Wednesday, April 20, 2011

20 Questions With toddcommish

1. What should we call you?

Todd is fine. Commish is fine. MikeT refers to me as "TardCommish".

2. Any hobbies or favorite pastimes besides HBD?

Not really. Before some of the anti-gambling legislation, I was a fairly regular online poker player with occasional dabbling in poker blogging. Now I mostly sit on my couch and yell at my sports teams.

3. How did you fall into HBD?

I'm old school, which means that the Bill Simmons article from years back started me on the dark path of SLB. I dabbled in the Basketball and Hockey sims before being one of the lucky few in the Ruth World (2nd world launched, and now the first world simmed). And as someone once said "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny"

4. How many teams do you run? How many hours per week do you pour intoyour teams?

3 HBD teams. Charter member of all three (Ruth, Moonlight Graham, Joey Belle). And I'll have at least 20 seasons in all three. I spend about an hour a day going over my HBD teams, longer if it's pre-season.

5. Married? Children?

Married for over 20 years to a beautiful SoCal blonde. Two kids; the boy is a senior in high school, entering San Jose State (my alma mater) as a Computer Science major in the fall. Daughter is 15 going on 16, and if any of you dirtbags even look at her, I will have your eyes removed.

6. City/State you live in? Hometown where you grew up?

Pleasanton, CA... between San Jose and Oakland. I grew up in Sunnyvale, CA

7. Occupation? Do you check in on your teams often during the workday?

HR Training Manager, and of course I would never dream of using company resources to check my WIS teams. I'm shocked that you would even ask.

8. Tell me 5 things nobody in Belle knows about you.

I lost on Jeopardy in 1988 (some might know this because I've bragged about it in the past)
I bowled a perfect game... for real. None of that Wii crap.
I'd leave my wife for Paula Creamer
The worst day of my life was when my dog died, worse than when my dad died.
I did a LOT of psilocybin mushrooms in my 20's

9. What makes you laugh?

The misfortunes of others. We all laugh at it, I just admit it.

10. Top 3 all time movies?

Shawshank Redemption, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Good Will Hunting

11. What popular song past/present do you most identify with?

Identify with? That's a toughie. If you want to amend the question to "movie", I'd say "Good Will Hunting". I don't identify with songs.

12. Real baseball team you grew up loving? Still in love with them?

San Francisco Giants. The WORLD FUCKING CHAMPIONS! You bet your ass I still love them!

13. Tell me 3 things you wish you knew about particular Belle owners?

Is rlahann really liberal, or does he just do it to irritate others?
Why would you want to be a commissioner with all these difficult owners?
Why would anyone spend $20 for a season just to tank and try and get the #1 pick and waiver priority in the following year?

14. You're very quiet as a Belle owner. Why don't you speak up more often?

I'd speak up if it was something that I legitimately cared about. This league has been remarkably free of anger and hostility, and I'd like to thank you for that. Besides, my team isn't good enough to chirp about, and isn't bad enough to bitch about. Plus, I don't know enough about most of these guys to really rip into them (like we do in MG)

15. What is your GM philosophy?

I prefer to build through the draft and free agency. I put a LOT of time and effort into the draft. Trades tend to be too much of the "I'll give you Juan Uribe and Julian Tavares for Albert Pujols" types of ridiculousness. The whole trading psyche is based on "I'm gonna take advantage of you"... and tends to frustrate me.

16. Any special meaning for your WIS nickname? Your Belle team name?

Predictably, I set up the ToddCommish name years prior to WIS through Yahoo, and yes, I was the commissioner for a fantasy football league. It was the first thing that came to mind.

I originally had the San Jose Bad News Bees when the world started, but got sick of the extreme ballpark. When given a chance to move, I chose a western conference team with a neutral ballpark, and unimaginatively went alliterative with the team name.

17. Who is your favorite Belle owner? Why?

Screw all you guys. I hate all of you. Until you let me win.

18. Which MLB Commissioner do you admire or identify with most? Why?

You've done a great job with this league. RobTracy originally started this league with an "alleged" five-season commitment. That fell apart roughly a week into the first season, and the league was rudderless for a long time. Now, it seems to be rolling along and has steadily climbed the list of "best leagues."

19. General pet peeves about the HBD game?

No peeves about the game. More peeves against the owners that don't seem to get the game and seem to want to either blow up the team/league, or bitch about the game until admin changes it.

20. If I was Belle Commish for a day I would...
not do a damn thing.

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