Getting To Know Your League Members - Overeasy, aka "The Commish"

In the first installment of what I hope to make as a regular feature, we’ll be getting to know our fellow league members. For this first interview, I thought it would be easiest if I simply interviewed myself, so here is your chance to get to know your league commissioner, Overeasy, as he reflects on Hardball Dynasty, baseball cards, and fried eggs.

Kinsella Blog
Who is Overeasy?

Overeasy
John Coffman, a 34 year old electrical engineer living in Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, with his wife and two young sons, 2 years and 3 months old. My username is simply how I order my eggs.

Kinsella Blog
Which WIFs games have you played?

Overeasy
I actually joined up with WIFs back in December of 2001. For years, all I ever did was free spring training sessions of SLB as often as the system would permit. It wasn’t until Hoops Dynasty came along that I was actually ready to pay to play a game. After twenty seasons of successful coaching, my excitement for HD was waning and I accepted the invitation of a fellow HD competitor to join his new Hardball Dynasty league. It didn’t take long to realize that this would be the only game I would be playing long term.

Kinsella Blog
Besides sports, what are some of your other interests and hobbies?

Overeasy
Spending time with my family and recreational no limit hold’em poker tournaments. I’m also a bottomless pit of useless pop culture and sports trivia information.

Kinsella Blog
Who are your favorite players of all-time?

Overeasy
Baseball: Dale Murphy; This was an odd choice for a kid growing up in northern CA, but thanks to my first two little league teams being named the Braves and Ted Turner’s Superstation WTBS showing every game I became a Giants hater and a Braves fan.

Basketball: Magic Johnson; Any player wearing his color jersey was a better player with him on the court.

Football: Joe Montana; I always got such a kick out of sharing my birthday (June 11) with the greatest.

Kinsella Blog
Which are your favorite teams of all-time?

Overeasy
’95 Atlanta Braves – We got one!!! The Buffalo Bills comparisons can now cease.
’84 San Francisco 49ers – A magical season in which I believed that as long as I remembered to drink from my 49er glass during the game, that they would win. (I was 10 years old and the one loss of the season occurred when we went out of town.)
96-97 Pacific Tigers Basketball – My last year of college happened to coincide with a special basketball season in which a no-star team full of juniors and seniors won the conference regular season and went on to win the Big West tourney, earning their first NCAA birth since 1979.

Kinsella Blog
Did you play sports growing up?

Overeasy
I grew up playing little league baseball and city league basketball. In baseball, I was a poor hitting, decent fielding second baseman. In basketball, I was a slow-footed guard with a decent outside shot, but I took the most pride in playing good defense and doing the little things, like blocking out the other team’s good rebounder. In high school, I played on the freshman basketball team. When my lack of natural gifts was too much to overcome and I failed to make the JV team, I took up the game of tennis. I went into tennis full bore and thanks to the excellent climate of northern CA, over my last 2 years of high school I played over 300 of the 365 days each year. After having barely touched a racket as a sophomore, I finished high school as the fifth best player on the varsity team.

Kinsella Blog
What is the top sports related thing you want to do in life that you have not yet done?

Overeasy
There are many places I would love to visit: The Field of Dreams film set, some of the classic ballparks (Wrigley, Fenway, unfortunately Yankee Stadium will be gone), Cooperstown. Additionally, not that some consider it a sport, but I would love to someday waste $10k playing in the main event of the World Series of Poker.

Kinsella Blog
What would you consider your greatest WIFS accomplishment?

Overeasy
I think that my greatest WIFS accomplishment was the creation and sustaining of this league. For an individual moment, it was pretty special that in my final season of HD I took my alma mater, Pacific, to the National Championship game.

Kinsella Blog
Do you have any favorite players from any of your HBD teams?

Overeasy
I don’t know that I would exactly call him a favorite, but he was certainly memorable. He was only a part of the Yankee organization a short time, but the Jerrod Baxter taint will certainly be felt for years to come. For example, Brandon Sutton has recently stated that he is happy to have reached his arbitration seasons so it’ll be easier to afford going to Scores all of the time. Thanks Jerrod! I’m sure he worked wonders for the Angels Rookie pitching last season.

Kinsella Blog
What is your favorite aspect of HBD?

Overeasy
There are too many to name. You are talking to someone who started simulating baseball seasons and tracking statistics in notebooks from the moment I had collected enough baseball cards to form the teams at 8 years old. I kept up a steady pace and completed about 30 seasons in the 10 years until I went away for college. So HBD is the ultimate simulation experience for this hardcore stat geek.

Kinsella Blog
What is your least favorite aspect of Hardball Dynasty?

Overeasy
To me the coaching carousel just seems wrong. Do coaches really bounce around between ML organizations in any way close to what they do in HBD?
Other than that, my only problem is with the number of steps required to perform roster moves and setting changes. Our home connection is pretty slow and it makes it very time consuming to do anything.


Kinsella Blog
If you were in HBD, what position would you play? And, what would you be rated?

Overeasy
If we are talking my absolute physical peaks, I would have been a second baseman rated 65 Range, 85 Glove, 50 Arm Strength/Accuracy and with career Rookie level hitting attributes. My only shot at getting drafted would be by someone who went cheap with scouting.