Power Pros Forum

I've had a flair for writing for the past few weeks, writing various stories, and working on various logs for the games I own. Recently, I picked up a copy of MLB Power Pros 2008, but I was disappointed to see various greats like Barry Bonds, David Wells, and Roger Clemens out of the free agent pool in season mode. It took me awhile to figure out how to make a great player, but this forum has really helped me do that. My first project was to make my all-time favorite player, Barry Bonds, and I did. I probably overrated him, since I am biased. I gave him A (198) power, C (11) contact, D speed, and decent fielding skills. The only special abilities he received which are worth mentioning are Slugger, Refined, Star, and Intimidate. Like I said, he's probably too good for a forty-three year old.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this is simple: I grew up watching the Yankees, wishing they would get Bonds one year. I never got to see that, and I probably will never get to see it. I figured since Power Pros is one of the better baseball games I've ever played, I'd take control of the Yankees and make it happen, while guiding them to a World Series Championship. And I always dreamed Bonds would be the best home run hitter of all-time, and he is, but I've always longed for a team to sign him again and let him play. He almost hit thirty home runs in 2007, which is a lot better than what a lot of players are capable of.

As I type this, I'm busy setting up my season; registering players, assigning roles, adjusting settings, and stuff. This will be a story-based log for the most part. There will be a storyline, which will evolve around Bonds and others, but it will be fun. I may even consider doing that agent thing, I don't know yet. If I do, I'll end up playing out every game, letting you know how your player is doing. This will require daily updates. That alone will eat up a good portion of my day.

How did you get Slugger?

Christmas Day. It's a day to be celebrated. Children run to the Christmas tree and begin to open all of their presents. It's tradition for pretty much every family. Sadly though, some people cannot respect the day. The General Manager of the New York Yankees was murdered last night at 2:30 AM. "We are all in shock,” Ms. Cashman told channel twelve reporter Dreda Elmira. "I'm just thankful the kids and I weren't hurt. He'd be happy to know we're safe." Ms. Cashman was present at the time of the murder, but she was upstairs asleep with her children at the time of the murder. Mr. Brian Cashman was found outside by his Lexus. A note was left on his chest, but the details of said note have not been made public.

"Mr. Brian Cashman was shot three times. Once to the head and twice to the gut. The murder weapon was obviously a handgun. We don't have any suspects at this point in time, but we'll let you know as soon as we do." Police Captain and Lead Investigator Floor Sanders announced at a press conference. Since there are no suspects in Cashman's murder, police are urging anybody who has any information, or knows who might have had motive to kill Cashman, to come forward immediately. "We want to solve this case soon." The Darien Police Department probably won't be able to solve this case as fast as they want to.

Since Cashman was the General Manager of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner decided to hold issue a statement:



No word yet on who the new General Manager of the Yankees will be, but according to ESPN and YES network, the front-runner is probably Collin Perce. Perce was an assistant to Cashman for four years. He's a Rhodes Scholar, majoring in Sports Management and Economics. To give you a little bit more information on Perce, he was a highly-touted high school player in Rhode Island, where his parents immigrated to, before suffering a shoulder injury which ended his baseball career a month before the MLB draft. Immediately after graduating from Oxford, he started off with the Yankees as an intern, but quickly climbed the corporate ladder. He, like Steinbrenner, issued a formal statement regarding Cashman's death:



The latter part of his statement is probably a lie. He just wants to contain the media frenzy that Steinbrenner started. Of course, Steinbrenner does love his media attention. He has to be the center of attention. That's normal Steinbrenner behavior. Sadly though, his poor attempt probably won't do anything.

As for Major League Baseball's response to the murder of Brian Cashman, they had none. Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig has failed to return any calls from the press. His publicist hasn't done anything either. This leads many people to [wrongly] believe the MLB is involved in the murder.

Meanwhile in California, Collin Perce is visiting with a great friend of his. He's baseball's home run champion! Of course, it's Barry Bonds. Bonds was recently cut by the San Francisco Giants after it became public that he took steroids. The Giants didn't want that kind of image. No word yet on what Perce is doing exactly, but since he is an official representative of the Yankees in the recruiting process, it is highly-likely that he is trying to convince Bonds to play for the Yankees. If that is the case, the Yankees will have one of the better lineups in Major League Baseball for the 2008 season. Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds would be an unstoppable three and four team. It'd be even more fearful than Boston's David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez duo.

Haha, thats because they took steroids for twice as long!

Ahaha, Cashman got shot 3 times, good call.

Hopefully the Red Sox Yankee rivalry doesn't escalate to the point where crazed Yankee or Red Sox fan tried to kill Cashman or Epstein or Girardi or Francona or anyone else on the staff.

Barry Bonds and Collin Perce were in the middle of a meeting at Bonds’ California home when his phone rang. “Excuse me Collin,” Bonds said politely as he walked over to the black, cordless phone. He picked it up as if it was a delicate object and placed it on his ear. “This is Barry Bonds, may I help you?”

“You can, indeed, my name is Hans.” A mysterious voice on the other end of the phone said.

“I don’t know a Hans… but I’m listening. What do you need?” Bonds asked politely. He was in front of his best friend, Mr. Perce; he couldn’t exactly take a spiteful tone with the caller.

“Bonds, I’m responsible for the death of Brian Cashma—“The man was cut off. Bonds began to sweat frantically. His voice was full of anger and hate at the same time as he spoke:

“…What do you want with me?!” Bonds exclaimed before quitting down, he didn’t want his friend who was at his home to conduct professional business to worry. “Look, I don’t want to help a murderer. In the movies, you always get screwed if you do.”
The man on the other line who distinguished himself as Mr. Hans laughed. He had the laugh of an evil genius. It was loud and overly obnoxious. “I don’t intend on killing my favorite baseball player. Now listen Barry, I’m well aware that Mr. Collin Perce is inside of your home. I want you to walk upstairs and look under your bed. There will be a letter. I want you to hand it to Collin.” Mr. Hans commanded. He spoke in a German accent.

“Alright… I’ll do it.” Bonds sighed, put the phone down, looked back at his friend and eventually smiled. “I have something for you upstairs, I forgot. Let me go get it…” Bonds said frantically. He was very, very nervous. As Bonds walked upstairs, nothing was out of the ordinary. Everything was the same as he left it – the paintings, busts, and even his trophies which were aligned on the shelves were fine. He let out a sigh of relief before turning a corner as he got off the stairs and entered his bedroom. He wasn’t prepared to see this…

“Well, well… if it isn’t my favorite baseball player in the entire world, Mr. Barry Bonds.” It was Mr. Hans. He was sitting on Barry’s bed. He was a large, round man. “I didn’t think you would listen to me, but I applaud you for doing so. Now, the note I’m going to give you… don’t open it, if you do, you’ll die.” Mr. Hans, the large German criminal, whispered as he handed Bonds a letter addressed to Collin Perce. “I’ll be watching you,” Hans laughed manically and disappeared into thin air. He was a magician.

“Oh sh--, I’m in trouble…” Bonds let a tear run down his cheek, knowing it may be his last. He took the man very seriously and walked downstairs, like nothing was wrong. He walked into his den, smiled, and handed Collin the note. “Here you go Collin, enjoy.”

Collin Perce was a twenty-nine-year-old British-born fellow. He had a heavy British accent. “Why thank you Barry.” Mr. Perce said as he guided his slender right hand over to the note. He grabbed it from his friend gently and pressed his left index finger over the crease to open the envelope. “Well, I wonder what this could be…” Collin began to think about what his friend would give him… “Tickets to my favorite play, a trip to Vegas or France, maybe even a deed to a private island…” he said aloud. It was rather rude of him to speculate what the content of the letter may be publically, but since he knew Bonds well, he was sure his friend would understand.

The British born Yankee Assistant smiled. He removed a piece of white paper from the envelope. It was a formal letter from George Steinbrenner. It was an invitation to be the new General Manager of the New York Yankees.



“Barry! You’re not going to believe this but… I’m going to be the General Manager of the Yankees! This is awesome!” Collin exclaimed in a childish manner. He pulled out his phone and dialed Steinbrenner’s number before Bonds could say a thing. “Hello, Tia, tell George I accept his offer.” Collin exclaimed into his phone. He hung immediately after.

“..Awesome...” Bonds distanced him from the current event. He began to think… “I don’t this is official… should I tell him?” Bonds thought to him. He sighed and hugged his friend. “That’s great news. Fax my agent over a contract. Three years, twenty-five million, just as we agreed upon.”

“Absolutely. It was nice seeing you again Barry. It’ll be even nicer watching you play in a Yankee uniform.” Collin said as he showed himself the door and walked out. He was excited. He got offered a job as the General Manager of the richest franchise in baseball, and his best friend would get to play on the team… life was sweet for the twenty-nine year old.

To clarify and spoil a few things, "Hans" is not his real name. That's the name he likes going by. In reality, Hans despises baseball. However, he joined the bandwagon a long time ago that people like Bonds are destroying baseball by taking steroids, thus he likes and enjoys watching the guy play.

..."Hans" is also the one behind Cashman's murder, but he wasn't the one who physically committed the crime. More on that later.

Right now though, I have everything ready to go. I finished making Clemens, Wells, and Sosa. I'm ready to start at anytime, but I want to establish more of a story first.

EDIT: During the off-season, I'm going to be adding all of the first round draft picks to Free Agency. Whoever signs them is who "drafts" them. In 2010, Yu Darvish and Bryce Harper will also be added. Along with anyother super player I can think of.

EDIT2: Corrected a spelling mistake, put "off" instead of "of".

Woah. This is better than the story log I tried to write!

...So...

Are you trying to do something like Death Note? Hans ends up having some ability to kill people from a distance, or is he just a great manipulator of sorts?

I don't know if this could be classified as a better log or whatever you want to call it. Your log got more attention, so I'd have to say it's better.

As for the direction I'm going to take the story, that's something I'd rather not discuss at the moment. If I told you all of my secrets and surprises, there would be nothing left to surprise you, unfortunately. For that reason, I'm not going to be clear on anything involving Hans, Bonds, or Perce at this time, since they're the major characters thus far with the Cashman murder being the big event.

"This is George Steinbrenner. I'd like to speak to Mr. Collin Perce." George Steinbrenner, the wealthy owner of the New York Yankees was on the phone with Mrs. Olivia Perce, Collin's wife.

"Certainly, I'll put him on the phone in a second!" Olivia exclaimed. She placed the phone down onto their wooden dresser and searched around the house frantically for her husband. Her husband, Collin, had just gotten back from San Francisco. "Collin! Collin! That Steinbrenner dude is on the phone. He says it's important!" Olivia screamed. She couldn't find her husband anywhere.

"I'll be right there, honey! Keep him on the phone!" Collin shouted back at his wife, "Also! No need to scream, I'm behind you!" He joked. He wasn't really behind his wife, because if he was, she would have surely noticed him. "Woman..." Collin whispered under his breath as he removed a green towel from his muscular stomach and wrapped it around his waist. The towel proceeded to cover his athletic, clean-shaved legs. "Hello? This is Collin Perce." Collin said as he grabbed the cordless phone which was placed on the receiver in the bathroom.

"Ah, hello! If it isn't my favorite Asst. General Manager!" Steinbrenner exclaimed. "Listen, I need to talk to you. You know how Cashman died, right? I'm sure you do. Anyway, the Yankees are in trouble. We need somebody to be our General Manager... I figured since you have some experience from your Montreal days, you would be willing to fill the spot."

Collin sighed. He looked at the letter which was addressed to him and given to him by Barry Bonds. "George, I have letter here from you already offering me the spot. I told Tia to tell you that I accept already, but if I must, my answer is a yes." Collin repeated himself. "I mean, I don't mean to sound rude but... you just needed a verbal confirmation, right?" Collin asked inquisitively.

"Uhm, actually Mr. Perce, I don't like to be called George. You're to call me Mr. Steinbrenner. And I didn't send such a letter. It must be a fake. I'm glad to have you onboard though. We don't have many players to pick from anymore. Sammy Sosa, Pokey Reese, David Wells and others have already been signed and assigned to teams. I'm disappointed in Cashman for not going after Roger, to be honest. He landed in Arizona. Arizona! Out of all places, he decides to sign with the Diamondbacks and not wait for a contract offer from us!" In the beginning of his speech, Steinbrenner remained calm. However, towards the end, he grew furious. He obviously wanted Clemens to be a Yankee.

"Look, I understand. Clemens, Sosa, Wells and Reese are all great players. I understand that. I'm best friends with Barry Bonds though; you don't have to worry about him signing elsewhere. I'll have legal fax over a contract offer to Boras. Three-years, twenty-five million; it's a fair deal for everybody involved. Also, I'd like to work on an extension for Mike Mussina. He's a great player and everybody in baseball respects him. May I start drafting up the contracts?" Perce asked Steinbrenner. Since he was new to the position of General Manager, he figured Steinbrenner would like to know what he's doing first.

"Uhm, hold off on extensions. I don't want to be locking in anyone long-term right now to have them completely suck for the next five seasons. We've made that mistake before and I don't want to make it again. Now if you would excuse me Collin, I have an appointment with my psychiatrist. I have to get my anger under control. If you have any questions, don't ask them. Do what you think is best for the organization. The worst thing that can happen is you getting fired." Steinbrenner paused, "and we don't want that."

"Alright, have a good time with your therapy session." Collin whispered into the phone before hanging up. He walked out of the bathroom without a shirt on and over to his laptop. He opened up Microsoft Word 2007 and typed up a contract. He put in the following clauses:



"Bonds will certainly accept this." Collin told himself aloud. He printed out a copy of the contract, incentives, clauses and everything included and faxed it over to Scott Boras, Barry's agent. Once the contract was being faxed over, Collin dialed Boras' number on his phone and waited for the greedy son of a gun to pick up of the phone.

"This is Scott Boras. How may I help you?" Scott answered the phone himself. Looked at the number and recognized it instantly. "Ah, if it isn't Collin Perce. None of my clients want to renew their contracts."

Collin shook his head. "This isn't about renewing a contract you dirty--." Collin held back his anger. He didn't like Boras. He was a rat. If you didn't watch him, he'd hurt you. "It's about Barry Bonds. I faxed over a contract. Twenty-five million dollars over a three-year period. He told me personally that he'd accept it. I just need you to sign off on--" Collin was interrupted.

"Twenty-five million over three years? David Ortiz is making twenty-two million over two! Jack up the change or no deal!" Boras exclaimed. Collin, meanwhile, was busy putting Bonds on the phone.

"Excuse me? We will accept that deal, Boras. If you think I'm an idiot, then you're the idiot." Barry Bonds, the subject of the conversation, bellowed. "If you don't accept that deal, you're fired and I'll be my own agent."

"Alright... we'll sign. Twenty-five million over three-years it is..." Boras was obviously about ready to cry. His bonus wasn't going to be that big...

Meanwhile, in France, two men were having a meeting. The first guy was Hans. The second guy was a business mogul. "Mr. Okuchi, I can assure you that nothing bad will happen to your investment in major league baseball. In fact, it will triple if you buy into the New York Yankees. As you know sir, they have the highest pay roll and revenue in the sport... you can't go wrong..." Hans was trying to persuade a Japanese Business Mogul who made his fortune by buying and selling businesses to invest into the New York Yankees.

"私は、ハンス信頼。もしあなたが私を裏切る私は、ニューヨークヤンキースにも投資する...私はあなたの頭が...据膳で..." Mr. Okuchi responded. Hans knew Japanese fairly well, but requested that a napkin be passed with his saying and what not all scribbled down on the napkin. Okuchi obliged and the napkin read:



"Oh... that isn't very nice, Mr. Okuchi. I do not blame you though. Money is important to all of us, but your thirty-million dollar investment into the Yankees is greatly appreciated." Hans smirked. He gave Mr. Okuchi his own bank account number, so the thirty-million was wired to Hans and not the Yankees... trouble was beginning to brew... a madman equipped with thirty-million dollars? Things aren't looking good.

Captain Floor Sanders did release a statement though. There was a breakthrough in the murder investigation... well, it wasn't really a breakthrough. They just released what the note said:



The original letter had poor grammar. It was obviously written by somebody who didn't speak or write English professionally. Hence, the murderer is foreign. "We've come to the conclusion that anybody who grew up in an English speaking household is no longer a suspect. We're looking for a foreign born person... somebody who doesn't like baseball." Sanders announced to the media.

Wow! Nice post. I wonder what Hans is going to do with millions of dollars. Is he going to try and buy some Russian fighter jets so he can blowup every stadium? I'm just kidding.

The note part was kind of weird. You made it read and look like a suicide note, but after glancing at it again, it looks more like a note a murderer who has nothing to live for would leave behind... is that what Hans is doing? Is he a lonely man who recently lost his wife and kids or something? Why does he hate baseball? Did he try playing it as a kid, but he got made fun of or something? Hans seems like a deep character. I hope you pursue him farther.

I like your portrayal of Boras though. A money-hungry... xD

Oh and do you write often? It looks like you do. Besides some noticeable grammatical errors (fragments), it you're a seasoned writer. And if you want more followers, you should probably try toning down the length of your posts a tad. Not a lot of people want to read 700+ words at a time!

This should be interesting

However no investigator will just assume that the murderer is foreign just because of bad grammar...

I would. =)

Thanks for the compliment. As I told you earlier, I have no intentions of spilling my secrets. And would you please stop asking so many questions? I feel like you're trying to know everything about the story so you can write up your own little chapter and compare it to me mine. That's not a bad thing, but I don't want to see any competition sprouting up with the same storyline only different characters.

Boras is Boras. There's pretty much only one way you can portray him. As you've seen in real life, he's very, very greedy. Much like a certain Roman Catholic priest I know...

And no, I actually don't write that often. It's not really even a hobby. I get in the mood of doing something every once in awhile so I do it, but as you can see, I don't half-ass anything. Also, I won't shorten the "chapters" anytime soon. They need to be long so I can get everything I want to say out without really having to repeat myself later.

My client, Elijah Dukes, believes you plagiarized material recently published by my aforementioned client. For example, you recently wrote: "Christmas Day. It's a day to be celebrated. Children run to the Christmas tree and begin to open all of their presents."

On December 25th of 2006, my client, Elijah Dukes, wrote: "Beef Jerky Day! A day to be celebrated. Children run to the Beef Jerky tree and tear open their bags of black pepper beef jerky, jalapeno beef jerky, natural beef jerky . . . every flavor of beef jerky imaginable except for that stinking teriyaki beef jerky. Teriyaki beef jerky is not allowed on Beef Jerky Day. Never, ever, ever, ever, absolutely no exceptions. NO EXCEPTIONS!"

Prepare to be served.