Strat-o-Musings
Michael J.
Rivet, Jr.
August, 2001
“ At the Ballpark . . . “
Recently, my father picked me up from
work and surprised me by bringing me to a ballgame. The area has long since lost their double-A ballclub The Albany-Colonie
Yankees which became the Norfolk Navigators.
Heritage Park, once a gem of the Eastern League, no longer met MLB’s
standards for AA and only held 5,000 (if you were generous with the count.) Right after the strike of 1994 (boo! hiss!)
minor leagues and independent leagues had a resurgence from the fans. The Northeast League put several franchises
in New York State including Albany, NY and Glens Falls, NY. Glens Falls used to be home to the “GlenSox”
and, in the end, the Tigers. The two cities
always battled it out year in and year out.
Even in hockey when Glens Falls had a Red Wings (AHL) franchise. River Rat/Red Wings games were wars. So were Yankees/White Sox games.
I
still have fond of East Field (it wasn’t east of anything – it was on East
Road) though it was little more than a patch of grass surrounded by a chain
link fence and some bleachers. My Dad
brought me to many games for three seasons until the A-C Yankees (originally
the A’s) came to Albany. They first
played in Bleecker Stadium – used by local colleges and the city high school
clubs for playoffs – until Heritage Park was built near the airport on land
owned by Shakers. My Dad still has the
programs – filled with autographs – from all four clubs. We’ve seen Ricky Henderson, Dave Drabeck,
Pat Kelly, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, and my personal all-time,
minor-league favorite Ron Kittle. He
hit 50 homers in a single minor-league season before moving up to the White Sox
and then the Yankees.
As I was saying my Dad brought me to
the park. Only now it was the
Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs of the Northern League (the Northern and Northeast
Leagues merge a few seasons back.) The
team is locally owned (the owner greets fans on the way out thanking them for
coming). They’ve put in some new seats
and make it real affordable for families.
A friend of my father’s from work participated (and won) one of the
between innings promotions. We hadn’t
seen a game for a few years – the last time his Dad came along as well – what
with family life and all. My Dad is
finally retiring after thirty-five years so I guess he’s been thinking about
finally enjoying life. We had a great
time catching-up, sitting in the second row behind the back-stop (I love
yelling at the umps!) A game that started
as a pitcher’s duel erupted in the fourth when A-C scored 6. They went on to beat the Allentown
Ambassadors 12-2. There was about 3,000
in the park (it was cub scout night) and they went nuts every time their heroes
rallied. For me and my Dad it was
memories to hold onto for a long time.
I can’t wait to do it again.
“Fame, Fortune and Snake-eyes . .
. “
As easily as a season starts out
quickly and tides of fortune can wash back out to sea. My most successful club was in the middle of
it’s gargantuan task of repeating their best season (91-70). At four games over .500 in mid-season they
were looking to capture the division title (we were tied for second.) They’d been having a weird season and it
only got more exaggerated as the season went on. I was also trying out Net-Play at the time and it made for a real
tough series of games. Also, the league
has a schedule were I played the same three teams for 48 games in the middle of
the season. Anyway, by the 104th
games I was 2 games under .500.
I’ve always thought the greatest
weakness of SOM PBM leagues was the poor road records. It always seemed an inherit weakness of the
system. Net-Play and the “league lock”
feature has gone a long way to evening things out. What I’ve found out is that All-star style leagues breed teams
that are built for their parks and just dominate at home. Also, a lot of owners are still struggling
with the Super Hall bullpen logic. This season however we began the process of expansion
and it has made the pitching stronger.
Now my teams has the best road record but the worst home record. I play in Qualcomm Park and I just can’t
score at home. Normally, the best road
record would lead me to the playoffs.
Combined with the worse home record it finds me dangerously close to
last.
Strat-o-matic is first and foremost a
game of dice rolling. All strategy can
do is put you in a position to succeed not guarantee it. Of course, drafting the right cards will
give you more options. I believe the
most important thing is to get the players that can perform with your
style. Acquiring great players only
happens so often though I have seen teams that operate on autopilot. At any
time your luck can just run out – especially with bullpens. I wish I could say a team can go on a hot
streak as I’ve never been on one. My
advice: find a pair of dice you like.
It all comes back to the art of the
deal. MLB has seen a lot of trades
comeing up to the trading dead-line.
Good players move from poor teams to contenders. My favorite deals? In the AL it was Jermaine Dye moving to Oakland. The A’s were the AL’s most exciting team
last year and now with their young pitchers finally performing, an exciting
player like Dye will push that team towards the wild card. And if it doesn’t? They are gonna break some hearts along the way. Damon and Dye in
the same outfield is awesome. It also
gives the A’s something to hold onto if Damon walks in his free-agent year. It
also gives them someone to talk Damon into staying. In the NL it was McGriff (finally!) going to the Cubs. Over the next month, either Sosa or McGriff
is gonna explode. Sosa will have to be
pitched to and if not, McGriff could feast until the end of the season. And the Cubs have some good pitching of
their own. Man, I can’t wait to see
what the play-offs bring: Ichiro, Clemens and Sosa, oh my!
In SOM it’s just as important to
evaluate your team and go out and make that deal that will bring on the
playoffs and hopefully a championship. This has as much to do with the depth of your club as how much you
are willing to mortgage the future. As
I was mentioning earlier, my club is in an expansion year. I didn’t want to trade for guys that I might
lose in the expansion draft. I also
figured the odds were iffy at best given the short number of innings my
starters have. I made one minor deal to
bring a lefty to the team and that was it.
Unfortunately it hasn’t helped like I hoped. I really did need a lefty and had hoped Mike Myers would do the
job. He hasn’t. Anyway, a 2-8 start to the next set of games
(including 1-4 to the last place club) has moved me into last. Bye Bye season. Anyway, I figure I come out pretty well in the expansion draft
and still have a decent draft position in the annual draft. Wait until next year!
Some guys just have that knack of
trading a valuable veteran for two (or three!) good journeyman and riding the
renewed vigor all the way to the playoffs.
You have to be willing to ply the phone-lines and e-mail accounts to
find that team desperate enough to part with exactly what you need. Somehow, I’ve never picked up this
knack. Maybe I just can’t bear to part
with favored players nor am I able to pry good players out of some one
else. Oh well, maybe I can get better
at drafting.
Despite everything they have gone
through as the critics tell us how the Yanks couldn’t possible win the series
again, I look in the standings and see them exactly where they were at this
point last season. Garciaparra and
Martinez were healthy then and at the top of their form. Do the BoSox have a miracle in them? Will the Yankee veterans hold up? Will the Twins hold off the Indians? Will Ichiro win the ROY unanimously? What percentage of leagues that haven’t
already drafted him will make him the #1 pick?
Will any of my teams even finish .500?
How knows – let’s find out?
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