East ballpark pick #2

Although I have yet to break open the East cards, I'll go with my local stadium: Camden Yards in Baltimore. Just try bringing a lefty into my house!

Next up .... Greg.

East ball park selection

With the first pick of any kind in the 2008 Strat-o-Matic JKSA draft, The Army of Steamrollers select Yankee Stadium. (chorus of boos rain down)

Next up.... Chad.

Loving it

I just received my strat materials in the mail today. I will try my best to go through the cards in order to draft my ballpark. I am lovin' it. I told Greg this..I think it would be fun to enter one of the strat tournaments that are advertised on one of the pamphlets that came with the materials. EVen if we didn't play for the money at first. They are all over the place, including one in Philly where Mr. Biv resides. I am strongly considering it for next year.

PARTY! Draft set for March 8th

All,

Great news: Saturday, March 8th is a go ... for both AL divisions.

Start time: 9am ET (8am CT).

Which division goes first?: Kyle says he'll take the early slot, so we'll start with the AL West draft. Brian, that means the AL East draft should start at approximately 11:30am ET (10:30am CT).

Division reminders: East is the AL East + Cleveland + Detroit. The AL West is the West + Chicago + Minnesota + Kansas City.

Scheduling: Unless there are objections, we'll move to all 3-game series within the division and 4-game split series outside the division. This will eliminate all divisional split series, and also allow for speedier series -- on lunch breaks or late at night. The downside, it will add more series to the overall ledger, which will mean more aggressive scheduling is required.

GANZA: How about Saturday, April 12th? My wife is out of town that weekend. Let's do an early-season Ganza to commemorate the real Opening Day.

Order of selection: As a reminder, the numbers below are for owners to choose their drafting position. So, Paul has the first choice of where he wants to pick in the East (then will have the last ballpark selection in the East). In the West, Scott has the first option of where to pick.

Technically, you both are now "on the clock" ... however, the clock won't be enforced until next Wednesday. Let's try to get everything wrapped up by Thursday night. Here it is:

AL East
1-Paul, 2-Biv, 3-Brian, 4-Greg, 5-Chad, 6-Scott
(reverse order for park; Scott, you are on the clock for East park)

AL West
1-Scott, 2-Chad, 3-Greg, 4-Kyle, 5-Biv, 6-Paul
(reverse order of park; Paul, who does not have cards, is on the clock for West park)

Any questions?

League business

All,

Things we need to do:

1) Set a draft date. I will still throw out the weekend of April 11-13 as my first choice even though I know that's a little ways off. The last two weekends of March are already booked solid for me.

2) Hash out any rules changes. The time has come for voting-ready suggestions. One rule change I want to throw out there is to allow the wild cards to come from any division, as opposed to just the top two teams in each division. I also may throw out a proposed schedule that involves several 3-game series (which I like for the reality of the issue, the fact that there will be a series winner and also, in part for this season only, to save Brian's back).

3) Set a schedule. (Unless there are objections, I will come up with some ideas and throw them out there for approval). The reason the schedule will change a bit is because of the possibility of 3-game sets and also the inclusion of partial owners in Brian and Kyle.

Please comment.

Strat: The only good part of my first marriage

Greg & I used to use some choice four- and five-letter words to describe my ex-wife, which was one of the things that endeared me so much to him. What Greg & Co. didn't know about my first marriage, though, was it included my introduction to Strat-O-Matic, and one of my favorite teams ever.

My 1996 NL East squad was definitely my most memorable. It may have been the best pitching staff I ever assembled, although the Corn Ballers would be right up there. This was the year that I really understood the importance of great pitching, as I had a three-man nucleus of Kevin Brown (card ERA of 1.89! see attached photo), Curt Schilling (3.19) and Tom Glavine (2.98). The beauty of this trifecta was that Brown was great every which way, Schilling shut down lefties and Glavine was equally good vs. righties. So they were all tough matchups, and they ended up winning the World Series that season.

Anyone remember the year Todd Hundley hit 41 home runs for the Mets? I normally wouldn't, but thanks to his phenomenal Strat season for me (his 2 column was lovely with clean homers on a 6 and 10, ballpark shots with a 5 or 9, and a 1-9 shot on a 7! He also had a -1 arm.), I know that it was 1996. Hundley batted 6th for me, as the powerhouse bat of the lineup was a left fielder named Bernard Gilkey. Atop the order was a "1" in center field, Marquis Grissom. The other outfield spot was manned by Henry Rodriguez, the infield (around the horn) by Todd Zeile, Kevin Stocker, Mike Lansing and David Segui.

I wish I could remember the name of this team, but I do remember that I played Scott in his West Branch home (the one on Oliphant Street) at his kitchen table for the World Series title. Wow, I cannot believe that was some 11-12 years ago! Maybe Kyle even remembers this. (Surely he remembers my frequent dice-throwing temper tantrums).

As far as my earliest Strat memories, yes I do thank Tim Weber for his introducing this fascinating game to us. I will never forget the Strat draft that may have included Mr. Weber's most jovial moment of his seemingly solitary life. He defiantly took Mariano Rivera with the #4 overall pick, and then another dominant closer with the turnaround and exclaimed, "My bullpen is unbe-LIEVE-able!"). That was an early window into the importance of pitching.

More than that, though, Strat was a chance for me to be "me" during my horrendous first marriage. It was an outlet of actual fun and also allowed me to get closer to friends like Greg, Scott, Paul, Biv and Brian ... I was able to escape the downhill spiral that was my marriage and, fortunately, in the winter of 1998, it ended. What followed were some great Strat-O-Ganzas at my North Liberty condo, including the famous "No Scrubs" moment. Thinking back to those days of pure, unabashed Strat-O-Matic fun makes me want to break out the cards, dice & Colorado Bulldogs once again.

I remember that draft...

...because that would have been at the Triple Deuce. Johnny Kilowatt himself was there I believe. I remember it mostly because we all went out drinking the night before, well not Kyle obviously. We met up with some co-eds from Kansas State who were either visiting friends or were in Iowa City for the summer. This would be the evening in which potted plants were hurled onto the roof of the HandiMart

My Fantastic Strat Story

Well my strat story isn't as lengthy as the rest of you because its kinda of hard to remember. But I will give it a shot. I couldn't have been much older then 8 or 9 and I attended a strat draft with Dad (Scott) at Biv's place I think but I am not sure. I tired my hardest to convince Dad to draft Sammy Sosa which he did, and I think Mark McGwire as well. As the years went on, up here in good old New York, Dad and I started our own little Strat league. The first year I did pretty good because we just took the teams as they were. The second year we wanted to do a draft and well, alls I was interested in was the BIG bats. So I stacked my teams with the heavy hitters and didn't really care about my pitching staff. I learned very quickly, thats not going to work. O yes I will never forget on a very close game Dad and I had going. Dad was ahead in a very important game, and I rolled a HR 1-18 or out. This would take the win. I rolled the dice.........20!!! I was very upset, I believe I threw the cards and dice and stomped off. lol Well there you have it. I hope to make many more strat memories as the time rolls on!

WAHOO its STRAT Season!!!!

Scattered pictures...

Memories! Wow, what I wouldn't give to have kept all of my Strat cards to be able to look over the teams I've assembled. I've never won a league - in fact, JKSA was the first league I've ever been a part of that actually finished.

Scott, Brian, or Chad will probably have to help me complete this, but I had been giving some thought to how many teams I've ever actually owned.

My first season was with the '97 cards. My top pick in the AL West was Ken Griffey Jr. for "Double Down on 11." I also had Dean Palmer, Rey Caruso, Damion Easley, and Tony Clark on a team that stormed into the playoffs and was promptly removed from them by Chad's Holy Rollers (the original). Sound familiar?

I'm pretty sure we never made it through to the NL season, so the next year, when Paul and Biv came aboard and I landed Larry Walker, it was the first time I had seen the senior circuit.

I've also played in small and abbreviated leagues with the 1927 and 1988 seasons. Biv, Eric Solomon, and I played the 1927 season and we were well on our way to finishing it when I accidentally left my Strat bag in seat A1 of Press Row at Carver Hawkeye Arena. Probably disgusted from watching Doctor Tom run the shot clock down to zero while Andre Woolridge tried to pull miracles out of his ass, I ruined my chance at greatness. I believe my AL team - Triple Phat Goose - was something like 35-10 at the time of the league's permanent interruption. As you might imagine, Lou Gehrig's card was not too terrible.

When I moved to Sioux Falls, I taught a couple of the interns the game of Strat and we drafted from the 1988 cards. Imagine my star-studded lineup that had Rickey Henderson (the only AAA stealer I've ever seen), Jose Canseco, and Mark McGwire. That league became tiresome with my dominance over the two rookies and we never finished.

Don't forget my brief foray into the world of football Strat, which I absolutely loved. My greatest memory is of John Riehl keying on Barry Sanders every play while Randall Cunningham threw nine touchdowns in one game, six of them to Qadry Ismail. I also always get a smile when I think of Biv's full house backfield that featured Terrell Davis coming off of his 2,000 yard season. To this day, you can mention TD's card to Biv and he will give you a pretty good rant.

The last memory I'll recant is of various players that have been torn up. My first permanent DL job was to AJ Hinch, but the most famous was when either Chad or I (memory is hazy now) tore up Ron Villone and threw him off the deck of our Coralville home. I also have very pleasant memories of Paul ripping up Ricky Watters' card.

A couple weeks ago when cleaning out the basement, I found a Skeffington's Formal Wear shoe bag full of old Strat cards. This discussion has inspired me to go through it.

Anyone else? This is fascinating. I am such a huge dork.

My intro to strat

My first strat experience involved a trip down to Burlington, IA. I was riding shotgun with Greg, on our way to broadcast a substate softball game between Iowa City High and Burlington. BTW...Burlington HS has the best press box food ever, my mouth still drools over their nachos. Anywho...Greg brought along some strat cards and gave me a quick rundown of rules and everything...and I was hooked in from day one. I remember it being the year of JD Drew's rookie year and his card was a monster. I also remember a strat draft in the kitchen of my apartment in Coralville where I assembled a team where I had four AA stealers, and no one was less than a B.

STRAT!!!!!!!!!

Trip down strat memory lane

First, let me admit that I am a pack rat. I keep everything. Drives my wife crazy. Sometimes drives me crazy. But, when you run across a gem, it makes it all worth while.
While getting my current cards organized, I found a folder that included statistics and information for many of the past strat leagues we played in back in the day. Included was the very first strat team I ever drafted.
On that summer day in 1996, in my Downey home -across the street from the sheep farm - I selected Wade Boggs as my first-ever Strat-o-matic player. In the league were Chad, John Riehl, Bryce Miller, Mr. Klinkowitz himself and, of course, Tim Weber - the grandfather of strat to all of us since he introduced the game to Chad and I.
Some notes: We played a 36-game season in the AL. I was 4-2 against Chad making it possible the only season I had a better record against him. Alex Cole led my team in average, hitting .330, Jay Buhner (he of the -5 arm) slugged 9 HRs and Cole swiped 13 bases. Roger Clemens and Aaron Sele won 4 games each and Eric Plunk - as a reliever - had the third highest innings total. We had no innings or AB limits and our fatigue standards were very relaxed.
Anyway, if you want a flashback to baseball past, here is my complete team:
Hitters: Rich Becker, Mike Blowers, Wade Boggs, Jay Buhner, Alex Cole, Chili Davis, Eric Davis, Gary DiSarcina, Junior Felix, Rusty Greer, Dave Howard, Kent Hrbek, Chad Kreuter, Jose Lind, Paul Molitor, Junior Ortiz (making this likely the only team in history with two games named Junior), Tony Pena, Luis Polinia, Terry Shumpert, John Valentin, Greg Vaughn.
Pitchers: Joe Boever, Tony Castillo, Roger Clemens, Mike Fetters, Chuck Finley, Charles Nagy, Donn Pall, Eric Plunk, Aaron Sele, Woody Williams.

I also found the first draft that Greg, Biv and Paul were involved in. If interested, I can give you some highlights of that later.

JKSA Season Two around the corner..

Well, here we are, entering the 21st century in the Johnny Killowat Strat Association. Between fighting the urge to make sexual advances to Magglio Ordonez's card and battling a wicked case of the dry heaves after sorting through the AL West, I've decided to set up our blog. I see this as a forum for game reports, league talks, and anything else related to the JKSA. In no way does this seem like a dangerous enticement for me to get pissed off and whine like a little baby over hard-luck losses, or get boozed up and challenge people in Indian Leg Wrestling. Nope - this will be a symbol of professionalism and maturity.

So here we are...as long as I can figure out how to let others post, we're up and running. As Ron Burgundy once said, "Let the games begin!"