Doug Laipple

For my kindred spirits in Simnasium (It was a good name … no need to change to Imagine.Sports):

I am Doug Laipple, aka thecolonel, 73 years old, and still working about 45 hours per week, just as I have done for 55 years. I was raised on a farm in the rolling hills of northwestern Pennsylvania, but I went to high school at Culver Military Academy in Indiana and to college at West Point. At USMA I was in the Glee Club (I’ve been blessed with a baritone soloist voice), which provided many concert trips all around the country.  That is how I met Becky, with whom I have MUCH in common, including a love of baseball. We will celebrate our 52nd anniversary in June with 5 children and 5 grandchildren, one of them a batboy for the Rome Braves.

I spent 7 years in the Army, including a combat tour in Viet Nam, as an Airborne Ranger. Then the Air Force decided to pay for medical school in Georgia, so I spent 13 more years with them, retiring as a Colonel in 1986.

Since then I have been a psychiatrist in Rome, Georgia, currently seeing patients all over the state from the comforts of my den via telepsychiatry. It is a portable practice, so I can still see patients while travelling, as I am currently doing … seeing patients in the morning and attending Spring Training games in the afternoon in Orlando.

My love of baseball began at the age of 4, sitting on the porch with my grandfather, listening on the radio to Pirates games, a memory which returns whenever I smell a cigar.  In that part of the state, almost all the boys were Indians fan, so, just to be contrary; I became a Yankee fan, one of the things Becky and I had in common, as she grew up a Yankee fan in Tampa, where she lived close to their training camp.

I remember going to Cleveland and watching Satchel Paige pitch to Larry Doby, and I remember listening to Don Larsen’s perfect game on a transistor radio with the volume turned too low on the transistor radio for the teacher to hear.

My first taste of fantasy baseball was the Cadaco-Ellis board game with cards and spinner around age 10, followed about 4 yrs later by Stratomatic. Not much time for baseball after that, other than some scattered games such as the Reds while I was stationed in Dayton.

But then someone came up with Rotisserie baseball by mail. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. One of my opponents was Mike Corner, and a guy named Meho wrote some analyses now and then.

Finally, Al Gore invented the internet, and along came Stats and ESPN with the HUGE improvement over rotisserie. I found myself in the Bozeman Trail League with Meho, Barry Koron, Jack Cavin, and many others who now contribute so much to this game. Eventually, some guy named Dayne Myers joined us, and after a couple of years, he approached us with the idea of Simnasium, and we all encouraged his big move.

I am sure my won lost record is probably around 48%, but I never check it and know/care nothing about leader boards and MaxScores. I just love the game, especially the history of the game. I cherish being able to field a team from the 1800’s and early 1900’s and seeing those players on a Field of Dreams. I enjoy watching Mickey, Yogi, Whitey, Moose, and Hank all out there on the field again. And if any of you can’t see those players in your mind’s eye with each and every game, then you need to take up another hobby. Go watch Dancing with the Stars or the Kardashians..For me, Dayne and .Seawolf have nailed it … this is as realistic as it gets.  I hope that, before I die (in the middle of a session with a patient, scarring him for life, while checking my scores), Charles will develop radio play-by-play to accompany the game progress so I can sit on the porch with a cigar while I listen to hear the progress of Ralph Kiner and the Waners again.