I played one season in ATG1, got whipped, and gave up for a little while. I came back in ATG2 and began to figure things out with tons of help from guys like gkhd11a, miketarbell, and JUMA. Also, a big shoutout to JKolak for being an early pioneer in Franchise Leagues.
I played until a few months ago. Bob Klinger at .80 was a massive steal in the pen. Gene Garber was good too. Firpo Marberry was a popular SP choice -- I remember reading through a long discussion thread titled "Firpo!!!" Cleon Jones, Johnny Pesky, and Bing Miller were three of my favorite obp guys. Buck Weaver was god.
I was mostly playing 200X at the time, but dabbled a bit with ATG1. I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the middle of the night "Frenzy"? That was tough on us East Coast guys... my wife thought I was nuts when I'd set the alarm clock for 1:30am (or whatever) so that I could go play Strat on the PC. Remember the advantage certain managers had because their internet speed was faster than others?