Spotlight on Stars

The Spotlight series will take a look at the career of each active manager in the league.

Stars (Stephen Arsenian) joined the league in 2004. Hailing from Paris, France, his addition made Hardball Heaven a truly international league.

There was a fair amount of skepticism that accompanied the addition of Stars. What could a Frenchman possibly know about American baseball? All skepticism was put to rest that first season as Stars finished the regular season in 2nd place with a very impressive record.

He repeated the feat in 2005 even though he spent the first few weeks of the season in dead last. With the championship vacated by the absence of Baseman Stars went on to claim the title. He has continued to be one of the top managers in the league setting a league record for single season wins with 156 in 2007. He narrowly missed winning his 2nd championship that year losing to REDS in the finals. Stars is the league leader for career winning % with .558.

As stated before Stars is from Paris, France where he enjoys a career in business administration. Like Baseman, Stars favorite team is the now defunct Montreal Expos. His favorite player is Bob Gibson. Below is a recap of Stars career based on Yahoo scoring.

Year	Playoff	Reg Sea	W	L	T	%	GB	Moves
2004	4	2	142	107	15	0.566	12.5	69
2005	1	2	134	111	19	0.544	8.5	58
2006	6	3	133	110	21	0.544	13.5	73
2007	2	1	156	93	15	0.619	-	59
2008	8	7	117	120	27	0.494	27.5	150
			682	541	97	0.558

After his record setting season in 2007, Stars posted his worst season since joining the league in 2008. His H-2-H record speaks for itself as only 3 teams have a winning record against him.

W=Wins against the listed team

	W	L	T	PF	PA
Squirrels	9	1	0	72	39
Champions	8	2	0	67	48
Hitters*	7	2	1	66	49
Baseman	5	3	0	50	37
Perjured*	5	4	1	64	47
Zonk	4	0	0	30	13
REDS	4	3	1	55	34
Ageless*	4	4	2	60	51
Halfway	4	5	1	52	59
Beagles*	3	2	1	33	33
Angels	3	3	0	38	30
Utica*	3	5	2	52	55
Plaz*	2	3	1	30	35
Panties	1	1	0	13	11
	62	38	10	682	541

*Indicates teams that have played under more than one team name

No doubt Stars wants to erase the memory of the 2008 season. Like Baseman, he would like to return to the glory days of those 1st couple of seasons. Unfortunately the parity in the league may have rendered the days of league supremacy for both of them a thing of the past.

Randy Stovall

Spotlight on BASEMAN

The Spotlight series will take a look at the career of each active manager in the league.

Baseman (aka Mark Porcher) joined the league our first season in 2003. He and Plaz were last minute addons to the league as it was about to launch with only 10 teams. I think no one can deny that was one fortunate day for Hardball Heaven. Baseman brought a level of expertise to the league that upped the ante for any manager with serious hopes of winning the league.

Baseman brought a tenacity to the league that brought out both the best and worst of opposing managers. No trade went unchallenged and he was quick to give his viewpoint on any league activity which, in addition to his winning ways, made him a marked man early on. Victories agains Baseman were especially rewarding.

Originally fromAnchorage, Alaska when he joined the league, Baseman now resides in Colorado with his wife. His carreer is in education. His favortie team is (was) the Montreal Expos although he may be warming up to his local Rockies by now. Baseman is also a fan of "The Big Red Machine" of old.

Baseman won the Championship that 1st season after finishing 2nd in the regular season. The next season he accomplished a feat that may never be repeated in Hardball Heaven. He was in 1st place after Week 1 and never relinquished that spot all season marching all the way to his 2nd Championhip!

After taking 2005 off from the league Baseman returned to his winning ways in in 2006 winning his 3rd Championship in as many years in the league. Below is a recap of Baseman's carreer in the league based on Yahoo scoring

Year	Playoff	Reg Sea	W	L	T	%	GB	Moves
2003	1	2	137	99	16	0.575	10.5	27
2004	1	1	150	90	24	0.614		50
2006	1	5	129	114	21	0.528	17.5	73
2007	11	9	115	131	18	0.470	39.5	99
2008	5	6	121	121	22	0.500	26	109
			652	555	101	0.540

As you can see his early success is getting harder to come by as the league continues to get more and more competitive. A look at Baseman's H-2-H record against opposing teams tells the tale as he has had a mixed bag of success against individual teams across the seasons.

W=Wins against the listed team

	W	L	T	PF	PA
Hitters*	8	2	0	71	40
Beagles*	6	0	0	50	20
Ageless	6	3	1	48	48
Perjured*	5	5	0	59	53
Squirrels	5	3	0	55	36
Champions	5	5	0	52	63
Plasmatics*	5	2	1	50	41
Utica*	4	6	0	53	59
Halfway	4	6	0	46	57
REDS	4	1	1	36	28
Stars	3	5	0	37	50
Panites	3	1	0	32	13
Angels	2	2	0	21	24
fried bread	2	0	0	15	7
Bynkgiambi	2	0	0	14	7
Zonk	1	1	0	13	9
	65	42	3	652	555

* indicates teams that have played under more than one team name

Since returning in 2006 Baseman has been one of the standard bearers of the league. His contributions both as a manager and an active participant on the message boards have endeared him to all managers. He remains the only "repeat champion" in the history of the league.

Baseman's one desire is to return to prominence in the league he once owned. Unfortunately he may have taught us too well.

Randy Stovall (Halfway Hardballers)

Hall of Fame???

Just looking at an article speculating who will get inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. Personally I think Cooperstown could better be referred to as the"Hall of Shame" right now. There can be no legitimate Hall of Fame unless it includes possibly the greatest player of all time. That's right, Charlie Hustle himself.

Regardless of where you stand on the gambling issue, Rose epitomized all that was good about baseball during the vast majority of his career. He gave 100% all the time, he was ultra-competitive and most of all he appreciated the fans.

Here is my real life brush with the great one.

When I was about 12-13 yrs old our little league took the All-Star Team members to watch a Cincinnati game. They were playing Houston that night (Joe Morgan stilled played 2nd base for them at that time) and after 3 rain delays the Reds overcame a 7 run deficit to win the game. Because of the rain delays the game did not end until after midnight.

As soon as the game was over several of us kids went running to the exit door of the dressing room (yes you could still do that back then). First player out that we recognized was Angel Bravo who was little more than a role player for the team. We converged on him for an autograph but he quickly told us "In a hurry guys, gotta go". (After he forced his way through us kids, a female voice was heard saying "Hey Angel". He was still talking to her when we eventually left.)

Next out was Johnny Bench, again like a pack of hyenas we swarmed on him for autographs, he mostly ignored us, walked to his car with us in tow, opened the door, sat down and then signed 1 autograph and then the ole "Gotta go boys" and off he went.

A few more players made their way out and for the most part they blew right by us kids but then out came Pete. Once again we swarmed him like a bunch of crazed hornets. He stopped right outside the door, told us kids to take it easy, and then proceeded to start signing autographs. He even double checked to make sure he didn't miss anyone before he left.

We all know the legitimacy of his stats. We all know of his undieing love for the game. I can attest to his appreciation of fans, even a pack of relentless, irreverent kids. And his biggest crime? He bet on himself?

I can handle the baseball ban for a period to set a proper example for future players as well as the kids like us that looked up to him. But enough is enough! He has paid his price! Get him in the Hall of Fame or change the name one or the other. Regardless of his shortcomings he deserves to be there!

No doubt he will someday make it to the Hall of Fame. I just hope for his sake and baseball's in general that it is not done post mortem.

Halfway Hardballers

Best viewed with....

Different browsers give different results it seems. I am a personal fan of Firefox and as such checked the looks of things using it. I was at Mike's last night and he is an IE user (eck) and the table in the one post didn't look quite right. Opened it in Firefox on the same computer and it looked fine.

If any of you are still using IE (Internet Explorer), and I can't imagine why any of you would be, then I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to switch to Firefox. I believe things will look equally good in Google Chrome as well. If any of you are having problems with things always looking screwy on you browser then let me know and I will see if I need to change formatting or something.

jrstovall@gmail.com

In our thoughts...

All of us use fantasy sports as a way to get away from the "real world" for just a little while each day. Every once in a while, though, reality has a way of smacking us right upside the head. And when that happens to one of the gang I think we all cringe just a little bit.

Such has happened to Ed (aka Champions) this week. Some of you may have received the e-mail from him concerning the unfortunate incident at their home in Oklahoma. I won't try and detail the damage but suffice it to say a ruptured water line in the residence wreaked a tremendous amount of damage. Initial estimates are in the $40,000 - $50,000 range.

The good news, this is not their primary residence. Also, this is material and can in time be replaced. All the same our hearts go out to you Ed.

The "Gift"

Mixed in with the standard fare of shirts, books and other assorted "safe" goodies was "The Gift".

Fellow Hardballer and neighbor Mike (aka Ageless) had maneuvered around and got my name in the annual name draw. I could tell from the outset that there was something a little different about this gift as it had some heft to it. I could also discern that there were more than a couple of people awaiting my reaction when I opened it.

Inside I found my most cherished gift of the season! A trophy with the inscription:

Hardball Heaven
Halfway Hardballers
Regular Season
2008 Champs

Thanks Mike, I owe you one. You sure know how to pick a winner

This is a test...

Just to see how difficult it is to post tables in here.

A little recap of last season.

Rank	Team	W-L-T		Pct	GB	Moves
1	Plasmatics	140-101-23		0.574	6.5	72
2	Ageless One	126-118-20		0.515	22	45
3	Perjured	132-102-30		0.557	11	40
4	Halfway Hardballers	147-95-22		0.598	-	46
5	BASEMAN	121-121-22		0.500	26	109
6	Zonk	123-116-25		0.513	22.5	109
7	REDS	95-156-13		0.384	56.5	71
8	Stars	117-120-27		0.494	27.5	150
9	NY Uticans	118-125-21		0.487	29.5	164
10	Blind Squirrels	109-142-13		0.438	42.5	78
11	Champions	110-128-26		0.466	35	29
12	Tenn Hitters	116-130-18		0.473	33	58

Not bad. Haven't figured out how to get the cell borders in but not bad.

All I did was put this info on an Excel spreadsheet and then c/p directly to the "Compose" page of this post. I did have to add a couple of empty columns on the spreadsheet in order to seperate the data so it didn't all run together. The best part is.... you can preview it before you post it to make sure it looks ok. However if you need to delete the table because it didn't turn out right I had to go to "Edit Html" and delete it there.

In order to post...

I am trying to set this up so that any manager may make a new post to this blog. In order to do that you have to have a Google account in order to sign in. However, if I understand it correctly, you do not actually have to set up a Google e-mail account. You can use another email account (IE: Yahoo Mail) and set it up that way. More than likely what you will need to use is the same account that you received the notification email. I have set those email accounts as authorized to post. If any of you are having problems getting to sign in to make a post send me and email at jrstovall@gmail.com and I will see if I can help. Also as I fool with this I hope to be able to answer any questions as to how to add certain elements to a post such as a table (spreadsheet), photos and other things. Likewise if any of you know of or discover a capability please share it with the others.

All of you should be able to comment on a post regardless. I have it set up so that the public can post comment.

This is not in any way an attempt to diminish the message board in the league. That is where the main smack and regular business will take place. This is just a place to make a post that we want to keep and not have it roll off the page after so many posts. These posts will remain for a long time to come I hope.

Hope everyone is starting their conditioning! Spring training is just around the corner and then "THE SEASON" !!