Strat-o-Musings
Michael J. Rivet, Jr.
February 9, 2001
In
the beginning . . .
In
the summers of 1988 and 1989 I was working for the New York State Department of
Education in the Teacher's Certification section. My job was to take paper folders
and file them in with row upon row of other paper folders, all containing the
certification paperwork of some public school teacher. Somewhere, today there
may be still a file with my name and social security number on it in those
files. Obviously, this job took very little brain power, but it paid $8 an
hour. It was a made up job to give college students some money for school. This
is where I met my friend Josh Raup (you may notice his by-line elsewhere). I
can't say this is when he introduced me to Strato but thinking back on it I do
remember him bring in the cards one day (though maybe it was the football
game.) But that doesn't matter.
After
my ignominious career at Alfred University had ended, I ran into Josh again at
a convention and found we both had an interest in gaming of all sorts. We tried
forming a fantasy baseball league on a local BBS (remember those??). We
finished the season but our other owners didn't seem to get it nor participate
enough. Then we did play-by-mail baseball. You used to be able to send away to
be people who created sims and then you paid to play home games. The league was
mostly populated by kids who could only afford a couple a games every two
weeks. I remember one season I played 80 games, dominated my division, and then
lost to a wild card team 1-0 and was out of the playoffs. Oh, we even did
hockey and I still have the trophy to prove it (I won the league that cycle).
Anyway,
this whole time Josh was in the Boston SOM League and finally by 1993 I had
bugged him enough and the guys had decided to add a team to even out to 8
teams. And so the Phantoms were born. Back then they were based in Glens Falls
and then I renamed them Adirondack. In 1997, they had been losing so much I
moved them to Seattle to stay.
I
was so bad the first year I didn't even finish the season. I drafted lousy
(though I didn't know it at the time) and had a lot of stiffs and no prospects.
Anyway, I still have Doug Henry from my original expansion draft. And the guys
were nice enough to let me get Don Mattingly my favorite player at the time.
After proving the Fantasy Baseball drafting strategies don't translate well
into SOM, I went on to a 36-107 record. 1995 wasn't a whole lot better and in
1996 I went 50-112.
In
1997 or 1998 I was told of a new league forming by Phil Trygar and Alan May
(whose by-lines you also see elsewhere) and knew this was the perfect
opportunity to prove that I knew what I was doing. Being able to start from
scratch, on even ground, with 3 seasons of hard won experience under my belt, I
jumped at the chance. And so the Troy Haymakers were born. A poor second half
doomed their first season and then computer problems forced them to be
autoplayed by the Commissioner (Phil Trygar at the time) in the second half
(again.) In 2000, we kept it together, had the best record in the league and
made the playoffs. Though we lost 4-0.
Meanwhile,
Dave Amori, Jr had joined the Coastal Strat League, and by the spring of 2000
decided he wanted to for an "All-Star" League and I was one of the first
invited. I agreed as long as I had permanent rights to the city of Albany. And
so the Albany Senators were formed.
On
the naming of my teams . . .
The
Phantoms are a carryover from my days when I owned Earl Weaver Baseball for the
old Commodore Amiga computer. I loved that game. It had a great manager and was
a really good replay of the season, very similar to the SOM computer game.
The
Albany Senators played in the Double-A Eastern League back in the 50's and
60's.
And
the Troy Haymakers, are still an honorary member of the National League and
live on as the San Fransisco Giants. The City of Troy maintains a webpage
dedicated to them plus there is a monument in the city commemorating the team
and HOFers from the area.
On
the Choosing of Topics . . .
Phil
will tell you I can go on Ad Nausium on any subject. So don't be too surprised
at what ends up in future articles or how irregular they come out.
Future
articles will continue my experiences with Strat-O-Matic baseball (I was beaten
8-5 using the 1993 Yankees vs. 1993 The Phillies in the first game I ever
played.) Or, maybe something on how I've never actually beaten Josh in a
face-to-face game. So, meet me here next time when I discuss "Lunch Time
Strato" and the art of trash talking with people you only know on the
internet.
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