’re wondering, Don Smith was the other). I took the time to thank Steve for that. As I told him, those early pre-2010 years were pretty lean and without direction and he (and Don) stuck with it.
Bob Jordan and I showed up at the restaurant at the same time. Bob and I have never met and I don’t think we have had too much online interaction. Bob had a Texas Rangers cap on so I took a gamble that it was him. “Bob?” “Yeah!” Once we were seated, we were chatting away as if we knew each other for years.
Of course, I showed Bob my current Twin City Thunderchickens team while ranting about J.D. Martinez’ performance this year. We talked about the Transcontinental Baseball League setup (24 teams in six divisions using basic game) compared to the Illowa APBA League (10 team in one division using basic game). Bob is somewhat new to the league compared to others who have been in for 30- odd years. One topic that was brought up was the existence of rules in the TBL constitution that were instituted to address a specific situation. I told him we had a couple of those rules too.
By then Steve had arrived so I got a chance to look at the Northboro Phoenix APBA cards and stats. Bob and Steve co-manage the Phoenix which happen to be in first place this year. Since TBL managers are all over US, they use what we used to call a mail league system. Game-playing instructions are presumably sent via email rather postal mail like the old days. Steve showed me a template for the Northboro instructions which are used by the opposing team’s manager. At four pages long, they were very complete.
Bob Jordan and Walter Hunt, editors of the TBL Annual.
Walter Hunt arrived then. Walter is editor of the very comprehensive TBL Annual and assisted by Bob. If you want to get an idea of how to do league documentation right, take a look at their latest Annual. According to both Bob and Walter, it is a lot of work not only because of the sheer size of the project but because it requires input from all of the managers. Steve emphasized that there are a few professional writers in the TBL. Walt is a science fiction writer (read my APBA Fan Profile of Walt done way back in 2011) and Bob is a technical writer. Technically speaking, Steve is a writer as he a retired programmer. Of course, even though he is retired, Steve maintains Steve’s APBA Card Computer as well as TBL’s extensive stats database (which Bob raved about). Programmers never retire, they just find more projects to work on.
There was a lot of free-flowing discussion of league histories (don’t worry, IAL… your secrets are safe with me). I was interested in how the TBL conducted their drafts. Despite managers living on the East Coast, West Coast and the Midwest, they still hold an in-person draft.
Walt, Bob and Steve, I want to thank you for all your time. It was great to meet you! My wife who joined us later found you to be very fun and interesting people. Thank you for paper copy of the 2018 Annual, Walt! Also, my wife thanks you for the autographed copy of Elements of Mind. She’s looking forward to reading it!
Now that my daughter will be going to college in Massachusetts, I will have no excuse to bring my boards and dice!
Interesting photo. I’m connected to both you, Tom, and Steve via FB and the APBA group. And could that be the Bob Jordan who was in the same chess club as me in the 1980s? Very small world.
Great read.
Hold on a sec! You drove right through O.Z. League territory??
You must make a stop and meet some of us next time. We want an equal opportunity!
LOL….maybe this is the start of the APBA Blog APBANation Tour!!!
DOM IN NY
We actually play Master Game with our own pitching grade system, and computer game for some managers.
As TBL’s oldest/founding member, I love the article! Glad all you guys got to get together! (And I will vouch for the writing skills of all involved. :-) )
One minor correction, though – TBL does not play the basic game. We have a set of rules that provides for the home owner to use whichever he prefers of the Master Game (with some modifications, notably we calculate our own pitching grades and use the CMBA control/homer system) or computer game (disk gets modified to have the same pitcher grades as we compute for the MG, but obviously does not use the CMBA system). .
Because of a reference in the APBA Blog I “discovered” TBL’s Annuals, which I have used as the basis for a number conference presentations, including this year SABR convention.
They are fun to read and provide a wealth of information.