Today, for the 31st time in history, the owners of the CFCL gather for what they collectively acknowledge is the Greatest Day of The Year: Draft Day.
I'm sure Rich will be recapping the events of the day, as well as the celebrations that took place to recognized the CFCL's 30th Anniversary.
For now, though, let's take a look back for an in-depth examination of Draft Day and what it means, courtesy of Trading the Gator. This clip from the film documents the draft of 2002.
Showing posts with label Dem Rebels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dem Rebels. Show all posts
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
The Drew Stubbs Incident - The Prelude
The CFCL's history is rife with excellent stories, great memories and historical "incidents". Usually the moment an incident occurs, it's obvious. The minute Kelly had a meltdown on drafting Ramon Martinez, we knew we had the "The Ramon Martinez Incident". When the Ruffins and Kents stood up simultaneously to look in the kitchen we knew we had "The Darryl Strawberry Incident". When Monroe grabbed the card and then the crayon we knew there was the "Snookie Incident" (details to follow in an upcoming blog).
Two years ago we had a bonafied Incident, but it wasn't obvious until well after the fact. "The Drew Stubbs Incident" on its surface happens every year, multiple times. So what makes it an incident? The parties involved and the back story.
This is a story about price enforcement. Usually price enforcement occurs without much acclaim. Just a matter of one owner wanting to keep another owner from getting a phenomenal deal. But in the cases of the "The Steve Carlton Incident" and now the "Drew Stubbs Incident" other factors come in to play.
Let's set the stage. It's 2012. There are a handful of enticing outfielders available in the draft. The Kenndoza Line, Candy Colored Clowns and Dem Rebels all had their list of who they wanted and how much they would be willing to pay. Soon, the main players - Andre Ethier, Dexter Fowler, Shane Victorino - were all snatched up and the only remaining significant outfielder in the pool was Drew Stubbs.
The dimwitted Rebels were interested because of Stubbs' amazing speed potential. Apparently overpaying for a guy who may not be able to find first base with a map wasn't an issue. I remember as Stubbs was brought up that I had a maximum bid remaining of upper 20's or low 30's and shamefully I was excited because I thought that would be enough to get Stubbs. As the bidding continued it came down to me, the Clowns and Line. A quick look at the money sheet showed me Kenn and Mike could both go into the 40's for Stubbs. They wouldn't do that would they? If memory serves neither was desperate for SBs (at least not as desperate as I was). Well, I didn't understand there were other forces at work.
I think at this point of the league's evolution, I was still naïve to the fact that Mike being a Reds fan, I mean a REDS FAN, would be willing to pay ungodly amounts of money for anyone playing in the Queen City. I also knew about the "friendship" between Kenn and Mike but was oblivious to the undercurrent of "fun" that could lead to.
As it was I had to drop out sooner than I wanted and had to watch these two rivals go back and forth like McEnroe and Borg. Who won? Tune in later this week for . . . ."The Drew Stubbs Incident" in their own words.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
My Savior - Gary Scott
The previous post is the part of Trading the Gator that shows how owners prepare for the draft. The plan for this blog was to have daily entrees from Draft Day 2013 through Draft Day 2014. While we are in excess of 200 posts, we certainly have fallen short of our daily goal.
The clip from TTG, in part, explains why this time of the year is so hectic. With spring training moving to actual games being played, Draft Prep is accelerating. Prior to right now all we could do is look at projections, assumptions and last year's numbers. Now we can actually see that one of our players pitched four innings giving up one run. Or went 0-2. Our time starts to get used up.
The CFCL has eleven owners who are professionals so there is the career thing to take up our time. Seven owners are married and with that comes responsibilities and time commitments. Four owners have young children which bring with it more awesome responsibility and time commitments. The DoorMatts, thus far, are the only CFCL team to have "graduated" through the young reliant children stage to the empty nest stage, so while they dealt with the above challenges for many years as a CFCL owner, they currently enjoy endless amounts of time to surf the net for baseball nuggets.
Oh yeah, and it's also the time of year that Uncle Sam gets really interested in our money so there's a time commitment to organize our tax information, unless we want to wait until after the draft to put our accountants under the gun to meet the deadline.
There's a lot going on at this time of the year for all fantasy owners and unfortunately being creative on a daily basis has become a losing battle. My apologies if you are a daily visitor looking for the latest memory of CFCL life from the past 30 years.
But having watched the TTG clip and seeing updates on the MLB network naturally made me think of . . . Gary Scott.
It was spring training of the 1991 season. The Rebels were coming off a very disappointing 6th place finish and needed to make a move for the future. As we saw with the Will Clark Incident and the Jeff Stone Incident, pre-season hype can be costly. Well, the Rebels are slow learners. Reports out of Arizona all spring training long were about this phee-nom that was tearing up every pitcher he faced.
Gary Scott was a 22 year old thirdbase prospect who, heading in to spring training, was not supposed to make the club out of camp. He was viewed as someone who could be the next great thirdbaseman since Ron Santo, but he was not supposed to be that guy in 1991, in April. But Gary would NOT be denied. Every day the sports report on WGN radio told about Scott going 1-3 or 2-4 with an RBI.
I used to listen to Spike O'Dell in the afternoons and I specifically remember about halfway through spring training the sports guy was doing an update and said "And from Arizona, Spike, guess who just drove in the winning run again?" Spike responded "Not Gary Scott again!" Sportcaster, "Yep."
Scott made the club and that sealed it in this GM's mind. I HAD TO HAVE Gary Scott. I built my entire draft around getting Scott and riding him to the title while he helped the Cubs win their division. As the draft loomed nearer I sweated and fretted how to approach Scott. Should I nominate him early when everyone else might be focusing on the likes of Charlie Hayes, Terry Pendleton and Matt Williams?
But this is a Cubs Fan League. Bringing him up early in the draft when everyone had money to spend could cause his price to be higher as emotional Cub fans drafted their teams.
If I waited too long, I may not budget my money properly and someone could lay in wait and snag him just beyond what I could afford. Oh the dilemmas.
As it turns out, I don't recall exactly how it played out as to when Scott was nominated. All I remember, as we drafted in the apartment David and I shared in Forest Park, was that I GOT GARY SCOTT!!!!! And I got him for a steal - .09!!!! My season is made! I also seem to recall that everyone else on my "Have to Have List" ended up on my team as well. What a shrewd drafter am I!
The one lasting memory I have is right after I bid .09 on Scott and the last standing owner folded, I exclaimed some sort of victory expression. I also remember the other owners more or less looking at me as if to say "You poor fool. This is just another example of a Cub having a great Arizona experience who will no doubt fail."
What did they know? I wanted Scott. I got Scott and together we would pop champagne together. We would raise pennants together. We would be awesome!
The results?
1991 - Rebels finished 5th (better than 1990 but a half point worse in accumulated points).
Gary Scott - one homerun, five RBIs, batting average of .165 and in the minors by May.
Foiled again.
The clip from TTG, in part, explains why this time of the year is so hectic. With spring training moving to actual games being played, Draft Prep is accelerating. Prior to right now all we could do is look at projections, assumptions and last year's numbers. Now we can actually see that one of our players pitched four innings giving up one run. Or went 0-2. Our time starts to get used up.
The CFCL has eleven owners who are professionals so there is the career thing to take up our time. Seven owners are married and with that comes responsibilities and time commitments. Four owners have young children which bring with it more awesome responsibility and time commitments. The DoorMatts, thus far, are the only CFCL team to have "graduated" through the young reliant children stage to the empty nest stage, so while they dealt with the above challenges for many years as a CFCL owner, they currently enjoy endless amounts of time to surf the net for baseball nuggets.
Oh yeah, and it's also the time of year that Uncle Sam gets really interested in our money so there's a time commitment to organize our tax information, unless we want to wait until after the draft to put our accountants under the gun to meet the deadline.
There's a lot going on at this time of the year for all fantasy owners and unfortunately being creative on a daily basis has become a losing battle. My apologies if you are a daily visitor looking for the latest memory of CFCL life from the past 30 years.
But having watched the TTG clip and seeing updates on the MLB network naturally made me think of . . . Gary Scott.
It was spring training of the 1991 season. The Rebels were coming off a very disappointing 6th place finish and needed to make a move for the future. As we saw with the Will Clark Incident and the Jeff Stone Incident, pre-season hype can be costly. Well, the Rebels are slow learners. Reports out of Arizona all spring training long were about this phee-nom that was tearing up every pitcher he faced.
Gary Scott was a 22 year old thirdbase prospect who, heading in to spring training, was not supposed to make the club out of camp. He was viewed as someone who could be the next great thirdbaseman since Ron Santo, but he was not supposed to be that guy in 1991, in April. But Gary would NOT be denied. Every day the sports report on WGN radio told about Scott going 1-3 or 2-4 with an RBI.
I used to listen to Spike O'Dell in the afternoons and I specifically remember about halfway through spring training the sports guy was doing an update and said "And from Arizona, Spike, guess who just drove in the winning run again?" Spike responded "Not Gary Scott again!" Sportcaster, "Yep."
Scott made the club and that sealed it in this GM's mind. I HAD TO HAVE Gary Scott. I built my entire draft around getting Scott and riding him to the title while he helped the Cubs win their division. As the draft loomed nearer I sweated and fretted how to approach Scott. Should I nominate him early when everyone else might be focusing on the likes of Charlie Hayes, Terry Pendleton and Matt Williams?
But this is a Cubs Fan League. Bringing him up early in the draft when everyone had money to spend could cause his price to be higher as emotional Cub fans drafted their teams.
If I waited too long, I may not budget my money properly and someone could lay in wait and snag him just beyond what I could afford. Oh the dilemmas.
As it turns out, I don't recall exactly how it played out as to when Scott was nominated. All I remember, as we drafted in the apartment David and I shared in Forest Park, was that I GOT GARY SCOTT!!!!! And I got him for a steal - .09!!!! My season is made! I also seem to recall that everyone else on my "Have to Have List" ended up on my team as well. What a shrewd drafter am I!
The one lasting memory I have is right after I bid .09 on Scott and the last standing owner folded, I exclaimed some sort of victory expression. I also remember the other owners more or less looking at me as if to say "You poor fool. This is just another example of a Cub having a great Arizona experience who will no doubt fail."
What did they know? I wanted Scott. I got Scott and together we would pop champagne together. We would raise pennants together. We would be awesome!
The results?
1991 - Rebels finished 5th (better than 1990 but a half point worse in accumulated points).
Gary Scott - one homerun, five RBIs, batting average of .165 and in the minors by May.
Foiled again.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
The Will Clark Incident
Earlier in this blog’s life, we revisited one of the very first Draft Day “Incidents” in the CFCL’s history: the time the Co-Founders found themselves locked in an insane episode of bidding on Phillies’ outfielder Jeff Stone during the 1985 Draft. The end of that write-up teased a similar incident from the following year. It’s now time for the Co-Founders to to reminisce about 1986’s The Will Clark Incident…
RICH
I LOVE the history of the CFCL. I LOVE the fact that I have been a part of all the history of the CFCL – many times on the embarrassing end (see Jeff Stone Incident, Mitch Williams Incident, Murphy/Dysktra Trade). But every so often I am able to come out on top (Steve Carlton Incident). And here’s one more – The Will Clark Incident.
I LOVE the history of the CFCL. I LOVE the fact that I have been a part of all the history of the CFCL – many times on the embarrassing end (see Jeff Stone Incident, Mitch Williams Incident, Murphy/Dysktra Trade). But every so often I am able to come out on top (Steve Carlton Incident). And here’s one more – The Will Clark Incident.
The problem is I don’t remember the minute by minute, blow-by-blow happenings. I remember the before and I remember the after. The during? Not so much. It could be because I was still reeling from the Jeff Stone Incident the year before. It could be that it was 28 years ago and, really, how much can one person remember?
DAVID
Flashback to spring training, 1986 -- This was in the early days of Rotisserie and fantasy baseball, and information on minor leaguers and prospects was still fairly hard to come by. The minor league overview in Bill Mazaroski's annual magazine was the best of the easily-obtainable sources, and the owner who knew about Baseball America's "Top Ten Prospects" issues, let alone who could find one on a newstand, had an incredible advantage.
Flashback to spring training, 1986 -- This was in the early days of Rotisserie and fantasy baseball, and information on minor leaguers and prospects was still fairly hard to come by. The minor league overview in Bill Mazaroski's annual magazine was the best of the easily-obtainable sources, and the owner who knew about Baseball America's "Top Ten Prospects" issues, let alone who could find one on a newstand, had an incredible advantage.
RICH
Here’s what I do recall. The Rebels and Copperfields had teased each other with our plans heading into 1985 when we both had our eyes on Jeff Stone. After we squared off in the bidding on Jeff Stone, I think we were both reluctant to lend voice to our intentions for the 1986 draft.
Here’s what I do recall. The Rebels and Copperfields had teased each other with our plans heading into 1985 when we both had our eyes on Jeff Stone. After we squared off in the bidding on Jeff Stone, I think we were both reluctant to lend voice to our intentions for the 1986 draft.
This time around we both had our sights on a young left handed slugger in the Bay Area. I can’t recall if we gave each other even a bit of indication of our desires or if we figured it out during the bidding.
There was still a good chance of “back-dooring” a young or unknown talent. There wasn’t ESPN and Internet. You had the Sporting News and Bill Mazeroski’s mag.
DAVID
And it’s not like Mazeroski was over the moon for Clark. In the positional outlook for the major league team the magazine mentioned Clark as a possible contributor in 1986:
And it’s not like Mazeroski was over the moon for Clark. In the positional outlook for the major league team the magazine mentioned Clark as a possible contributor in 1986:
"[Dan] Driessen’s limitations could help [Bob] Brenly worm his way in here, at least against lefthanders. And don’t count out last June’s No. 1 draft pick, Will Clark, who pumped 25 homers in just 65 games at Mississippi State last year, then jumped to Fresno and hit .305, drove in 48 runs in 65 games, jacked 10 home runs and had an on-base percentage of .458. Clark might not be able to make the jump this year, but it won’t take him long."
The minor league write-up at the back of the magazine said: “He’s a disciplined left-handed hitter with 20-homer strength and Gold Glove potential. Clark will get a chance to take first base this spring because he’s so far advanced in the mental aspects of the game.”
Jackpot! Just what every Rotisserie owner longs for – mental aspects!
Clark didn't even make Maz’s Gold List (the prospects likely to make their presence known in the majors in the coming season). Instead, that list was toting the likes of Todd Worrell, Lance McCullers, Andres Galarraga, and Roger Mason. Maz’s list of secondary prospects did mention Clark, saying that he “could make the leap this year – sometime.”
All-in-all, not exactly ringing endorsements; and not the type of write up that would set our winter hearts a-lusting.
RICH
So if you read those periodicals, you knew of a guy named Will Clark. Had a pretty good college career and was expected to make the team and be wonderful in 1986. But to the passive eye, he wasn't that well known.
So if you read those periodicals, you knew of a guy named Will Clark. Had a pretty good college career and was expected to make the team and be wonderful in 1986. But to the passive eye, he wasn't that well known.
DAVID
It wasn't until March 1986 that stories of "The Natural" came drifting Chicago-way. Tales told of an intense young slugger with only 65 minor league games under his belt who was the hit of the Giants' spring camp. There were rumors that he hit a ball through the outfield fence in a spring training game.
It wasn't until March 1986 that stories of "The Natural" came drifting Chicago-way. Tales told of an intense young slugger with only 65 minor league games under his belt who was the hit of the Giants' spring camp. There were rumors that he hit a ball through the outfield fence in a spring training game.
RICH
Clark had a pretty solid spring. This was when the Cubs played the Giants about 450 times during the Cactus League, so now he was becoming less unknown. But one could still be hopeful that the other owners would attribute it to a young kid having a good spring against lesser pitchers (kind of like being Gary Scott before Gary Scott).
Clark had a pretty solid spring. This was when the Cubs played the Giants about 450 times during the Cactus League, so now he was becoming less unknown. But one could still be hopeful that the other owners would attribute it to a young kid having a good spring against lesser pitchers (kind of like being Gary Scott before Gary Scott).
DAVID
Still, Rich and I both hoped -- no, believed -- that each of us was the only one to be hearing this info. We were both certain we would be able to sneak Clark though at the end of the Draft. Of course, this was another textbook case of Hyper-Inflation resulting from Pre-Draft Obsession.
Still, Rich and I both hoped -- no, believed -- that each of us was the only one to be hearing this info. We were both certain we would be able to sneak Clark though at the end of the Draft. Of course, this was another textbook case of Hyper-Inflation resulting from Pre-Draft Obsession.
RICH
We were both disappointed on Opening Day. Any chance we had of trying to sneak Clark through at a low price ended on April 8, 1986. Keep in mind, back in the early days, we drafted after Opening Day so we knew who was on an NL roster. By the time we drafted there were some games already played and emotions affected (see Brian Littlefield effect in the original Rotisserie Book).
We were both disappointed on Opening Day. Any chance we had of trying to sneak Clark through at a low price ended on April 8, 1986. Keep in mind, back in the early days, we drafted after Opening Day so we knew who was on an NL roster. By the time we drafted there were some games already played and emotions affected (see Brian Littlefield effect in the original Rotisserie Book).
On April 8th, Will Clark came to the plate for the first time EVER in a major league game. And he homered. Homered in the first inning against the Astros. Homered to straightaway center field in the Astrodome. Homered off of . . . Nolan Ryan in his first at bat ever. And the legend exploded.
No more sneaking him through. Now it’s good ol’ country hardball ala 1985 and Jeff Stone.
DAVID
Flash forward, to Draft Day 1986 -- Our new owner, Dave Holian, received the honor of nominating the first player of the Draft. This ended up being the unofficial institution of what would come to be known as The Ruffin Privilege, which wasn't formally recognized until 1992.
Of course, it's obvious who he chose to make the first player up for bid in 1986 -- Will the Thrill.
Bidding quickly escalated, with the Bald Eagles, Copperfields, and Dem Rebels the main participants. Bob Monroe, owner of the Eagles, called a conference with Head Copperfield in a side room. The Bald One offered to drop out of the bidding on Clark if In would promise not to bid up another player later in the Draft. I refused, and we returned to the draft table where the bidding continued. Monroe remained in a little while longer, then dropped out, leaving me and Rich as the only two active bidders. Another showdown between the Co-Founders/Co-Commissioners. As the bidding reached the upper 30s, memories of the Jeff Stone Incident crept into both our heads.
RICH
I was probably feeling the pain of Stone still so at some point I blinked and the Copperfields got Will Clark for .40.
DAVID
Perhaps it was the memory of what Jeff Stone did to his team, but whatever the reason, after I said ".40", Rich said "Pass", and I brought his head crashing to the table at the realization of what I had done.
Clark's stats for the year: .287-11-41-4. Respectable, but not worthy of .40.
RICH
Clark would go on to hit only 10 more home runs and drive in only 40 more runs all season. So I finally won a showdown against the Copperfields, right?
Of course, it's obvious who he chose to make the first player up for bid in 1986 -- Will the Thrill.
Bidding quickly escalated, with the Bald Eagles, Copperfields, and Dem Rebels the main participants. Bob Monroe, owner of the Eagles, called a conference with Head Copperfield in a side room. The Bald One offered to drop out of the bidding on Clark if In would promise not to bid up another player later in the Draft. I refused, and we returned to the draft table where the bidding continued. Monroe remained in a little while longer, then dropped out, leaving me and Rich as the only two active bidders. Another showdown between the Co-Founders/Co-Commissioners. As the bidding reached the upper 30s, memories of the Jeff Stone Incident crept into both our heads.
RICH
I was probably feeling the pain of Stone still so at some point I blinked and the Copperfields got Will Clark for .40.
DAVID
Perhaps it was the memory of what Jeff Stone did to his team, but whatever the reason, after I said ".40", Rich said "Pass", and I brought his head crashing to the table at the realization of what I had done.
Clark's stats for the year: .287-11-41-4. Respectable, but not worthy of .40.
RICH
Clark would go on to hit only 10 more home runs and drive in only 40 more runs all season. So I finally won a showdown against the Copperfields, right?
1985 – Rebels outbid the Copperfields on Jeff Stone for .32 and finish 4th out of seven teams.
1986 – Copperfields outlast the Rebels on Will Clark for .40 and win their first championship (first of three in a row and first of eleven overall).And that right there in a nutshell is the Rebel/Copperfield rivalry.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
The Faces of the CFCL
Thanks to League Photographer and Archivist David Mahlan, we were able to capture some close up pictures of the current local owners of the CFCL. Unfortunately, not all CFCL owners were able to attend. Not pictured below were Mike Bentel (Twin Killers), Dave Holian (David's Ruffins), Nick Hansen (Eukennott Beatniks) and Kenn Ruby (Kenndoza Line). All four selfishly decided that travelling a hundreds or thousands of miles to Chicago for a few hours of pizza eating and beer swilling wasn't an efficient use of their time and money. Go figure.
Below are the local faces of the CFCL and a little bit about their team history.
Matt Bentel - owner of the DoorMatts. Joined the CFCL in 1994 and still looks frustrated for tying with the Kenndoza Line for first in 2009 and ultimately finshing in 2nd due to tie-breaker rules.
Mike Coulter (in red) - owner of Candy Colored Clowns. Joined the CFCL in 2008 and won his first championship five years later (2012). Also is our savior in handling all transactions and issues with our statistics at OnRoto.com.
Matt Grage - owner of Graging Bulls. Joined the CFCL in 2000. Celebrated his first CFCL title in 2013 (and only his second money finish). Matt also provides all the owners with the Master Draft List on Draft Day that saves us tons of time.
Tim Morkert - owner of Morkertzuma's Revenge. Tim joined the CFCL in 2008. Here Tim looks like he has a concerned look on his face as he reflects back to 2011 and his oh-so-close run for the title. "Dammit Brad Lincoln! I hate you!" A commissioner and owner in a fantasy baseball league in San Francisco, Tim has been a long standing member of the CFCL's Executive Committee.
Pat Chesnut (left), Matthew Barriball (right) - co-owners of Hey Patta Matta Swing. Pat and Matthew joined the CFCL this off-season and will enjoy their first season in 2014. They have previous fantasy baseball experience and, based on their conversations and e-mails, bring a ton of game. This is the future face of the CFCL.
Rich Bentel - owner of Dem Rebels. Rich is the last remaining original owner (1984). In 30 years of ownership, the Rebels have performed poorly with only seven money finishes (two championships). Rich also took over full Commissioner responsibilities when the Copperfields retired in 2010 as well as League Secretary responsibilities circa 2009 in a failed effort to keep the Copperfields around forever.
Below are the local faces of the CFCL and a little bit about their team history.
Pat Chesnut (left), Matthew Barriball (right) - co-owners of Hey Patta Matta Swing. Pat and Matthew joined the CFCL this off-season and will enjoy their first season in 2014. They have previous fantasy baseball experience and, based on their conversations and e-mails, bring a ton of game. This is the future face of the CFCL.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Memory of a Banquet IV
This last walk down memory lane could quite possibly be the greatest one. Yesterday's entry is very strong - the one at the Bald Eagle's house (trying to off the Rebels, mocking the Rebels at Gibson's homerun and unsuccessfully trying to get the rest of the league to join him in giving the champion Copperfields a Yoo-Hoo shower). Very strong indeed.
But this one (I'm thinking it took place in the mid '90's) I feel takes the cake because it involves something so counter to the CFCL culture. Yes, the police were called.
The police? Yep. You heard me. We bad. And this wasn't involving my brother-in-law who is a cop (and former CFCL owner of the Flatfeet). This is the establishment where the banquet was held . . . called the cops on the CFCL!
This particular banquet I don't think we had a massive turnout. So we tried to find a middle ground for those owners who could attend. I know for a fact that the Lambchops, Rebels and Copperfields attended. I'm thinking - based on the location of the banquet - that the Meisters also showed up. But that may have been it.
So since Paul and Eric lived in the Schaumburg-ish area and I lived in Aurora and David lived in Downers Grove, we selected Batavia/Geneva as the middle ground. Not geographically perfect, but it makes for a great story.
One of us was charged with finding an establishment in that area. Well what screams out Baseball Celebration better than Chinese food? Nothing, it turns out, so we held our banquet at a Chinese restaurant.
The evening started out well enough. We had a nice dinner, talked about the newly finished season, handed out the awards . . . and then things got crazy. We kept talking, about CFCL matters, about how to fix the Cubs, about life. Eventually any other attendees filtered out and all that was left were the Lambchops, Copperfields and Rebels. And I don't mean all that was left from the banquet. I mean all that was left IN THE RESTAURANT! Yes, we closed that mother down! (That is the first and only establishment I have ever closed.)
But we are a bunch of baseball nerds and didn't realize what we were doing. It took the waiter to come over and say "If you don't want anything else, we're trying to close." Sheepish looks on our face as we settled the bill. We kept chatting as we walked out of the restaurant. And then like the baseball magpies we are, we just couldn't say "good-bye". We kept talking and talking and talking in the middle of the parking lot. Nothing seemed strange to us except perhaps that it was a little chilly to be standing outside talking baseball.
All of a sudden a squad car pulls in to the parking lot. Again, we're clueless geeks. We just keep on talking. The officer pulls up to us, ** rolls his window down and says "What's going on guys?"
** I don't know much about police procedure but usually officers will take tactical positions and keep their distance from potential perps. This guy must have, as he was turning the corner into the parking lot, assessed the three of us and said to himself "Are you kidding? What the hell am I doing here?"
"Oh nothing. Just talking about baseball, officer." Man were we cool. The officer then points out that the workers in the restaurant want to go home ** and they're afraid to leave the place because they think you're waiting in the parking lot to jump them.
** as he's saying this, I'm thinking "why are you telling us that? We left the restaurant, we don't need them anymore."
If you could call Hollywood and ask them to cast three guys who would never be confused with attempting to jump anyone you could not find three more appropriate guys than David, Eric and me. Yet there the cop was saying "Maybe it's time to head home, right?"
The minute we heard we were keeping the workers in the restaurant and why, we all embarrassingly apologized and moved directly to our cars. That was the night the CFCL took it to the streets and rumbled with the cops.
More pictures from this year's banquet.
The CFCL's local owners. Why does it look like everyone's laughing at the Commissioner?
Going around the table to the left, starting in front: Matt Grage, Matt Bentel, Tim Morkert, Pat Chesnut, Matthew Barriball, Mike Coulter and Rich Bentel.
Mike Coulter enjoying sweet victory as he takes home the certificate for Best Free Agent Acquisition (Francisco Liriano). In the background is Matthew Barriball (co-owner of The Swing) smiling contentedly knowing next year's certificate will be his.
But this one (I'm thinking it took place in the mid '90's) I feel takes the cake because it involves something so counter to the CFCL culture. Yes, the police were called.
The police? Yep. You heard me. We bad. And this wasn't involving my brother-in-law who is a cop (and former CFCL owner of the Flatfeet). This is the establishment where the banquet was held . . . called the cops on the CFCL!
This particular banquet I don't think we had a massive turnout. So we tried to find a middle ground for those owners who could attend. I know for a fact that the Lambchops, Rebels and Copperfields attended. I'm thinking - based on the location of the banquet - that the Meisters also showed up. But that may have been it.
So since Paul and Eric lived in the Schaumburg-ish area and I lived in Aurora and David lived in Downers Grove, we selected Batavia/Geneva as the middle ground. Not geographically perfect, but it makes for a great story.
One of us was charged with finding an establishment in that area. Well what screams out Baseball Celebration better than Chinese food? Nothing, it turns out, so we held our banquet at a Chinese restaurant.
The evening started out well enough. We had a nice dinner, talked about the newly finished season, handed out the awards . . . and then things got crazy. We kept talking, about CFCL matters, about how to fix the Cubs, about life. Eventually any other attendees filtered out and all that was left were the Lambchops, Copperfields and Rebels. And I don't mean all that was left from the banquet. I mean all that was left IN THE RESTAURANT! Yes, we closed that mother down! (That is the first and only establishment I have ever closed.)
But we are a bunch of baseball nerds and didn't realize what we were doing. It took the waiter to come over and say "If you don't want anything else, we're trying to close." Sheepish looks on our face as we settled the bill. We kept chatting as we walked out of the restaurant. And then like the baseball magpies we are, we just couldn't say "good-bye". We kept talking and talking and talking in the middle of the parking lot. Nothing seemed strange to us except perhaps that it was a little chilly to be standing outside talking baseball.
All of a sudden a squad car pulls in to the parking lot. Again, we're clueless geeks. We just keep on talking. The officer pulls up to us, ** rolls his window down and says "What's going on guys?"
** I don't know much about police procedure but usually officers will take tactical positions and keep their distance from potential perps. This guy must have, as he was turning the corner into the parking lot, assessed the three of us and said to himself "Are you kidding? What the hell am I doing here?"
"Oh nothing. Just talking about baseball, officer." Man were we cool. The officer then points out that the workers in the restaurant want to go home ** and they're afraid to leave the place because they think you're waiting in the parking lot to jump them.
** as he's saying this, I'm thinking "why are you telling us that? We left the restaurant, we don't need them anymore."
If you could call Hollywood and ask them to cast three guys who would never be confused with attempting to jump anyone you could not find three more appropriate guys than David, Eric and me. Yet there the cop was saying "Maybe it's time to head home, right?"
The minute we heard we were keeping the workers in the restaurant and why, we all embarrassingly apologized and moved directly to our cars. That was the night the CFCL took it to the streets and rumbled with the cops.
More pictures from this year's banquet.
Going around the table to the left, starting in front: Matt Grage, Matt Bentel, Tim Morkert, Pat Chesnut, Matthew Barriball, Mike Coulter and Rich Bentel.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Memory of a Banquet III
1988. I still remember it like it was yesterday. This banquet, or at least the highlights, stand out in my memory. The Bald Eagles offered to host the banquet at their home in Brookfield. We were there to celebrate the 1988 season and crown the, oh here's a shocker, Copperfields champion.
The evening started off on a typical note. Bob, as host, went about offering his guests something to drink. Interestingly he didn't ask me what I would like to drink. After a few minutes he emerged from his kitchen with a strange looking glass of water. He handed it to me and when I looked at the glass like "what the hell?" he explained that his pipes were kind of rusty.
Well I didn't play along with his little ruse and I came to find out that he loaded my glass of water with tobasco sauce. Oh Bob, such a kidder.
I can actually, maybe for the only time other than this year's banquet, tell you the specific date of the banquet. It was Saturday, October 15, 1988. How do I know? We were watching the World Series. Game 1 of the World Series.
I know the Copperfields and Eagles were in attendance. I think the Six Packs and Ruffins were there as well and it wouldn't surprise me if the Aces and Crocketts were there since Bob was their boss. The Picks were most likely there as well because, well, what else would they have to do? So it's possible we had the entire league in attendance.
I am most certain that in that house that night I was the only Oakland A fan. Everyone else wanted the Dodgers to win. I was riding high until the ninth inning when, as we all know, Kirk Gibson swung with one arm and somehow deposited Eckersley's backdoor slider halfway up the stands behind the right field wall.
I was crushed. Looking back I'm embarrassed to say I was sucked in to the phenomena of the Bash Brothers. But there still was The Eck, Welch, Stewart, Lansford, Parker, Henderson, Steinbach . . .
When Gibson homered the entire room erupted in joy and many fingers were pointed in my direction. Monroe especially enjoyed pointing out that the A's had lost. He was such a meanie.
The other part of the evening I recall was Bob trying to coerce a few other owners to douse the champion Copperfields (this was their THIRD title IN A ROW) with Yoo-Hoo. I can't remember if he was successful, but I do recall being out in the front yard running around for a while.
More pictures from this year's banquet:
Commissioner Bentel trying unsuccessfully to organize the award certificates.
The Revenge cautiously accepting their certificate for 7th place. No doubt they wanted to finish in the money for a third straight year. Notice the patrons in the background completely oblivious to the historical nature of this 30th consecutive gathering.
"Really Mr. Coulter? CFCL Champion last year? That's amazing!" Actually the Clowns and The Swing were most likely rehashing the specifics of the blockbuster trade they made a few days earlier. The first one of 2014 had the Clowns sending Adrian Gonzalez, Cole Hamel and Didi Gregorius to The Swing in exchange for Carlos Gonzalez.
The evening started off on a typical note. Bob, as host, went about offering his guests something to drink. Interestingly he didn't ask me what I would like to drink. After a few minutes he emerged from his kitchen with a strange looking glass of water. He handed it to me and when I looked at the glass like "what the hell?" he explained that his pipes were kind of rusty.
Well I didn't play along with his little ruse and I came to find out that he loaded my glass of water with tobasco sauce. Oh Bob, such a kidder.
I can actually, maybe for the only time other than this year's banquet, tell you the specific date of the banquet. It was Saturday, October 15, 1988. How do I know? We were watching the World Series. Game 1 of the World Series.
I know the Copperfields and Eagles were in attendance. I think the Six Packs and Ruffins were there as well and it wouldn't surprise me if the Aces and Crocketts were there since Bob was their boss. The Picks were most likely there as well because, well, what else would they have to do? So it's possible we had the entire league in attendance.
I am most certain that in that house that night I was the only Oakland A fan. Everyone else wanted the Dodgers to win. I was riding high until the ninth inning when, as we all know, Kirk Gibson swung with one arm and somehow deposited Eckersley's backdoor slider halfway up the stands behind the right field wall.
I was crushed. Looking back I'm embarrassed to say I was sucked in to the phenomena of the Bash Brothers. But there still was The Eck, Welch, Stewart, Lansford, Parker, Henderson, Steinbach . . .
When Gibson homered the entire room erupted in joy and many fingers were pointed in my direction. Monroe especially enjoyed pointing out that the A's had lost. He was such a meanie.
The other part of the evening I recall was Bob trying to coerce a few other owners to douse the champion Copperfields (this was their THIRD title IN A ROW) with Yoo-Hoo. I can't remember if he was successful, but I do recall being out in the front yard running around for a while.
More pictures from this year's banquet:
Commissioner Bentel trying unsuccessfully to organize the award certificates.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
The Game Outside The Game (HOF Edition)
A few weeks ago I shared with you the the original version of The Game Outside The Game. This was an off-season game/distraction conjured up by Matt Bentel (he's an Idea Man). Well this off-season we decided to blow the dust off the box and play the game again, with a slight variation.
In 2011 we played by drafting Cubs from 1975-2011 and manning a full CFCL size 23 man roster with all the proper positions. This year we shaved it down a bit and picked from a different pool of players. Here are the rules:
1) Roster Size - 17 players. 4 OF, 2 C, 1 3B, 1 SS, 1 2B, 1 MI, 1 1B, 1 OUT, 5 P.
2) Scoring categories - OBP, TBs, RBI, Runs, SB, ERA, WHiP, Wins, K/BB
3) Pool To Draft From - Any member of the Hall of Fame whose career began 1900 or later.
4) Stats used - We went with Baseball-reference.com's line of "162 Game Average"
5) Research - None allowed aside from downloading a Master List of all players in the HOF.
6) Position Eligibility - The list (downloaded from the HOF website) listed all the players and the position which they were were elected. So even though Rod Carew played 1B, he was listed at 2B on the master sheet and therefore could only be drafted as a 2B if so chosen.
7) Draft Time Frame - One draft selection per day, alternate style (Rich had the first pick). The draft ran from basically Thanksgiving and ended just before Christmas.
8) Challenges - Understanding the damn rules.
OK, I should explain #8. Matt and I both agreed to the "162 game average" line from BBR. I knew the line he was talking about, had seen it many times. What I didn't know was what the hell it meant. I mean I THOUGHT I knew what it meant. I assumed (and yes, please feel free to fill in why we should never assume) that the line represented the average season for a player. Meaning that you take their career numbers and simply divide them by the number of years they played.
That line of thinking allowed me to be happy that I didn't select Willie Mays (he stuck around too many years) and the like. Shorter careers (Koufax, Gehrig) would be more valuable. Great theory, but that's not what the line represents.
What the line represents, well, let's have BBR explain it "This is an attempt to condense each batter's career into a single season's worth of stats. With batters this is easy. Just take their career games played and divide by 162 and then divide their career totals by that factor. "
Not exactly what I was thinking. Did it matter? In the end, no, not really. It was just an eye opener when I realized that a player who put up great numbers but stuck around too long or missed parts of seasons due to injury would be more valuable, not less. Still wouldn't have changed who I picked.
So again it was another off-season exercise to put together the best possible team while trying to control my opponent and the picks he made. I chose three OFs in quick fashion hoping to make him concentrate on OF while I ran over to the Pitchers to get my favs. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. But in the end it was interesting that we had a select core of favorites we both wanted (Gehrig, Williams) but there were plenty of times we had a different idea as to whom we wanted to fill out our roster.
The results? Yeah, I figured you would want to know. From my perspective it wasn't as pretty as 2011. Down right ugly in fact. But Matt did a great job of putting together a really strong HOF team and deserves a lot of credit for staying the course and not trying to get too cute (See Bill Terry and Lou Brock on my team). OK, enough stalling. Here's the results of the carnage.
I know the format on this is a bit effed up. I'm not savvy enough to make Excel work with Blogspot. But hopefully it's visible enough to enjoy and the final results are at the bottom.
In 2011 we played by drafting Cubs from 1975-2011 and manning a full CFCL size 23 man roster with all the proper positions. This year we shaved it down a bit and picked from a different pool of players. Here are the rules:
1) Roster Size - 17 players. 4 OF, 2 C, 1 3B, 1 SS, 1 2B, 1 MI, 1 1B, 1 OUT, 5 P.
2) Scoring categories - OBP, TBs, RBI, Runs, SB, ERA, WHiP, Wins, K/BB
3) Pool To Draft From - Any member of the Hall of Fame whose career began 1900 or later.
4) Stats used - We went with Baseball-reference.com's line of "162 Game Average"
5) Research - None allowed aside from downloading a Master List of all players in the HOF.
6) Position Eligibility - The list (downloaded from the HOF website) listed all the players and the position which they were were elected. So even though Rod Carew played 1B, he was listed at 2B on the master sheet and therefore could only be drafted as a 2B if so chosen.
7) Draft Time Frame - One draft selection per day, alternate style (Rich had the first pick). The draft ran from basically Thanksgiving and ended just before Christmas.
8) Challenges - Understanding the damn rules.
OK, I should explain #8. Matt and I both agreed to the "162 game average" line from BBR. I knew the line he was talking about, had seen it many times. What I didn't know was what the hell it meant. I mean I THOUGHT I knew what it meant. I assumed (and yes, please feel free to fill in why we should never assume) that the line represented the average season for a player. Meaning that you take their career numbers and simply divide them by the number of years they played.
That line of thinking allowed me to be happy that I didn't select Willie Mays (he stuck around too many years) and the like. Shorter careers (Koufax, Gehrig) would be more valuable. Great theory, but that's not what the line represents.
What the line represents, well, let's have BBR explain it "This is an attempt to condense each batter's career into a single season's worth of stats. With batters this is easy. Just take their career games played and divide by 162 and then divide their career totals by that factor. "
Not exactly what I was thinking. Did it matter? In the end, no, not really. It was just an eye opener when I realized that a player who put up great numbers but stuck around too long or missed parts of seasons due to injury would be more valuable, not less. Still wouldn't have changed who I picked.
So again it was another off-season exercise to put together the best possible team while trying to control my opponent and the picks he made. I chose three OFs in quick fashion hoping to make him concentrate on OF while I ran over to the Pitchers to get my favs. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. But in the end it was interesting that we had a select core of favorites we both wanted (Gehrig, Williams) but there were plenty of times we had a different idea as to whom we wanted to fill out our roster.
The results? Yeah, I figured you would want to know. From my perspective it wasn't as pretty as 2011. Down right ugly in fact. But Matt did a great job of putting together a really strong HOF team and deserves a lot of credit for staying the course and not trying to get too cute (See Bill Terry and Lou Brock on my team). OK, enough stalling. Here's the results of the carnage.
I know the format on this is a bit effed up. I'm not savvy enough to make Excel work with Blogspot. But hopefully it's visible enough to enjoy and the final results are at the bottom.
| Matt | At Bats | sac flies | Hits | HBP | Walks | Runs | RBIs | Stolen Bases | Total Bases | OBP | IP | ER | Hits | Walks | Strikeouts | Wins | Saves | ERA | Ratio | K:BB | |
| Willie Mays | 589 | 0 | 178 | 2 | 79 | 112 | 103 | 18 | 328 | 0.38657 | Grover Alexander | 272 | 77 | 255 | 50 | 115 | 20 | 0 | 2.5478 | 1.1213 | 2.3000 |
| Ricky Henderson | 576 | 4 | 161 | 5 | 115 | 121 | 59 | 74 | 241 | 0.40143 | Warren Spahn | 252 | 86 | 232 | 69 | 124 | 17 | 0 | 3.0714 | 1.1944 | 1.7971 |
| Babe Ruth | 544 | 0 | 186 | 3 | 133 | 141 | 144 | 8 | 375 | 0.47353 | Jim Palmer | 249 | 79 | 211 | 83 | 139 | 17 | 0 | 2.8554 | 1.1807 | 1.6747 |
| Ty Cobb | 611 | 0 | 224 | 5 | 67 | 120 | 103 | 48 | 313 | 0.43338 | Bob Gibson | 262 | 85 | 221 | 90 | 210 | 17 | 0 | 2.9198 | 1.1870 | 2.3333 |
| George Brett | 619 | 7 | 189 | 2 | 66 | 95 | 96 | 12 | 302 | 0.37032 | Big Ed Walsh | 271 | 55 | 214 | 56 | 158 | 18 | 0 | 1.8266 | 0.9963 | 2.8214 |
| Cal Ripken Jr. | 624 | 7 | 172 | 4 | 61 | 89 | 91 | 2 | 279 | 0.34052 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Robin Yount | 624 | 7 | 178 | 3 | 55 | 93 | 80 | 15 | 268 | 0.34253 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Rogers Hornsby | 586 | 0 | 210 | 3 | 74 | 113 | 114 | 10 | 338 | 0.43288 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Lou Gehrig | 599 | 0 | 204 | 3 | 113 | 141 | 149 | 8 | 379 | 0.44755 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Paul Molitor | 654 | 7 | 200 | 3 | 66 | 108 | 79 | 30 | 293 | 0.36849 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Johnny Bench | 575 | 7 | 154 | 1 | 67 | 82 | 103 | 5 | 274 | 0.34154 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Bill Dickey | 570 | 0 | 178 | 3 | 61 | 84 | 109 | 3 | 277 | 0.38170 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||||||||||||
| #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 7171 | 39 | 2234 | 37 | 957 | 1299 | 1230 | 233 | 3667 | 0.39347 | 1306 | 382 | 1133 | 348 | 746 | 89 | 0 | 2.6325 | 1.1340 | 2.1437 | |
| Rich | #DIV/0! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Hank Aaron | 607 | 6 | 185 | 2 | 69 | 107 | 113 | 12 | 337 | 0.37427 | Walter Johnson | 274 | 66 | 228 | 63 | 163 | 19 | 0 | 2.1679 | 1.0620 | 2.5873 |
| Ted Williams | 545 | 0 | 188 | 3 | 143 | 127 | 130 | 2 | 345 | 0.48336 | Christy Mathewson | 274 | 65 | 241 | 49 | 143 | 21 | 0 | 2.1350 | 1.0584 | 2.9184 |
| Stan Musial | 587 | 0 | 194 | 3 | 86 | 104 | 104 | 4 | 328 | 0.41864 | Lefty Grove | 250 | 85 | 244 | 75 | 144 | 19 | 0 | 3.0600 | 1.2760 | 1.9200 |
| Lou Brock | 640 | 3 | 187 | 3 | 47 | 100 | 56 | 58 | 262 | 0.34199 | Bob Feller | 247 | 89 | 211 | 114 | 167 | 17 | 0 | 3.2429 | 1.3158 | 1.4649 |
| Eddie Mathews | 684 | 0 | 157 | 2 | 98 | 102 | 98 | 5 | 295 | 0.32781 | Sandy Koufax | 222 | 68 | 168 | 78 | 229 | 16 | 0 | 2.7568 | 1.1081 | 2.9359 |
| Ernie Banks | 604 | 0 | 166 | 4 | 49 | 84 | 105 | 3 | 302 | 0.33333 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Robbie Alomar | 618 | 7 | 185 | 3 | 70 | 103 | 77 | 32 | 274 | 0.36963 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Eddie Collins | 570 | 0 | 190 | 4 | 86 | 104 | 75 | 42 | 245 | 0.42424 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Bill Terry | 605 | 0 | 206 | 1 | 51 | 105 | 101 | 5 | 306 | 0.39269 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Mike Schmidt | 563 | 7 | 151 | 5 | 102 | 101 | 107 | 12 | 297 | 0.38109 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Roy Campanella | 561 | 0 | 155 | 4 | 71 | 84 | 114 | 3 | 280 | 0.36164 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| Yogi Berra | 577 | 0 | 164 | 4 | 54 | 90 | 109 | 2 | 278 | 0.34961 | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||
| #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||||||||||||
| #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | ||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 7161 | 23 | 2128 | 38 | 926 | 1211 | 1189 | 180 | 3549 | 0.37948 | 1267 | 373 | 1092 | 379 | 846 | 92 | 0 | 2.6496 | 1.1610 | 2.2322 | |
| Matt | Rich | ||||||||||||||||||||
| TB | 3667 | 3549 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Runs | 1299 | 1211 | |||||||||||||||||||
| RBIs | 1230 | 1189 | |||||||||||||||||||
| SB | 233 | 180 | |||||||||||||||||||
| OBP | 0.39347 | 0.37948 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Wins | 89 | 92 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Saves | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
| ERA | 2.6325 | 2.6496 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ratio | 1.1340 | 1.1610 | |||||||||||||||||||
| K:BB | 2.1437 | 2.2322 | |||||||||||||||||||
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