Baseball Replay Association
Hall of Fame

Bill Meyer has always been an Indians/Guardians fan and was introduced to the BRA in 1979 by his B-52 Instructor Team Pilot, Ed Herrick, to fill a vacancy with his favorite club. It appears that Ed is a fine judge of ownership talent, as it only took Bill 31 years to manage a club to his only BRA Championship. Here, I resist the temptation to point out that even today, Ed is still in search of his first.

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Bill’s BRA career began while he was an instructor Radar Navigator (the Air Force had already retired the “bombadier” title when the B-52s entered the inventory) at Castle Air Force Base, CA. He took his Indians franchise to Offutt AFB in Omaha, NE in 1982, then back to Merced, CA and Castle AFB in 1985 until he retired from the AF in 1992. After his retirement, Bill moved his Indians to his hometown of Buffalo, NY and took up horse ranching and law school to fill the off-season time off. Only problem he had, in addition to Manny Ramirez’s fielding and the transition to computers from dice was, of course, the arrival of 3 kids at college, while Bill was doing the “paper chase” thing, himself. There is only a year and a half separating his twins from his “baby” girl, so the Meyer family actually ended up with 4 college students and only one income. Forced back to work by economics of that situation, Bill became the Maintenance Supervisor at Old Fort Niagara, a French and Indian War and War of 1812 historic Site, where he put in 10 years. Once everyone escaped from college, Bill began practicing real estate law until he retired? again in 2015.  

 

Buffalo presented a wonderful opportunity for Bill’s BRAFTing of baseball clubs, AAA Baseball. Cleveland’s Triple A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons, afforded the opportunity to see players coming up thru the system and also those on rehab assignments, for an amazing $10 a game!!! Then, when Cleveland changed to a Columbus AAA team, Buffalo lost its team for a year until the Mets acquired the Bisons. In a shrewd move, Bill acquired the Mets after a short stint with the Rangers and a few scary moments in Pat Kenney’s basement during a head-to-head-to-hockey stick playoff series (we know, there’s no hockey sticks in baseball!! But try and tell Pat that!). Even though the MLB Mets moved on to a Syracuse AAA club, Bill stayed with the Mets. He has been happy with the Bison’s new owner, Toronto Blue Jays, and continues to watch for that “gem” moving up through AAA system that will bring his second championship home. If you are not a  triple “A” fan, you are missing quite the show! For example, one game just before the pandemic, Bill and his wife got to see a “rookie hat trick”  =  Vlad Guerrero Jr. had a Tape measure homer, a three base error, and a strike out within an inning and a half!!

               

After Bill’s horses went on to horse heaven, the Meyer’s moved to Lockport, NY, and Bill came out of retirement again to work for his old, Old Fort Niagara boss. The Meyer Mets now play on the beautiful shores of the Canal, tourist volume at the Erie Canal Discovery Site.