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Name: Doug Burg
League: Yesterday APBA Baseball League |
Doug Burg has a few good reasons to be known in the APBA community. One, he is the commissioner of the Yesterday APBA Baseball League. In its 11th year now, YABL is one of the premiere retro leagues out there. Doug is also known as the man who put together the famous APBA 12 Publication list. The “12 List” has been a quite indispensable resource for a lot of us APBA fans (I know I refer to it pretty much every week to properly identify cards for Monster Card Monday).
Doug was born and raised in Lancaster, PA, the original home of APBA. He now lives in nearby Willow Street, PA. A graduate of Penn State and University of Illinois, he now works as an organic chemist in the aerospace industry.
Thanks to Doug for answering a few questions!
The APBA Blog: How long have you played APBA? Do you remember how you got introduced to the game?
Doug Burg: I was introduced to APBA in high school. In speech class we had to do an instructional speech. One of the students showed this game, APBA Baseball, and described how to play it. Being a baseball fan I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I asked for it for Christmas and received the APBA Baseball game and the 1974 season card set. From there I found out that the game company was local and that a lot of my friends played it.
TAB: According to its website, the Yesterday APBA Baseball League is a “retro league that progresses backwards through history”. How exactly does that work? What are the major differences to a standard continuous ownership draft league?
DB: YABL is a continuous ownership draft league but we do go backwards. When I started the league in 2001 I was planning on starting in the early 1900’s to learn about baseball history. I wanted to avoid expansion and adding managers/teams so I figured expansion wouldn’t take place until I was gone. The manager that convinced me to start the league wanted to play in the ’50s so we compromised and started at 1959 and went backwards. That also meant we avoided/delayed the early 1900 seasons that APBA had not issued. If the league lasts it will run out around 1900 but that won’t be my problem. The backwards part just means we have "rookie" drafts where the players are drafted in the last season they played MLB instead of the first. Then their careers play in reverse. Not much different than a standard retro league we just have different rookie classes.
TAB: I read that YABL uses the ABNRML modified boards. What are the main differences in those boards and why did YABL decide to go with them?
DB: YABL doesn’t use the ABNRML boards. We use any APBA Company issued boards. The home manager decides which boards he wants to use for his home games but the same boards must be used for the entire season. I do have the ABNRML boards on the YABL website for download. The first mail league I played in was ABNRML (APBA Baseball Nostalgic Retro Mail League). Jack Downing was the founder and Commissioner and he created these boards specifically for the ABNRML. The boards incorporate parts of the master game and make fielding more important. There are added dice rolls. At the start of the game and when a relief pitcher enters the game you use his master game rating and roll to see what basic game grade he will pitch at. Pitchers can move up or down one letter grade depending on their master game grade. There are other dice rolls throughout the boards for fielding to better differentiate good and poor fielders. There is now an advantage to being a SS-10 instead of a 9 (better than fielding 1) and a disadvantage to being a SS-6 instead of a 7 (worse than fielding 3). The catcher’s rating is more important as base stealers can actually be thrown out on an 11 play result with a good fielding catcher. I played a 1975 Orioles replay and I used the ABNRML boards. It is the only replay I have conducted as I mostly play in draft leagues.
TAB: Your favorite players to manage?? I’ve asked this in other interviews but as a retro league manager, you’ll have some unique answers, I’ll bet.
DB: My favorite player to manage in YABL was Eddie Mathews. He never won an MVPlayer award but he did lead the Whomping Willows to two YABL Championships. He was my #1 pick in the initial stocking draft in 1959. He "retired" after the 1952 season (before 1951) as the leader of most of the Whomping Willows offensive categories. Yogi Berra is also a favorite. Yogi was my #2 pick in 1959. He always says the darndest things. With a few extra seasons to his career, Berra will pass Mathews in most team offensive categories.
TAB: You have been responsible for maintaining the famous APBA Card 12 Publication List. I can vouch that has been a great resource for APBA fans. It’s certainly handy for identifying older APBA cards quickly. How did that list come about? Do you get help from other APBA fans in getting data?
DB: I noticed that there were a few 12 lists out there. But they were not up to date. So I took one popular list and the list in Zack’s "The Handbook for APBA Baseball Cards", updated it, checked the list against the cards I owned, corrected a few mistakes, made the list available to anyone who wanted it and that is how I became the keeper of the 12 list. I used to buy all the card sets APBA issued so I just added the updated information when I bought the cards. I don’t buy every set any longer so if I don’t get a set then I ask on APBA Between The Lines for the information. I do have a source who sends me the 12 location, it seems, a few weeks before the disk is issued. He must have access to some inside information. The 12 list is a collaborative effort by the APBA community so it belongs to everyone. The YABL website I kept on Geocities had the up to date 12 list and the ABNRML boards for download. When Geocities closed I could no longer update the website or the 12 list kept there. I can’t delete the website either. So it is on cyberspace forever with old information. I now keep the up to date 12 list on an APBA Yahoo group site . It is under the miscellaneous files section, the file is APBACards2.xls. Or anyone can email me and I will send the up to date file to them. I can send the ABNRML boards on request also.
TAB: Willow Street Whomping Willows? That’s got to be on my top ten list of favorite APBA team names.
DB: The Whomping Willows comes from the Harry Potter Series of books/movies. There is a Whomping Willow tree at Hogwarts that thrashes its branches at those who approach it. I thought it would go well with Willow Street.
Doug also added:
“I am very interested in how and where Mr. Herson takes the APBA Game Company. He looks very hands on and interested in keeping the company moving forward. I think it is great that Mr. Herson has the goal in mind to have all baseball seasons carded by APBA available for customers to purchase. While I don’t play the computer baseball game, I do think it is a step in the right direction to have the game updated to work on current computer platforms which will allow for more game updates in the future. I am happy to see APBA in the hands of someone who wants to keep issuing the products that we APBA Fanatics love and crave so much.”
Thanks to Doug Burg for his time in answering these questions! It wasn’t until this interview did I realize that Doug was a fellow U of I alum. Small world!
There are several other APBA Fan Profiles that I’ve done in the past if you want to read them.
Nice profile Tom! And thank you, Doug, for providing us with the “12 List” over the years.
It has been greatly appreciated.
DOM IN NY
I’ll echo Dom’s sentiment. The 12 list has been very useful. Thanks Doug!
And go Illini! :)
I had the privilege of playing in a league run by Doug, after a number of years I could not continue because of some life events going on at the time. Class act and great commissioner. Still miss the YABL league.
Harry Nicholson