Volume 2 Issue 51 January 1999
FROM COMMISSIONER SCOTT ELLIS, 2ND AMER. BASKETBALL LEAGUE
New, improved stats up, w/league leaders!
After hours and hours of work, I've posted new, updated stats with league leaders and league totals. Although the links have more information than ever, they also contain smaller files and won't take as long to download. They are also easier to read.
Also, Tulsa Twister Coach Philip Creider has come through with his annual SABL Minutes check. If you want to know how close a player is coming to his limitation minutes, check out the SABL Minutes link.
Check out the following links and enjoy: League Totals, Standings, Game Highs, Team Highs, League Leaders, Team Summaries.
The St. Lucie Aces continue their drive into league record books with a 53-3 record to lead the South. The next nearest team is the Brooklyn Tigers, our defending champs, at 26-6 atop the East Division. Next is Steve Walters' Galactic Gladiators, third in the league but second in the South at 30-12. After that is Richmond at 22-10 (second in the East) and fifth-best Finney is first in the West at 30-15. Sixth-best in the SABL is Miles, first in the North Division at 38-20.
30 days late, autoplay opponent's team
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 games and send the coach and me the game files. Please let me know if the games are autoplayed.
December games autoplayed on Feb. 10
January games autoplayed on March 10
Any outstanding December games I have not received game files for I will autoplay on Feb. 10, unless you contact me to ask permission to do so yourself. I will also autoplay any outstanding January games on March 10. I will also assess penalty points appropriately. 21 points and you're expelled from the SABL. Anyone who consistently falls a month behind schedule doesn't have time or the desire to do this hobby.
If you know you're going to be late, it just takes a second to email or phone your opponent and say "autoplay my team." It just takes a few seconds to look at the schedule and discover that your opponent is late with instructions and another second to email him to find out why. It just takes a couple of minutes to check our website and find out what is happening. Since we can send out instructions a month ahead of time, there is no reason all of us cannot keep on schedule. I'm not rescinding penalty points this year.
Along with the outstanding December games below, here is what I'm missing in January. Look 'em up on the schedule to find out if they are your games, you need the practice:
Day 56 - Games 6 & 16
Day 58 - Games 4, 9-12, 14, 16-18
Day 59 - Almost the entire day.
Day 60 - 7, 8, 10, 14
Day 61 - Almost the entire day.
Day 64 - Games 1-4, 9-11
Day 65 - Almost the entire day
Day 66 - The entire day
Day 67 - Almost the entire day
Day 68 - Game 4
Day 72 - Games 1-6
Day 73 - Almost the entire day
Day 74 - The entire day
Day 75 - Almost the entire day
Day 76 - Games 1-4 and 13-16
Day 80 & 81 - The entire days
Day 82 - Games 7-12
Day 83 - Almost the entire day
Coach Chris Feeney has mild heart attack
Tri-City Coach Chris Feeney has suffered a mild heart attack in Jamaica and will fall a few weeks behind schedule. His brother Kevin is taking over the team while he recuperates. Please await word from Kevin or Chris on any games you may have with Tri-City. DO NOT AUTOPLAY TRI-CITY!
Needless to say, this is a legit excuse for being late and Chris will not get any penalty points. Join me in wishing Chris a speedy recovery and return to SOM Basketball.
Penalty point report
It's not nearly as bad as the last two previous years, but some folks did end up with penalty points. Here's the latest and why they got 'em:
Chapel Hill - 1. Jan. 3, Day 59, Game 3, Akron at Chapel Hill. Why hasn't Chapel Hill autoplayed Akron? One point.
Akron - 1. Jan. 3, Game 1, Akron at Carolina. Why hasn't Dave autoplayed Carolina? 1 point.
Bettendorf - 3. For getting his email bolloxed up and not telling anybody until stuff got late. I don't have results for Day 45, Games 9 &10, the Richmond-Bettendorf series. Also late is Day 49, Games 12-14, Bettendorf at Carolina. These last three games should have been autoplayed. Bettendorf drops down in one notch in the draft.
Finney - 2, for a game over a month late - Day 40, St. Lucie at Finney.
Garden City - 2, for a game over a month late - Day 41, St. Lucie at Garden City. I also need Day 48, Game 7, Finney at Garden City. No point has been assessed for the latter game because the rest of the series I do have results for and I'm assuming that Josh didn't send the result by mistake or because I missed it somehow in all my emails.
Holcomb - 2, for another game over a month late, Galactic at Holcomb, Day 42, Game 2. I did not assess points for two other games I do not have: Day 26, Games 5 & 6, Holcomb at Garden City. I think I may have misplaced those two game files. I also need Day 49, Game 8, Meade at Holcomb. No point has been assessed for that last game, because I have the results of the three other Meade at Holcomb games.
Meade - 2, for Day 42, Game 7, Meade at Carolina. Weeks ago I asked everyone to autoplay Carolina's team.
Memphis - 1, for: Day 45, Game 4, Memphis at Great Lakes. Memphis should have autoplayed that Great Lakes game long ago and got this done, as instructed on our website.
St. Lucie - 1, for not gettings stats out sooner on our website.
I really hate to give out these points. Please stay on time. It's each coaches' responsibility to find out why folks are late with instructions and let me know. Every coach is especially responsible for their own home games. To the rest of you that are on time, thanks so much for our best year ever!
There were many games I did not give penalty points for, because of health and weather reasons and because I was not sure if I had just misplaced what you sent me. I also still need:
Day 48, Game 3, Deerfield at Akron
SABL stats repaired, league leaders coming
When I post stats again at the end of this month, we'll have everything! I repaired our corrupted stat file by isolating the game file that caused the corruption - it was a game file sent from one of our coaches and when I imported that file into our league stats, ka-blam! It boogered things up. Since I had a back-up set of league files, I was able to fix it.
We got lucky.
Dennis Derby takes over Great Lakes
Let's all welcome new Coach Dennis Derby who takes over the Great Lakes Magicians, effective with the Feb. 1 series. Please send all your instructions and results for all Great Lakes games scheduled in February to Dennis at DennisD871@aol.com
His mailing address is 3109 Jefferson, Davenport, IA 52803. His phone is 319-323-1151.
If you haven't played your February Great Lakes games, send some instructions and let Dennis do it. If you've already played those February games, please send Dennis a copy of the results. Please continue to autoplay the Great Lakes team for all December and January games.
Good luck Dennis! You are leading in the quest for the SABL's first draft pick next year!
Mark Feeney's new email address is . . .
bettdruid@derbyworks.net Please address all email to the Betterndorf Druid's coach to him at that new address.
December-January stats are on line!
Every team's stats are now on our website! Click on our Rosters & Stats link, click on the Stats link by your favorite team (ha ha) and enjoy!
Computer bug hampers league stats again
Well, I guess it was too good to last. Due to a new SOM computer basketball game bug (at least I've never seen this one before, and I've seen plenty), computer-compiled Primary League Leaders and 48-Minute Leaders will not be possible for our 1998-99 season. Raw Totals Leaders will be available, in a scrambled fashion. In addition, a couple of teams (Holcomb and Meade) will have slightly damaged team stats, as you will see when you follow the appropriate links.
Check out a new link I've created, Team Summaries, for a summary of the top statistical players on individual SABL teams, along with analysis.
I wish Strat-O-Matic would either port this game over to Windows and try to market and sell it properly or give up. If there were another computer basketball game with a good combination of statisical accuracy and complete draft-from-scratch freedom, I would consider switching to it. Please let me know if you know of any such games!
Trades in Jan. take effect Mar. 1
A reminder: The Dec. trading period ended Dec. 31. Any trades made from Jan. 1 - 31 go into effect March 1. Rosters will then freeze for the rest of the regular season and playoffs. All deals made after Jan. 31 will be for the 1999-2000 season, next year.
1999 standings are up, Aces and Tigers lead
With a month of play behind us, St. Lucie and Brooklyn are burning up the SABL so far. The Aces lead the South Division and the SABL with a 27-3 record, while defending champion Brooklyn is next at 15-2 in the East. The Finney Longhorns top the West at 28-12, while Miles is first in the cold North at 34-16. At the bottom of the heap is the coachless Magicians at 1-15, followed closely by Chapel Hill at 4-22. Finney's Michael Jordan leads the league in scoring with 30 points a game. Check out our Standings link for more.
Most teams have played about 20 games by now and if you haven't, you better get going before you earn some penalty points and go down in the draft order. Team stats and league leaders will be posted soon and after that, in-depth analysis of our SABL playoff races and teams. Keep up the great work!
Autoplay Jan-Feb. Great Lakes and Blocher
Still no coaches hired for these two teams, so autoplay these teams for all your January and February games and let's get these finished. If you know of anyone who wants to join us, let me know ASAP!
I'm back and so is the NBA! 1999 is rockin'!
I'm compiling all the stats you've sent while I've been on vacation - 88 emails! Wow! Thanks! Our first stat report should be on our website by Jan. 15 (probably much sooner). If I don't have all your December results by Jan. 20, I will start assessing penalty points, so let me know ASAP if you're having problems sending or receiving instructions or results. If I don't have your January results by Feb. 10, I will assess penalty points. If I don't have your February results by March 10, I will assess points. If I don't have your March results by April 10, I will assess points.
Autoplay Carolina's team for rest of season
Now my nephew's body is down as well as his SOM computer game. While Cody Beard is recovering, autoplay his team and get his December, January and February games played ASAP. He should be back with us for the playoffs, though, if his team makes it into the post-season.
SABL will have 100% rule in 1999-2000 regular season
There will be no lockout in the SABL next season! With a 50-game NBA season on its way in real-life this year, the SABL will simply have a 100% limitation rule instead of 25%. That means next SABL season, if a player played 1,000 real-life regular-season NBA minutes in 1999, he'll get 2,000 in the SABL's 82-game season. WE ARE GOING TO PLAY 82 GAMES EVEN THOUGH THE NBA IS NOT.
The 100% may sound too large, but normally, we have a 25% rule. 82 games plus 25% is 102.5 games, our normal guideline. To get to 100 games in a 50-game season, you have to add 100%. Let me know what you think.