We have to consider a replacement to Strat-O-Matic

I never thought I would be writing these words, but as a league, we have to seriously considering replacing our Strat-O-Matic computer basketball game next season with another one that may suit our needs better.

When the computer basketball game first game out in the early 1990s, MS-DOS was the dominant PC operating system. The basketball game, despite all its quirks, at least worked.

But now Windows 98/ME/2000 and now Windows XP are the preferred modes of choice. While the Strat basketball game has adapted to Windows, the basketball game has not. It's gotten to the point that the basketball game will not even work under the latest Windows XP operating system, which is the best operating system ever produced by Microsoft.

Until now, there really hasn't been any good alternative to Strat, other than silly PC arcade games. But now, there may be a better choice - Action PC Basketball, from Dave Koch Sports. Dave Koch makes other PC games for football and baseball and they have received great reviews for the their statistical accuracy, akin to what made Strat-O-Matic famous and fun.

Dave Koch Action PC Basketball also looks promising. I and another SABL coach, Steve Feldheim of Brooklyn, are buying the Action PC Basketball game and we are going to test it out. We urge you to check it out, too and let us know if you think this game is a worthy successor to Strat. The website is  http://www.dksports.com/basketball.htm.

Leaving Strat won't be easy for me. I've purchased Strat games every year of my life since 1969. Other companies have come and gone over the years, but Strat-O-Matic's always been there for us, reliable, realistic and easy to play. Strat has given me so much enjoyment - it's hard to even think of not playing Strat-O-Matic anymore.

However, I have to ponder what's best for the future and fun of our league and Strat basketball just isn't cutting it anymore. It's being surpassed by its competitors and if we decide that Dave Koch Sports can reliably produce a realistic and fun game for many years to come, we'd be foolish not to consider it.

Let me know what you think and thanks.

Revamped Druids start 7-3

By Don DeBates
QUAD-CITY TIMES

Fresh faces don't ever seem to bother the Bettendorf Druids.

"This franchise always seems to like new blood," new point guard Damon Jones said. "It's just unusual that this season it's all new blood."

Despite a total turnover of the roster, the Druids have jumped out to a 7-3 start. They took 5 of 8 from neighborhood rival Davenport and then down two teams from Kansas.

Davenport 102, Bettendorf 99 (Game 5)
After splitting the first four games, the Druids dropped a 102-99 decision. Cliff Robinson sank two free throws with six seconds to play, and the Druids could not get off a shot before the buzzer. Robinson finished with 27 points, while Bryant Stith had 21 for Bettendorf, which scored only nine points in the second quarter.

Bettendorf 106, Davenport 98 (Game 6)
Bettendorf pounded the ball inside to Arvydas Sabonis, who finished with 23 points in 24 minutes. The Druids also made 12 three-point shots.

Bettendorf 127, Davenport 126 (OT, Game 7)
Sabonis scored an incredible 40 points in 29 mintues of play to lead Bettendorf back from as much as a 10-point deficit. He scored eight points in overtime, including the game-winning basket with 12 seconds left that stopped a 7-0 run by the Dazzlers.

Bettendorf 90, Davenport 88 (Game 8)
Davenport could not get off a shot in its final possession as Robinson, its only 1+ shooter, had fouled out.
 
Bettendorf 116, Garden City 91
A scrappy Druid defense held Garden City to 29 percent shooting. Joe Smith and Vin Baker were 7-of-29 between them, and Evan Eschmeyer blocked six shots. Morris Petersen led the Druids with 21 points.

Bettendorf 122, Holcomb 108
The Druids' press forced 23 turnovers and limited Tim Duncan to 15 points. Sabonis scored 23 for Bettendorf. Jason Terry poured in 35 for the Heat.

Coach David Squires' computer is on the fritz and he will be unable to do email or play games for about 2 more weeks. If you haven't heard from him by Dec. 15, please let me know and thanks.

The defending SABL World Champion St. Lucie Aces have kicked off the 2001-02 season by winning at home vs. Miles 136-107. Miles, coached by Tom Jargo, shot only 43% from the field while the Aces, coached by Commissioner Scott Ellis, shot 53% and out-rebounded the Hounds 52 to 43.

Dog Antoine Walker led all scorers with 28 points, while Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton and Derek Anderson all led the Aces with 24.

For the Aces, Sudden Sam Cassell had 22 points and 13 assists, while Shaquille O'Neal had 19 points, 13 rebounds and made all 5 of his free throws. Antonio McDyess had 11 boards.

Walker also led Miles in rebounds with 11.

It's on our website at our 2001-02 League Disk link and it's also been emailed to every coach. What is it, you say? Why, it's our Official 2002-02 SABL League File, sabl.exe, and it means YOU CAN START SENDING OUT INSTRUCTIONS AND START PLAYING YOUR DECEMBER LEAGUE GAMES ASAP!!!!

sabl.exe is a self-extracting file, so all you have to do after downloading it is double-click on it (or single-click, depending on how you have your W95/W98/WinME configured) and it automatically installs our SABL league (labeled "2001-02 S") into your SOM game for you. No muss, no fuss, just start your game, it'll be there.

IF YOU DOWNLOAD THE FILE AND IT HAS NO ".EXE" ON THE END, RIGHT CLICK ON THE FILE AND RENAME IT, ADDING THE ".EXE" FILE SUFFIX. THEN THE FILE WILL WORK.

This also means, of course, that our preseason trading period, which expired at 11:59pm on Nov. 18, is over. All trades made now until Dec. 1 will take effect beginning Jan. 1.

Our new schedule is not quite as compact, with everyone finishing regular season games by March 25.

And, of course, for the benefit our our new coaches, I now repeat my annual "HOW-TO" primers on this screwed-up but wonderful pastime we know and love as SABL Computer Strat-O-Matic Basketball:

The best way to understand how our SABL schedule works is to print it out and study it. Then you'll know what you have to do when. I suggest doing that ASAP and highlighting your team's games. Here's how to get to it: Click on General Manager Functions, then League Management, then Schedule League Games, then Print Schedule.

For all our new coaches, here's brief instructions on how to import & export game files & plans:

TO SEND INSTRUCTIONS AND RESULTS:
Step 1 - Attach the file to an email message. Your email program should have a paper clip icon or words that say attach or insert file. Look in your SOMBK\LEAGUES directory for files that end in .gfl and .gpl. GFLs are game files (box scores/stats) and GPLs are game plans (computer instructions).

Step 2 - Send them to your opponent and send the game files only (box scores and stats) to the commissioner (ME).

TO IMPORT GAME FILES AND PLANS FROM OPPONENTS:

Step 1 - Save the attached gfls and gpls to a floppy disk.

Step 2 - For .gfls, start the SOM game and go to Statistical Functions, then Process Game Files, then Import the game file. For .gpls, start the appropriate League Game and then import the game plan under your opponent's lineup.

When folks get traded during our season this year,  USE THE TRADING FUNCTION TO TRANSFER PLAYERS FROM ONE TEAM TO ANOTHER. DO NOT DELETE PLAYERS OR YOU WILL MESS UP EVERY GAME PLAN (gpl) AND GAME FILE (gfl/box scores/stats) THAT YOU SEND OUT FROM THEN ON. IT WILL COST THE LEAGUE A LOT OF TIME AND ME A LOT OF EXTRA WORK AND YOU WILL GET PENALTY POINTS FOR IT. IF I IMPORT A MESSED-UP DISK FROM YOU INTO OUR LEAGUE STATISTICAL DATABASE, IT WILL MESS IT UP AND I'LL HAVE TO REDO EVERYTHING MANUALLY!!! IF YOU SCREW IT UP, I MAY BE LOOKING FOR A NEW COACH.

You can only have 12 active players on your roster, per series. You have to let your opponent know who is on your roster via your instructions. Include player names and real-life NBA teams. If you send a computer game file, of course, all this stuff is already on it and you don't have to send written snail or email instructions with it.

You can send players up and down by each individual 2, 6 or 8-game series, but you can't do it by individual games.

As you examine our league disk, you'll notice that all the players on your team are exact clones of their NBA counterparts. Strat programs players and NBA teams to try and ensure that they finish about the same as they did in the previous real-life season. If you decide to let the computer run your team, to make your team play better, you'll most likely have to rearrange the minutes played so it will substitute players as you wish. You can even program in how you want your players to shoot and whether or not to shoot on the fastbreak.

Just remember - you can never play a guy out of his carded positions and you can never add more total minutes per game to his profile. HOWEVER, A GUARD CAN PLAY EITHER POINT GUARD OR SHOOTING GUARD IN THE SABL. WHEREVER IT SAYS YOU CAN PLAY ON THE CARD, YOU CAN PLAY.

While you can't play anyone out of position on offense, thanks to the "Assign" function in our computer basketball game, you can assign anyone to cover anyone else on defense. This means that you could assign Shaq to cover Muggsy Bogues. I don't know why you'd want to do this, but you could.

A word of caution, however: Like a lot of other things in this game, the Assign function doesn't always work correctly. Sometimes the computer game will refuse to assign the player where you want them to go. Ditto for the Double-Team function. Have fun.

Also, it is your responsibility to keep up with all trades from now on yourself during the season. Watch our website for the trades, look on the instructions you get to see who your opponent is playing, and make the changes via the TRADE function in the computer game.

NEVER, AND I MEAN NEVER, USE THE DELETE A PLAYER FUNCTION OR CLONE A PLAYER FUNCTION IN OUR OFFICIAL SABL LEAGUE.

For those of you new to our league, please trust me on these restrictions. SOM's basketball game is a programming mess and it's not at all like the baseball game, where every manager can create their own leagues and stats can be easily added and deleted. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY IT CAN WORK IN AN SOM BASKETBALL PBM LEAGUE EFFICIENTLY. I have reprinted a ton of material from our past newsletters below on the proper ways to do things in our league, but if you have any questions, please phone me or email me.

The proper way to make trading adjustments on your official SABL league (the "2001-02 S" league) is this:

1.    Teams that have made trades that take effect Jan. 1 should not adjust their rosters until they have played all their games in December. Teams that make trades which take effect Feb. 1 should not adjust their rosters until they have played all their December and January games. Likewise, the trading teams cannot send out any January or February game plans (disk) instructions until their rosters are adjusted and until all their December and/or January games are played. This is for SABL league statistical reasons. TRADING TEAMS, YOU'LL HAVE TO BE ON THE BALL OR IT WILL CAUSE ME AND EVERY OTHER COACH IN THE SABL EXTRA WORK! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN, NOT ME. CONTACT LATE COACHES TO GET THE JOB DONE. LET ME KNOW IF THEY AREN'T COOPERATING. THIS IS THE PRICE YOU PAY TO TRADE DURING THE SEASON.

2.   DO NOT DELETE OR CLONE THESE PLAYERS! YOU MUST USE THE TRADING FUNCTION TO MOVE THESE PLAYERS FROM ONE TEAM TO ANOTHER. IF YOU DON'T IT WILL MESS UP OUR OFFICIAL LEAGUE DATABASE AND COULD MESS UP STATS OR GAME PLAN INSTRUCTIONS AN OPPONENT WOULD SEND TO YOU OR THOSE YOU WOULD SEND TO AN OPPONENT. IT WILL ALSO CAUSE ME A LOT OF EXTRA WORK AND COST YOU PENALTY POINTS.

A word of advice - get ahead on your game-playing schedule. You never know who is gonna be late back to you, so if you have time to send our schedules and play your games early, DO IT! In fact, if it's more convenient for you to email me results at the same time you email results to your opponents, go ahead! That would be great!

These are excerpts from our SABL Constitution with regards to when instructions should arrive at your opponents's place. If you are a week late, you get penalty points unless you have a darn good excuse.:

It’s the responsibility of each coach to keep his own team stats and e-mail them to the statistician (the commissioner) during the season. Individual game files (.gfl) and box scores (.prt) must be sent to the statistician. They are due to be in the statistician's hands by two weeks after the game was due to be played, during the season (Example: Dec. 1 game, in statistician's hands by Dec. 15). If you don’t send in or are late with your stats, you won’t be listed in the league leader reports and you’ll get two penalty points. If you’re late two months in a row, you’re expelled from the league. Accumulation of 21 points means expulsion from the league.

Also, it’s the responsibility of each coach to get series stats to his opponent within two weeks of the day the games are scheduled. Individual game files (.gfl) and box scores (.prt) must be sent. If a coach has not received results within two weeks, he should call his opponent to see what’s happening. At this time the offending coach will receive 1 penalty point. For every week after that, if a coach is late with results, the coach will receive a penalty point. If results haven't been received for two weeks, the waiting coach should call the commissioner, who then must notify the coach within another week on how to proceed. It is the responsibility of coaches to inform the league and commissioner of circumstances which may cause lateness. It’s not the responsibility of the commissioner to nursemaid coaches.

Every time a manager is late with instructions, he incurs one penalty point. For each three points that are incurred, that coach will drop down one place in the draft order. Accumulation of 21 points means expulsion from the league.

Coaches should follow mailed instructions to the best of their ability and when instructions are unclear, to manage the team as they think their opponent would wish it to be managed. All computer coach vs. computer coach games will be played under the "Neutral Court" and "Static Fatigue" options. All instructions must have the team’s active roster and the real-life NBA team he plays for by his name. Failure to do this earns an opposing coach 1 penalty point.

If any coach is 30 days late with either instructions or results, autoplay their team, play the games and get me the game files (.gfl). Before doing so, however, try and contact the offending coach twice. If he has not, or cannot get you the goods before the 30-day deadline, autoplay the late team, play the games and send the coach and me the game files. Please let the commissioner know if the games are autoplayed.

Instructions should reach a coach by the day the games are scheduled to be played.. If they don’t, coaches must phone the opposing coach to find out what’s happening. If no instructions are received a week after that, the coach should contact the commissioner, who must notify the coach within another week on how to proceed. For each week a coach is late with instructions, he receives one penalty point. Accumulation of 21 points means expulsion from the league.

If a coach gets a month behind schedule, unless a special circumstance exists, he will be expelled from the league. The commissioner must authorize autoplayed games or whatever it takes to keep the SABL running on time. It is the responsibility of coaches to inform the league and commissioner of circumstances which may cause lateness. It’s not the responsibility of the commissioner to nursemaid coaches.

The SABL schedule consists of 82 games. 8 games will be played against vs. teams in your own division, 6 will be played versus teams in the other division of your conference and 2 versus teams in the other divisions outside your conference. The SABL has two conferences and four divisions of 5 teams each."

Timely and easy-to-understand instructions are what makes play-by-mail leagues go round. If instructions and results are late, then a league becomes sluggish and managers lose interest.

We won’t be late in the SABL. Every coach needs to send on time strategies and results to their opponents. Instructions should be in opponents hands by the dates indicated on the schedule. Results should be in opponent’s hands a week after the schedule date.

Paper box scores and exported game files onto floppy disks should be sent to every coach following every series. For two of our coaches, Paul Bennett of East Asia in Thailand and Chris Gertridge of Good News, there is only one option - you have to email them instructions and results.

Now that you have your official SABL league disks installed, you will be responsible for keeping track of trades on your own machines and trading players where appropriate.

Make sure you are playing against your opponent’s correct roster and make sure you let coaches know, via your instructions, who is on your roster. Include the players’ real life NBA team on your roster list, in every instruction set.

Check our website for the latest rosters.

Don’t wait for other coaches who are late sending instructions or results to you. Send what you have or you will be penalized. Check our SABL Constitution.

Make sure you have the game file and box score options selected when you play league games or you will cause your fellow coaches and Commissioner a lot of extra work and we will hate you.

When you play league games, do with with "No Auto Rest," or else the computer will not follow your lineups. Also use "Static Fatigue."

These trades took place after our 2001 draft but before the preseason draft period, which ends at 11:59pm, Nov. 18. They will be reflected in the league disk I email to you and post on our website:

21. Galactic trades Hamilton to River City for Patterson

20. Miles trades Christie and their 2nd pick to Chapel Hill for Stevenson and Chapel Hill's 1st

19. Druids trade Stepania to Dazzlers for Sabonis.

2001 SABL Draft is complete!

Brooklyn's Steve Feldheim, who got the first pick in the draft for the second year in a row, plucked Kenyon Martin first in this year's draft. For all the rest of the exciting 2001 SABL Draft, check out our 2001 Draft link. New rosters also posted at our Rosters & Stats link. Please check over the rosters and draft picks to make sure I didn't make any mistakes.

Trading is now possible again! Check our 2001-2002 Schedule Of Events for the timetable. We are in our two-week preseason draft period, which ends 11:59 p.m., Nov. 18. All players you trade for before that can be used in games from Dec. 1 (our season start) until Dec. 31.

By Nov. 25, I'll have our official league disk and schedule emailed to you and posted on our website. YOU MUST USE THE OFFICIAL SABL LEAGUE DISK. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN MUCHO PENALTY POINTS AND POSSIBLE EXPULSION FROM THE SABL.

For our new coaches who may not understand why this is crucial, phone me and I'll explain.