EVENT 7: BILLY, YOU'RE FIRED!

Ken sorry to see you go. I think the drafts are the best part of these leagues. How can we persuade you to stay with us?Dan and Randy have done a great job and I am sure we can come up with new leagues that will be challenging and fun. I am still hoping they bring back 1969 too. In the meantime these historical groupings that can be mixed up in a million ways and with different caps is a blast. RJ

Since there has been some discussion regarding future leagues, I figured that I should probably weigh in now that we are in the process of selecting the players for the final league.
When the twelve of us originally discussed the idea for a league, we were a group of disappointed, former 1969 league players, and proposed to have an ATG league consisting of players from the 1960s era. After that was proposed, then someone else proposed to expand the league concept to its current eight league format. Most of the managers seemed enthused with this concept; however, I was a bit hesitant to want to make a long term commitment, but eventually decided to do so. And in spite of my earlier reservations, and subsequently my overall record, I have enjoyed my participation in this tournament. Kudos to Dan for doing a great job as commissioner. I also want to congratulate Randy for the great job that he did in dividing up the players into the different eras.
That having been said, I will be taking a hiatus from online SOM after completing the last (70s) league in this tournament. It sounds like many of you are planning on continuing, so I wanted to inform you of this so that you would have sufficient time to recruit another manager.
If I were to make any recommendations for any future tournaments, they would be these:
1) Reduce the draft length to either 16 (15 players and a stadium) or 21 (20 players and a stadium) rounds. I found the latter rounds of most drafts to be quite frustrating.
2) Speaking from personal experience of having the first draft choice for many of the leagues, I don’t feel that having the first choice necessarily worked to my advantage. What I would suggest is that if the manager with the least points is to be rewarded, first arrange for a random selection for the draft, then prior to the draft allow the manager with the least points to make the first selection, and then proceed with the draft. So if the manager with the least number of points were to have the 4th/21st selections by random assignment, he would select 1st, then 4th (which would actually be 5th) and then 21st (actually 22nd). Because he would be one ahead of all other managers through the course of the draft, he would end up skipping the last round. (Hopefully that didn’t sound too confusing).
3) Lower the threshold for some of the extra point hitting performances (maybe 7 or 8 ribbies in a game, for example).
Best wishes to y’all. Ken

Very sorry to hear this, Ken. I have enjoyed your posts and comments greatly and in many respects you are the life of our little party. I am wide open to ideas for improving and hope that you would reconsider. To me the enjoyment here is obviously not in winning championships. I have lost so much that I fear I may never win another title. The enjoyment is rather in dealing with and playing against a good group of people. That is far preferable in my mind to the idea of playing in auto leagues against folks we may only know one here or there.

I have evolved (either forward or backward) into a posture where these are the only teams I have active, so I would like to continue. Thanks for all you have brought and please give it another thought perhaps?

I always thought the late round picks were the easiest, as you typically have defined substitute spots that you absolutely need to draft at that point. Sorry to see you go, Ken. Enjoyed your posts.

When is the draft for the final league going to commence?

If we could wait until next Tuesday to start the draft, I would appreciate it. I'm going on vacation today through Monday. That would also be opening day for League #6.

Ken,

I am sorry to see you go. I always enjoy your good humor and trivia tidbits. Stay in touch and keep the dice rolling.

Rick

Dan (and rest of guys)I would vote to expand the parks for league 8 to all ATG parks to make it more interesting. The ones left after league 7 are all the same. What do you guys think? Also I would consider for league 8 the last one in this tourney, and for the last league only in upcoming similar tourneys, that we form divisions by record, East top four records, Central middle four records, West bottom four records. Gives the guys closest to their competitors a chance to move up and those that are playing to move up in bottom half a better chance at playoffs and a free team. Of course if this does not make sense to anyone I am happy to keep the randomizer. Rj

P.S I think a lower salary cap for next league will also add to the differentiation


I know Rick Likes lower caps!

I am good with the ballparks suggestion, the division format, and of course the lower salary cap.

Rick

I prefer randomized divisions just like every other league in this tourny. This is not a Finals league or anything, just another league in the tourney and no different from the very first league in this tournament.

I agree with Randy. We set the rules at the beginning and should stick to them for the full course of events. For the next go round we can talk about lots of options for variety and I think lower caps are fun too.

Next week is fine I just need some time to accumulate the stats for the standings and such. Been traveling a lot for work, and some for fun, lately.