Meet Paul Mahlan

Paul Mahlan, brother of David Mahlan, was one of the Original 6 owners.  He competed in the league for the first four years before retiring and moving on with his young life.  Even though he left as an owner, Paul came back in various capacities to help out the CFCL.  First he came back as General Manager for Eric Lamb and the Lambchops helping the Lambchops to consecutive titles.  When the Lambchops retired in 2007, Paul was eventually called upon to fill another role with the CFCL.

For a few years our in-season free agent bidding wasn't done through our stat service.  So in order to maintain as much integrity as possible, I asked Paul to stay in control of the e-mail account that we would send our bids to.  Each week Paul would change the e-mail account password and after the bidding deadline passed, would call me with the password.  Big deal you say?  Well that's understandable.  But Paul selflessly spent part of his Sunday afternoon each week for a few years changing passwords and leaving me voicemails.  But the best part was each Sunday I would get a call from Paul telling me the password for the week was "Ernie Banks", or "Ryne Sandberg", or "Jerry Morales".  I couldn't wait to check my voicemail at 3:01pm each Sunday to see what Cub from the past was coming up.

Paul also has an amazing sense of humor, easily ranking in the top 5 of all-time owners.  It's time now to meet Paul Mahlan:

Paul, you are one of the original six owners. What do you remember about the beginning of the CFCL?

 

I recall being unprepared for that first draft and ended up with a pretty lousy team. This was pre-internet and so I remember pouring over issues of The Sporting News and Baseball America. They apparently didn't help.

 

You changed your team name a few times. You started out as Paul’s Penguins, then changed to Paul’s Bunyans the next year and then back to the Penguins the third year. Any reason for the name changes?

 

If I spent more time devising trades than considering name changes I may have had more success.

 

Lets see, I first went with alliteration, and then, for some reason, thought a mythical lumberjack/swollen bursal sac of the mesophalangeal joint double-entendre was clever.

 

You were in the CFCL for the first four years. Do you recall why you left?

 

I was in high school at that time, in the mid-80's, so I'm sure it had something to do with girls, beer, MTV, glasnost, the meteoric-rise of Adrian Zmed, or when ABC pulled the plug on Too Close for Comfort, I remember needing some time to sort things out, think about 'what it all means', you know? So many unanswered questions. Fantasy baseball seemed trivial.

 

Did you have a favorite CFCL player?

 

The only players I even remember having on my roster were Carmelo Martinez and Glenn Wilson.

 

Do you remember having your eye on a specific player, saying “I have to get him at any cost?”

 

Not really. I hope it wasn't Carmelo Martinez and Glenn Wilson.

 

Did you feel there was a unique element to your experience competing against your older brother and your dad?

 

The word 'competing' didn't play much of a factor in my years as the GM of the Penguins/Bunyans.