History of the LDBA

It all started in 1981. The Long Distance Baseball Association (LDBA) came into existence. The season card set used, 1980 card set. Eighteen franchises began the year searching for fun and happiness in the APBA World. Why was the league created at all? The creator of the league, Mike Willett was in another APBA League at the time called the Cross Country Baseball Association. He liked it so much that a league member named Tom Dixon talked him into forming another league. And so it was!!! The Long Distance Baseball Association began in 1981 using the 1980 APBA Baseball Card set including XBs. The league is a lot different today than it was in LDBA I, but it continues today. And that is the beginning of a story currently on its 19th chapter and counting.

In the beginning, the LDBA was an October to May league, yes repeat, October to May. It was only a few seasons later that the LDBA began to start the season at the time of the beginning of the baseball season.

Organization of League

The LDBA was way ahead of current day Major League Baseball because its initial organization was patterned on an 18 team 3-Divisions of 6 teams setup from the getgo. Even back in LDBA I, we had 3 division winners and 2 Wild Card teams. Eighteen years after, we still have 3 division winners and now 4 Wild Card Teams. We were way ahead of Major League Baseball with our Wild Card format.

Formation of Teams

In the league's initial formation, we didn't just throw the teams out there and select. At that time, the Hi-Lo concept was very popular and the LDBA began 1981 with 18 teams formed in this way:

The team with the best record in the NL was paired with the team with the 9th best record in the AL, and 2nd best in NL with 8th best in AL, and so on. Here are the original HiLo linkups

1 NL Houston & 9 AL Minnesota

2 NL Los Angeles & 8 AL Cleveland

3 NL Philadelphia & 7 AL Oakland

4.NL Montreal & 6 AL Detroit

5 NL Cincinnati & 5 AL Boston

6 NL Pittsburgh & 4 AL Milwaukee

7 NL Atlanta & 3 AL Kansas City

8 NL San Francisco & 2 AL Baltimore

9 NL St. Louis & 1 AL NY Yankees

This was a variation of Hi Lo because not all teams were in the original Hi Lo combinations. I allowed members joining the league to choose which combo they would like to be in. As soon as two managers wanted the same combo, then those two managers pooled the 52 players available from the two teams mixed together and had their own little mini draft, one manager got first choice of player and the other got first choice of pitcher from those two teams. I still remember Pat Henderson calling me first and wanting the Oakland-Philadelphia combo. His team was called the Tuxedo Towers Polar Bears. The nice thing about this concept was it served as both an icebreaker to get guys interested in the league and making decisions for a franchise and still had a nice balance quality to it with the Hi Lo setup. Naturally, as you can tell, this got each of the 18 managers their first 26 players, since each manager was in a hi-lo pairing. What about the other teams you say? Well, the remaining 8 teams, San Diego, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Texas, Chicago White Sox, Toronto, California (not Anaheim), and Seattle (which all were not good enough to even make the top 9 in the respective Major League) all were used to fill out everyone's beginning rosters.

We used a Serpentine Draft for the 18 teams. I rolled the dice and whoever had the Pick #1 in the first round, had Pick #18 in the 2nd Round. Pick #2 in Round 1 had Pick # 17 in round two etc. For 10 rounds we went this way giving everyone 36 players. The 11th and last round for the 37th player was a blind dice roll. The thing I remember most about the league's early days especially that initial dispersal of the final 11 players was that I didn't have a time limit between picks. You guessed it!! The draft which started at Noon or thereabouts ended somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 AM. But when it was over, the LDBA had 18 franchises of 37 players each and was ready to take off on its initial season.

LDBA I

John Ficarro probably remembers better than me that first year, but some things come to pass that I can recall: One manager didn't know how to write me a check, he wrote it to himself (J.V. are his initials). Another manager didn't know that a Fielder's Choice was a time at bat. Luckily, we caught him in the act during the 3rd month of play so that we could correct his stats. One manager wasn't ready to go when the LDBA I bell rang. And the commissioner back in those days was still a school teacher and had to sneak over to school and run off the newsletter on mimeograph machine. Yuck!!! Whenever I made a mistake, I had to do the whole thing over. But that was the LDBA in LDBA I and all the games were by dice and stats were done by hand. Computers weren't involved in game playing or stat keeping back then. We even had a Midseason Trading Period that first year which was an absolute disaster, since I recognized then and there that some guys were great during trading periods and disappeared when it was time to play the games.

The first season of the LDBA -18 Franchises-All Board Game saw the following five teams in the Playoffs: The West Haven Blue Devils of Harry Johnstone, the Tuxedo Towers Polar Bears of Pat Henderson, and the Modesto Medflies of Marshall Tom won the East, Central, and West Division Titles respectively. John Ficarro's Boyden Street Blues and Tom Dixon's Sacramento Sluggers were the Wild Card teams. All three pennant races were tight. West Haven beat out Jeff Cory's Bangor Bruins 90 wins to 86 in the East, Tuxedo Towers edged Boyden Street 94 Ws to 93, and Modesto squeaked by Sacramento 94 Ws to 93. Because the races were so close all year, you see many tiebreaker formulas in the constitution. It just seemed like for sure we were going to have a tie of some kind. You'll see how that foresight came in handy when LDBA V comes around. Anyway, in the Playoffs that season, we had only one Wild Card Series, and Boyden Street swept Sacramento 3 games to 0. In the playoff semifinals, Boyden Street ousted West Champ Modesto 3 games to none and West Haven got by Tuxedo Towers 3 games to 2. Notice that we played best of 5 Semis in LDBA I. That brought us to the World Series and West Haven won the LDBA I Championship beating Boyden Street 4 games to 2.

The Arispe Aardvarks hit 229 HRs that season and were the only team to top 200 HRs in the initial season. Sacramento swiped 300 bases to lead in that department, and 4 other clubs had over 200 SB. Times sure have changed since then. Sacramento had a 3.65 ERA to lead the league. Arispe topped in BA with .290 Reggie Jackson hit 49 HRs to lead the league and George Brett, who threatened to hit .400 in real life that year before finishing at .390 (in real life), hit .397 for the Sacramento club. Omar Moreno not Rickey Henderson led the league in SB with 117. Steve Carlton went 23-12 for King of Prussia. Little known Britt Burns of East Bangor won the league's first ERA title with an ERA of 2.41 In LDBA I, we voted for MVP won by Brett, and CyYoung won by Steve Carlton. We even had a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove team. In case you are wondering, the Silver Slugger team consisted of 1b Keith Hernadez, 2b Paul Molitor, ss Robin Yount, 3b George Brett, c Ted Simmons, and outfielders Willie Wilson, Al Bumbry, and Reggie Jackson. The Gold Glove team had 1b-Cecil Cooper, 2b-Frank White, ss-Alan Trammell, 3b-Carney Lansford, c-Jim Sundberg and Dwight Evans, Willie Wilson, and Terry Puhl in the outfield. Manager of Year Award went to Pat Henderson of the Tuxedo Towers Polar Bears and the Commissioner's Award was given to John Ficarro of the Boyden Street Blues.

I must point out that all of the games in LDBA I were not only played by dice, but also with very few rules innovations. In LDBA I, we did use the Coxx Chart, but we didn't have any special HR systems, Control-Strikeout Ratings, Fatigue Systems, or Stolen Base Systems. By the way, the commissioner finished with a 70-92 season and finished last (losing on a tiebreaker) in the LDBA Central.

Return to the top of the page.

LDBA II

LDBA II was the last season of us starting in the fall. The Major League Players went on strike in real life 1981 and we had decided to play a shortened 110 game schedule so that we could start LDBA III concurrent with the baseball teams the following spring. In other words, we used the strike to our advantage. I remember there was some initial talk about us pro-rating players and extending it out to 162 games, but we decided against it.

In the abbreviated 110 game schedule, new manager Joe Fonte and his Pennsylvania Drillers team won the LDBA East 64 W to 59 for Jim Jennings of East Bangor which won a Wild Card spot. In the Central, John Ficarro's Boyden Street Blues beat out Roger Pittiglio's Columbia White Sox 60 W to 58. And in the West, Tom Dixon's Sacramento Sluggers won with 63 W to 59 W for Jay Fowler's Pittsburg Gorillas. We only had two wild cards back then. There were lots of teams that barely missed out. Bangor had 58 W in the East, Arispe 58 , Tuxedo Towers 57, and Sunset 56 in the West. Quite a race even though it was short.

In the playoffs, Jay Fowler's Pittsburg Gorillas edged Jim Jennings East Bangor Elks 3-2 in the Wild Card Series. Then in the Semis, John Ficarro's Boyden Street Blues swept Tom Dixon's Sacramento Sluggers (for the 2nd straight year) 3-0, while Joe Fonte's Pennsylvania Drillers defeated Jay Fowler's Pittsburg Gorillas 3-1. The World Series went to Pennsylvania 4 games to 3 over Boyden Street.

Grich-Bangor, Foster-Sacramento, GThomas-Sacramento, and MSchmidt-Tuxedo Towers each hit 25 HRs in the short schedule to lead the league, while Raines led the loop with 78 SB. The Batting Champ? How about Kirk (and I still don't believe it) Gibson who hit .393 for Pennsylvania. Burt Hooton 17-4 of Pennsylvania led the league in Wins, while Jerry Reuss-Columbia posted a masterful 1.73 ERA to lead in that department. Interestingly two others, Hooton at 1.79 ERA and Nolan Ryan 1.74, of Pittsburg also had sub 2.00 ERAs. Your commissioner's record? Belleville, still named the Buffaloes at that time, finished 51-59 good for 4th place. Oh well. Since I had never won before I wasn't missing anything, now was I?

Return to the top of the page.

LDBA III

LDBA III was our first LDBA season starting in the spring with the contemporaries and it was back to the 162 game season for us. Once again, at this time we were playing the Basic Board Game using pretty much only the Coxx System (for 30 pitching grades like the Master Game). There was no fatigue system yet, no HR system, no control-strikeout system (we just used the W,X,Y,Z on the cards like always), and certainly no particular Stolen Base System. For us, if you got an 11 result, it was usually just read it off the boards, a base hit for the batter, and he steals 2nd. That was a given.

Anyway, in LDBA III, Gregg LaBar's Indiana Lancers won the LDBA East with 97 W to 88 for Joe Fonte's Pennsylvania Drillers. Roger Pittiglio's Columbia White Sox won the LDBA Central with 102 W to 89 for Mike Saaf's Godfrey LoSox. And in the West, Jay Fowler's Pittsburg Gorillas won with 97 W to 84 for Marshall Tom's Sunset Sinners. The Wild Cards in LDBA III were Pennsylvania and Godfrey. John Ficarro's Boyden Street club narrowly missed the playoffs in LDBA III finishing with 86 W. In the Wild Card Series, it was Godfrey over Pennsylvania 3 games to 2. In the Playoff Semis, Columbia bested Pittsburg 3-2 and Indiana squeaked by Godfrey 3-2. The World Series seemed anticlimatic with Columbia taking the crown 4 games to 1 over Indiana. By the way, the Indiana team was not from Indiana the state, but was named as such because he went to school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania!!!! One newcomer to the LDBA in the LDBA 's third season was a manager by the name of Joe Schall, who played his initial season with the Crossley Street Blue Devils.

In LDBA III, Reggie Jackson led the league with 43 HR, and Rickey Henderson went nuts on the bases for the Erie Parrots stealing a still league record of 155 bases. Think of that one! 155 SB! Raines finished second and had only 103 SB! Ten pitchers won 20 or more games in LDBA III and Joaquin Andujar-Pittsburg led the league in wins with a record of 26-8. His teammate Nolan Ryan wasn't too bad going 24-11. Don Sutton of Columbia went 24-6. The RP wasn't all bad then either as Willie Hernandez-Pittsburg had 29 Saves. Andujar's 2.50 ERA led the league.

LDBA III may have seemed like a banner year statistically speaking, but it was a hellish year to finish as the commissioner had to play 4 teams all by dice to finish the season. One manager, Lenny Vommaro quit at the time of the dispersal draft when the Erie Parrots, Allentown Crusaders, and Crossley Street Blue Devils were choosing their initial clubs from the managers who had left from the prior year. The third year was pivotal at that time for the LDBA because many a league might have folded. There was talk of downsizing the league at that time from 18 teams back to 16, but the commissioner wouldn't give in. I'll never forget a letter I received from Jim Jennings back then urging me to hang in there. Jim thought I might quit myself, since after all, the Belleville team finished 4th again 79-83 for its 3rd straight losing season in as many played. But keeping the league together was more on my mind than my W-L record. Something had to be done to generate more interest. At that time, it was really a must to hang in there and we did. So what did we do? Some new non-standard innovations were about to be introduced into the LDBA for LDBA IV.

Before I get deep into LDBA IV, I must preface this story by starting with another story which is 100% true. We had just completed the most recent LDBA III season, and at that time I was still a school teacher at St. Teresa School in Belleville, Illinois. One of my extracurricular duties at the time included my duties as Athletic Director. One night, we had an exciting overtime Basketball game at our school and I was so pumped at the conclusion, that when I got home that night, I couldn't sleep. So I turned on KMOX Radio (supposedly at that time "The Voice of St. Louis") thinking I might catch some of the St. Louis Blues or something. But no, that wasn't on the radio. Instead, what I heard that night was people calling into the radio station. My heavens, what are they saying? I heard this lady say: "I like walks in the park, am fun to be with, ..." What is this? After listening for a bit longer, I heard Bob White say: "This is Dateline. Call in now at 436-7900 or 397-8600 if you are a woman between the Ages of 21-39." Then he said, and if men out there like anyone you've heard so far, then call another number and we'll let you talk to her. Then after hearing two or three others, this lady came on and said: "I'm from the Belleville area. And I love sports especially going to Cardinals games." You've got to be kidding, I thought! Here am I a single guy night after night either playing APBA or doing sports with kids or teaching school but no woman in my life. Oh, what the heck! I'll call! If it bombs, at least I tried! You get one guess as to who I ended up calling that night. At first when I called the line was busy and busy. So busy in fact that I didn't get through until about 1:00 AM in the morning. But when I did, it was the beginning of what was to become a life together. Here she was living less than 2 miles from me, and I had never met her. I'm sure all of you married guys out there have stories about how you first met your wife to be. The above was our story.

After she and I went out a few times, sometimes the discussion would turn on me when she would ask: "Do you have any hobbies? What else do you do besides run a sports program and teach school? Oh my!! How long could I keep such a secret from her? One day she came over and the APBA Cards were all over the table. That's right! All over the table. She asked me what I was doing. Feeling like crawling under the table I tried my best to explain to her that I was playing APBA Baseball which is a game. She noticed that I was rolling dice and wanted to know if she could play. I said, sure why not? It took me a little time to get her to understand what we were doing, but when she did she thought it was terrific. I was shocked. I thought she would think I was some kind of looney tune or something. Imagine, rolling dice, playing simulated baseball games, and keeping statistical records on them. I figured she would tell me adios but that wasn't the case. I was one of the lucky ones. Real lucky. This was prior to LDBA IV.

My life was about to change--big time! You know for sure who entered it, don't you? Her name is Nancy. My wife and my life! Love you honey! The key reason I feel compelled to enter it in this diary is because many an APBA league either blows away or just doesn't get started once a guy starts thinking about more than rolling dice. But in this case, as you will read on, the reverse happened. Not only did Nancy like the game, a couple years later she became a league member. And so it was.

Return to the top of the page.

LDBA IV

LDBA IV was a strategic season for the LDBA. What had been a wonderful year LDBA III statistically had ended nightmarishly from a finality standpoint in that the commissioner had to play 4 teams to finish the season. Lots of talk around the league centered on stabilization and the like, but one thing that stood out loud and clear was that the league wanted to have a few more innovations into our dice game. At that time, the only real innovations we had were the Coxx Chart (which enabled us to use 30 grades under a Basic Game Format), and our Bases Empty 12 Single which threw in a few surprise hits here and there. Other than that, we were pretty much playing the game out of the box. We did try our homemade "Bunt for a Base Hit" Option in LDBA II, but discarded it when one manager used obvious gameism sending instructions that said: "Bunt with this guy every time he comes up." Still, we needed innovations prior to LDBA IV to keep the league going and we knew it. And we needed something kinda radical but hopefully statistically accurate. Fortunately at that time, there was a publication going on called the APBA Journal that helped us out in our research efforts. We didn't have to go far to find some nonstandard gimmicks or quirks used by other baseball leagues in their playing of games. And what we did find? Lots of innovations to use in league play.

One of them that fascinated us was a new HR system for pitchers. In our basic game league, in years LDBA I-III, if the diceroll produced a HR, it was just that plain and simple. And if it was a 2B, it stayed a 2B. Some had talked about using the GHLM system used in the Master Game which was better than nothing at all, but we were hoping for something a little better. And we found it in what today is known as "The Rosen System". It's called the Rosen System after Gary Rosen who I played APBA with in another league for a few years prior to the LDBA. The Rosen System works pretty much like it says in today's LDBA Constitution. The league wide average number of homeruns per innings pitched is computed. After which, the pitchers are rated for HRs based upon that average. If a pitcher gives up more HRs than the average pitcher for that league, he is a plus "+" pitcher who upon occasion will change a Double into a HR. You know such pitchers as gopher ball pitchers. Then we have the pitcher who gives up less HRs than the league average. He is our (-) HR who ocasionally will convert HRs into doubles. Whereas APBA's GHLM system does this too, it doesn't do it with the same statistical preciseness as our system. APBA's GHLM system has those four ratings. G and L sometimes take away HRs and L and M sometimes give up extra ones. Actually, APBA has five ratings because a pitcher can have none of these letters in the master game and he is considered an average HRs allowed pitcher. But the Rosen system allows any pitcher to be anything from -35 to +35 with a pitcher rated 0 an average HR allowed pitcher. So this concept was introduced into league play in LDBA IV.

The 2nd concept we introduced in LDBA IV was a new Control-Strikeout System. APBA relies on its WXYZ and no letter system. Now there is a ZZ for super control pitchers. But again, this is only five or six ratings. We wanted a better more numerical system. Looking in the 1982 APBA, we found a system using CR1, CR2, CR3 and K1, K2, and K3 ratings. There were 36 possibilities under CR1, 36 under CR2, and 36 under CR3 so we had 108 possible control ratings. Similarly, there were 108 possible K ratings as well. This seemed far superior to APBA's WXYZ system to us, and so we adopted it for LDBA IV. I remember a few rounds of discussions with many an LDBA manager on this one, but it was voted in and as still there today.

A 3rd concept introduced in LDBA IV came about because many APBA Managers liked to leave in pitchers until their arm fell off. Also, depending upon the quirks of the game, many APBA managers could legally leave a pitcher in and still be OK gradewise. Even if he gave up say 2 ER in the 1st inning, 2 ER in the 2nd inning and 2 earned runs in 4th inning everything would be fine, because Grade Reduction didn't occur unless the 5 ER or more occurred in 3 consecutive innings. Then one day I got a call from Jeff Cory and I remember him trying to sell me on this fatigue system of his. He told me that what they do in a face to face league is give a pitcher a fatigue rating based upon earned runs, hits, and walks. Then as the pitcher pitches in the game, charge him 3 points for an Earned Run, 2 points for a hit, and 1 point for a walk. When he reaches his fatigue rating, he fatigues, we roll one die, and the value of the die is the number of MG grade points deducted from his grade. It sounded crazy to me at that time, but since we didn't have anything else to use, I decided to go ahead and sell the league on it.

So here we were in LDBA IV, with three brand new innovations for the league that we never had before: a HR System for Pitchers, a Control-Strikeout System, and a Fatigue System. Some initial questions naturally came up for all three. On the HR system, we made it a rule that the batter had to have a "1" in either the first or 2nd column for a double to be converted on "+" pitchers. For the Control-Strikeout System, we decided not to ever use it with the Hit & Run or Sacrifice play on. And for the fatigue system, since the MG grades were 1-5 for a D, 6-10 for C, 11-15 for B, and 16-20 for A, we didn't want a batter to fatigue more than one full grade so we made a roll of six "no fatigue" points against the pitcher. How did the league like the new rules? At first, one LDBA manager who had just joined the league the prior season called me up and told me that he was going to have to get out of our league because it was just too complex. That was one time the grace of the Lord somehow came to me because I talked to him about our league and convinced him to stay. That person was Joe Schall, who is very much active in our league today. For the most part, the rules were a learning experience in their first few months, but after we got used to them it became part of our league play. I'm not speaking for any of the other dicerollers, but I just do them automatically today without even thinking. I suspect it's the same for the rest of us as well. It seemed strange at first, but when you got used to the rules, they played themselves along quite well.

LDBA IV was a very good year in terms of hot pennant races. Jim Jennings East Bangor Elks won the LDBA East with 104 wins to 96 for Gregg LaBar's Indiana Lancers (remember, Gregg is from PA not Indiana). The LDBA Central saw John Ficarro's Boyden Street Blues win the division by 1 game over Roger Pittiglio's Colombia (Columbia, MD) White Sox 89 wins to 88. And in the West, newcomer Pete Strouse and his Grand Valley Bombers won by 1 gm over another new manager Steve Turner who finished up with 92 wins to Pete's 93. With only 2 Wild Cards, Roger Pittiglio's club had to stay home, but he wasn't the only one. Another new manager, Dick Brunner of the Indianapolis Titans, became the first LDBA manager to win 90 games and not make the playoffs. Apparently, some of the tough teams had gotten tougher that year. The Playoffs showed River City over Indiana 3 games to 1 in the Wild Card Series. The Playoff Semis were still best of 5 at the time with Grand Valley over Boyden Street 3 games to 1 and East Bangor over River City 3 games to 1. Jim Jennings East Bangor Elks were crowned Champions in LDBA IV when they beat the Pete Strouse's Grand Valley Bombers 4 games to 2 in the World Series.

Dale Murphy won the HR crown in LDBA IV with 43 HR. No other player hit 40. Jim Rice was 2nd with 36. But base stealing was still going strong. Julio Cruz edged Rickey Henderson in SBs in LDBA IV 124-121. Kent Hrbek set a record at that time with 68 doubles. You'll never guess the batting champ of LDBA IV. Never. No way. Try this name on for size. Barry Bonnell. Who? Yep. Barry Bonnell of East Bangor batted .360 to edge out Lonnie Smith of Tuxedo Towers who hit .353. Rice had 165 RBI for East Bangor in LDBA IV, which was a league record at that time. There were three 20 gm winners in LDBA IV with the best being John Denny of Columbia finishing at 25-9. Hoyt of Pennsylvania was 21-11 and Carlton of Allegany finished 21-9. The ERA title went to John Denny of Columbia with a 1.56. He was far in front of 2nd best Jerry Reuss of the same team at 2.49.

Yes, LDBA IV was another good year statistically and a good year with excellent pennant races in all the divisions. It was very competitive. In fact, your commissioner had his first winning season in LDBA IV finishing with 86 wins but missing the playoffs. But the thing that sticks out in my mind that year was that it was a "transition season," but a much needed one. Too many guys in the league were bored with just playing the game almost "out of the box". In LDBA IV, the league decided to add some things not in the box. We added a HR System, Control-Strikeout System and a Fatigue System totally new to our league. We tried it for the first time, and it passed the test. The guys really liked the new ideas and changes. In fact, they liked them so much that many kinds of proposals hit the commissioner's desk prior to LDBA V.

This particular season was also significant for the LDBA from another standpoint. It was the first use of a computer in the league to do a newsletter. The commissioner had bought an Apple 2E Computer (Dinosaur today I know). There was no hard drive in those days, but there were two disk boxes for us to insert 5.25 floppies. And I did. In the earliest of times, I didn't even have a Word Processing Program to use, so I printed out what I wanted to say using BASIC programming language. Many a Newsletter I remember with lines like:

10 PRINT "LDBA IV NEWSLETTER"

20 PRINT "VOL. 4 NO. 2"

30 RUN

ETC.

This was a long time ago guys, and I didn't know any better. Still, it was a major breakthrough for the league, because now we had something to produce LDBA Newsletters on without me typing it up on my electric typewriter, or worse yet prior to that, writing it up on a mimeograph machine. Not long after, I got PFS Write, which was a Word Processing Program that I could use with my DOS 3.3 Apple 2E Machine. But I still remember the earliest of times on the PC programming that stuff in myself. Lots of print statements to be sure, but it was our newsletter.

In the offseason of LDBA IV, the commissioner and Nancy Willett got engaged. Seems like only yesterday in a way, but I still remember it. I'm sure there are detractors out there who figured my LDBA days wouldn't continue for long after that, but they were wrong to be sure. Very wrong. Nancy started to enjoy the games more and more. She started to memorize some of the easier numbers to start with, and this kept me going. I never revealed to her that I hoped she would take a team, but I was trying to get her more and more comfortable with the game so that the day would sometime come.

Return to the top of the page.

LDBA V

LDBA V was probably the Golden Year of the LDBA . No one can be sure when or if ever we will have a year like it again. But it was a year that we will never forget, those of us still here who were here to witness it. The prior year, LDBA IV had been a breakthrough year both in technology (introduction of the PC to do LDBA Newsletters) and in Non-Standard Board Game Innovations. After all of the success obtained in LDBA IV with the new HR Allowance System for Pitchers, the new Control-Strikeout System eliminating the WXYZ criteria, and our new Fatigue System, there was a lot of clamor for more. More, more, rah, rah, rah. It was a time of development for the league. It was a time to tinker. It was a time to explore. It was as if the Industrial Revolution was replacing Agriculture. At least that was the communication to me from the league members. For LDBA V, we had more innovations come to the league. LDBA V adopted a Master Game Fielding Chart so that individual fielding became important at times on critical plays. This necessitated us changing the results on Fielding One 18 and 20 for SS and 2B to be outs, not errors. Also, with Master Game Fielding, even the poorer fielders would sometimes have their day and be a good fielder to take something away. The reverse was true also, as sometimes Ozzie Smith would make an error on a play he wouldn't usually, but rarely of course. There was talk about eliminating the Bases Empty 12 Single, but this issue failed when the league agreed to discuss some changes to it in the future. LDBA V also was the first LDBA season in which we used the UPC (Unusual Play Card) to randomize better unusual play results. Prior to its introduction, the same hitters were up for the same unusual plays, so the plays weren't so unusual, now were they? There was no Error Card as yet, so reading an error number result stayed the same result at this time. Lots of ideas were sent in, asking for Brawl Charts, Weather Systems, Stolen Base innovations, you name it. The commissioner was so deluged with ideas at his desk that he decided to blow the whistle and call a halt to all of this. The new rules voted in were OK, but the commissioner ruled that there would be no major rules changes for at least 3 seasons. I had reached the point that our constitution was becoming larger, and we had no mechanism to control its changes. In fact, we liked the innovations we had, but we were making the APBA Game Itself a lot more complex. Fun, to be sure, but tough to sell to newcomers unless they are homegrown ones. At this time, there was no limit to what changes we could make. There was no ballot box limit. Anyone who wanted something, could just suggest it. That had its good and bad points to be sure. I just called a halt to this after LDBA V because we needed to breathe. Sometimes a league chokes on its own success so to speak. This move by the commissioner was welcomed by some and not by others, but at least we got to focus on the changes we had made in the past few seasons and see where we were before we plunged ahead. This key decision made by the commissioner would become important in the years to come.

The LDBA V season was something like no other. We had such tremendous pennant races that season that we were in the AJ just about every month. In the LDBA East, the Bangor Bruins of Jeff Cory, Jim Jennings' East Bangor Elks, and Joe Fonte's Pennsylvania Drillers played leapfrog all year. One month Bangor was ahead, the next month East Bangor, and after that Pennsylvania. The Central Division saw a new contender-Commissioner Mike Willett's Belleville Barons (Name changed for Third Time--1st 3 years in league-Buffaloes, 4th year-Booze, 5th-present-Barons). John Ficarro of the Boyden Street Blues teased the commish at this time saying: "You going to keep changing your team name until you win something?" Good question as I look back on it now. The Belleville Barons and Dick Brunner's Indianapolis Titans were locked in a head to head battle in the Central. And in the West, new manager Steve Turner and his River City Ramblers were going toe to toe with another new manager Larry Schubert's Sacramento Sneakers (a different team than Tom Dixon's Sluggers from the first two seasons.) The pennant races in the Central and West were just as close as the East. The commissioner was checking his tiebreaker procedure quite thoroughly. It was so-so close. The races ended in fantasy fiction so to speak as I couldn't write a book to make it come out much better.

First, the Central. The Belleville Barons and Indianapolis Titans were deadlocked in the last month with 9 games left to play all at Indianapolis. But the Barons won 7 of the 9 gms at Indy to win the Central Title and force the Titans to a Wild Card spot. In the West, the River City Rambers and the Sacramento Sneakers ended the season in an exact tie with 97 wins each with River City winning the league crown on a tiebreaker because it won the season series between the two teams. the Sacramento club did manage to get the other Wild Card spot. (Remember, at this time, there were only 2 Wild Cards in the LDBA.)

The most memorable of all I had to save for last. Tired of leapfrogging over each other like they had all year in the East, the East contenders forgot who was supposed to lead the last month and ended in a Triple Tie. Repeat Triple Tie. Thus we had a Triple Tie Tiebreaker situation. Bangor finished 87-75, East Bangor 87-75, and Pennsylvania 87-75. Thank goodness, we had a mechanism in the constitution to unravel such a situation. The first criteria tiebreaker was Head To Head Competition among the three teams. If any of the three clubs had won the season series from both teams, they were the winner. If any of the three clubs had lost both season series with the other two splitting with each other, the team which would have lost to both teams would be out and we'd look at tiebreakers between the two remaining teams. The Bangor Bruins had won more total games against the other two teams, but the Bruins had a winning record against Pennylvania and a losing one to East Bangor. East Bangor had a winning record against Bangor, but a losing record to Pennsylvania. And of course, Pennsylvania had a winning record vs. East Bangor but a losing record to Bangor. So the first tiebreaker failed because none of the three teams had a winning record against both clubs and none of the three had had a losing record against both. So all 3 were still in it going to the 2nd tiebreaker. The 2nd tiebreaker was Best Division Record. The Pennsylvania Drillers had the Best Division Record of the three clubs and were crowned the LDBA East Champ. East Bangor and Bangor then had to battle tiebreakers for 2nd place, and East Bangor won 2nd place by winning the season series from Bangor. But both the Elks and Bruins failed to make the playoffs despite exciting seasons and a pennant race 2nd to none. Three other clubs, Jay Fowler's Pittsburg Gorillas with 90 Wins, Curt Milbourne's West Texas Outlaws with 89 Ws, and John Ficarro's Boyden Street Blues with 84 Ws also turned in good seasons barely missing the postseason fun.

The playoffs seemed so anticlimatic to the pennant races in LDBA V. The Sacramento Sneakers scored a mild upset in the Wild Card Series defeating the Indianapolis Titans 3 games to 2. The Playoff Semifinals changed to a Best of 7 format in LDBA V. The River City Ramblers won over the Pennsylvania Drillers 4 games to 2, and the Sacramento Sneakers scored a huge upset over the number one seeded and 99 wins of Belleville Barons 4 games to 2. The World Series (an all Western affair) was won by the River City Ramblers 4 games to 2 over the Sacramento Sneakers.

In LDBA V, Tony Armas of the Pittsburg Gorillas set a new single season HR record with 57. Tim Raines led the LDBA with 110 SB. There were 4 twenty game winners in LDBA V: Joaquin Andujar-Pittsburg 22-12, Rick Sutcliffe-Godfrey LoSox 21-7, Jack Morris-Indiana Lancers 20-12, and Dave Stieb-Indianapolis 20-11. Denny-Columbia was ERA Champ with 2.70 ERA. Tony Gwynn-Sacramento won the LDBA Batting Crown with a .365 mark.

The Teams

Pennsylvania Drillers-Joe Fonte Mgr (87-75)-1st in East-LDBA East Champs

Offensively, the Drillers were led by EMurray 31 HR 116 RBI .295 BA, Ward 26 HR 110 RBI, and 283 BA and Winfield 17 HR 85 RBI .308 BA. Pitchingwise, Hoyt led the club with a 16-7 record 4.63 ERA. Tanana finished 14-15 3.92 ERA, BSmith 10-8 3.67, and Romanick 10-14 5.52. Orosco was workhorse out of pen with 5-5-25 and 2.51 ERA Lollar finished only 5-16 for Pennsylvania.

East Bangor Elks-Jim Jennings (87-75)-2nd in East

The horses were there offensively for East Bangor with Ripken 31 HR-120 RBI .289 BA, Rice 32 HR-108 RBI .283 BA, Downing 32 HR-88 RBI-.241 BA, and Gedman 28 HR-91 RBI despite only a .213 BA. On the mound, Soto 14-12 3.65 ERA led the way with Lea 13-12 3.98, Ojeda 10-9 4.83, and Sanderson 11-6 2.80 contributing. Aase 3-2-22 and 2.54 closed the door effectively. The Elks had the unusual distinction in LDBA V of having no pitcher win more than 14, and no pitcher lose more than 12.

Bangor Bruins-Jeff Cory (87-75)-3rd in East

The Bruins were basically a so-so hitting club. DeCinces 25 HR-74 RBI-.250 BA, Baines 23 HR-101 RBI-.227 BA, Driessen 18 HR-70 RBI-.264 BA, and DHenderson 19 HR-.245 BA pretty much wre it. No player scored 80 Runs on this club so Jeff did a great managing job with it. On the mound, the first controverisal trade bringing Valenzuela to Bangor helped the club as FV finished 17-11 3.92. Smithson 13-12 3.96, Beattie 13-14 4.37, and McGregor 10-13 4.46 rounded out the rotation. Reardon's 3-6-17 & 3.07 served the closer's role. All purpose Hershiser 8-8-9 with 2.82 was the secret weapon both as a SP and a RP.

Allegany Wombats-Dave Wells (80-82)-4th in East

The Wombats boasted Balboni 33 HR-96 RBI.248 BA, Mattingly 201 H-42 2B-27 HR-140 RBI-.318 BA, Upshaw 28 HR-108-.276 BA, Whitt 19 HR and Brunansky 17. A.Pena finished 16-6 3.78, and Burris 13-11 4.45. Carlton didn't have it going 8-14. Caudill ended up 7-11-14 with 4.02 in relief.

Allentown Crusaders-Pete Prochnau (74-88)-5th in East

Barfield 20 HR-68 RBI-.266 BA, PO'Brien 20 HR-88 RBI-.264 led a modest attack. Castillo hit 17 HR and a .174 BA. Pena batted .242 with 13 HR. This team lost 88 gms even though no one P lost more than 13. Knepper's 18-11 3.04 led the charge, and Gullickson was 14-11 and 4.08. Lee Smith 6-11-20 & 2.47 was the stopper. Dravecky finished 3-13 for Allentown.

Indiana Lancers-Gregg LaBar (68-94)-6th in East

Indiana could hit some with Foster 28 HR-98 RBI-.242 BA . Phelps 19 HR, Yount 16 HR-99 RBI-105 R-.308 BA. MWilson had 113 R-.274 BA- and 65 SB. Morris finished 20-12 with 3.68. This team managed to lose 94 gms with no pitcher losing more than 12 and only 1 of them. In fact, only three pitchers Morris 20-12, Horton 4-10, and Schatzeder 5-10 lost double digits or more.

Belleville Barons-Mike Willett (99-63)-1st in Central-LDBA Central Champions

Durham 38 HR-122 RBI-86 Extra Base Hits-.273 BA, Lemon 24 HR-113 RBI-46 2B-.297 BA, Brenly 23 HR, 105 RBI-.288 BA, GWalker 19 HR, RHenderson 17 HR-75 SB, Whitaker 16 HR-.265, and CWashington 15 HR-75 RBI led a very good Baron attack. The Barons didn't have any 20 gm winners, but did have Mike Witt 19-7 3.27, and Koosman 19-9 3.43 (picked up in a trade) to form a tough 1-2 punch. Dotson finished 16-9 3.77, Petry 15-14 3.63, and Terrell 12-10 5.29 helped out. Lefferts was the ace RP going 4-6-25 with 3.28 ERA

Indianapolis Titans-Dick Brunner (94-68)-2nd in Central-Wild Card #2

Hrbek 36 HR-128 RBI-.327 BA, DBMurphy 29 HR-103 RBI-80 Extrabase hits-.266 BA, Sandberg 23 HR-86 RBI-125 R-206 H-.311 BA, Moseby 20 HR- 44 SB, Leonard 15 HR, GBell 15 HR-90 RBI-.267 BA, and VLaw 13 HR shaped the nucleus of this club offensively. Stieb's 20-11 3.13, McWilliams 17-12 4.07, Thurmond 14-7 4.45, and Blyleven 12-11 4.30 were key SP. JHowell was best RP with 5-6-21 with 4.50 ERA

Boyden Street Blues-John Ficarro (84-78)-3rd in Central

Gary Carter's 43 HR-125 RBI-.312 BA led the Blues and Larry Parrish 25 HR-85 RBI-.290 BA was important as well. Unfortunately, that was about it offensively for Boyden St except for Matuzek 17 HR. Pitchers picked up the slack however with Seaver 16-7 3.83 ERA, Rhoden 18-14 with 2.91. Candelaria's 12-13 3.47(who was a real tough luck pitcher all year), Haas 11-12, 3.81, and Leal's 11-16, 4.44 were there. Tekulve's 2-5-21 with 3.12 was the stopper and Robinson 9-4-7 1.95 was another key man in relief.

Godfrey LoSox-Mike Saaf (79-83)-4th in Central

Raines was prolific for Godfrey with these stats 127 R-221 H-114 RBI-37 2B-11 3B-13 HR-111 BB-110 SB-.342 BA. Keith Hernandez 13 HR-.306 BA was a key for Godfrey. Lance Parrish 20 HR-76 RBI were good, but he had only a .221 BA. Lezcano 16 HR-65 RBI, Ruppert Jones 15 HR .262, and Baylor;s 15 HR 103 RBI contributed as well. If the LoSox could have had pitching like their hitting, they would have been in business. Sutcliffe's 21-7 3.75 were super, but after that a big dropoff. Fontentot's 11-9 with 5.29 helped. Next was Langston's 12-14 5.07, Hough 12-17 5.34, and Mahler's 6-15 4.71. Corbett was top reliever with 4-5-22 3.15.

Columbia White Sox-Roger Pittiglio (66-96)-5th in Central

The White Sox had lots of offensive problems with their leading run producer Jody Davis 25 HR-77 RBI-.219 BA. Next we had Matthews 13 HR-.215 BA, and Garvey 11 HR-.235 BA Only these three players hit 10/more HRs for the year. The team batted .224 as a team. Doran had 42 SB but still hit only .206. In prior years, the pitching usually bailed out the hitting but no so in LDBA V. Sutton was top winner with 11-16 3.43, and Denny had 10-6 2.70 (led league), but the rest forget it. Mason ended the season 4-15 4.19, Coconower was 6-13 4.12, and Reuss was 3-8 2.96 (absolutely no support.) Sutter was top RP with 9-12-11 with 2.74 ERA. Gary Witt played the last couple of months of the LDBA V season when Roger Pittiglio (a charter member) had to retire.

Crossley St Blue Devils-Joe Schall (58-104)-6th in Central

Kingman 33 HR-104 RBI-.247 BA, Brooks 21 HR-76 RBI-.286 BA led the Devils after which it dropped off to first franchise selection VanSlyke 10 HR-44 SB-.224 BA Although the Devils lost more games than Columbia, they probably were a more fun team to play that season because they could hit a little bit sometimes. On the mound, batting practice was the order of the day. Berenguer was only double digit winner with a 10-12 3.99 record. Notables like FBannister 9-19 5.91, Clancy 7-22, 5.63 and Saberhagen 6-10 4.35 kept the team from doing too well. The most interesting pitcher on the club was Dan Quisenberry, who despite the team taking 104 losses, finished with 1-12-33 and 3.43. Joe basically turned it to Dan win or save in LDBA V as you can see, but 12 times he lost.

River City Ramblers-Steve Turner (97-65)-1st in West-LDBA West Champs-LDBA V Champions

The Ramblers were a scoring machine in LDBA V with DKMurphy 29 HR-129 RBI-.273 BA, CDavis 28 HR-113 RBI-.311 BA, DMEvans 27 HR-15 3B-31 2B-112 R-103 RBI-.253 BA, Easler 21 HR-94 RBI-.288 BA, Fisk 21 HR-79 RBI-.249 BA, MCBrown 16 HR-.307 BA in a limited role, and Nettles 15 HR. They could score whenever and usually did. On the mound, no 20 gm winners but they did have Flanagan 19-9 4.79, Alexander 18-9 3.35 and Trout 14-8 4.09 as a Big Three. Tudor was 10-12 4.84. Reed was a tough setup reliever going 10-2-1 3.50 and Dave Smith was closer with 7-10-22 with 3.17. Shirley also was a key RP winning 8 gms.

Sacramento Sneakers-Larry Schubert (97-65)-2nd in West-Wild Card #1-LDBA Runnerup

The Sneakers were somewhat of an enigma in LDBA V. They had one guy ADavis 21 HR-42 2B-128 RBI-.280 BA hit 20/more HRs and only two others in double digits. But TG (Tony Gwynn) was the man of the year for Sacramento with 139 R-236 H-88 RBI-57 SB-.365 BA. Heath 18 HRs-.240 BA, and Lansford 12 HR-101 RBI-.281 BA. the Sneakers did it with Stolen Bases swiping 283 bags for the year. Collins 67 SB, Gwynn 57 SB, and Pettis 52 SB were the big three. On the mound, good pitching was the rule as Eckersley 17-8 3.48 (remember Eck as a SP), Whitson 17-7 3.78, Zahn 16-8 2.83, and Show 14-13 4.04 were tough. Lapoint ended with 10-16 5.32. Rucker 9-5-19 1.46 and DSchmidt 5-3-10 1.44 were tough from the pen.

Pittsburg Gorillas-Jay Fowler (90-72)-3rd in West

The Gorillas had to suffer the LTE (last team eliminated) designation and in some ways it seemed unfair considering Tony Armas 57 HR-154 RBI-.249 BA season. Yet the Gorillas 2nd biggest slugger that year was Cabell with 11 HR-79 RBI-.285 BA. No one else hit more than 8 HRs and their were only 2 of them. Hard to say team lacked power but Armas 57 HR was more than 1/2 of whole team total of 111. Still the Gorillas could score when they had to with Sheridan .291 BA-95 R-31 SB, and WWilson .285 BA with 48 SB. Pitchingwise, Andujar led the way with 22-12 3.11, and Black 19-13 3.51 did commendable. Boddicker made it a threesome going 17-12 3.22. WHernandez seemed untouchable at times for the Gorillas going 6-7-32 with 1.01 ERA. I have a hard time figuring how this guy lost 7 gms with a 1.01 ERA, but he did log 106.7 IPR.

West Texas Outlaws-Curt Milbourne (89-73)

Curt Milbourne's club had a slow start and a roaring last three months to almost but not quite get itself into a playoff position. Kirk Gibson 26 HR-105 RBI-.288 BA, and FWhite's 17 HR-.260 BA were partly responsible for that. Puckett hit .318 and was the team's number one draft pick. West Texas got a lot of razzing for that pick, but as we all know, the tables would turn for Kirby and Curt would prove to have the last laugh a bit down the road. The Outlaws had some useful subs in HMcRae .301 BA in 79 gms, and Bosley .323 in 48 gms. On the mound, the Niekro brothers were at it for WT with Phil going 17-6 3.13 and Joe ending with 15-18 3.67. Newly acquired Gooden from Lansing finished with 16-8 3.30 and another pitcher about to be heard from was Viola ending with 13-15 3.73. Power was best RP with 4-2-13 with 3.16 ERA. Gossage won 8 gms and Tellman 5 for the club.

Lansing Generals-Andy York (65-97)

Andy York's Generals were a long distance from a playoff spot in LDBA V. Jose Cruz 17 HR-90 RBI-.291 BA-39 SB, and Beniquez .318 in 109 gms helped out, but some others didn't including Brett 11 HR-.272 BA. amd JThompson 11 HR .200 BA. Cowens had 13 HR but that was about it for the Generals. Pitchingwise, Butcher 14-14 4.17, Honeycutt 12-12 3.61, and NRyan 12-14 2.89 led the SP while Camacho 2-13-11 3.36 came out of the bullpen.

Tuxedo Towers Polar Bears-Pat Henderson (57-105)

Pat Henderson's Tuxedo Towers Polar Bears scored enough runs get you to wonder how they could lose 105 gms. Thornton 36 HR-97 RBI-.277 BA, MSchmidt 31 HR-92 RBI-.263 BA, Strawberry 23 HR-85 RBI-.249 BA, Parker 16 HR-82 RBI-.276 BA, Samuel 15 HR-64 RBI-77 SB-.273 BA including 38 2B, 20 3B, McReynolds 14 HR, and JCarter 14 HR don't sound like a last place team to me. But the pitching staff was another story and an Xrated one. SDavis was the anomally going 18-14 3.46 ERA. But the others? Clemens 9-10 4.06, McCatty 8-20 7.21, Krukow 5-22 7.02, Boyd 6-17 6.01, Hawkins 7-14 6.66 tell some of the problem. Atherton was stopper with 1-4-11 4.84 ERA.

Return to the top of the page.