Volume 1, Issue 21 - April 3, 2018

[APBA GO Jeremy]

Good evening,

Is Philly now the city of Champions? Are the Flyers the favorite to win the Stanley Cup? Congratulations to Villanova. If the NCAA knew how to seed teams, it might have been their third consecutive championship.

Here is a link to an opening day quiz hosted by George Will. The leader in the clubhouse has 25 correct answers. If you beat 25 send us an email at custsupp@apbagames.com. We will announce the high scorer in next week’s newsletter.

The football game now includes the 2017 Super Bowl teams and the National Championship teams. Here is the roster for the four teams in the 2017 football game set.

The 2017 College football have fifty players per team.

New items:
Now available the 1970-71 NHL season!
Bring home the 2017 Alabama and Georgia teams here.

Register for the 2018 APBA Convention here. Please include your shirt size on your order.

The 2017 Super Bowl card set is now available. Get these two teams here!

Looking for 2017 Baseball transactions?
These are the instruction to the join the Yahoo transactions group. Thank you John Kalous.

1. Open your browser and type in www.yahoogroups.com to go to the website

2. In the search box, type ATMgr and hit search

3. That will bring up the group page and you can simply hit the Join Group button

4. If you don’t already have a yahoo sign in, you will need to create one.

5. Once you have created a new yahoo ID, or signed in to an existing account, you will be asked to provide some additional information which will come to me for approval. The approval is necessary so that we can try to avoid spammers joining the group.

6. The approval process may take one to two days and rarely (like when yahoo doesn’t notify me that you have applied for membership) even longer than that.

7. In the files section you will find the transaction and lineup files. Download the file of the season you want and extract it to the directory of your choosing. Open Excel and locate the file you want to open. AnnTran.ATM contains the transactions and AnnTran.LUF contains the lineup files for that season. You will want to set your file type to “All Files” to locate them as Excel will not normally recognize those file extensions.

8. Excel will bring up the “Text Import Wizard” to allow us properly format the file for Excel. Click “Delimited” then Next. In the next window, uncheck the box for “Tab” and select the box for “Comma” (you should see the data in the data preview panel line up by columns) and click Next. The last screen of the wizard allows you to set formatting for each column. I don’t normally mess with this, so I just click Finish. Your data is now in Excel.

9. There is one thing left to do. You will notice the TRANDATE0 column (Column A) has numbers and not dates (the same with the ACTDATE0 column, which is Column E). We need to convert these to real dates. Place your cursor on Column B and right click to insert a column. Do the same for Column G. For 2017 we know opening day was April 2, 2017, so type that date in cell L1 (for other years, the date of Opening Day will be different, you should be able to find it on baseball-reference for the season of choice) .In cell B2 type the following formula =a2+$L$1. Click enter and you will hopefully see the date of 4/2/2017. If not you will need to format cell B2 to the date format. Right click on cell B2 and select Format cells. Select date in the left hand column and the date format you wish to use in the right hand side. Click OK and you should definitely see a date in there! Copy/paste the formula in cell B2 all the way down to the last transaction. Now type the formula =f2+$L$1 into cell G2, format the date if necessary and then copy/paste that formula all the way down.

NEW MEMBERS TO THE APBA COMMUNITY
Please welcome the following new members to the APBA community. New members are folks who have recently made their first purchase of APBA products. If you know them or live in the same area, please reach out to them.

JEFF STOOKSBURY KNOXVILLE, TN
MARK DAAK HUTCHINSON, MN
DAVID SOBEL SPRING VALLEY, NY
JOHN LARA MADERA, CA
JEREMY ZOLLMAN EUGENE, OR
ROY KISSEL LA GRANGE, IL
MICHAEL FITZGERALD BROCKTON, MA
DALE HUFFINE SURPRISE, AZ
JACK GLAVOSEK ALPHARETTA, GA
Mike Koscal, Las Vegas
CARL BRAUER PRINCETON, NJ
JAMES KILEY WAKEFIELD, MA
DONALD MCCOWN CHICAGO, IL
GERALD SEAT EUGENE, OR
ANDREW LUCKHAUPT WEST CHESTER, OH
TIMOTHY OTIS SANTA TERESA, NM
DAVID TROHOSKE ERIE, PA
WESLEY MCKINNEY LILBURN, GA
JEFF RANDOLPH FRANKLIN, IN

Several of you have asked for the new members contact info. In this day and age, we can’t do that. But we will send your contact information to them if you ask us to. Please identify the name of the person you want us to send your contact info.

THIS WEEK IN APBA (“TWIA”) RADIO SHOW
APBA has began to sponsor a weekly broadcast offering insights into the game of APBA and players within the APBA community. The host is John Asalon who offers a extremely professional broadcast. Please join John Asalon and his guests every Thursday night at 8:00 pm (Eastern) for THIS WEEK IN APBA radio show.
John’s guests this week are: Woody Studenmund, long time member of the APBA community.

Listen to the Thursday April 5th show here.

Here is the tentative TWIA schedule for April:
April 12th - Fritz Light.

Check the archives below the large screen on the first page of the above link for earlier broadcasts.
We are exploring podcast options for TWIA.

APBA GO
APBA GO NOW HAS A SOLITAIRE PLAY FEATURE.
Check APBA GO out here. Its free!

You can know purchase single teams for APBA GO! Check out the 2018 APBA GO contest. Run don’t walk over to APBA GO now.

Last Thursday APBA GO Upgrade 1.8 was released. Here are the highlights.

User Forums Launched

• Individuals with a free APBA GO account can now post in the new user forums; anyone should be able to read content
  Forum categories include APBA GO baseball, APBA board games, Baseball for Windows, This Week in APBA (podcast) and general APBA news
• Expect more content in the coming days/weeks

Custom, Savable Lineups

• It’s now possible to save a lineup you create during the pre-game steps. It will be available for selection the next time you play that team
• You get two custom lineups for free; for more, you must purchase the Unlimited Unlock in the store
• Users who previously purchased the Unlimited Collections Unlock, immediately have access to unlimited custom lineups
• Custom lineups can be deleted in the ‘My Addons’ page, on the Lineups tab

Gift Certificates

• Gift certificates are now available for sale in the store ($25 - $500 denominations)
• Yes, they’ve been there for a while - why not give a friend the gift of APBA GO Baseball seasons or teams?
  Single Team Sales
• Users can now purchase single teams for most seasons
• The price is $3 per team in most cases

Bug Fixes

• Internet Explorer users should find they can access Game History and other pages
• Solitaire games can once again be deleted
• Updated the loading graphic on the in-game interface
• UI Fixes (some tables)

Optimizations

• Reworked the PayPal purchase flow to reduce the chance for errors
• Introduced some in-game server/client communication speed improvements
• Reworked client/server polling to reduce load

TOURNAMENT AND LEAGUE NEWS

REGIONAL TOURNAMENT REPORT
The latest APBA Go Tournament held March 23 - April 1 was a double-elimination format that featured 20 players with a theme "World Series Runners-Up from 1960-2017. There were several new players in this tournament that joined veterans.

The eventual tournament champion was the 1963 Yankees managed by Jay Demarest. The Yankees went undefeated in five games, eventually winning over the '85 Cardinals and Manager Dave Druk. The Red Birds finished with a 5-2 tournament record.

The championship game was a classic as the Yankees grabbed a 7-6 victory. Tied 6-6, Bobby Richardson started the bottom of the ninth with a double and Mickey Mantle was intentionally walked. Roger Maris hit a deep fly that enabled both Richardson and Mantle to move up 90 feet. The Cards decided to pitch to Elston Howard with Joe Pepitone on deck, and the catcher laid down a perfect squeeze bunt and Richardson raced home with the tournament title. Al Downing in relief was the winning pitcher and reliever Jeff Lahti took the loss.

The tournament was again coordinated by Percy Ashcraft from Prince George, VA. This was his 7th APBA Go Tournament and the first won by Demarest. A different manager has won every tournament dating back to the end of 2016.

This week we added another first-time tournament. The Inaugural Furniture City APBA Baseball Tournament, Grand Rapids, Michigan will be held on Saturday November 3, 2018 at Legends Sports & Games in the CenterPoint Mall on 28th St. SE. Contact GF Korreck at gfk1949@yahoo.com for more details. The next scheduled tournament is The Twin Cities APBA Baseball Tournament in Maple Grove, Minnesota on Saturday April 7th.

The 2018 APBA Regional Tournament schedule is as follows. Please Mark your calendars accordingly and be sure to attend and participate in one of these fine events. You will not regret the experience of brotherhood and gaming experience.

Saturday April 7, 2018 - The Twin Cities APBA Baseball Tournament, Maple Grove, Minnesota. Contact Jim Fraasch at jwfraasch@mchsi.com.

Saturday April 14, 2018 - The Old Dominion APBA Baseball Tournament, Richmond, Virginia. Contact Jim Saska at jamessaska@gmail.com.

Saturday April 14, 2018 - Florida’s Spring Break From Reality APBA Baseball Tournament, Davenport, Florida (Denny’s in Davenport). The theme is Happy Days … teams from the 1950s and 1960s. Contact Tony Stevens at (352) 600-0974 or at AandTStevens@gmail.com

Saturday April 28, 2018 - The Prairieland III APBA Baseball Tournament, Springfield, Illinois (Ramada Inn, 3281 Northfield Drive). The theme is The Golden Years 1920-1960’s (No W.S. teams or 1941 Red Sox). Contact Tom Nelshoppen at nelshopp@gmail.com or register on-line at www.apbablog.com.

Saturday July 7, 2018 - The 4th Annual Linda B. Schulz Memorial APBA Baseball Tournament, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Contact Ken Schulz at schulzka02@gmail.com.

Saturday, July 14, 2018 - The Chicagoland Summer APBA Baseball Tournament, Des Plainies, Illinois (at the Comfort Inn O’Hare in Des Plainies, IL). Contact Rob Spatz at robspatz@gmaill.com.

Saturday, July 21, 2018 - The Second Annual Lancaster World Series , Landisville , Pennsylvania. Contact Dale Shreiner at dashreiner@gmail.com.

Friday through Sunday August 17-19, 2018 - Las Vegas APBA Tournament, Las Vegas, Nevada. The site will be the Flamingo Hotel. Contact Chris White at CWHITESPORTS@YAHOO.COM.

Saturday August 25, 2018 - 4th Toledo Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament, Toledo, Ohio. Contact Ron Emch at rjce@emcher.com

Saturday October 6, 2018 - The Twin Cities APBA Baseball Tournament, Maple Grove, Minnesota. Contact Jim Fraasch at jwfraasch@mchsi.com.

Saturday November 3, 2018 - Inaugural Furniture City APBA Baseball Tournament, Grand Rapids, Michigan (Legends Sports & Games, CenterPoint Mall on 28th St. SE). Contact GF Korreck at gfk1949@yahoo.com.

If your tournament is not mentioned above and you are planning a Regional APBA Tournament in 2018 please forward me your tournament and contact information at apba66nyslp@yahoo.com and I will be sure to promote your event in APBA’s company electronic newsletter. Remember all APBA game tournaments are welcome.

THIS WEEK IN APBA RADIO SHOW
APBA has began to sponsor a weekly broadcast offering insights into the game of APBA and players within the APBA community. The host is John Asalon who offers a extremely professional broadcast. Please join John Asalon and his guests every Thursday night at 8:00 pm (Eastern) for THIS WEEK IN APBA radio show. This past weeks guest was Scott Lehotsky. Scott discussed his 1994 documentary film “Of Dice and Men” as well as his association with many of the household names who built the APBA Game Company.

Scott an APBA Hall of Famer and APBA Journal writer began playing APBA like many of us first being introduced to the game by a neighbor at 11 years old. Scott played both football and baseball during his youth. He grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. His father worked for the Little League which exposed Scott to such players as Don Sutton and Davey Lopes. But he was younger than his brother who met the likes of Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio. In the early 1990’s, Scott approached the APBA Game Company and Fritz Light about producing a documentary film on the APBA Game Company. Fritz agreed and Scott began his labor of love to produce the film. Scott had 75-80 hours of film which he then had to edit to the final version of the documentary. Upon initial offering in the APBA catalog he sold approximately 200 copies of the film. Total film sales were approximately 1000 copies. Today the film can be accessed free at the zackapbahandbook.org website. The film featured the likes of the Gaydos brothers, Carr, Lincoln, Light, Langhans, Woodward, Studenmund, and Eisenhower. Scott wished to thank Fritz Light for giving this project the green light.

Scott also spoke of Dick Seitz and his guarded, intimidating, and even sometimes soft personality. Scott noted that the interview of Dick Seitz by Rod McLeod opened many insights into Seitz and his legendary game, marketing thereof, and The APBA Game Company. Scott also stated that John Herson was doing a great job of expanding game company offerings ( Soccer game, Basic/Master Baseball seasons, APBA Go, etc) and has revived the game company. Scott then turned his thoughts to Veryl Lincoln who he considered the Face of the APBA Game Company. He spoke of their annual trip (along with Carr and Langhans) to a baseball game and the fact that Veryl left his collection to Scott in his will. Scott said he auctioned the collection making an estimated $10,000. Donations in Veryl’s name were made to The Yogi Berra Museum, The Jimmy Fund, The Pat Tillman Foundation to mention a few. He stated that the legend of such a fine man was preserved in this fashion. Scott closed by thanking John Asalon for the opportunity to share his APBA stories with his audience.

John’s Asalon’s scheduled guest for the April 5th live show is Woody Studenmund. Woody will discuss his collection of APBA rarities and his life long interest in APBA. Be sure to tune in for this discussion and other current APBA topics.

APBA LEAGUE INFORMATION

I am pleased to report that this column continues to assist leagues in finding new managers and pairing individuals looking for leagues. Beginning in January 2018 and to better manager newsletter volume, I will run any of your league opening or requests to join leagues for a period of four or five weeks. I will be glad to run them longer if you contact me at apba66nyslp@yahoo.com. Openings or individuals looking to join leagues are as follows this week:

March 11th, 18th, and 25th and April 1st Openings

No openings these weeks. C’mon boys someone has to be looking for a new league member, but then again I realize that leagues are now underway.

March 4th Openings

O.Z. League Opening - The O.Z. League, an APBA Baseball group created in 1982, is looking for a N.J. addition to their league. They currently have 12 teams of which 3 hail from Jersey so getting another would give them the opportunity to create a N.J. Division. They play a mixture of BBW, MG, and the hybrid Paul Marino Boards. They were featured in the N.Y. Daily News in 1988 and play 162 games from February to October. Their draft is held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Ronkonkoma every February. If you are interested send an e-mail to Dom at NYAPBA@yahoo.com.

Louisiana/Mississippi League Formation - David is interested in reaching out to all members in Southeast Louisiana, Southern Mississippi to arrange a face to face conference for the purpose of exchanging ideas and perhaps forming a league or tournament in the area or possibly even forming an online league. If interested contact David Carry at dcarry1@cox.net.

ABL League Opening - The American Baseball League (ABL) is looking to add one or two managers for their 2018 season. The ABL has been in existence since 1982. It is a face-to-face basic game (w/ modifications) league. If you live in the Butler County, Ohio area and are interested, send an e-mail to gregsch4867@gmail.com.

League Openings - The Cal Ripken Junior League which is AIM playing the 2015 season and The Kirby Puckett Memorial League playing 2014 season has openings. If interested contact Gene at apbagene@yahoo.com.

Roger Lawson Memorial League - The RLML, a well-run 20 team BBW AIM league, has two openings. Both teams are in pretty decent shape, unlike most orphaned teams. The league draft is starting next week, so email commish Rick at rdmull_33@yahoo.com if interested.

February 25th Openings

APBA MLB Opening - APBA MLB (BBW, 14 teams, continuous ownership, currently 2017 disk) is looking for a manager in their 13th season. They play from April through October. The Annual Draft also includes players who changed leagues in the previous major league season, such as J.D. Martinez and Yu Darvish this past season. They limit position players to actual games played and pitchers to innings and starts. The league plays a 162 game season with DH, 40 man rosters, 7 team American League, 7 team National League, and interleague play. Please e-mail Duane at cub23@comcast.net for a rules page or questions. The league is very well organized and operated and has very good people involved, some of them friends for 35+ years.

Canadian Player Expressing Tournament Interest - Alan Lipman from Toronto, Ontario, Canada has been playing APBA Baseball for over 40 years and would be interested in playing in a local tournament. If any area tournament offerings please contact Alan at alanb.lipman@yahoo.com.

February 18th Openings

The International Master APBA League Opening - The IMAL, in it’s 7th season, is looking for a manager of their 2017 Championship winning team. The league is a C&D based league, there are only 8 teams in the league. Most of the members are living in Southern California and play some of their games FTF. The IMAL uses the Master Game with modifications and the CMBA Pitching System. They have a 108 game schedule. This year’s draft starts in March and the season around the beginning of April. They only use the 30-man National League rosters from the current APBA season. There is a 3-tier draft, Auction (player’s coming from the AL), Free Agent, and finally a Waiver Draft. If interested or for more information, please contact David Breeden at davidbreeden13@yahoo.com.

February 11th Openings

BBW League Openings - This BBW league has two manager openings in their 14 team, continuous ownership BBW league that is in it’s 13th year. One of the teams has the first overall pick in the draft on Saturday, February 17. Great league, great members, and great rules. Some of the members have been together in leagues since 1980. Please contact Duane at cub23@comcast.net with interest and/or questions and he will send you a copy of their league rules.

February 4th Openings

Mid-West Winter League Opening - The Mid-West Winter League is looking for a replacement expansion owner. The MWWL is finishing up the 1993 season and will have an Expansion Draft prior to our 1994 Season in early March. The MWWL will be adding 4 franchises to a now 20 team League - to bring us up to 24 Teams total. One of the expansion owners had some life commitments arise. If interested contact Stray Corrado at straycorrado@gmail.com.

The Internet Computer Baseball League Opening - The ICBL has openings for two (2) managers. The ICBL, established in 1989, is an in-season, 24 team league divided into the National League (NO DH) and the American League (DH) using BBW 5.75 and AIM. Team roster size is limited to 34 carded players and 6 prospects. At this time both openings are in the American League. If interested, please contact Brian Devine at brianrdevine23@gmail.com with your league/game experience and general knowledge of the game.

I trust this column is continuing to bring many APBA players together be it in regional tournaments or league play. Everyone have a great APBA week.

2018 APBA CONVENTION SCHEDULE
This is the tentative schedule for the 2018 APBA Convention at Alpharetta Georgia starting on Thursday June 21st ending on Sunday June 24th.

Before the actual convention starts, the opening rounds of the football, hockey and soccer tournaments will be played. In addition, the opening rounds of the Negro League Baseball APBA GO tournament will be played. Rules for the Negro League tournament will be forthcoming. This tournament is limited to 20 (twenty managers) Teams will be randomly assigned. It is not a requirement but I would like to have the managers of the teams in the semi-finals in Alpharetta for the semis and finals.

You can registered by sending an email to custsupp@apbagames.com expressing your interest to manage a team. The first twenty emails received get a team.

Thursday June 21st
(all activities are the Hilton Garden hotel unless indicated otherwise)
MORNING
10:00 am Unveiling of the new APBA Games website

11:00 am Finals of the Negro League Baseball APBA GO tournament.

AFTERNOON 1:30 - 5:00 Game demonstrations (small group demonstrations on how to play APBA Football, Soccer, Golf, Hockey and APBA GO). These sessions will repeat at 2:45 and 4:00. Each session is one hour. Get an up-close tutorial on these other games. Expand your APBA experience.

EVENING
7:00 A NIGHT AT THE RACES.
Using the APBA Horse Racing game, we are having a night at the races. This will a multi-race card with the final race - a race of the evenings winners.
Sometime on Thursday we will record an APBA Roundtable discussion for This Week in APBA (TWIA).

Friday June 22nd
MORNING
9:00 Opening welcome
9:30 to 11:30 Innovation sessions
11:30 to 1:30 last chance to register at the APBA offices and purchase product.

AFTERNOON
1:30 to 3:30 FIFTH ANNUAL APBA HOME RUN DERBY

4:00 to 5:00 Questions and answers

The par three golf tournament runs from 9 am to 4 pm on Friday. Golfers will be provided for you. I encourage everyone to play in this tournament.

EVENING
6:30-8:00 Dinner including awards ceremony hosted by Greg Wells.
Discussion of the baseball tournament rules.
Submit teams and rosters to tournament director by 9:00

The restrictions on pre-1950 teams has been lifted for this year. Thank you Paul.

Saturday June 23rd
9:00 am to ? APBA Baseball tournament. Completion of pool play and best of three quarterfinals. Each team plays ten games of pool play. Teams are assigned to a team randomly.

Saturday lunch is included in your convention fee.

Sunday June 24th
Morning
Semi-finals and Finals.
Trophy presentation
Safe travels home.

How much is all this fun going to cost? Don’t know yet. I’m still waiting for the hotel to finalize its cost. They have promised me it will be this week. Check the store for more information. Your fee includes the convention T-shirt, Friday dinner and Saturday lunch and four days of conference rooms for us.

If you have never been to a convention, check us out. You can come just for Thursday for the tutorials at no charge.

You can also attended the Friday sessions. We will offer a Friday night dinner only option. That price will be announced at the same time as the convention price.

People tell me I don’t know if I’m good enough. All these folks are better players than me. Nonsense. One of the managers, last year only owned the four teams that came with the basic game. He is coming back.

There were several young boys, pre-teens, the defending home run champ is ten years old.

There are women managers. One made it to the semi-finals last year. One manager’s new wife played her first APBA baseball game at the tournament last year.

If you have an interest in APBA, come to Alpharetta. Renew old friendships. Make new friends. This is a family reunion with people you like. You will not be sorry that you came.