SPB-5 1997 Season
Status: Season Over
SPB-5 1997 Season Status: Season Over
Standings
Batting Average
Home Runs
ERA
Current League Champion
SPB5-1997 Champion
Albert Schweitzer
Atlantic City Vultures
The Atlantic City Vultures defeated the Canton Moondogs 4 games to 1. Edgardo Alfonso smacked 4 home runs and 7 RBI in 5 games, as the Vultures hit 13HR as a team, along with a .328 team average.
SPB-5 League Officers
Commissioner
Chris Williams
President
Marc Hollingsworth
Statistician
Chris Williams
Beat Writer
Greg Henning
SPB-5 News that's fit to print
March 29, 2014
Vultures win last SPB-5 World Series!
The Atlantic City Vultures have won the 1997 SPB-5 World Series. Complete
coverave is located on the playoff link on the left. This ends the association with SPB, as they permanently covert
to a six-league setup. Thank you to Chris Williams for running the league through these past many years and good luck with this league in
their next phase pf play.
January 3, 2014
September stats and power rankings posted
The September final stats and power rankings are now posted. This is the final end-of-regular
season database for the 1997 season, the last for this league under the Seasons Past Baseball umbrella. Finally! It was
difficult tracking down results for all teams during this holiday season, but I thank you all for your patience. We have
them now. And we also have the playoff brackets. Congratulations to the 8 teams and managers that will be moving on:
with the best record in the AL, Jim Condon’s Hobbits will be hosting the wildcard Dreadnoughts of Peter Brooks. Tom
Kackley’s Moondogs will be hosting Greg Hennigs Redbirds in the other pairing. Over in the NL, Michael Fischer’s
wild-card winning Millers are in the same division as Al Schweitzer’s best-record-in-the-league Vultures. So the
Vultures instead will host Mace Matayc’s Wolverines, and the Millers will travel to Valley View to face Pete Reoch’s
Thunder. I hope that the first round of games can be scheduled for H2H play within the next 2 weeks. We are moving
forward quickly for next season. We already have two expansion managers, Vin Onstott and Marc Schlotthauer. Both teams
have been drafted. Plus, Rick Tharp, who is taking over the Arrows from Rick Ryan, has been added to the distribution
list.
September 1, 2013
New Manager for Zephyrs
We have a new manager for the Zephyrs, as a former charter member of this league is returning. Please send your road profiles versus the Zephyrs to Steve Ehresman, at sdehresman@comcast.net. He will be preparing and sending a fresh profile for that team, and his new name of choice will register with the “September” database. The expansion draft is continuing via email. Each team now has at least 4 players, more updates to come.
September 1, 2013
New Manager for Gobblers
We have a new manager for the Blacksburg Gobblers. Allan Beck, whom many of us know from some other leagues, has taken over their reins. Please send your profiles for June to him, and he can take it from there. Let us give him a warm welcome. I had not yet sent out a profile for the Gobblers, so if you are hosting the Gobblers at home, wait for a fresh profile from him. His email is callbeck@rogers.com, and I have known him always to be up for H2H play, which is something that this league could use more of. With the July database, Allan will rename his team the Montreal Maroons. It will remain the Gobblers on the master database until then.
July 7, 2013
League now at full strength
Let us welcome back Jim Wheeler, a founding member of the Seasons Past Baseball group of leagues, who is taking over
the open Say Hey Kids. They will be known as the Preble Pelicans beginning with the May database. It is truly wonderful to have Jim back. Jim
continues to be active in designing, updating and testing the official Diamond Mind Baseball seasons.
And, this should clear up any confusion as to why you might be suddenly getting a profile from him.
If you are playing the Kids/Pelicans on the road this month, please send/resend your profile, this time to Jim’s email at jim12695@outlook.com
We still need to find expansion owners, but since the expansion draft will not be taking place until later this summer, and those
teams will commence play first in 2014, this is not a matter that requires us to hurry.
Although John Turnbull is continuing to maintain records for SPB V on the seasonspastbaseball.com website, that is still the place
to go for basic reference. However, in preparation for our league’s colonial independence, I will be including an updated version of the constitution as a text file on the database (under the notes tab), along with the a league directory, etc. I will also be looking into web hosting possibilities. Given my ongoing relationship with SPB, I am hoping that the auditorium will continue to be available in the meantime. But, again, that is something that needs addressing only from next year onward.
So, cheers, and a big welcome to Jim as he re-joins the 16-year league.
July 3, 2013
New Manager for Wayfarers
We have a new manager for the Wayfarers, Rick Michal (rickamichal@gmail.com). Many of you doubtless know him from one of his modern-day leagues. Please welcome him to the league! And, hold off playing your games versus the Wayfarers until he has a chance to review his roster and profile and can send a fresh one out. If you are playing the Wayfarers on the road in April, please send him your profile and instructions. After this month, the Wayfarers will be renamed the Chicago Caps.
July 1, 2013
Opening Day notes/announcements
Play Ball! The 1997 season can commence. There has been much discussion about the way the full Seasons Past group
of seasons plans to proceed, as you all know, but, rest assured, one thing is clear: the league hitherto known as SPB-V, set to play the
1997 season, will continue to play, not just the current season, but into the future. After 1997 it will no longer operate under the Seasons
Past umbrella, but it will indeed continue, with some rule changes that will take immediate effect, and are listed below. The interest is
certainly there, many of the managers have invested a lot of energy in building their teams, and all that is needed is a bit of revitalization
in league thinking. The two-team expansion, using players from the 1998 Diamondbacks and Devil Rays rosters, will take place as planned
during the course of the 1997 season. There is a lot of important information in this message, so please read it through to the end.
There has been no trading activity during the past two weeks, but it is always possible that I missed something along the way. Please check
your roster for accuracy. If there are no problems with your roster on the attached database, you may prepare and send your opening day
profile. Please make and send it to your hosting road opponents and to me at the league office as soon as possible. Your April games will
be due to your visiting opponents and to be at the league office on July 20.
When you send your profile, you should indicate the pitching rotation for each of the road series. You should also make sure that the “next”
of your rotation in your pitching profile is properly set but by sharing the pitching rotation, you insure proper order and allow your hosting
opponent to manually insert the pitcher you want to pitch each name.
[Normally, I do not import manager profiles to the master database. This is due to the fact that series are played out of sequence, with stats
collected on a month-by-month basis, and because the desired rotations may report out of order. However, I have included the Hurricanes’
profile because it was sent in ahead of time. Managers are expected to communicate directly with their opponents each month.]
Here are the Rule Changes for the coming season:
1. Relief Pitchers [already announced]: the upper-limit usage for pitchers is games pitched (+10%), or 110% of batters faced
(the usage meter), whichever is higher. Bonus rules double the allowable appearances up to 26 for starts and 60 for relief appearances.
2. Batter usage limits: 110% of plate appearances.
3. Trading season will extend 4 months (2/3) into the season. That means that trading is NOT closed with the release of this database.
4. NOTE: The rule that a player has to be used 50% of his usage in order to be retained, no matter how little the player was
used in real life, remains.
As the league goes forward, I would like to preserve three features of Seasons Past Baseball play that I like very much:
1. The bonus player rule. I find that this is the ideal solution in leagues where the number of teams is so close to the actual
number in MLB. It allows for teams to use players they have rather than being forced to trade in order to cover usage. The bonus player
rule (which remains players with batting averages under .235 and e.r.a.s over 4.50) does mean that the “replacement player” effect cannot
be turned on.
2. Phase II draft and SPB-style roster management. The Phase II process is a unique feature of the SPB leagues, but one that I find
is a lot of fun and pays dividends, as well as works against teams running into usage problems, when all is said and done.
3. The league size, at total number of teams minus two. As someone who has worked a lot in beta testing historical seasons, and drawing
up pre-1927 seasons from scratch, as well as having played many thousands of games, I have come to favor draft leagues that spread out the
talent pool as close as is reasonably possible to reflect how it was spread out in real life. Many draft leagues out there are, for all intents
and purposes, all-star league, so concentrated is the talent on a relatively small number of teams.
June 11, 2013
Free Agent distribution
Two of the released free agents have been claimed: The Cedar Rapids Cyclones claim Shane Bowers, and the Stebbins Indians claim Tommy Greene. Malave and Schwartzbaugh are still available.
May 10, 2013
1997 Phase 2 protected player numbeers
The following 7 teams are allowed to protect 20 players each:
Canton Moondogs
Thunder Bay Damage
Cedar Rapids Cyclones
Atlantic City Vultures
White Rock Hurricanes
OPEN Say Hey Kids
Pandora Boxers
The following 12 teams are allowed to protect 19 players each:
Middle Earth Hobbits
OPEN Wayfarers
Frankfort Hot Dogs
Anaheim Orange Growers
Indianapolis Arrows
Stebbins Indians
Dexter Dreadnoughts
Blacksburg Gobblers
Black Swamp Salamanders
Lehigh Valley Lumberjacks
Valley View Thunder
Baltimore Redbirds
The following 7 teams are allowed to protect 18 players each:
Kitsilano Hedgehogs
Minneapolis Millers
Bay Area Gonzos
Fargo Woodchippers
Antelope River Cats
New Orleans Zephyrs
Niskayuna Micromets
May 5, 2013
1997 Draft order notes
Linked on the page to the left is the draft order for the 1997 draft. Wins are in parentheses, with penalty wins added.
The penalty wins were slightly downward adjusted versus a strict application because of some extenuating circumstances. Teams cannot be lottery
teams 2 years in a row. Teams that have experienced a manager change since the last season have had their penalty wins nullified. Another
departure from usual SPB practice is that I am waiving the permanent penalty rule except for Round 3; it was earned by too many teams who had
changed hands or featured first-year managers or teams with poor W-L records for it to be applied fairly, in my opinion. However the penalty
wins have been added.
Please bear in mind, though: I plan on enforcing the constitutional usage rules more precisely this next season.
The one change that I plan to institute is, reflecting reliever usage realities in the 1990s and later era, the upper limit on pitching
usage will be relief appearances OR batters faced, whichever is higher. (In other words, you can freely exceed the number of relief appearances
so long as you are within 110% of BFP, and you can exceed BFP so long as you are within 110% of appearances). Starts, because they are easy to
control, will be counted strictly according to the constitution. Because the bonus rule is in place, we will not be using the “replacement player”
function.
The order of first-round lottery teams was determined by random selection among weighted chances and order of Round 3 were resolved by random draw.
May 5, 2013
1996 Use or lose and Overusage report
Gratuitous apologies for the lateness, but here is the Overusage and Use or Lose report for the 1996 season.
May 5, 2013
Draft date now May 18th
Due to unforseen circumstances, I am finding that I am unable to finish the pre-draft preparations in time to realistically
expect teams to be able to determine their protected rosters by the announced date of tomorrow. There are also still two vacancies, largely due to
the fact that I have not been stumping around and advertising to my various league connections. I believe they will be easy to fill once I apply
myself to the recruiting task.
I would like to suggest that we move the official draft day back by one week until May 18. The 1997 season will still start, as previously
announced, on July 1. I feel that would be sensible and will allow a complete and final draft database to circulate and a period of trading to
take place in plenty of time before the draft and without the appearance of being rushed.
There were several managers who would have been unable to participate in the live draft. Please let me know how the change in draft date may
affect your participation. One thing we might do is allow the draft to begin via email ahead of the date.
I will send the formal call for protected rosters when I release the official draft order, which will happen later today or tomorrow.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter. Chris
May 5, 2013
New managers at the helm
I would like to announce 4 new managers:
Mike Edge will be taking over the Kansas City Monarchs, and renaming them the
White Rock Hurricanes. His email is jmedge_98@yahoo.com.
Mace Matayc will be taking over the Elko Express, and has renamed them to the
Detroit Wolverines. His email is macematayc@yahoo.com
Michael Grimm will be taking over the Houston Problem, and renaming them the
Antelope River Cats. His email is grimm.michael78@yahoo.com
Michael Fischer will be taking over the Knox Sox and will rename them the
Minneapolis Millers. His email is michael.fischer@comcast.net
John Lippincott is taking over the Michigan Red Bulls, and will rename them to the
Lehigh Valley Lumberjacks. His email is jlippin@gmail.com.
March 10, 2013
MicroMets take 96 Crown!
Congratulations to Don Rahn and his Niskayuna MicroMets, who defeated Greg Henning and the Baltimore Redbirds in the 1996 World Series 4 games to 1. Attached is the final league database for that season. This closes out the SPB V 1996 season. Thank you to those managers who have told me they will not be continuing into 1997. For you, this will be the last mailing you receive from me for SPB V. I have asked Don Rahn to send his World Series write up out to the league as well as to John Turnbull at SPB-Web-Central. I will be working on the 1997 database over the next two weeks. It’s tough to balance with my teaching load, but I will do my best, adding all uncarded players and tweaking the rookie-available players to conform to our rookie draft eligibility rules. The draft, as always, will be held in April, for our traditional June 1 start.
November 24, 2012
September Stats and Power Rankings posted
The stats and power rankings for the final month of the 1996 campaign are now posted. There were two glitches involving stats reporting in the last month: Rob Capizzano was unable to play his own home games for the last month due to complications from Sandy and a long delay in getting power back; he asked me to have the league play the results, and fortunately both his visiting opponents had sent the league office their instructions, which were followed. The second glitch involved the last game of the season. Three separate teams failed to notice that there was a game scheduled on October 1, and I had to wait until they all had sent in this game.Playoff matchups will be announced soon.
July 21, 2012
Manager Replacement
The Michigan Red Bulls have been replaced by Rich Applegate, who will taking over the team for the remainder of the season. Welcome aboard Rich!
May 11, 2012
Free Agents signed
The Baltimore Redbirds sign Greg Gohr, Tim Pugh, and Chris Turner
The Indianapolis Arrows sign Joe Boever
The Pandora Boxers sign John Hope
The Black Swamp Salamanders sign Ricky Jordan, Steve Bourgeois, Rusty Meacham, Tom Quinlan, Shawn Barton, and Trevor Wilson
The Baltimore Redbirds have signed Karim Garcia and Henry Mercedes.
May 11, 2012
Managerial Return
It is indeed a happy day for SPB V. Commissioner Chris Williams is thrilled to know that Marc Robinson has agreed to return as manager of the Anaheim Orange Growers for the 1996 season, giving us a full slate of managers for the coming season, which begins on June 1st. Finally, the league is up to a full slate of managers for this year. Thanks Marc for coming back to us after all.
May 11, 2012
Free Agent News
Before resigning, the Lafayette Red Sox put in successful claims on Jeff Granger and Greg Pirkl, who are now Monarchs. Indianapolis released 3b Tom Quinlan; the Elko Express release C Chris Turner, 1b Ricky Jordan, and pitchers Greg Gohr, John Hope, Trevor Wilson (returns in 1998), Shawn Barton, Joe Boever, and Rusty Meacham. These players join Steve Bourgeois, Karim Garcia, Henry Mercedes, and Tim Pugh as free agents on the database. Some of the players released by the Express have genuine 1996 value innings-eating or at bats value. Preference for awarding players will be based on Phase II draft order, one player at a time. If you are interested in more than one, therefore, please list them in order of preference. If any are unclaimed prior to the start of the season these players will be deleted from the database.
May 7, 2012
Managerial Replacement
The new manager for the Lafayette Red Sox will be Mike Boling. He will rename the team to the Kansas City Monarchs. The Orange Growers franchise is still vacant
Calendar
March 29th, 2014
Playoffs End
April 1, 2014
SPB Affiliation ends
Power Rankings
1) Vultures (1)
2) Moondogs (3)
3) Millers (2)
4) Hobbits (5)
5) Dreadnoughts (3)
6) Redbirds (5)
7) Thunder (7)
8) Hot Dogs (8)
9) Cyclones (14)
9) Hedgehogs (10)
11) Hurricanes (10)
12) Zephyrs (13)
13) Thunder (20)
13) Vultures (9)
15) MicroMets (12)
16) Pelicans (17)
17) Salamanders (15)
18) Orange Growers (19)
19) Boxers (15)
19) River Cats (17)
21) Caps (22)
22) Lumberjacks (23)
23) Damage (21)
23) Maroons (25)
25) Arrows (24)
26) Indians (26)
1997 1st rd draft picks
1. Cyclones-Todd Helton
2. Hurricanes-J.Posada
3. Vultures-M. Ordonez
4. Kids-Matt Morris
5. Moondogs-Miguel Tejada
6. Wayfarers-K.Millwood
7. Hot Dogs-Derek Lowe
8. Arrows-Jose Guillen
9. Orange Growers-B.Colon
10. Boxers-Livan Hernandez
11. Dreadnoughts-J.Vidro
12. Moondogs-Keith Foulke
13. Arrows-Mark Kotsay
14. Hobbits-O.Cabrera
15. Damage-Chris Carpenter
16. Millers-Brian Moehler
17. Thunder-Jose Cruz Jr.
18. Hedgheogs-David Ortiz
19. Gobblers-Derrek Lee
20. Wolverines-M.Batista
21. River Cats-Deivi Cruz
22. Zephyrs-Aaron Boone
23. Salamanders-S.Hatteberg
24. Woodchippers-K.Escobar
25. Lumberjacks-S.Sullivan
26. MicroMets-Raul Ibanez
Historical Information
| Established: 2001 | |
|---|---|
| Starting Season: | 1985 |
| Seasons: | 12 |
| Games: | 23328 |
| Trades: | 401 |
Page last updated
March 29, 2014