Power Pros Forum

He still hasn't.

Jack & Jill - instant classic.

Heh.

How'd you know that's what I was referring to?

Dude, That's My Boy is where it's at.

July 15th, 2003

I watched the All-Star game pregame halfheartedly from my office. I wasn't really required to come in that day, but I had some thinking to do, and I always thought best in my office.

It was about 7:20 when my assistant, Adrian Andrews, stepped in.

"Mr. Weaver?"
I flipped off the television.
"Hi Adrian, how are you?" I greeted her
Adrian was not one for chit chat.
"Mr. Weaver," she began, "a lot of critics are, well, criticizing you- are you listening?"
"What?"
"Mr. Weaver. The team is five games back and you've hardly lifted a finger in the last two years," she stated firmly.
"Well, it hasn't been quite two years-"
"I suggest you do something about the directions this team is heading."
"I will."
"I'm serious, Mr. Weaver! The Giants are-"
"Sure, just, check the trading block or whatever and get back to me tomorrow. I have a meeting."
"Mr. Weaver!"
I walked out.

As I stepped into the elevator, I felt around in my right pocket, to make sure it was still there. Not that it could've gone anywhere I guess. I felt it around for a bit, and then it hit me. I'm really going to do this, I said to myself. I checked my watch: 7:30. I had plenty of time to get to our 8:00 reservation.

The drive over, I caught myself speeding several times; I suppose it was the anxiety about arriving on time. I came to the realization that if I got pulled over I would surely be late, so I made a conscious effort to slow it down.

I got to the restaurant in plenty of time. A few minutes later she showed up.

All throughout dinner I was distant.
"Are you feeling all right, Matt?" she asked.
"What?" I said, startled. "Yeah, I'm fine. Good. I'm good."
"Matt, you need to just ignore what everyone says. You're doing a great job," she assured me.
"No, it's not that... I'm just... nervous about something."
"What is it?"
"I... I can't tell you."
"Of course you can!"
"No... not this."
This upset her. Our food came. I hardly ate.
"Matt, you're not eating," she pointed out.
"Oh, uh," I looked down, "I guess not."
"Seriously, you can tell me."
"Are you sure you want to know?"
"It'll feel good to tell someone."
I nodded.

I stood up, looked around, dug into my pocket, and took a knee.

Loss of 2 yards on the play.

Your updates, they are amazing.

Indeed, but when are you gonna start playing the games?

I cried woman tears at this

Funny, I felt this was more of a "Werewolf tears" moment. Oh, well. Different strokes, I guess.

My plan is somehwere between five and ten more updates before the first game. After that, it'll be mostly games for a while.

It might actually be less, now that I think about it. The next update will probably be March, 2015.

Between 5 and 10! Ok...

February 19th, 2015

Finally, after over four months, it has come. By "it", I'm of course referring to Spring Training; today, pitchers and catchers reported for Spring Training.

I hadn't had a lot to do over the off-season... ever since I finished talking to players the only thing left to do was find a staff. I had my hitting coach, pitching coach, bench coach, bullpen coach, first and third base coaches, trainers, and a whole slew of minor league coaches and . Most importantly, though, I had gotten a manager, and a damn good one at that.

His name is Stone.

Not much is known about the man; in fact, it would probably take a lot of digging to even find out his first name, that is if he even has one. One thing that is known, however, is his tremendous ability. He managed several teams for 20-some years, leading team after team deep into the playoffs but never winning a ring. He got his shot again in 1999 as the manager of the Atlanta Braves, but they were swept by the ever-dominant Yankees. Stone left his letter of resignation on the desk of the team's owner and vanished for nearly five years.

Then, in 2004, rumors began to surface. He had supposedly been spotted by college students at one Powerful University as the baseball team's head coach. Many discarded these rumors, as Stone would supposedly never be caught dead at such a lowly college; however, many claimed that Rudy Fox, one of the scouts who had worked for Stone on the Braves and a good friend of his, had convinced him to take on the job. Suddenly, in just his second year as coach in 2005, the Tulips defied all odds and advance to the College Kings Series (ironically held at Rainbow Beach Stadium, which the Gunmen have now purchased). The games were televised, and the rumors were confirmed: Stone had made his return to baseball.

After 2006, after capturing the elusive title for the first time in Tulips history, Stone disappeared once again. Reportedly, several teams offered him large contracts, but he declined. It wasn't until 2013 that he finally made another return to the game, taking on the task of managing the Texas Rangers. After two unsuccessful seasons and just 125 wins, he was fired again and officially declared "washed-up". I decided they were wrong though, and in December, after two weeks of tracking him down and talking to people I hope didn't keep my number, I made that fateful call. It took some work, but I convinced him to do the job.

So, today, I headed to Circus Park at around 9:00, where the players had begun to congregate. Many were stretching and working with the trainers, while the two I determined to be Matt McCarthy and Patrick Warr played catch. I introduced myself to our hitting coach, Tim McCarver, our pitching coach, Manny Cortés, and our bench coach, Stanley Ross. They seemed like good guys, but I was confused.

"Have any of you seen Stone?" I asked.
I then found out that McCarver and Cortés hadn't even known he was managing. Ross hadn't seen him.
"Maybe he just overslept," I suggested, but even as I said it, I didn't believe it. Stone did not seem like the type to do such a thing.

My fears were confirmed approximately an hour later, as my assistant, a recent college grad named Claire Rouse, called me on my cell.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Matty!"
"Um... just "Mr. Weaver" is fine."
"So, Matty, bad news."
"Is it about Stone?"
"Yeah, he just called."
"What did he say?"
"Grrgrbrrgrbrgr."
(Well that doesn't help...)
"I think what he was trying to say was, 'I'm sorry, but I am unable to fulfill my duties as manager and must resign,'" she explained.
"Whaat? You can understand that?"
"You need to open your mind, Matty! Look for the message between the words."
(How can I do that when there are no words?)
"So, anyway, what are you gonna do about it?" she asked me.
"I... I... don't know yet," I stammered in reply.
(Where am I supposed to get a decent manager at this time of year?)
"You know what I think, Matt?"
"What?"
"I think you should do it yourself!"
"Wh-what? Are you nuts? How am I supposed to GM and manage at the same time?"
"Well, it's not like you need to trade players or whatever during games. You can do all the GM stuff after!" even over the phone, I could see the optimistic grin on her face.
"Uh, has anyone ever even done that?"
"Who cares? You can be the first!"
"I'm very familiar with being the first to do something..."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. Let me think about this."
There was a short pause, but Claire's impatience got to her quickly.
"So?!" she nearly screamed. "Are you going to do it?!"
"I... guess I really have no choice, do I?"
"Yay! I know you'll do a great job!"
(I certainly hope so...)
"Yeah... thanks Claire."
"I'll see you later, okay? We can meet for burgers!"
"Wait, I-"
*beep*
(She hung up...)

I put my cell phone away. Double the responsibility, double the fun, I told myself halfheartedly. I walked towards everyone else to tell them the news.

Heh.

Burgers.

Heh.

March 25th, 2015

We're now 22 games into the Spring season. We're currently 12-10, and the clubhouse mood is fairly optimistic. I've been learning a lot about the players and their specific abilities, and I've gotten close to them; however, as GM, that might just be the death of me...

The newspapers have been all over me, questioning my ability and declaring my taking on of the managerial position a sign of "overconfidence". I can say without hesitation that that is not the truth; with each day, Opening Day gets closer, and my nerves are worse than ever.

I am excited though. We open up against, of all teams, the Sacramento Dolphins, on April 2nd. We go on to play them a total of 13 times in April, but not again until September (another 8 games).

21 games against Greene...

Anyway, the roster has been update to be more precise and include the specific abilities of each player:

Fielders
Pos - Name, B/T, DoB - TRJ, CON, POW, RUN, ARM, FLD, E RES
C - Matt McCarthy, L/R, 6/5/92 - 3, B(12), A(184), D(8), B(12), D(9), D(8), Clutch Hit 4, Power Hitter, Gd B2B HTR, Tough Runner (AgentP)
C - Patrick Warr, L/R, 4/13/91 - 3, D(8), B(143), F(5), D(9), F(5), F(5), Consistency 4, Barehand CTH, Pull Hitter
1B - Juan Hernandez, L/L, 6/26/91 - 3, B(12), B(152), E(7), D(8), E(7), D(9), Tough Out, Rally Hitter, Base Running 4 (ZeroGibson13)
2B - Steve Bernard, R/R, 4/21/93 - 2, D(8), E(94), C(11), D(9), C(11), C(10), Clutch Hit 4, Gd Bunt, Durability 4, Consistency 2 (Baseballteen9500)
2B/3B - Matt MacKenzie, R/R, 6/3/95 - 2, E(6), E(85), D(8), C(11), D(9), C(10), Contact Hitter, Spray Hitter, Gd Bunt, Throwing 4, Consistency 4, Pivot Man (maccrash21)
3B/C - Donnie Wilde, R/R, 1/17/91 - 3, D(8), D(116), D(8), C(11), D(9), D(8), Barehand CTH, Gd Block, Error Prone
SS/3B/2B - Jose Medrano, R/R, 10/31/92 - 3, A(15), D(110), B(12), A(14), A(15), A(14), Contact Hitter, Hot Hitter, Durability 4, Pivot Man, Aggressive RUN (Paul McCartney15)
LF - Marcus McElroy, L/R, 2/12/90 - 2, C(10), E(89), C(10), E(7), C(11), D(8), Table Setter, Rally Hitter, Tough Runner (BrewersFuzz)
LF/CF/RF - Danny Millwood, R/R, 10/3/94 - 3, D(8), E(99), C(10), D(9), D(8), E(7), VS Lefty 5, Gd Pinch HTR, Throwing 4, Durability 4, Gd Morale
CF - Colin Raines, S/R, 1/4/92 - 2, E(7), F(67), B(13), C(10), B(12), D(9), Stealing 4, Base Running 4, Clutch Hit 2, Timely Whiff, Aggressive RUN, Aggressive FLD
RF/1B/LF - Derek Wayne, L/R, 10/26/93 - 3, C(11), B(151), E(7), A(14), D(9), B(12), Hot Hitter, Firstball HTR, Throwing 4, Cannon Arm, Gd Morale (SkittleMonster)
RF - Roy Schapp, R/R, 4/26/92 - 3, E(7), C(134), D(8), D(9), E(7), D(8), Pull Hitter, Gd Morale

Pitchers
Role - Name, B/T, DoB - Top Speed, CTRL, STAM - Breaking balls
SP - Brendan Bikowski, L/L, 3/10/92 - 91, D(132), B(130) - CUT(5), CB(4), PALM(4), VS LH Batter 4, Spin 4, Gd Pickoff, Battler (tdud)
SP - Charlie Huff, R/R, 1/16/95 - 94, C(141), B(128) - SLD(3), SCB(4), CHG(2), SPLT(3), Release 4, STR Finisher, Gd Reflexes (Baseballteen9500)
SP - Akinori Otsuka, L/L, 9/2/92 - 89, E(114), A(190) - SLD(1), CUT(2), SCB(3), V-SLD(2), KN(1), SC(2), SHU(2), VS LH Batter 4, Poise 4, Spin 4, Release 4, Recovery 4, Gd Low Pitch, Poker Face (AgentP)
SP - Johnny Rivera, R/R, 11/17/92 - 92, C(138), B(115) - 2SFB(1), ORIG-SLD(2), CB(2), Fastball Life 4, Gd Reflexes, Battler, Durability 4 w/RISP 2
SP - Michael Davis, R/R, 5/14/94 - 93, D(122), B(139) - SLD(2), CHG(2), Release 4, Recovery 4, Gd Reflexes, Consistency 2
SP - Cesario Castillo, R/R, 8/25/90 - 94, F(104), B(119) - KNCB(2), CHG(2), FORK(2), Gd Pickoff, Consistency 4, Choke Artist [Note: E(6), F(60) CON-POW w/ Clutch Hit 4]
RP - Paul Casey, R/R, 3/29/95 - 91, C(142), D(70) - CB(3), CHG(3), Poker Face
RP - Evan Lorrier, L/L, 10/6/90 - 93, D(130), E(52) - SLD(3), SLV(3), CHG(1), VS LH Batter 4
RP - Devin Edwards, R/R, 7/19/89 - 94, C(151), E(42) - SLD(3), CHG(2), SIFB(3), Fastball Life 4
RP - Viet Trieu, R/R, 4/2/92 - 88, B(155), E(58) - CCHG(2), SIFB(3), w/RISP 4 (maccrash21)
SU - Adam Wilson, R/R, 5/31/88 - 100, E(113), E(55) - H-SLD(1), CHG(2), w/RISP 4, Release 4, Gd Reflexes, Consistency 4, Gd Morale (Powerprosfan31)
SU - Mike Colyer, R/R, 8/16/93 - 90, C(146), E(40) - ORIG-SLD(7), CHG(3)
CP - Rick Allen, R/R, 7/15/95 - 96, C(146), E(40) - SLD(2), CHG(3), SNK(3), w/RISP 4, STR Finisher, Gd Reflexes, Gd Pace (tdud)

In addition, the lineup has been decided:
1. SS Jose Medrano
2. LF Marcus McElroy
3. 1B Juan Hernandez
4. C Matt McCarthy
5. RF Derek Wayne
6. DH Patrick Warr
7. 3B Donnie Wilde
8. 2B Steve Bernard
9. CF Colin Raines

This leaves the following players on the bench:
2B/3B Matt Mackenzie
OF Danny Millwood
RF Roy Schapp

The season is now just around the corner, and I really hope the next week goes by fast.

lol, Mac is on the bench

And I'm gonna assume Rick Allen is free for the taking now?