Just before I took of for a week in Chicago, I was trying to prep for my MW Strat League by completing my computer manager, getting my lineups in, such so I could both meet the league deadlines and play my games.
As it was I had very little time, as a million things were crushing, asking to be completed, and since I had till Thursday to get my roster in, I thought I would simply load my game and league files on my flash drive, load that on my laptop, and do my lineups on the plane.
Then I could even play some of my games as I flew back home, which seemed kind of fun--except I did not realize that Strat-O-Matic protects their software even more than iTunes or Microsoft, and that I had to uninstall the files from my desktop before I could load the files on my laptop.
Talk about a pain, and whereas I can totally appreciate the Strat-O-Matic folks wanting to protect their game and its use (or abuse), even Microsoft lets a person use their software on a laptop and desktop, and Apple figures you can share files among five computers. So, I would like to think Strat-O could figure a way to do the same.
But, that is simply an appeal, and not why I am writing. As it was I contacted my leaguemates (who advised me that there really was not workaround to getting the files loaded on two machines), and Al Koman, our benevolent commissioner, told me to call him and that he would update my lineups, set my rotation, and update my computer managers (I have both an NL and AL team) and distribute them.
For this help I am more than grateful, although I am still sad I cannot play my games while flying home later in the week. As we were talking, and I was thanking Al for handling this mundane task for me, he not only said it was no problem, but noted he had to boot an owner who simply could not get his lineups in, play his games, or turn the files in month to month.
After six months of last minute pleas for Al to do this for him, Al understandably had enough and went to the waiting list and divvied out the team to a new owner.
As with anything else, the idea of playing in a league, or building a team is often a lot more fun than having to do the nuts and bolts involved with actually running a team and, playing by the rules.
Our MW league does have some pretty tight rules about playing and usage and getting files in on time, and violating those rules involves serious penalties such as losing spots and sometimes even a pick in the free agent draft held before each season begins.
In other words, that non-compliant former owner likely lost a first-round pick, or had a second-round pick dropped to the fourth round, or something else similar. Which, if you are into the game and building a team, is the kind of penalty that cuts to the core.
Worse, for the team that is out of sync, it suggests the team will never get better because by not following the format, they will never get a chance at selecting the top picks and prospects and building a loser into a winner.
And personally I get as much satisfaction out of rebuilding a team as I do winning with a team I rebuilt. Well, OK, almost as much, as very little beats winning.
But it does make me wonder why guys continue to play or start in such a league when they know they will not follow through or will lose interest, because playing by those rules is not really that hard--especially when the league is run by guys like Al and Dean Peterson who handle all those awful logistics and stuff.
If you have ever been a commish, you know what a pain it can be. It is really not that hard to play by the rules, and doing so makes the league so much better, competitive, and fun.