Wed May 12, 2021 11:57 pm
My name is Mike Donoho, I'm 65 and a retired Mail Carrier, married, two grown kids (boy and girl) and 2 grandkids (boy and girl). I live in Georgia now, just across the Tennessee border from Chattanooga, but I grew up on the west coast in Culver City, which is just east of the city of Venice. I spent most of my youth at the beach in Santa Monica, and that is the city I carried mail in for 35 years. My family were HUGE Dodger fans, we went to 20 or 30 games a year. One of the neighbor kids bought the APBA game in '67 when I was 12 (1966 season) and 5 or 6 of us played a league when we weren't at the beach. Kept stats religiously for that season and the next 4 as well, kinda lost interest in the game when I hit High School though. Never even heard of Strat back then.
Flash forward to my 2nd year in the Post Office and a Mail Carrier friend (from Cleveland) who shared my interest in Baseball started talking to me about Strat. He showed me the game (basic cards) and I was hooked. We found a head to head draft league starting in LA and both joined. We played an 84 game season on Monday nights, 6 games each week. National League, using 60% of their card PA's for each player and each team drafted 30 players, five were injured reserve. Played in that league for 6 or 7 years, then quit because I was getting too obsessed!
Flash ahead another bunch of years and I discovered the online game in 2008, ATG IV. First league I was in featured Druid, Nev, 13baseballs, Frank Bailey, B.o.b.b.y and PJMB. I finished 10 games under .500 with a -79 run differential. I've learned a little about how to put a team together since then by studying successful players teams, and made some friends along the way. I now play mostly on Strat's dime, mostly in a few of continuing leagues and the occasional random one. I have really enjoyed reading these stories and now when I see some of these names I have a little bit of an idea who y'all are. Thank you Bruce for putting this topic out here and thank you all for giving us a window into your lives.