CFCL Owners of 1992

 

Pictured from the left:  Rich Bentel (Dem Rebels), Pat McGuire (Twin Picks), Paul Zeledon (Da Paul Meisters), Eric Lamb (Eric's Lambchops), David Mahlan (eventual 1992 CFCL Champion David's Copperfields), Tom Clark (Clark Kents), David Holian (David's Ruffins), and Kelly Barone (Six Packs).

1992 saw the CFCL returning to full stable of 8 owners, which matched the number of franchises we'd had from 1986 through 1990.  We played 1991 with only 7 teams because Pat McGuire, owner of McGuire's Picks, withdrew from the league shortly before Draft Day 1991, leaving us no time to find a replacement.

As you can see, though, we held no ill will, as we welcomed Pat back with open arms (and a new team name - Twin Picks) following his one year hiatus.  In addition to the Return of the Pickster, two new teams joined us in 1992 - Da Paul Meisters and Clark's Kents, replacing Mr. Paul's Swordfish and the CFCL stalwart Bald Eagles.

We knew we'd miss Bob's presence at the Draft, so Rich brought a helium-filled balloon inscribed with Bob's face in Sharpie as a stand-in.  You can barely see the yellow balloon behind Eric's head, but the shot below, of Kelly posing with Airhead Bob, gives a good view.  In retrospect, you have to wonder if it was this interaction with "Bob" prior to the Draft, which caused Kelly to have one of the most disastrous Drafts in CFCL history (more on this below).

We knew Bob would miss Draft Day as well, which is why we decided to video tape the proceedings to send to him later.  It turned out to be one of most fortuitous decisions we've made, as the 1992 Draft was incredibly entertaining and featured a number of "incidents" which would be remembered as classics of CFCL lore.  I'm sure that the fun Rich and I had re-watching the video tape later had a lot to do with us deciding to record the 1993 Draft ... and the 15 or so to follow ... as well.  I have no doubt that if 1992 had been a routine Draft the video taping would have stopped after that first year.

A number of highlights from 1992 have already been posted on the blog:

The Origin of the Ruffin Privilege (which gives the honor of nominating the first player for bidding to Ruffins' owner, Dave Holian

The Ramon Martinez Incident (in which things begin to go awry for Six Packs owner Kelly Barone)

The Bret Barberie Incident (in which things go from bad to worse for Kelly)

The Rebel Puberty Incident (in which an interaction with Airhead Bob causes Dem Rebel owner Rich Bentel to emit some odd sounds)

The Darryl Strawberry Incident (a classic moment in CFCL history, in which two owners simultaneously react in the same way when an owner more than doubles the current bid on Strawberry ... if it wasn't so spontaneous, you'd swear it was choreographed)

All this took place at the Oak Park apartment of Copperfields owner, David Mahlan.