Thread: The PEBAverse Rises From the Ashes of MLB's Demise
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Old 12-13-2011, 05:45 PM   #1
BradC
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The PEBAverse Rises From the Ashes of MLB's Demise
Every time someone sits down to play Out of the Park Baseball, they’re asking “What if?,” even if that question is posed simply to see how the last Major League Baseball season could have turned out differently. However, in the case of the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance (PEBA) and its sister organization, the League of the Rising Sun (LRS), the traditional “What if?” question can’t be answered in just a few sentences or a paragraph.

If the story of the PEBA and the LRS was a novel, it would be a sprawling epic destined to dwarf “War and Peace” and “The Lord of the Rings.” In fact, it has even inspired a novel penned by published author Ron Collins, who also manages an LRS team. (Ron’s story is the subject of another article.) The “PEBAverse,” as it’s known, came into existence after the unthinkable happened: Major League Baseball fell on hard times as ticket sales and TV ratings crashed in the wake of fan disillusionment over the steroids scandals, creating an opportunity for the founding of a rival league. The PEBA turned away existing pro players and filled its rosters with top prospects who would have normally entered the MLB amateur draft. The general public soon grew to embrace a baseball league that was untainted by performance-enhancing drugs.

John Rodriguez, also known as “Corsairs” on the OOTP forum, took the lead in bringing the PEBA and LRS to life, but, as he explains in the interview below, the history of the PEBAverse is the joint effort of many people. Rather than try to sum up what he had to say in an article and pull quotes from the interview, I thought I would let the Q&A speak for itself. It’s worth a read to hear the story of Chris Van Hauter’s five-year plan that came to remarkable fruition, the exploits of former PEBA infielder Jack Cobb (who was assaulted on the field while wearing an H.R. Pufnstuf costume, among other mishaps), Star Trek actor William Shatner’s involvement as a team owner, and more.

What follows is part one of the interview. Part two is in the next post, below.

Why did you create the PEBA/LRS?

I can’t take credit for the idea. Back in 2007, the Cleveland Indians (my hometown team) were enjoying a rare spell of success. Excitement was high on Indians blog Let’s Go Tribe! That August, one of the members pitched the idea of an OOTP league. With so many Tribe fans visiting LGT thanks to the excitement of the playoff run, it wasn’t hard to find willing candidates. I had never played OOTP before, but I knew of its reputation as the premier text-based baseball simulator and was intrigued by the chance to establish my very own fictional baseball franchise. So I signed up, choosing the nickname “Evanston Invaders” for my team-to-be.

The Invaders weren’t to be, though. After collecting a group of excited volunteers, the LGT member who pitched the idea vanished. The fledgling league seemed doomed before it started, which was a real shame because the interested participants included some really bright, engaging people. You could envision this group becoming something special. It seemed like such a waste to let the opportunity slip away, so I volunteered to step in and take over as Commissioner.

Again, I had absolutely no experience with OOTP, which ranked the idea of jumping into a Commissioner role somewhere between “ill-advised” and “ludicrous”. Our initial members were incredibly patient with me as I fumbled my way through a protracted league birthing process. A couple months passed as I went through an OOTP crash course and slowly built the structure for what was to become the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance (PEBA) and the League of the Rising Sun (LRS). Incredibly, many of the original signees stuck with the league despite delays and drama (including the brief resurfacing of the original Commish-to-be, who wished to reclaim his role just as the league was about to go live). They dove into their teams with gusto when we finally went live in December, 2007. We’ve been in perpetual motion ever since.

How did you develop the back story? Who worked on it with you? It's a very fun read.

When you read the back story of the PEBAverse, you’re not reading the creation of any one person. It is the very definition of an organic ensemble production. Our members’ output volume and sheer creativity is astounding. Every member of the league, past and present, has left their mark on the story of the PEBA and LRS. One of the most gratifying experiences is watching members build upon storylines created by their peers. Stories beget stories. It’s a positive feedback loop.

The framework for what has become the History of the PEBA has developed bit by bit over time. When the league was forming in 2007, we were in the midst of the revelation of baseball’s “Steroids Era”. That was definitely an influencing factor when I was writing the outline for the league’s origin story. It prompted me to question, “What if fans became so disillusioned with the revelations and scandals that they turned their backs on Major League Baseball? What would a fledgling league attempting to fill that mammoth void look like? What kinds of challenges would such a league face?” We’ve been building upon the foundation of those questions ever since we began play. As you say, it really does make for a fun read.

What are some of the most interesting things that you've seen happen in the PEBA/LRS so far?

There have been so many twists and turns both on the field and off that it’s difficult to pick out just a few highlights, but I’ll try. I’m certainly proud of the fact that it was only just last season (our eighth) that we had our first franchise win a second Planetary Extreme Championship (the PEBA’s version of the World Series). The diversity of winners is a testament to the level of competition.

But it’s hard to top the story of the Tempe Knights for on-the-field drama. I’m a big believer in the importance of placing reasonable and differing challenges in front of people as a means of maximizing pride in achievement. Sure, it feels nice to win when your circumstances are identical to your competitors, but it’s truly something special to forge a winner out of uniquely challenging circumstances. And uniquely challenging circumstances are just what Tempe, easily the league’s smallest market team, faced. Their first season (45-117) was an unmitigated disaster. Then-GM Chris Van Hauter raised eyebrows by announcing a “five-year plan” to turn the Knights from laughingstocks to league champions. There were lots of sympathetic head nods but, if we’re being honest, I don’t think anyone really believed Chris could dig out of such a deep hole in so short a time.

The turnaround started on draft day 2008, when Tempe used the #1 overall pick to select St. John's Kaisers phenom starting pitcher Markus “Fireworks” Hancock. Baseball is littered with top picks who fail to live up to the hype, but Fireworks exceeded every hope and dream of Knights Nation. After just 62.2 minor league innings, he was called up to Tempe in August 2008, just over two months after turning pro. Despite a rough first go in the majors, his minor league days were finished. By 2010, he had won the first of three straight Sovereign League Golden Arm awards (equivalent to the Cy Young Award).

The third award in 2012 was the sweetest. 2012 marked Year 5 of Van Hauter’s “five-year plan”, and nobody was doubting him anymore. Tempe qualified for the playoffs in ’11 thanks to Van Hauter’s outstanding drafts and characteristic aggressiveness with trades and minor league promotions. His acquisition of three-time Imperial League Golden Arm Award winner Conan McCullough from the New Orleans Trendsetters in July 2011 put the league on notice that he was determined to complete Tempe’s rags-to-riches story. Tempe fell short in the 2011 playoffs, but the 109-53 2012 squad would not be denied. After falling down three games to none in the Planetary Extreme Championship, Tempe stormed back to win four consecutive games against the Manchester Maulers and take the best-of-seven series. Fireworks pitched eight shutout innings to win Game 6, and McCullough gave up only an unearned run over 7.1 IP in Game 7.

At no point did Chris bemoan his challenges. Quite the opposite; he embraced them. It was extraordinary to watch him recognize his obstacles and systematically overcome every one of them. The execution of Van Hauter’s “five-year plan” is perhaps the most improbable and inspirational story I have ever witnessed as a baseball fan, real or virtual.

There have been hundreds of interesting on-the-field PEBA and LRS storylines, and just as many intriguing off-the-field developments. Anyone wanting to catch up on them all would be best served browsing through our News Archive and the History of the PEBA, but highlights include:

[Part 2 follows, below.]
Last edited by BradC; 12-13-2011 at 07:29 PM. Reason: inserted link to Part 2 of the story about the Yuma Bulldozers assisting flood victims
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