Ernest B. Snodgrass

"Spec" Jansen

Those first few years, a new edition came out almost every week, complete with a breakdown of the previous game, the up-to-date stats, and featuring a host of comic characters and guest columnists, from Laurie Darroch-Barrett, the Phantom Phan, who would dish out the dirt from the stands, to Reno Rick, who used biorhythms to predict the outcome of AWA's next game (he was seldom right), to Alaskan Joe N. Ature, who, with his sidekick Jocko the Bear, were always trying to make it to the next AWA game, only to end up in some kind of trouble along the way and ultimately in the pokey.

Editor Biff Barker, along with feature writer Willard "Slats" Rafferty, provided insight and weekly commentary, but they generally had to be careful not to criticize a player's performance, or his ability, or even his looks, or else we could expect a strongly written "Letter to the Editor" from scumball attorney Ron Dewey of the law firm Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe.

Ernest B. Snodgrass, the cantankerous 100-year old owner of the team, routinely "butt-kicked" the guys for losses, although he saved the worst of his wrath for the team's incompetent Director of Player Personnel, "Spec" Jansen. (Spec selected a parrot with the team's #1 draft pick.) Old Man Snodgrass had his favorites, however, including the Director of Minor League Operations, Enrique "Dutch" Lozano, who encouraged all the family men to have more children, and grandson Ernie Snodgrass III, who was always campaigning for the manager's job.

STAT Magazine has chronicled the History of AWA, and after all these years, there's been a lot of history! In addition to the volumes of statistics that are carefully kept, the magazine has charted Every Player Who Has Ever Played, and chronicled every game the team has played. If it happened -- good or bad -- it showed up in STAT Magazine.

In addition, over the years, the team has seen four official uniform changes.

Readers of STAT Magazine also enjoyed three popular cartoon series:

• The Bench, created by Mike Applegate and Sherman Applegate, featured the backsides of Sherman and Ken Morse as they observed the game from the end of the AWA bench.
• Elves in the Outfield, by Gary Matsushita, which helped explain some of AWA's old magic.
• Mr. Infield and Mr. Outfield, by Steve Barrett, featured Mr. Infield (a bearded Mike Applegate) and Mr. Outfield (a very slender Steve Barrett) and their somewhat antagonistic relationship.

The first of STAT's Back Cover Girls appeared in 1977, in the form of Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, and Kate Jackson of TV's "Charlie's Angels". For that particular issue in '77 we had a full page left over with nothing to fill it, so a picture of the most popular ladies of that era saying "Go AWA!" seemed like a good idea. Well, at least it filled up the page.

This feature became so popular that it soon became a regular part of each edition, although the wives and girlfriends who came out to support the team felt that a Back Cover Guy would be preferable. On two separate occasions, much to the objections to the other guys, the fans got their wish.

Here was the Back Cover for the 21st Anniversary Edition that came out in April, 1995:

STAT Magazine marked 1999 as its 24th and final year of publication for the AWA Enterprises softball team solely for the entertainment of its players and fans. And it was always available for less than a penny!.