Three Months Later

Many things have taken place over these last three months for myself as well as for everyone else. 

I think we can all agree that it has been a long three months, for many reasons and for some obvious reasons. 2020 alone was exhausting, I believe I aged five years over the calendar year. The long toll has definitely crippled our senses while rising our anxieties.

And you may have noticed, yes...

It's been three months since I have posted anything (October 14th) on The Boys of Summer and that post was supposed to part of a series. The post drought was my longest period without posting, in its entire 8-year existence. Blogger has gone through some changes, and I wasn't thrilled with the changes for this blog service, and with that I will be making a transition to a new blog service with the same title, and eventually I will lead you readers in the direction to that site once its up.

Until then...

The Boys of Summer will continue on here for the time being. 

Part of the reason for the long writing drought, was that I was emotionally & physically drained.

So to pick up from my last post, there was the few weeks leading up to the dreaded Election Day. An election in which its results were destined to disappoint half of the country, regardless who you were voting for. I took my week's paid vacation that week, and knocked out many games for my AGBA League project (which I will get to later in this post). I decided to take my vacation that week, because I knew my wife (who deals with anxiety issues) would be a possible mess that week... hell, who am I kidding? I took the vacation for my well-being as well. 

There was the strange holidays in which we didn't visit family or was visited by family due to the proper protocols to keep ourselves, particularly my wife (who's high risk) safe from Coronavirus. 

Plenty of my readers would recall that my wife had a health scare starting in August 2019 in which the doctor found a cancerous tumor on her right lung. She would eventually have surgery in late October that year, in which she would stay in the hospital for at least three weeks in the hospital. Two-thirds of her top right lung was removed, and it was the great APBA community to get us through those tough months ahead. 

Despite feeling blessed that the surgery went well, catching the tumor in good time, and having my wife beat cancer -- Becky and I, cursed 2019 out the door and thought 2020 would be a great year. It turned out to be the worst year not only in our lifetimes, but for most peoples' lifetimes.

Oh, don't worry, I don't plan to talk about the entire awful year of 2020.... Certainly, let's move forward as much as possible.

I will mention that we were blessed to have my mother beat COVID-19 as she got out of the hospital by Christmas time. It was believed that with all her health problems, if she got COVID she would be "toast" as most of the doctors put it. My mom was in the hospital back in August 2020 with kidney issues, and with no spleen she had a hard time (three weeks in hospital) fighting those issues. So when we heard she contacted COVID through her dialysis group, the news was like a punch to the gut.... but it all turned out for the best, as she proves time and time again that she has lady luck on her side (surviving two major heart attacks as well).

So the awful year could have really ended on a much more horrible note.

I have had to deal with tendonitis issues in my right arm in the forearm, elbow and bicep areas. Being right-handed plenty of rest was needed and recommended by the doctor, and although I could have kept rolling with my left arm with the dice tower, I decided not to play much of December. I decided to dedicate myself to keeping Becky's spirits as high as they could possibly get in December & the holiday season despite all the crazy circumstances.

Once again my regular readers would remember that our cat, our daughter of 14 1/2 years passed away back in August. We were completely broken-hearted saying goodbye to our little panther cub Isabelle. To put it into perspective, Isabelle was in Becky's life before I was in Becky's life. 

We never would have imagined that a month later we would have adopted two litter mates (brothers) in Castor & Pollux (Cass and Polly for short) -- born last week of May or first week of June, making them Geminis... So we named them after the Gemini Twins from Greek Mythology. The two brothers were actually part of a cat colony that broke out on my folks' farm. We didn't plan on adopting, we went out there to look at them, or at least that's what I thought. To be honest, I think Becky knew all along our trip to my parents' house that we were coming home with two kitties.

These two boys have been a great blessing for Becky and I, and therapeutic at the same time. By the way, you can follow these two handsome devils on Instagram (thecastorandpolluxshow).

Now onto some APBA news, I started a league called the APBA Galaxy Baseball Association (AGBA, and yes its pronounced AG-BAH). You can go back and read about the genesis of the league & league setup in previous Boys of Summer posts back in June, for more details on the project. In short, AGBA has 36 teams separated into three 12 team leagues, with two divisions in each of those leagues. Those three leagues are named the Eastern, Central & Western Leagues. The teams have 30 players on the big league roster, and 10 players on a reserve roster. The 30 players are comprised of 10 players from 1968, 1993 & 2018 -- A fifty-year span with 25 years separating between the three time periods. The next season will consist of 1969, 1994 & 2019 -- there can be no less or no more than 10 players from each period. 

The AGBA season has already witnessed three no-hitters, starting with Bob Veale's no-no for the Pittsburgh Arsenal, then followed by the St. Louis Saints' Bob Gibson & Atlanta Firebirds' Greg Maddux.

I will do more posts about what's actually going on during the AGBA season, all while I work on a site for that league.

The season is coming along nicely, it's been a lot of fun! I am about to start playing games #13, #14 & #15 for each team. I am overall happy with the pace, I always knew this first season would take some time since I am still involved with the 1978 APBA Replay with my brother Chris (which you can follow on the Delphi Forums' APBA Between the Lines -- Look for the handle 'Brothers in Dice' or my name shawnbaier76 on there).

I am about to leave Facebook a week from now, the reasons why will come out in another post. If you are already Facebook friends, shoot me some PM's through Messenger, we can exchange digits & email accounts. For people who want to be part of my AGBA email chain, for AGBA news also let me know.

Until next time...

Culmination Pt.1 (The beginning of...)

Back in February 2013, I started this blog as an outlet to get away from the ugly world of everyday life, politics, and all of the other negative things that can bog you down. We all have a place where we can escape. Throughout my life, I either drew pictures or played APBA Baseball, a game that I was introduced to by my father as a kid. 

My old man and his friends were in a APBA league with probably close to 20 teams, give or take. I remember all the excitement that used to take place between him and his friends while knocking out series against one another. Lots of laughter, smiles, and conversation. I remember going pass the table with my eye level barely over the table, and noticed all the colored numbers on the cards with the names in bigger print. I didn't realize during the time that I would grow to love these cards. I believe part of the lure was that I saw how the game brought my dad and friends happiness, and that if it brings them happiness, it must be a really fun game. My dad worked his butt off at a factory that made parts for General Motors, working long and good hours, and APBA Baseball, along with some drinks, smoke and friends was the way for all of them to kick back their heals after a long work day or work week. Plus my dad would have the record player going, listening to the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Bowie, Elvis Costello, XTC, or whoever (you name it! My dad had 3,000 records, the best stuff).

I grew up as a 80's kid, 90's teen, and my love for baseball started probably with the 1984 Detroit Tigers and that magical season. The next season my dad would slowly start allowing us to collect baseball cards, starting with the beautiful design of those 1985 Topps Baseball Cards. The color scheme caught the eye, while I was getting more familiar with the team names and logos. 

Then came the 1986 MLB Postseason, one for the ages, and one that sealed the deal for me... I would forever breathe, sleep, and bleed baseball. I remember the Red Sox' Dave Henderson slamming the home run off California's Donnie Moore, the Mets-Astros series, and then of course, the amazing World Series that capped it all off. That's all that anyone could talk about on the playground was Mookie's grounder going past Buckner's old legs. The next season would be the year that I officially collected baseball cards in the 1987 Topps. 

Prior to my 15th birthday, we moved up north from Waterford, Michigan to Kingsley, Michigan (just south of Traverse City). New high school, a new town... small town. It was quite the culture shock to tell you the truth, and it was my sophomore high school year, during my 16th birthday, that I got my first APBA Baseball game (1991 APBA Baseball). What a sweet sixteenth indeed! The magic and joy of holding those cards, and going through all the envelopes, and knowing they are your very own.

With my love for the game, it only made sense to share this love for the game with my new friends. We had 6 people with 2 teams each, a twelve team league. They fell in love with the game as well. I saw how much happiness it brought my dad and his friends, and I wanted to experience the same with others. I continued to introduce the game to others while I served my country for the United States Navy. At my 'A' school in 1996, I introduced the game to a few of my shipmates. One of my good buddies Joe Mucha enjoyed the game so much, that we once tried to squeeze a game out right before uniform inspection, and let me tell you we cut it very close, we had to double-time it to get to formation, which resulted in some shin splints.

Once I got to Fort Gordon in 1997, I showed the game to a few new friends. They were all into computers and wondered if APBA made a computer game to make it simpler for us to run a league, while not having to do all the stats, and that's when I started playing APBA Baseball for Windows (BBW). We would start a Navy league that would run nearly 10 years until life took over, they all started having kids. I started diving back into the cards around 2004 (the APBA BATS 1 set), when I ended up being dumped in a relationship. With plenty of time on my hands I started a 64-game season with the 26 original MLB teams - the franchise's best players up to 1998.

I continued to play that season into the early days of my marriage (finishing the season sometime in 2008) with Becky. Becky has been a blessing, and I don't know where I would be without her. Not only she enjoys that I have a fun hobby in APBA Baseball, but she finds the dice-rolling soothing... Keeper!

By the way, I played the all-time franchises in the 4 division setup, with the Detroit Tigers catching the New York Yankees on the last day, forcing a tie-breaking game which Detroit won. The Oakland Athletics won the A.L. West, while the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants came out of the National League. The Tigers swept Oakland, while the Cubs won in seven games. Then Detroit cooled off, getting swept by the Cubbies. 

Becky and I were married in October 2006, and like many young couples we had our financial struggles, to tell you the truth it has never been financially easy throughout our close-to-fourteen years. We would eventually declare bankruptcy, as we could not gain traction through the recession. We tried our best for five years trying to get our heads above water, which the lawyer would go on and tell us that we should have come to him like three years earlier. It was my pride and hard work that prevented us from going to him sooner, I don't like handouts, and I don't like asking for help... It's tough for me to do. 

There is a few things that you may want to know about me, things I take complete pride in and that's...

1) Working hard for a living.

2) I wear my heart on my sleeve, and always look out for others.

3) I never lie

And to be accused of any of these things really strikes me to the core, in the same manner that Back to the Future's Marty McFly hates being called Chicken. And if you wrong me in those areas, I hold serious grudges for significantly long periods of time.

It was the summer of 2012, I wasn't happy with my job at the time, and that year's election was starting to heat up. The wife and I just hopped into the car and drove around beautiful stretches around the Grand Traverse area, and just talked about things that was getting us down, the job, and questioning God's plan for us. We decided that I needed to look for a new job, while placing our faith in God. It was him that led us to each other, and there was no doubt about it. I will have to tell you that glorious story one of these days, and once I do, you too will have no doubt that it was God's will.

After a good drive, I went back home, and started thinking about APBA again (which faded in the recent years). I went onto Facebook and decided to do a search, and that's when I found Thomas Nelshoppen's 'The APBA Blog'. Another blog I fell in love with was, Kenneth Heard's 'Love, Life and APBA Baseball' I decided to walk away from my other blog, that was inspired by my love for Batman, which also was about politics, and the entertainment business. I decided to start a new blog named The Boys of Summer. Besides a couple posts here and there, I didn't truly start writing until February 2013. 

During that summer of 2012, I also found a Facebook Group -- The APBA Facebook Group. When I joined I was in the 700's for membership I believe, it has grown over 3,000 members since joining. I met friends right away, and started purchasing APBA cards again. As the year came to an end, I bought the Greatest Teams of the Past I & II (GTOP I & II) with the intention of buying GTOP III with tax money in early 2013, for a 64-team tournament project. I started the tournament, but shifted gears and made a 48-team project called the Crazy 48's, 8 divisions of 6-teams each. 

The blog started rolling in 2013, and by that summer, I realized friends from the APBA Facebook Group were really enjoying my project and blog. One of my earlier friends was one of the co-hosts of the upcoming Chicagoland Fall Tournament, and it was during that trip to Chicago, riding with Rich Zawadzki, that a whole new world was going to open up. To my surprise when we got there, I mentioned my name (while introducing ourselves to the others standing outside of the tourney) and three to four people right away, said "Shawn from The Boys of Summer?" 

"Why Yes"

Apparently my blog was more popular than I ever realized. I used pictures a lot to my blog pieces, so I do know that if someone connects to a picture they liked, that that can be counted as a hit. So I really didn't think much about the actual statistics to the site. In April 2013, I had my most for a month at that point with 793, which then doubled the next month. I would not dip below 1,000 the remainder of that year, with my blog ranging from 1,200 to its height of 1,646 hits. My post about that Chicagoland Tournament would qualify for 1,350 hits in a 1,585 hits month.

My tournament posts would go on to attract people more than the other posts, and are among my biggest posts all-time numbers. Almost half of my top 20 posts, are related to face-to-face tournaments. That is a lot of free advertising through the years. I often say that the Chicagoland Fall 2013 Tournament was the spark that generated the tournament explosion, and my friend Thomas from The APBA Blog even agreed on that point. At the time, I was modest about it, and for years to follow, but looking back we as writers contributed in a major way to these tournaments, and they would not have caught on like they did if it were not for our help. Jim's APBA Barn, another great blog, was also another major contributor to this big bang moment for tournaments as well, especially for the Twin Cities APBA Baseball Tournament.

For The Boys of Summer Blog, it would completely break out during 2016, with three months registering 2526, 3423 & 3774 hits, while I would be regularly recording 2,000 hit months throughout 2016, while regularly recording about 2,800+ from 2018 forward -- with a peak month of 4,196 hits in November 2019. 

The numbers don't reflect the time, dedication & heart that goes into these posts. I have done 885 posts up to this point (with just under 157,000 hits) and I can't tell you how many I started that didn't go anywhere, drafts that died before they ever seen the light of day. The most popular APBA Tournament post is GMABT IV: Nice Guys Finish First (Spatz & Zawadzki), a tournament piece that I done, which may not be among my best written, while I was not present at that tournament like most of my tournament pieces... 

but if you read them, you would have thought I was there, and that was the intention, I wanted these articles to be intimate like that. 

Here's a list of APBA Tournaments that I wrote about through the years...

(Click and read)

• Raise Your Glasses to the Glass City (GCABT-V)
• It's Tournament Season!
• Rolling Again in Michigan! (GMABT III Results)
• Rookies Shine at Chicagoland Fall Tourney
• Mosher's 1961 Yankees Wins Grand Rapids Tourney
• Smitten with APBA in the Mitten
• GMABT III - Divisions Announced!
• Say Yes to Greater Michigan (GMABT II)
• Fantasies Do Come True (Chicagoland Summer 2016)
• It's Always Sunny in APBAland (PA Hosts Two)
• Chicago World Series Fall 2015
• Brothers United ("The Spark") - Chicagoland 2013
• My Chicagoland 2013 Fall Results Game #4
• Another Success at Slippery Rock

I wrote these articles not because I was asked to, I wrote them on my free will, because I loved my APBA community and the friends that came with it. These articles are never easy, but they were written to inspire others that loved the game of APBA to give face-to-face tournaments a chance. At the time when these articles were written, the responses and appreciation for these articles seem to be have been genuine. 

Over time, I unfortunately would come to realize that people tend to only live in the moment, while they forget how much you supported them, going above and beyond with my big, delicate heart. It hurts sometimes when reflecting on the past, but I know it was once a fun time.

We are all human, we all make mistakes, and I am no different.

This concludes Part 1

A Brief Hold-Up

So sorry that I haven't wrote in awhile, lots going on.

First off, I am not overly thrilled with the changes that blogger.com has done. I couldn't even download pictures of our late cat Isabelle for my previous blog piece, which left me incredibly frustrated and a little deflated which prevented me to post for some time.

This is easily my worst year blogging on this site, which is fitting because its easily the worst year in all of our existences. So it's been much more difficult to write when the world keeps bogging us down. The wife and I have been a strong effort on all ends to communicate when one is down, and have been leaning on one another during this troubling time.

My mother is back in the hospital after she had to stay a full week last time. She was admitted the first time, the day after we had to put our Isabelle down. My mom got out since then, and on the day of her birthday, the 29th of August she was admitted once again. She has had really bad luck with her birthday, since it was her birthday four years ago that she had her second massive heart attack which after a few days of being in a coma, she fought back to be with us, and has not touched a cigarette since. 

Keep my mother in your thoughts and prayers.

I am sure that I am not the only one going through things these days, so I hope that my readers are hanging in there as well. My Culmination series, plus a post called 'The Incident' will be making their rounds eventually.

In a year that just won't end -- all I can say is hang in there, God bless!

Isabelle

 My wife and I were never able to have children, we tried and tried, and also understood that our odds were against us while she battled PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), and I would later find out that there may have been reasons why I couldn't procreate as well. We are a great combination in everything else, but for procreation purposes it was never mean't to be. During the recession, I guess we could have explored adoption options or any medical procedures to better our chances to have children, but we had a lot of financial issues which eventually led to a bankruptcy.

As we got older, we realized if it was mean't to be, God would make that happen for us. It was God that led us to one another, and it was God that led Becky to Isabelle.

Isabelle was our daughter, and although she was not our human daughter, our little petite Bombay feline was our daughter none the less. Our whole world evolved around her, and she knew it. We spoiled her, and although she was not a needy cat, she did love attention and she really enjoyed it when all three of us were together. She was in our lives for quite some time. To put it in perspective on how long Izzy has been with us, she was in my wife Becky's life before I even was. Becky and I, will be celebrating our 14th Wedding Anniversary this October.

Bombays are for people that prefer dogs, that may be thinking of having a cat. They are dog-like in many aspects compared to most cats. Isabelle knew when we were going through some emotional situations and she would cater to our needs. She also played fetch, in which she would retrieve the ball, hair-tie, bread twisty, and even rolled-up socks in the same manner as an obedient dog. She was very vocal in letting us know what she wanted, and definitely knew the art of persuasion and when to beg. 

Isabelle had her routines. She was always at the door to greet her mom when she got home, in which she wanted Becky's shoulder. I would get home she would greet me at the door, walk away and go straight for the bathroom, where she would meet me at the bathroom sink for what Becky called 'Wet Pets', in which Isabelle would drink from the faucet that had a light stream constantly going, and I would pet her in which she would purr away. 

I would proceed to go take my shower, and once I was done she would then go to the now vacant bathtub in which Isabelle would play in the leftover water in the tub, drinking the water or while cleaning herself. We used to have a water bowl next to the sink, and when I would get ready for work (using the sink to shave), she would mimic me somewhat dipping her paw in the water while wiping her paw to her face. Becky would come in every time, "Our you having face time with Daddy?" 

After my morning showers after work, I would proceed to the kitchen to have a bowl of cereal, sit on the sofa, while watching the morning news. She would lay against my side, and sometimes impatiently would be demanding my cereal milk before I was done with it. Patience was definitely not one of her skill sets. Depending on the cereal she would drink it the milk, other times she would sniff it and then roll her nose while walking away as if I just publicly offended her or something.

To not confuse my readers, I work overnights, which means once I get off work between 6 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., I would head home, and then would go to bed usually between 8 am to 9 am, while sleeping until 3:30 to 4:30 or whatever. 

Some mornings after a shower and breakfast, sometimes while having breakfast, I would work on some APBA Baseball stats, blogging or some other database stuff. I would do this computer work until Isabelle would start crying for me to go to bed, because that's what she did with us, she called the shots or liked to think that she did. And from time to time, she would continue to do so, and I would be like "Give me 10 minutes" and she would walk away. The worst (or at least the worst for her) was when she gave up, and would already be curled up at the foot of my side of the bed, and I would come in set the white noise sound machine (I do night sounds) while slipping off my slippers -- all while Isabelle would be peaking with this look like "Are you seriously going to disrupt my sleep?" 

She would get up while I was getting comfortable in the bed, she would go to the box or snack on some cat food, and then she would come back to bed, in which was our go-to-sleep routine, she would eventually settle on my left hip. She slept on me, because her mom is the wiggle-worm. Isabelle slept on Becky if Becky was laying on her back. All three of us would have cuddle sessions in which Isabelle would lay on Becky while we both pet Isabelle while we just talked about everything under the sun. Isabelle really loved times like these, I wished that we did it more like the old days, at the end of her life.

Isabelle also hated it when Daddy left for work, she has at times laid across my work shoes or work jacket in an attempt to either stop me from going to work, or had her thinking that she could come with me. Sometimes while I am gathering up my things to head off for work, she would suddenly get in a playful mood, running around the apartment all bat-shit crazy "You don't want to go to work daddy, you want to stay here and play". As if it was that easy.

Sometimes I left for work, only to find a text message five minutes later from Becky "Someone's crying."

Sometimes she would lay on the ground, and do the cute roll-over beg, in which she is also saying 'please don't go' or 'I want something'. She did that when she wanted wet food, which she always had at almost 8 am on the dot, sometimes earlier, sometimes a bit later.... but most often then not, eight on the dot, which made us think she actually could read time. Daylights savings sometimes threw her off, but she usually adjusted pretty good to that.

She didn't interrupt my APBA games in the Kitty-delay matter that many cats have done to some of my other fellow APBA players. I think she knew better not to walk on the dinner table, we did allow her access to the bathroom counter, window sills, and the coffee table though. Right when I was always going to start logging stats on the computer though, she seemed to have a spider sense to delay that stat-keeping, with her suddenly wanting to be held in my lap. She also knew not to walk on my APBA cards, which was interesting because the cat my brother and I had, would safely walk around our baseball cards that we collected. I believe they knew how important those things were to us, and I believe Isabelle knew how much I loved my APBA Baseball.

Due to my schedule, I always stayed up overnights on my days off as well, to keep my body's sleep schedule regular. And due to that, sometimes Becky would sleep on the couch, while I played APBA games at the table, so that Isabelle could lay on her, while watching her daddy rolls sixty-sixes. My wife Becky by the way finds my dice-rolling soothing, maybe Isabelle did too.

Over the 14 years-and-half that Isabelle was in our lives. Isabelle has inspired my custom card company named Izzy Productions, while I also named my APBA team in the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League, the Traverse City Panthers.

She was our world, and we unfortunately had to dim the lights in our world, a week ago from today. Last Thursday, August 6th at 9:30 am, we said goodbye to Isabelle. 

[I wanted to add pictures, but the new Blogger setup is having server problems & drawbacks]

Three-Part Culmination Series to Come

The upcoming three-part Culmination series is a group of the hardest pieces I have ever had to write. It's about my life with APBA Baseball, my Boys of Summer blog, the community and the friends that I have gained and lost through the years. The articles will be about the memories along the way, and all the heart, time & dedication that went into every single bit of it. The articles will be daring, raw & full of emotions, in which I had to dig deep, get things off my chest, regardless of the price.

I never cared for the APBA prestige, never cared for the APBA Hall of Fame. All I ever cared for was the APBA universe as a whole, and the people inside of it. It was a place that I could escape to, to get away from the ugly aspects of everyday life. Other people may be hungry for the accolades, I am not. These two disparities and the sad truth that even the darkness from outside of APBA has a tendency to invade what I once called my sanctuary.

A year ago from today, my wife starting getting sick with bronchitis to start off the month of August. We would come to find out she had a cancerous tumor that had to be removed. So much has happened since in the past year for everyone, and for many of us this year is uncharacteristically different from others, which means that people may uncharacteristically act or react to a whole great ordeal of things that come their way.

In the end, we are all human, and we all make mistakes.