Winter Barnstorming for the Linemen

Another project over Christmas break. A few years ago I purchased (PDF - $10) an interesting set from CompuDuck : the 2003-4 Mexican League Teams.   CompuDuck is run by Steve Stein of the Card Computer and he has produced some excellent sets.  Here I will do a short review of the set and consider a tournament option.

I considered running a small tourney with these Mexican teams facing each others but then I read a few articles about barnstorming teams in the 1930s and decided to take my Wilkin County Linemen on the road out of Minnesota to Mexico for some winter work.  For those of you new to this blog, the Linemen team is my team of favorite players, not the best players at each position, but my favorites from my lifetime.

Here is a good look at my Linemen team, just follow this link to the Wilkin County Linemen.

One change, I am swapping out Pedroia at 2B for the original starter, Nishioka.

The cards from CompuDuck come as PDFs and I print them on heavy cardstock and will soon round the corners as I received a corner cutter for Christmas! Here is a link to that product:  Corner-cutter. 

As you can see below, the cards have nice three color print and stats with all the info needed for APBA game-play and the team they played for in 2003-4 season. I was able to tinker with the settings on my printer and get them to fit 9 to a page and used perforated heavy cardstock from The Perforated Paper Company. They separate well, and soon will have rounded corners.  The cardstock lacks any gloss or finish on the paper so the cards do tend to stick together, I solve this using sleeves when I am playing games.  It is not easy to find perforated paper, 9 to a page, with a decent finish on the paper and if you do, expect to spend a small fortune for 50 sheets give or take.  

Pitching is thin for the Mexican teams, so I am limiting the seats on the Linemen's team bus to 19 for the road-trip: 9 position players, back-up catcher, utility infielder,  pinch runner (Prime Time), one pinch hitter (Erstad), a 4 man rotation, and two in the pen. 

This should turn out to be an interesting, short, and manageable project.  a 16 game run against many Mexican players I have never heard of before and 16 games with my favorites on the same field.

Here is an example of cards from the Mayos de Navoja team, one familiar face for sure.

A few from the Aguilas de Mexicali squad:

The cards are rated for inter-Mexican League play so they will have an odd transfer effect and will not accurately represent if the two teams actually played.  However, it will keep the games from being a blowout in favor of the Linemen. I will play double headers against each of the 8 teams included in the set and allow for injuries. That makes 16 games total each starter throwing 4 games and I will pay attention to the bullpen's workload.

The Linemen will be excited to get out of Minnesota, as at the time I am writing this the temperature in Campbell, Minnesota is currently -12 (December 26, 2017).