The system is at fault.
Both John Meredith and I want very much for it to work but it cannot work in its present state.
This spring we have taken the necessary step of using long saved marketing funds to pay a full time technician to revamp and automate the system.
Without this step it would make no sense to market PB. The user interface must work efficiently in order to welcome new managers to the hobby.
It is important to note that this is the first PB money spent to pay anyone since we acquired the game from TELESCAN in 2001. Neither John nor I have ever been paid by PB. Both of us have challenging jobs.

Anyone who knows the long story of PB knows that I am a player first and a businessman second. I administrated the first online baseball leagues (Computer Sports Network) back in 1989 using the APBA computer game chiefly because I loved playing SIM baseball. I feel for you guys even if it sometime appears from your computer chair that I do not care.

Unfortunately I had to go back to over the road trucking shortly after we reacquired PB from Telescan in 2001. I funded and designed the PB game to replace APBA while trucking in 1994-6. In those days, however, I did not have the responsibility of maintaining customer service for close to 40 SIM leagues. It has been a challenge.
My schedule and circumstances have been a problem.

The kind of truck driving I do is called refrigerated LTL. LTL stands for less than truckload. I haul lamb carcasses, frozen precut restaurant meats, soymilk and other perishable commodities from the Denver area to the Boston/New York/Philadelphia/Baltimore metroplex. I then reload a variety of specialty and ethnic foods back to Denver. The return load includes anywhere from 10 to 25 different pickups for many customers in the Denver metro area. The complete roundtrip including off loading eats up about 10 days out of a 14-day period.

I own my truck and trailer and have to spend time and energy to keep it running efficiently and reliably. This past week I had to drive from Maryland to North Carolina and back in order to trade in my old truck for a new one. While I was doing this you guys were wondering what was going on with TRAD playoffs.

The system has to be automated and modernized.

Our problem is that we are totally dependent on John Meredith for everyday administration, which HAS to be taken out of his or any one person’s hands if we are to succeed.
The new web site and forum is taking shape and the next step is to automate and make more universally operable functions like the robot, game startup, playoff matchups, drafts etc.
The reason that the playoffs are broken in TRAD is that the operation is manual and can only be performed by a technician. He broke it and has to fix it.
In addition the timing of administration operations like robotting UNM teams etc. is horrible when left to a technician who is very busy with his regular job.

So actually things are better than they have been in years because we do have someone working on our future configuration but what you guys see is very flawed.

In closing this latest "update/excuse" I would like to thank my defenders and "forgive" my "tormentors". It is, of course difficult to understand from your perspectives what could possibly be taking so long. For my part, I have not been responsive enough because I have had no answers or anything new to report. I am very sorry about that.

Mike Bravard
PB