Badlands Baseball Circuit & 1914 KOH

Time to let everyone in on what I've got on tap for my next EI endeavor. This time
around, I've teed off a deuce of long projects based on some past experience. One
of these will be a King of the Hill tournament using all twenty four teams which made
up the Major Leagues in 1914. I am patterning this tournament along the lines of a
similar tourney involving twenty negro league teams. What I did was sort all twenty
four teams from 1914 by win percentage. Next, I placed the teams in two divisions,
keeping both divisions as balanced as possible. The ground rules are the first two
teams to reach fifteen wins will get home field advantage in a best of five playoff.
Those two teams will be taken out of the rotation until two more teams reach the
fifteen win mark. The winners of the playoff will meet in a best of seven
championship game. I'm starting from the bottom up, and my special rule is once a
team wins three games in a row, they are moved to the bottom of the pile, allowing
more teams to participate. Of course, this will stretch things out a bit, and I'm sure
it will take more than a year to complete. Once I've played a couple of weeks worth
of games, I'll post the results here.

The really big, serious project is something I'm calling the Badlands Baseball
Circuit, or BBC for short. This is an eight team, 154 game draft league with players
chosen by random selection from the rosters of the 1938 American Association and
1938 International League, both of which can be downloaded below.

Some future big leaguers in the BBC are Pee Wee Reese, Ted Williams, Charlie
Keller, Marty Marion, Flea Clifton, Johnny Hopp and everyone's favorite, Joe
Schultz...Zitz 'em, Joe! Past stars like Babe Herman are in the league to either get in
a rehab assignment, or just hang on to play another day.

I expect to finish this one up by the end of the year, though I may be slowed down
by posting writeups of every single game. So far, all teams have completed 16 games,
and all of those games have been written up. These are the current standings
(mind you- practically NO ONE likes the names of teams in a draft league;
no one cares if Pecos is in first place...but, they are!):

Pecos       11  5  .688  -
Paducah     10  6  .625  1
Calico       9  7  .563  2
Yucca        9  7  .563  2
Monclova     8  8  .500  3
Algona       7  9  .438  4
Sonora       7  9  .438  4
Seneca       3 13  .188  8

Full game writeups can be found here: games 1-8 | games 9-16 | games 17-24

What is newsworthy as of game sixteen is the unbelievable performance of George
Puccinelli, left fielder for Pecos. The man has 12 homers already! The dice are
really falling in his favor! His actual total for the year was 15 in 202 at-bats. Right
now he's sitting at 72 AB's, so he very well may hit over twenty this season!

March 25, 2025

Rolling the Bones While Watching Others Roll the Bones

Here's the deal. I am so baseball starved, that while I play, more times than not I watch youtube videos of other guys playing.
And it really doesn't matter too much which game they play; Strat, APBA, Replay, whichever. I'm just stoked that other people
enjoy this hobby. They enjoy it to the extent they produce some amazing content and in some cases help to learn the games
they play. Too bad none of them play Extra Innings- I'd watch that over and over...re-runs too! And no, I have no intention
of "broadcasting" any of my games. I don't have the video equipment, for one. I also don't have the committment it takes to
put a video up with any type of frequency. I'm content to just play the games and try to update this webpage  every month.

The vids I tend to enjoy more are the ones in which the scoresheet is displayed. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts,
keeping score of a ball game is one of my favorite things to do. As you can see in some of the photos at this site, my method
of scoring a game is pretty simple. I prefer notebook paper to printouts, and the codes and symbols I use are sufficient for my
needs. I have always kept basic stats, and have no use for the newer metrics. But I digress...Back to the vids!

Sometimes the guys doing these vids use pre-printed scoresheets, and sometimes they use notebook paper, and the attraction
to me is the manner in which they keep score. I look at the symbols used, the style of handwriting, and while doing that I'm
listening to the play by play commentary. Most of these vids have a chat going on to the right of the screen, and some of the
comments that come up are very entertaining. By the way, I'm considering putting a chat feature on this website once I figure
out all the technical mumbo-jumbo...

Mostly however, I play the vids to have dice baseball going on in the background while I play my games. Sometimes the video
will be in progress, and I'll begin to roll a game, and I just know I'm working on finishing my game before the youtube game is
done. Kind of like I'm competing against the broadcast, but what is really happening is that these videos are actually helping me
get my games done quicker. I try to play four games a day, sometimes five, and having another dice baseball game going on at
the same time is inspiring. If I had the attention span to do it, and I don't, I would also have a minor league game broadcast going
on in a different window on my pc. I'm telling you- I'm starved for baseball!

Another thing I prefer when watching these youtubers roll is that the game being broadcast is cards and dice. I won't watch any
computer based baseball replays. The sound of the dice smacking against the table, or little box or tower is like the crack of the
bat, or the roar of the crowd. I also get a kick out of seeing the setup these guys use on their table to play a ball game.

Lastly, when the youtuber says something like, "welcome to an evening of Strat," or words to that effect, the idea that someone is
taking the time to not only enjoy rolling a game, but to record it on video for others to experience helps to reinforce the popularity
of this hobby. I for one, tip my baseball cap to all those guys who produce these vids. And hey, one of these days, play a game
using "Extra Innings," will ya?!!

Original Extra Innings Negro League Set (20 teams, .zip file)

Modified EI Negro League Set used in King of the Hill tourney

"The Veet's" Rare Event Deck

QBasic Schedule Maker Download: 4 Team | 6 Team | 8 Team