Well, never mind no more, I finally found a working solution! After searching the internet with no such luck (even looking at the Linux USB-How-To files) I looked at one of my books, "The Complete Reference - Linux Fourth Edition" (ISBN: 0-07-212940-9) and on page 852 I found a list of module commands. Hence I opened up my terminal and as root typed:

/*Before Plugging in joystick*/
dave@linux:~> more /proc/bus/usb/drivers
usbdevfs
hub
serial

/*After plugging in joystick*/
dave@linux:~> more /proc/bus/usb/drivers
usbdevfs
hub
serial
96-111: hiddev
hid

So, I knew there was something with 'hid' in it. Therefore I typed in:

linux:/home/dave # lsmod | grep "hid"
hid 19972 0 (unused)
input 3360 0 [hid analog keybdev mousedev joydev evdev]
usbcore 58668 1 [hid usbserial usb-uhci]

Then I typed:
linux:/home/dave # rmmod hid

And poof! The joystick was unloaded from the system and VMware was able to grab it and load it up! Now I'm happy again! Time to install Battlefield 1942 and kick some butt!

Take care!

Dave