Know That Owner: Brian Kowalski

Hi fellow HBDers. My name is Brian Kowalski, but you may know me as bfkfraser. I am a lifelong resident of Detroit's northern suburbs. I was born in Warren, MI, grew up in Sterling Heights, MI and currently reside in Fraser, MI. I am 36 years of age, a cancer survivor and have always been a sports fan, particularly hockey, football and baseball. I once was the stranded potential tying run on third in a championship game that my little league team lost. But, I would have to say my favorite sports moment was when the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1997.

I went to a local small business school - Walsh College - and have my Bachelor's Degree in Accountancy. I am employed as an accountant for an plastic injection molder that primarily manufacturers auto parts. It has been a tough couple of years as many small companies such as the one I work for were hit hard due to the struggles of the Big 3 that we all know about. Outside of a layoff and medical leave, I have been with the company for about 11 years.

I started playing GD on Wis about 4 or 5 years ago after seeing someone post about it on a message board on another site. I started playing GD and after a few seasons started making the playoffs regularly. Another coach suggested I try HBD, which I enjoyed. Unfortunately, I had to quit HBD when I realized my surgery would coincide with free agency and coach hiring. Now, that I am healthy and working, I have started playing HBD again. I am in 2 worlds - this one plus caray world with many GD coaches.

In addition to WIS and watching sports, I do play some golf, tennis, street hockey (not as often as I did 10 years ago) and am a league bowler. My best game was a 234; my average is 160. I attend Detroit Tiger and Red Wings games occasionally and have traveled to see the Wings play in Columbus, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Chicago.

Know That Owner: Stephen Anderson

My name is Stephen Anderson (cincysteve). I was born and raised in the Cincinnati area. Huge Cincinnati sports guy. I can remember crying on the couch as Joe Montana threw that freakin last second TD to Taylor when I was in 8^th Grade. I am old enough to remember the joy of the wire-to-wire season for the 1990 Reds, but not old enough to really remember the Big Red Machine. I love sports. Played soccer in college. I have torn both my ACL’s from soccer and basketball. These days I stick to golf and WIS.

I will be turning 36. I graduated from Cincinnati Bible College in 1998. I got married to my wife Laura in 1999. I did youth ministry in Livonia Michigan for five years before moving back to Cincinnati to get my Masters degree for teaching. Wife got pregnant, bought a house, and never finished. I have been working in the online loan industry since 2004. We will do about 50million in business this year. Only 60 employees in my division. I hate my job. I am getting promoted to the head trainer of the group in January. (will still hate my job) Okay, it’s not that bad, but I would rather be teaching. My wife teaches at one of the top private schools in Ohio. Yes I’m bragging :) She is an awesome teacher. I hope to someday finish my degree so I can teach 8^th grade American History and have my summers off with the wife and kids. That is my dream job. I have two wonderful daughters Adyson 5 and Ellasyn 2. I am not looking forward to the dating years.

I’m excited about being in this world with you and look forward to getting to know all of everyone.

Mordecai World Seniority

Following is a list of all current Mordecai owners, their current city, and their number of years in the world. This is the beginning of the 19th season, so all original owners are listed with 19 seasons, and all new owners are listed with 1 season.

brian2470	Boston (NL East)	19
dyuen	Colorado Springs (AL West)	19
jimrome76	Texas (NL South)	19
meech11	Helena (AL West)	19
smoelheim	Rochester (AL East)	19
trancefusion	Toronto (AL North)	19
mbooker	Vancouver (NL West)	18
nosferatu	Austin (NL South)	18
Oli35	Florida (AL South)	18
Iceman67	Charlotte (AL East)	17
tony23	Tacoma (AL West)	15
wonderin32	Kansas City (AL North)	15
johncfremont	St Louis (NL North)	14
dwhit34	Syracuse (AL East)	13
jeclapton	Iowa City (NL East)	13
plague	Fargo (AL North)	11
mohawkman	Atlanta (NL South)	10
rbedwell	Dover (AL East)	10
badercubed	New York (AL North)	9
jemaurer	Philadelphia (NL East)	7
Ahsowhat	New Orleans (AL South)	6
CoachRed	Richmond (NL South)	6
litigator01	Iowa City (NL North)	6
drknow28	Oakland (AL West)	4
eryanf	Pittsburgh (NL North)	2
bfkfraser	Salem (NL West)	1
cincysteve	Nashville (AL South)	1
dockellis70	San Francisco (NL West)	1
frank_white	Albuquerque	1
jamessun	Richmond (AL South)	1
msarg	Indianapolis (NL East)	1
vhoward	Scranton (NL North)	1

Know That Owner: Robert Baginski

My name is Bob Baginski and my WIS name is robmb. I have taken over ownership of the Indianapolis franchise for season 18 here in Mordecai. I was born and raised in New Jersey but now live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife, 12 year old son, 10 year old daughter and 5 pound teacup poodle. I have been in California for 11 years now, and I must say, I do not miss those Northeast winters or humid summers.

My family keeps me very busy as does my job as a manager for a scientific instruments company. I am a huge baseball fan (how about those Giants) and really enjoy baseball simulations such as HBD and SLB. Over the years, I have played many baseball sims including APBA, Strat-O-Matic and Diamond Mind. I have also played several different types of web-based sims based on Diamond Mind and Strat before I discovered WIS. I first started on this site with SLB and more recently have become involved with HBD. I am very impressed with the stable history of ownership here at Mordecai and feel lucky to have this opportunity to pick up a team. I look forward to active participation in many seasons to come. I am sure I will learn a thing or two from all of the collective experience that exists in this world. Thanks again for the opportunity and see you on the field!

Know That Owner: Don Amos

Hello fellow baseball enthusiasts, I’m Don Amos, also known in the WIS realm as Helamen.
I live in a small community just north of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. In case you don’t know
where that is, its 3 hours east of Toronto. I was born and raised in the area, a country kid at
heart, which is why I’m north of Kingston, where I have a small horse farm. For the past 15
years I worked at Canadian Forces Base Kingston for the Resource Centre and as of April of
this year I have recently moved on to a new position as Executive Director for a social service
agency in the area.

I’m a hockey nut, I’ve playing hockey for a number of years in an over 30 league, and my claim
to fame in the league is I once scored 5 goals in one game. When I’m not playing hockey,
I’m coaching it. I have 3 boys and 1 girl who all played hockey and I coached them as they
came up through the system. I now have just 2 playing, one is a goalie (don’t ever let your
child be a goalie, its expensive!!!) and the other is a bruising defenseman. Every year around
September, the 3 of us left playing get all gear up for the season and can’t wait to get on the ice.

When I’m not playing/coaching hockey in the winter, I’m riding my horses in the summer, and
enjoying baseball. My favorite team is the Toronto Blue Jays, and yes they are in the toughest
division in the world, but they are heading in the right direction as a franchise now and maybe
over the next 2 years they may start pushing the Yankees and Red Sox’s for a playoff spot. It
goes without saying that hockey is the number 1 sport in the house, and yes my blood bleeds
blue for the Toronto Maple Leafs. I’m a true blue fan, and some year, maybe 20 years from
now, they will win the cup again.

What drew me to WIS is baseball, I’ve have decent success with most WIS leagues I’ve tried.
I played sim league baseball for a few years, and won a couple of championships, I then tried
sim league hockey and won a couple of championships doing that. I’ve tried GD, but not much
success there, and I did okay with Hoops Dynasty. But the crown jewel for me is playing
Hardball Dynasty. I’m currently in 2 worlds, with the other one being Mauer, where I’ve won
2 world series. I enjoy the full aspect of the game, everything from recruiting coaches, signing
free agents, reviewing contracts, and building for the present and future. I’m a stats guy, so
like a junkie, I’m constantly reviewing ratings, and stats, and enjoying every minute of it. I’ve
recently taken over the San Francisco Swordsman franchise, the big club looks good, but the
minor league system needs some help, so my focus will be trying to get the big club in the
playoffs for now.

Know That Owner: Kenny Faulk

Hello fellow HBDer’s. My name is Kenny Faulk. My screen name on WIS is strikeout26. I took over the Detroit Freaks in the middle of season 16. Dgmbpd left me with a lot to work with and a franchise that has a history of winning. Hopefully in season 18 I will be able to put all of the pieces together. In my short stay, I have found Mordecai to be a wonderful world. It is very stable and has very active owners. I am probably one of the younger HBD owners, as I am only 23.

I am a pitcher in the Detroit Tigers organization. I was drafted in the 16^th round of the 2009 draft. I am a lefty that throws 89-91. I throw primarily a fastball and changeup, but will work a slider in every now and then. I signed for a miniscule $3000. Last season, I was selected as conference closer of the year for the Atlantic Sun Conference and was also selected as a NY-Penn league all star last season with the Oneonta Tigers. I started my college career at a small junior college by the name of Andrew College. After my 2 seasons in JUCO I watched the draft pass me by and I signed a scholarship to play at Kennesaw State University. At KSU, I was a history education major. I did not graduate, but as soon as my playing days are over I will finish my degree and become a teacher/coach somewhere. I take a lot of ribbing from my teammates for the amount of time that I spend with HBD. While they are going to bars after the game, I am checking to see how my two teams did. What can I say? LHP are supposed to be a little different, right? Hopefully, I have a long playing career and get a cup of coffee some day.

My hobbies are striking hitters out, playing video games, my UGA dawgs, and HBD. As far as music goes, I listen to everything from classical to rap. I am a huge UGA fan. I would have signed there, but KSU is 10 minutes from my house and I felt that playing at a school that large would hurt my draft status. I hope Georgia can stick it to Jimrome’s Auburn Tigers.

Know That Owner: Mike Prime

Greetings and salutations fellow Mordecai owners, my name are Mike Prime, and I go by the handle of trancefusion on WIS. I have been in Mordecai since Season 1 and while I have dabbled in a few other worlds none of them turned out to be as much fun as Mordecai. I originally joined WIS to play the football, hockey and baseball sims but soon came to fall in love with the Dynasty leagues. My first passion was with the Gridiron Dynasty where I played 60 seasons and then retired with a 532-310 record across three worlds. My stint in Hardball Dynasty has not been as successful but I still enjoy it and hope to someday have a contender in my Toronto Jays. Speaking of Toronto, that is where I currently reside; I was born on the East Coast of Canada in a small backwoods town in Nova Scotia but moved to Toronto when I was 18 to get a university education. After I finished school I stayed in Toronto and now work for one of North America’s largest banks as an IT Manager where I have been for over 10 years now. In my current role I manage a group or IT analysts who create and support java environments for the banks development team, we currently support well over 2000 programmers both in Canada and offshore.

When I am not working I like playing vids on the xbox360 (Modern Warfare 2 at the moment), spending time at the cottage with my girlfriend, doing some rock climbing and biking or pounding back some beers with my friends while watching sports. Living in Toronto I am obviously a Blue Jays fan but when I was growing up I always followed the Expos and it was sad to see them leave the Great White North for Washington. I seem to be cursed when it comes to cheering for sports franchises, for example the Jays finished 75-87 last year, the KC Chiefs (my favorite football team) finished 4-12, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (my favorite college team) finished 6-6 and to top it all off the Toronto Maple Leafs are in the basement at 19-31-11. Basically any team I cheer for sucks right now. On a positive note it can only go up from here!

When it comes to music I have a wide range of tastes but my favorite genre is trance (as you might have expected from my WIS handle), I pretty much enjoy any electronic music that I can dance to at the clubs. Some of my favorite DJ’s would be Paul Van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, and DJ Tiesto. In my younger years I was very much into metal and hard rock, and then 90’s alternative when I was in university, some of my all time favorites would be GNR, Metallica, Nirvana, Ministry and NiN.

Well that is all I come up with for now, not too exciting but at least it is a glimpse into the life of one of the Mordecai’s originally owners. Good luck to everyone and here is hoping that my Jays can make the playoffs in season 16!!!

Know That Owner: Ben Agnew

My name is Ben Agnew and I am most likely the youngest person in Mordecai. That is, at least to my current knowledge. I recently turned 23 years. Most of you know me as mohawkman and perhaps even a few of you wonder why I use that as a screen name after seeing the picture of me on this blog. To be honest, I’ve never had a mohawk haircut. My alma mater high school uses the Mohawk Indian as a mascot and I suppose I’ve always been proud of the teams I root for. Perhaps this can be further demonstrated in my Mordecai team mascot, the Redhawks. I am currently a senior at Miami University, home of the Roethlisbergers… err, I mean Redhawks.

That is a kind of joke I like to say because many people around here love to talk about Ben Roethlisberger as if he is the only great thing to come out of the school. This Miami is not to be confused with “The U” in Miami, Florida. No, I hail from Oxford, OH where in 1809, Miami University was established… ten years before Florida broke away from Spanish rule, and 36 years before Florida was a state. For the most part, I enjoy going to school here. Robert Frost once claimed Miami was “the most beautiful college there ever was”. All of the buildings are built of red bricks and really do coordinate beautifully. There are also plenty of trees on campus which make for a stunning autumn landscape.

I will graduate this May with a bachelor of arts in psychology and a minor in neuroscience. I enjoy people and love researching the social aspects of human life. My goal is to go back to school at some point and study judgments and decision making. I haven’t applied for grad school yet because to be honest, I’m a little burnt out on school at the moment and I’d like to take a break from it before I make a run for a higher degree. I’m currently throwing my resume around and hoping for a bite in the job market. I know most people say that once you leave school you’ll never go back, but I also know that plenty of grad students are in their 30’s. I feel like I’m pretty focused on going back after a year or two, and that it’s not a matter of “if” but rather “when”.

As for sports, I am a fanatic of everything. I’m a lifelong Reds fan and enjoy baseball in every aspect. Just like most HBD owners, statistics fascinate me. I’m really hoping that in the next few years the Reds can put things together and make a run for the playoffs. As for other sports, Miami hasn’t had a very good football team since Roethlisberger, and basketball has been nothing short of lethargic since Wally Szczerbiak. Instead, most students, including myself, root for the hockey team. Last year we fell a minute short of winning the national championship (ugh! I was there!). This season we are currently ranked #1. Oh, and when it comes to football, I am a die hard Buckeye. Yeah, yeah… the Big Ten is terrible and SEC schools romped them twice in title games. It honestly just makes me appreciate that magical year in ’02 when they did win it all. Championships aren’t everyday and you gotta enjoy them to the fullest when they occur. I feel like they’ll make a run for it next season. I’d love another shot at the SEC. To be the best, you have to beat the best.

*The picture is from my 22nd birthday when my girlfriend smeared icing on my face. She is running away from my revenge to put icing on her face.

Know That Owner: Jacob Maurer

My name is Jacob Maurer, but most people call me Jake. My WIS handle is jemaurer. Mordecai was the first world that I joined and I also have a HBD team in Big Sky Alumni. I am relatively new to HBD (5 seasons) and believe that the best way to learn is to talk to you guys and pay attention to the chats and forums. I owe the veterans in Mordecai a debt of gratitude for their readiness to help a newcomer. I have dabbled in GD a little, but just enough to turn me off to it. I do truly enjoy HBD, however, and I know I will be around for a long time. One last tidbit concerning WIS, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank David (dwhit34) for introducing me to the game and giving me my start in Mordecai.

I am 33 years old and was born in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I am of Pennsylvania Dutch (which is actually German, from Deutsch) and Swedish descent with a handful of other genetic spices sprinkled in. I am descended from Scranton / Wilkes Barre coalminers on my Dad’s side and God - fearing Lutherans on my Mother’s side. I was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes at the age of 3 and have been dealing with the ups and downs of that as long as I can remember. I grew up a Philadelphia sports fan – 2 of the first 10 words in my vocabulary were ‘F--- Dallas.’ I graduated high school, dropped out of two universities, and at 20 years old God saw it fit to place me in New Orleans, Louisiana (1996.)

I am now living in New Orleans and I work as a cook (in dwhit34’s restaurant!) and also as a barista. It feels as if I’ve found my niche. I am a recovered alcoholic and my sobreity date is 28APR2008, so God willing, I will pick up a two year chip in a couple of months.

To get a superficial idea of my tastes, here are my top fives as of tonight:

Albums

1. The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
2. The Who – Live at Leeds
3. Frank Zappa and the Mothers – One Size Fits All
4. Ween – Pure Guava
5. Thin Lizzy – Vagabonds of the Western World

Books

1. Vladimir Nabokov – Lolita
2. David Foster Wallace – Infinite Jest
3. Kurt Vonnegut – Sirens of Titan
4. Richard Brautigan – In Watermelon Sugar
5. John Kennedy Toole – A Confederacy of Dunces

Films

1. Doctor Strangelove
2. The Big Lebowski
3. On the Waterfront
4. The Outlaw Josey Wales
5. Deconstructing Harry

Well, that’s me in a nutshell. It’s me and I’m in a nutshell… ANYWAY, at least it’s an intro. Like I said, I plan on sticking around for a long time so I look forward to knowing each of you better and revealing more of the intricacies of my character in time.

Know That Owner: Billy Robinson

I'm Billy Robinson aka jimrome76 to most of you WIS guys. Some folks call me Bill, William, or Billy-Bill. And some coworkers have been known to call me Dollar Bill, Brother Bill, Doctor Bill and Bill The Deal. I'm not sure why. I'm one of the original members of Mordecai and have been on WIS since waaaaaay back in 2001. I also played GD for quite awhile and the main reason I picked Mordecai when HBD came out was that I had already played GD with a lot of the owners so I already knew some of them.

I clock in at 31 years old and dont have kids or a wife but for the past couple months I am in a committed relationship for the first time in about 5 years or so. Growing up I lived in Huntsville, AL with my dad and Nashville, TN with my mom. It was a strange contrast of suburbia in Huntsville and inner city ghetto in Nashville but I think in the long run I'm a more well rounded person for having to adapt to such different extremes of society.

When I was 15 I got a part time kitchen job in a restaurant. I enjoyed kitchen jobs and caught on quick so I went full time in kitchens after high school. By the time I was 25 I had 10 years experience including pretty much every position you can think of. Dishwasher, fry cook, saute cook, grill cook, prep cook, banquets cook, banquets service, kitchen manager, night cleaner, dessert cook, pizza cook, these are all positions in a kitchen that I worked under various different chefs at different restaurants. Ive worked for too many guys like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qGDNA7GPzI&feature=related I learned from them all but by then I was just burned out on the business. The long 60+ hour weeks and working nights and weekends all for low to mediocre pay had gotten old so it was time to make a change.

In the sumer of 2004 I moved to Auburn, AL and started college at Auburn University that fall. WAR EAGLE! I went to AU for 2 years and completed the core curriculum but could not decide on a major and didnt really like the whole going to classes and studying thing. I forced myself to do it but it was just incredibly boring and tedious so I decided it wasnt for me. Im a lifelong AU fan and I fell in love with this little town so I decided to stay. I got a job at a local Chevy dealership selling cars and eventually parlayed that into a job working on cars which something that Ive loved to do since I was a teenager. So for the last two years Ive worked on cars and made decent money and have a nice easy M-F 7:30-5:30 schedule with an hour lunch break. Ive found the perfect balance.

In my free time I enjoy playing guitar. Ive only been playing for a year and it is ridiculously more hard to learn than I thought it would be. I listen to mostly metal and classic rock but the guitar has opened me up to blues. Guns n Roses is my all time favorite band. Chinese Democracy was on of the top 10 rock albums of the last decade. I like old Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Sepultura, Slayer, Biohazard etc. When it comes to classic rock I like all of the standard stuff you hear on the radio. CCR, Skynard, Deep Purple, Zepplin, The Beatles, etc. On Thanksgiving weekend I got a noise citation for blasting this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_6IjeprfEs at earth shaking levels.

I am obsessed with SEC football. I love my Auburn Tigers. Jordan Hare Stadium is a 10 minute walk from my apartment! We are about to land a top 5 recruiting class and mark my words we will win at least 10 games this year. Gus Malzahns offense is sick but now with a stable of elite talent coming in and a JC QB who fits the offense like a golve we are primed and ready to fire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6dlRzu_mBc A BCS title is coming soon.

Well there you have it gentlemen. Thats everything but my drivers license number and my DNA sequence. Hope its as interesting to read as it has been for me to live! WAR! DAMN! EAGLE!

Know That Owner: Steve Oelheim

Hi everyone, and thanks for stopping in to enjoy the newly revamped Mordecai blog! It’s time for the second installment in our “Meet the Owner” series… or in this case, “Meet the Commish”!

I’m on a first-name basis with a lot of the owners in Mordecai, but for those of you who don’t know, my name is Steve Oelheim, aka smoelheim on WhatIfSports. I am an original member of Mordecai, but not its original commissioner. The league founder bailed after the first season, and when nobody else stepped up, I decided to do what I could to keep the league running. It was a great choice, as this world is filled with great people and dedicated HBD owners. I expect to be here for a long, long time.

Outside of HBD, I am 38 years old, married for the last 8, and have two kids who really keep me running. When I’m not chasing them around the house (or the park, or the zoo, or the kids museum, or wherever), I like to escape for a round of golf in the warmer months, and we have season tickets to the local hockey team (the Rochester Americans of the AHL, hockey’s “AAA” league) in the colder months. I’m not real good at sitting around the house doing nothing.

I was born, raised, and still live in Rochester, NY. I work as a Sr Programmer Analyst for the #3 Company to Work For in America (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2010/index.html). It started out as a part time job when I was 16, and I’m still working for the same company today. How many 38 year olds can say they’ve got 22 years of seniority with their current employer?

I grew up as a Yankees fan (primarily because my first little league team was the Yankees), and the first game I ever specifically remember watching was the Yankees/Red Sox 1-game playoff in 1978, when Bucky Dent hit the infamous HR. I still remember running around the house celebrating. But a cancelled World Series, the length of the games, the “steroids/wound ball era”, and lack of a salary cap to level the playing field have all turned me off to the game. I find it completely unwatchable anymore. But I DO miss the statistics aspect of it, because I’m a huge numbers guy. That’s what brought me to WIS so long ago!

My dream WIS game would be Hockey Dynasty, but I’m not holding my breath for it anytime soon. I’m sure that a pro football game is higher on WIS’ priority list. If either of these games ever comes true, I’ll have a team in each, but will always leave my Mordecai team as my one remaining HBD team.

I think this was a great idea by rbedwell, and am glad that there was interest in resurrecting the Mordecai blog. I look forward to reading more owner bios in the coming weeks and months. And if anyone has other content they would like to submit, please talk to myself or Ralph, we’d be happy to publish submissions by everyone!