CUSTOM LEAGUES KINGS WITH BOB JECMEN

If you wish to play in a tried-and-true format and create your staff proper now, customary leagues (Traditional and SSG) are open to the general public 24/7.  However if you wish to strive one thing totally different, Customized leagues – created by prospects – are there in abundance.

There are franchise leagues, development leagues, captains leagues, excessive and low wage cap leagues, “rags to riches” leagues, alphabet leagues, fatherland leagues … the chances are restricted solely by your creativeness.

Diamond Thoughts On-line wouldn’t be the identical if the Group didn’t embody among the most intelligent and prolific creators of Customized Leagues.  We’ll be that includes one among these on this house every month. 

This month we’re visiting with Bob Jecmen, creator of the annual Masters match.

Inform us one thing about your self: age, occupation, marital standing, the place you reside, and pursuits (aside from DMO, after all).

I might be turning 75 in August. Laborious to imagine. I nonetheless really feel and assume younger. My schooling is in supplies science and physics from U of Illinois for undergrad and UC Berkeley for graduate work. I retired early at age 51 from Intel Corp the place I used to be a VP in expertise improvement and manufacturing working a clear room 24/7 the place we developed new chip manufacturing processes and ramped them into early manufacturing earlier than transferring them to bigger crops all over the world. My final 3 years at Intel I grew to become a VP and basic supervisor for his or her cellular computing enterprise  which doubled in dimension to a $4B enterprise in my 3 years.

I wasn’t a giant fan of the intensive journey required for my GM job at Intel and took early retirement when I discovered a phenomenal resort-like residence in N. Cal with koi ponds and waterfalls and mountain view, which was too far to proceed to commute to Intel. I eased into my retirement by serving on a half dozen boards of startup tech firms for 10+ years to keep away from the shock of a chilly turkey retirement.

I’ve been married to a Japanese-American artist for 47 years and it’s until demise do us half. She is a third technology Japanese-American activist who makes use of her artwork to coach others in regards to the injustice of the Japanese incarceration throughout WWII. I assist her with a few of her artwork like her most well-known work, that are glass kimonos made up of over 2000 items of glass embellished with over 200 fused pictures of members of the family and people who had been pressured into the WWII camps.

I’m politically progressive and energetic in circulating fact-based articles and data to attempt to counter the huge quantity of misinformation on the market and to encourage others to defend democracy and rally their mates to take action as nicely.

When did you begin enjoying DMO and the way did it first come to your consideration?

My father was a giant MLB fan. We lived within the Chicago space and he took me to my first Cubs recreation at Wrigley in 1955 for a double header vs the Reds. We sat within the bleachers and I keep in mind a Wally Submit HR which landed solely about 10 ft from us. Banks additionally homered that day to get a cut up for the depressing Cubbies. I used to be in love with baseball. My dad would inform me tales. He was a mailman and would get off work at 2:30 and head to Wrigley to catch a day recreation. He advised me about seeing Babe Ruth play in opposition to the Cubs within the World Collection and of Gabby Hartnett’s homer within the gloaming.  For my tenth birthday he purchased me The Historical past of Baseball guide by Alister Danzig and Joe Richler. It was a 3 inch thick guide stuffed with statistics, nice pictures, and tales of all the good gamers and groups as much as 1959 when it was printed. I used to be enthralled to study Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, and the Babe.

Baseball continued to be a ardour all through my life. I performed as a pitcher and SS from Little League by way of school and loved MLB board video games like All Star Baseball with the participant discs and the spinner. Cherished the #1 section on the prime of the discs for HRs. I additionally performed Strat-O-Matic the place I got interested within the mixture of MLB, math, and statistics. I really made some correct Strat-O-Matic playing cards for historic participant seasons just like the 1930 Chuck Klein.

A few years later I stumbled upon Diamond Thoughts baseball on the web whereas looking out about some previous time gamers. It was run by STATS on the time and I rapidly bought hooked exploring the previous time greats and interacting with the educated fellow contributors.  I continued enjoying DMO on ESPN and met and have become mates with Dayne at the moment. I even went to Dayne’s wedding ceremony and as a marriage present gave him a replica of … The Historical past of Baseball. We interacted as Dayne went by way of the method of buying the rights to Diamond Thoughts and I grew to become an investor and tester of DMO because it was launched.

As creator and director of the Masters match, you’ve provide you with many various customized league themes.  What do you assume makes a very good customized league?

There are a number of parts to a “good” customized league, which I attempt to make use of in all Masters tournaments. To start with, I attempt to outline a theme that maintains a stage enjoying subject and takes contributors out of their consolation zone, through the use of non-standard options like restricted participant swimming pools and monetary guidelines, to keep away from cookie cutter replicated staff approaches and encourage artistic methods for being profitable.

I additionally typically prefer to outline themes that lead to researching and studying extra about MLB historical past, like franchises, decade progressions, enjoying eras (Lifeless Ball anybody?), and integration.

Lastly, I take advantage of a restricted $ cap, however with moderately excessive upgrades, to make budgeting and values a important a part of managing your staff.  The excessive improve budgets additionally preserve curiosity excessive, since impactful improve choices happen all through the season, which may permit contributors to recuperate from a poor begin.

The Masters tournaments are usually not for everybody. They take extra effort than customary leagues, however for many who wish to be challenged to provide you with artistic methods and compete with among the most profitable house owners in DMO, it’s plenty of enjoyable.

Is there any recommendation you’d give to individuals who haven’t created a Customized League earlier than, however want to give it a strive?

Consider a theme which might be enjoyable and truthful for all contributors. Keep away from themes the place there’s a determined benefit from the draft order or participant groupings. Don’t give your self the primary draft alternative. You already know, like, let’s do an infinite franchise league and I get the NYY. The enjoyable of customized is within the artistic alternate options for fulfillment. To get one going, it helps to have a listing of mates out of your earlier leagues to whom you possibly can ship invites to hitch your customized league.