Baseball Is Great in the B

Baseball Is Great in the B. I. G. League

By Brandon Rose

The Baseball Is Great League just teed it up for its 32^nd season of play. It is my 22^nd season as commissioner. My friend Stephen Davis asked me to write the history of the B. I. G. League for the All Sports Journal and without even giving it a thought I answered, “Yes.” When I sat down to write I thought I would try cover all of the highlights and lowlights so everybody who reads this history understands that you are only as good as your ability to overcome your worst times. I think that sums up the success of the B. I. G. League the best. We have had a marvelous ride for most of the thirty-two seasons but when you’ve been around for as long as the B. I. G. League has it isn’t without a few bumps in the road. I hope you can appreciate that and enjoy the trip down memory lane.

The B. I. G. League was founded by Nite Mahan in 1975. The B. I. G. truly stands for Baseball Is Great. For Nite, baseball was then and still is great and to this day his passion. Nite’s game of choice in those days was Replay Games Baseball. One of his first B. I. G. League recruits was John Brodak owner of the Replay Game Company. Between Nite and John they recruited enough managers to get the fledgling twenty team league off of the ground in no time. They both tapped into their APBA Major League Baseball Game contacts and struck gold. To know the history of the B. I. G. League, you also need to know John Brodak’s background too. Prior to starting the Replay Game Company, John, was a successful grocery store and print shop owner and played APBA Major League Baseball for many years. He had been the commissioner of one of APBA Major League Baseball’s most successful leagues the Atlantic & Pacific Baseball Association. He was also the publisher of the APBA Innings and APBA Scoreboard newsletters. Then in 1973, after unsuccessfully trying to either buy the APBA Game Company or sell owner Richard Seitz on making certain upgrades to APBA Major League Baseball, John along with game designer Norm Roth came up with the idea for Replay Games Baseball. Norm designed the game and John did everything else through his print shop from printing everything to distribution. The game in its original form was what Roth and Brodak tried to sell Seitz on doing with his APBA Major League Baseball. Roth and Brodak wanted a baseball simulation game that was simple to play but had depth – realism - and would be more appealing to the serious baseball simulation player. In their opinions APBA was no longer filling that bill and was stuck in place. After hoping for two years for a solid league to be formed using his game – Replay Games Baseball – in 1975 the B. I. G. League was formed and it became the cornerstone of the Replay Game Company. To John they were one in the same and he felt the success of one would mean success for both.

The B. I. G. League flew through the late 1970’s at the top of the baseball simulation game world. Everybody involved in the baseball simulation game hobby wanted to be in the B. I. G. League. How much did baseball simulation game players want to be in the B. I. G. League you ask? Enough that the B. I. G. League expanded to twenty-four teams almost immediately after their 1975 debut season. There was no room left and there was virtually no manager turnover. Then, in 1979 another great league – The Major League - spun out of the B. I. G. League’s universe. Many of the original members of The Major League were B. I. G. Leaguers, on the B. I. G. League waiting list or former B. I. G. Leaguers. The Major League was the dynamic undertaking of Jim Pertierra and Mike Landin. The TML is still alive and well today – they just started their 26^th season of play - and is one of the best leagues in this hobby. In the last few years Jim Pertierra’s TML Retro Project has eclipsed anything anybody has ever attempted in this hobby. Replay Games Baseball’s two stars were the B. I. G. League and The Major League. At the time there were other fine leagues that played Replay Games Baseball but none were held in the same high esteem the B. I. G League and TML were. This isn’t bragging it is just the way it was.

The 1980’s started out for the B. I. G. League as strong as the 1970’s finished up. Then inexplicably a one-time solid friendship between Nite and John fell apart. After the 1983 B. I. G. League season Nite stepped aside as commissioner and virtually handed the B. I. G. League over to John. Nite stayed in the league as a manager. He also handled the roster management, trades and waiver transactions for John. The word on the street was that instead of fighting John’s constant interference in the day-to-day running of the B. I. G. League it would just workout better for everybody if John took over. So starting in 1984 John now owned the Replay Game Company, ran the B. I. G. League and published the B. I. G. League News. John had a hard time differentiating between owning the game company and being commissioner of the B. I. G. League. He looked at it all as being his empire. Czar John was in charge. His word was final. Not surprisingly the B. I. G League started to suffer big time. Several key members resigned – including Nite after the 1984 season - because of some shady activity by the commissioner and his cronies. The once deep waiting list didn’t even exist anymore. The founder of the B. I. G. League was gone and there was nobody lined up to join the once mighty B. I. G. League. It got so bad that by the start of the 1985 season the B. I. G. League went from being a twenty-four team league back down to having twenty teams. There was nobody to replace the now fleeing managers.

A flood in the spring of 1985 in Western Pennsylvania washed out a couple of the grocery stores John owned and led to him stepping down as B. I. G. League commissioner. John stayed on as a manager and publisher of the B. I. G. League News. Larry Alber and I stepped forward and served as co-commissioners for the remainder of the 1985 season. The B. I. G. League remained on shaky ground heading into the 1986 season when Larry Alber resigned citing personal reasons. Larry had been an integral part of the B. I. G. League. His resignation as commissioner and manager was a crushing blow at a time the B. I. G. League for lack of a better word was reeling. Now the job of keeping the B. I. G. League afloat fell on my shoulders. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the job. But the friendships I had made among the members were to important to me to just walk away from the B. I. G. League.

The 1986 and 1987 seasons were more of the same. The B. I. G. League remained a twenty team league with two or three managers seemingly always on shaky ground. The league was on the ropes. My relationship with John was at best strained. This truly bothered me because I had been a friend of John’s for many years before I ever joined the B. I. G. League. I was the football writer for his APBA Innings and APBA Scoreboard newsletters and enjoyed our relationship. When I got a personal call from John at Norm Roth’s request to join his league I was honored. John was an icon in our hobby. But, his constant interference with the how the B. I. G. League was run because he owned the Replay Game Company became more and more intolerable. John wasn’t used to being told how it was going to be. He was used to telling you how it was going to be. I stood up to him as best as I could but it wasn’t easy and my protestations mostly fell on deaf ears. John wanted it his way all the time and everybody needed to just go along with it. It worked for him for several seasons. Nobody ever called him on his destructive behavior. This was also someone I had a lot of respect for at one time. Now, I had to do what was right for the B. I. G. League membership in its entirety and not just for John Brodak. It wasn’t going to be easy. But I knew that something eventually had to be done. This made the future of the B. I. G. League look as bleak as ever.

The Major League always did something each year that I felt made them a little different from every other baseball simulation league. They had a league get together for their annual rookie draft in the Albany, New York area in January! I thought that was a great idea. I thought that helped make them a tighter group. I thought why couldn’t the B. I. G. League do the same thing? I could host something like that at Rose Manor in Fort Myers, Florida in January. If guys journeyed to Albany, New York in January for a baseball simulation league rookie draft who wouldn’t want to come to Fort Myers, Florida in January for the same reason? I sold my wife on the idea and sent out the invitations. At the first B. I. G. League Rookie Draft gathering in 1988 we had fourteen of the twenty managers in attendance. It was a hoot. The weekend was everything I hoped it would be and more. I met guys I had only had telephone relationships with for years and it was terrific to finally meet them. Because of the rookie gathering the 1988 season was a little more upbeat than the previous four or five seasons. But I still had some major conflicts with John regarding almost every aspect of how the B. I. G. League operated. The problems John and his cronies were causing were growing and I had a few important members threaten to resign if something wasn’t done. John’s interference with my running the B. I. G. League was going to be resolved once and for all very soon.

In January 1989 we held our second B. I. G. League Rookie Draft gathering at Rose Manor in Fort Myers, Florida. It was in my living room that John and I crossed swords for the last time. After the 1989 rookie draft I expressed my concerns regarding the fictitious money and closed bid system we used. In place of that I wanted it to be a true closed bid system. Not the farce it had been with everybody knowing who bid on who because of John’s coercion and/or use of strong-arm tactics to get anybody off of a rookie he or any of his cronies wanted. John disagreed with me stating his orchestrated version of the closed bid system was going to stick. His coercion, strong arm tactics and late night calls to anybody and everybody was B. I. G. League legend. It was all about John and his cronies getting the rookies they wanted and to hell with who anybody else wanted. It was that kind of stuff that I found so detrimental to the league and didn’t want it to continue. But John didn’t see it that way. He was all about John all the time. I vowed then and there that I would not allow him to play that game anymore. He laughed and said, “You’re dreaming. I own the game company and the B. I. G. League. I really run the show.” I said, “You own the game company, but we will see who runs the B. I. G. League.” The weekend came to an end and the rookie gathering was another huge success despite my confrontation with John.

Everybody went home on Sunday and after spending a few days wrestling with what to do about John I called my friend Willie the Great Jelks on Wednesday morning with my thoughts. Willie was always on the same page with me regarding what was best for the B. I. G. League. I knew I needed his support to move forward. I told him that the B. I. G. League was either going to move on without John and his cronies or fold. I mentioned that there was too much unrest because of him and that there was no way we would survive four, five maybe six managers resigning at the same time. Without missing a beat Willie asked me, “What do I need to do at my end to put the plan in motion?” We decided to split the B. I. G. League managers directory in half and between the two of us call everybody with the plan to toss John and his three cronies out of the B. I. G. League. We would then replace them with four former B. I. G. Leaguers that had resigned a few years before because of John and his never-ending antics. Of the sixteen managers we called that fateful day the overwhelming support was 16-to-zip to toss John and his cronies out and get the four former B. I. G. Leaguers back in the organization and move forward. The move to toss John and his cronies out of the B. I. G. League was a gamble. If any number of them had said they supported John the B. I. G. League would have folded. That evening I wrote John with the news and the rest is history. Oh, make no mistake John didn’t go down without a fight. But in the end, he found out he had no support and the B. I. G. League won out. To say the least, the 1989 season was topsy-turvy, but, there was a bright light at the end of the tunnel for the first time in several years.

The 1990 B. I. G. League Rookie Draft gathering was one for the ages. There were sixteen members in attendance. The friendships being built by this annual get together were awesome. The B. I. G. League was a tight knit group and was regaining its former strength after the dismissal of John and his cronies. I felt that action showed the members I was for what was in the best interests of the B. I. G. League and that was important. Most of us would be friends whether we played in a baseball simulation league or not. We were still a Replay Games Baseball league despite what happened to John Brodak. But, John held a grudge and in 1990 refused to sell most of us the new Replay Games Baseball card set. So, we had one of the few managers in the B. I. G. League, who still had any kind of relationship with him, buy the twenty card sets we needed. Little did we know but that would be the last time any of us would do any business with John Brodak. The 1990 B. I. G. League season had energy like none other in a very long time. The future was looking up and expanding to twenty-four teams was even being talked about.

Goodbye Replay Games Baseball. In 1991 the B. I. G. League switched to ASG Baseball. The game was the brainchild of Chris Klug. ASG Baseball had been around since 1973 like Replay Games Baseball. But Chris didn’t put it out there for the public like John Brodak did with his Replay Games Baseball. ASG Baseball had more depth to it than Replay Games Baseball and was a learning experience for most of us. There would be no more playing a game in fifteen minutes or less and never having to reference a chart book like it was with Replay Games Baseball. ASG Baseball had some teeth to it and we spent most of the 1991 season learning the game. The game was a breath of fresh air at the right time and was met with little resistance from the B. I. G. League brethren. Now on steady ground and getting some good press, the B. I. G. League expanded to twenty-four teams in 1992 and had another successful season. We finally got rid of the ficticious money system and closed bid rookie draft system. The B. I. G. League rookie draft was now conducted NFL-style with ten rounds and the worst-to-best pecking order based on winning percentage. The 1993 season was more of the same. The annual rookie draft gatherings were such a success that we added a fall gathering for the playoffs. We were as interested in how each other was doing … How are the kids doing? … How’s the wife? … as we were our B. I. G League teams and the organization. The B. I. G. League had become a family.

In 1994 the security of our baseball simulation game world playing with cards, dice and a chart book really took a left turn when ASG Baseball became Diamond Dreams Baseball and was now a computer game. Most of us didn’t even own a computer. I bought a second hand computer and printer just to play the game. Diamond Dreams Baseball was a DOS game and some of the commands drove most of us computer illiterates to distraction. I had notes with the commands taped everywhere in my study. I can’t tell you how many times I was close to throwing the monitor out the front door in frustration. But didn’t. Initially I missed the player cards, rolling the dice and then screaming in ecstasy or pain at the outcome of the play too. Heck, I probably still do if I was in the Budweiser Hot Seat and asked that. But the computer version of the game was terrific. The more you played Diamond Dreams Baseball the more you appreciated its realism and the flow of the game. Plus, you didn’t have to score the game and then tally up the two teams’ series statistics anymore. Hey, this computer game stuff might be okay! Oh yeah, despite the frustration of switching to a computer game the 1994 B. I. G. League season was one of our most fun ever. The league was on its most solid ground since the late 1970’s. So much so that more expansion was talked about at the 1994 fall gathering.

The latter part of the 1990’s went by in a blur. What a great run the B. I. G. League experienced as the 20^th century came to an end. We all became computer savvy. We upgraded our systems. We went online. We added a website. The B. I. G. League as advertised expanded in 1995 to being twenty-six teams strong. The waiting list was busting at the seams. We now had three league gatherings every year … the January Rookie Draft Gathering at Rose manor in Fort Myers, Florida, a spring time face-to-face play get together at Hetterich Manor in Pensacola, Florida and in the fall the B. I. G. League Blast [playoffs] Gathering at Wade Manor in Auburn, Alabama. All the gatherings include a golf outing that is as much fun as the B. I. G. League reason – rookie draft, face-to-face play or playoffs - we get together for. The late nights just hanging out catching up on what is going on each others life, deciding where we are going to eat, the frat house pranks we pull on each other, the laughs we share … the B. I. G. League truly is a great group of friends.

As we welcomed in Y2K Chris Klug pulled the plug on Diamond Dreams Baseball. It was a shame that Chris wouldn’t convert the game from DOS to Windows and find a larger distributor of his game. So we had to move on. We started the search for a new game to play almost immediately. We play tested Out of the Park Baseball, Strat-O-Matic Major League Baseball, Diamond Mind Baseball, Pursue the Pennant Baseball and APBA Major League Baseball. In an overwhelming league-wide vote Diamond Mind Baseball was chosen to be the next game the B. I. G. League would play. When I contacted Diamond Mind Baseball with our intentions I was treated like royalty. What a great bunch of people at DMB. Looking back that was hands down the right choice. I can honestly attribute the overwhelming success and fun of the last six B. I. G. League seasons – 2000-2006 – to playing Diamond Mind Baseball. The game they produce and support they offer is second to none. The future for both the B. I. G. League along with our relationship with Diamond Mind Baseball looks awfully bright. In 2012 we are looking forward to celebrating our 40^th season of play.