Trading the Gator - From the Cutting Room Floor - The Ralph Macchio Incident

The 2014 CFCL Draft is just two weeks away.  To whet our collective appetites, here's a little glimpse inside the Draft Day segment of Trading the Gator, the fantasy baseball documentary featuring the CFCL.

Note: See this post for the background on the CFCL’s involvement in Trading the Gator. 

The documentarians following the CFCL during the 2002 season shot hours and hours of video - the vast majority of which never made it into the final cut.  Included in those hours and hours recorded, was the full 8 or 9 hours of Draft Day, shot with multiple cameras, and including side interviews during breaks in between rounds.

The producers whittled the Draft Day segment down to about 7 or 8 minutes in the final cut of the film (we'll be sharing that sometime in the next couple weeks, to celebrate The Greatest Day of 2014).  Most of the Draft Day footage left cast aside in the editing suite consisted of those mostly silent, brooding moments as eleven owners sit waiting as the 12th endures the internal debate about whether to raise the current bid a penny.

There were a few really entertaining moments, though, that just couldn't make it into the finished product.  Case in point, The Ralph Macchio Incident...

The producers were kind enough to share some of the unused footage from Draft Day, so we were able to save this moment for posterity.

To set the scene, Six Packs' owner Kelly Barone was locked in a bidding war for Hideo Nomo with Bruce Ellman of Tenacious B.  It was the point in the auction when you're getting down to the last few players who are really worth spending for, and Kelly found himself with the choice of spending more for Nomo than he had budgeted or passing him by and possibly being stuck with a much lesser pitcher.

Kelly begins the clip apologizing for taking so long to make up his mind, and declares that he's at a crossroads in how he'll proceed with the rest of the Draft.  Bruce wonders whether he's referring to the Ralph Macchio film, "Crossroads", or the Brittney Spears offering of the same name.

Cue the film ...

 

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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: 

"[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. 

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. 

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).

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.

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).

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?

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.

Draft Day Cat Nap

NFL Countdown analyst Mike Ditka recently took some good-natured ribbing for falling asleep while on live television:



This brought to mind one of the more notorious incidents in CFCL History:  the time ForGoetz Me Nots owner, Dave Goetz, actually dozed off during the 1999 CFCL Draft.

Draft Day is legendary for being a grueling marathon requiring super-human endurance and a consistent focus beyond the realm of normal human ability. That said, in the CFCL’s first 30 years, this was the only time an owner actually fell asleep mid-Draft.

The incident occurred only 2 hours into the auction. Da Paul Meisters had just acquired Jerry DiPoto, and after recording the transaction on his draft sheet, Dave – either by choice or from sheer exhaustion - closed his eyes and zoned out.

In all likelihood, Dave probably would have snapped out of it without anyone noticing once Rich started reviewing the players needed/money left for each team. However, before Rich began the recap I passed Jerry DipPoto’s Draft Day Poker card down the table toward the Meisters’ owner. Six Packs’ owner Kelly took the card and held it out toward Dave Goetz expecting him to grab it and pass it on down. When Dave didn’t respond, Kelly called his name and startled him awake.

To Dave’s credit, he made a quick, nonchalant recovery, but Kelly had noticed his nap and was quick to make sure the rest of the table knew about it as well. Let’s go to the video…

To top things off, Kelly was also running the Draft Day Kangaroo Court that year. Kelly was sure to levy a hefty fine against Dave for his breech of Draft Day etiquette.

The Darryl Strawberry Incident

You have been very loyal readers.  You have been patient.  You deserve to be rewarded.  And so we bring you "The Darryl Strawberry Incident".  1992 may have been the best draft ever for humor and entertainment, and here is the Piece de Resistance (French for "good stuff").

Some background.  For eight years the CFCL owners enjoyed the Draft Day Bidding Process.  We would typically nominate every player for ".01" and then go around the table increasing the bid by a penny.  Ridiculous to bid .01 on a superstar?  Well, sure.  But it was quaint and fun.  It was also amusing to watch the momentum build as the bids got higher.  I still recall the exuberance of The Professor when the bidding went around the table on some forgotten player some forgotten year with each owner bidding and each owner only increasing the bid by .01.  There were ten owners in the league and when the bidding got back to The Professor for a second trip around the table, the bid was a perfect ".10".

There were times (as you will see in the video below) when an owner would begin the bidding a little higher than .01.  And occasionally an owner would increase the bidding by more than a penny, but usually it was no more than two or three cents.

Enter Pat McGuire of the Twin Picks.  Pat had been in the league previously from 1988-1990, stepped away in 1991 and returned for a two year run beginning in 1992.  Apparently three years of this "quaint and fun" bidding style crap was enough.  It appeared that he thought he could singlehandedly shave hours off the draft by getting the bidding to an appropriate price as quickly as possible.

What you are about to see is, in my opinion, the quintessential moment of the CFCL.  The reaction of two owners (Tom Clark and Dave Holian) to McGuire's efforts to get the bidding going has been retold around the CFCL Draft Table a million times.  Fortunately for all of us it was captured on video and it is yours to see here.

The Chico Incident

The Roster Change report for this date in 1991 included the following transaction:

SIX PACKS activate Jose Offerman from the Reserve List, waive Chico Walker (waive period ends 8-20).

I seemingly innocent and innocuous roster move, but one that would have a significant impact on the Six Packs’ season and one that their owner Kelly Barone would regret for the rest of his CFCL career. Of course, for the rest of the CFCL, it was a moment that we fondly recall as “The Chico Incident”.

Before we get into the details, let’s meet the players.

Jose Offerman was a highly-touted Dodger prospect (at the time ALL Dodger prospects were highly touted) that the Six Packs had drafted into their minor league system in 1989. In 1990, Offerman had hit .326 with 60 SB in AAA.

He came up to play with the Dodgers late in the 1990 season and the Six Packs activated him at that time. They resigned him the following year and Offerman was up and down between the majors and the minors a couple times. When he was sent down on June 4, the Six Packs reserved him and called Chico Walker from the Free Agent Pool.

Chico Walker was a 32-year-old pinch hitter/utility player who had kicked around with the Cubs and Red Sox, and Angels, but hadn’t played in the majors since 1988. In 1991 he returned for a second stint with the Cubs and started the season as their #1 pinch hitter. But between Walker’s modest success in that role and the utter futility of the Cubs’ Opening Day third baseman, Gary Scott, soon Don Zimmer was writing Chico’s name in the starting lineup more often. Chico also played some OF and even filled in for Ryne Sandberg at 2B on occasion. In the end, Walker got over 100 more ABs in 1991 than in any of his other 11 big league seasons.

When the Six Packs called him up on June 4, Walker was hitting .273 with 2 HR, 10 RBI, and 3 SB. Over the next couple months, Walker hit .299 for the Six Packs, with one homer, 12 RBI, and 6 SB.

Then, on August 13, the Six Packs were faced with a decision. The Dodgers had recalled Jose Offerman from the minors and the Six Packs had to cut either Offerman or Walker loose.

In 1991, the CFCL did not have 40-man rosters that would allow teams to shuffle players between Active and Reserve. Players who were on the DL or sent to the minors by their NL teams could be reserved, but when they returned, their CFCL owners had to cut either that returning player or the player who took his place on the roster.

So Six Packs owner Kelly Barone was forced to choose between the journeyman Chico and the prospect Jose. Walker wasn’t setting the world afire, but he was at least performing at an acceptable level. And while Offerman had a world of potential, he had hit about .170 in his major league career to that point.

To complicate matters, the Six Packs were embroiled in one of the tightest pennant races the CFCL had seen to date, with 4 points separating the top 4 teams in early August. Here’s how the top of the standings looked at the time Kelly was weighing his Chico vs Jose options:
  1. Six Packs        65
  2. Bald Eagles     62.5
  3. Lambchops     61.5
  4. Copperfields   61

As we saw at the top of this post, Kelly apparently felt secure enough in his 2.5 point lead and chose to keep Offerman over Walker. It was a move, when the final 1991 stats were counted, that the Six Packs would deeply regret.

The final CFCL standings had the Bald Eagles on top, ahead of the Six Packs and Lambchops by a single point. The category rankings were tight, though, and after the season, in reviewing what had gone wrong, Kelly determined that if he had kept Chico Walker active and waived Offerman instead, he would have gained the extra points he needed to pass the Eagles and finish in first.

Here are the final 1991 Standings (click to embiggen):

It was a decision that haunted Kelly for years. For proof of this we have this bit of video from the 1995 CFCL Draft. In the clip, the Draft comes to a halt as Kelly recounts “The Chico Incident” much to the amusement of the rest of the league.

The whole thing starts with Kelly recalling how he ended up with Gary Scott at 3B in the 1992 draft because “there were no other third basemen.” That story was recounted on this blog as The Brett Barberie Incident.

I apparently had my Incidents confused and very innocently asked if the whole Gary Scott thing was part of “The Chico Incident”. Kelly reacts almost violently: “No, that’s not the Chico Incident and you know it! You just wanted to bring it up!”

This is an interesting clip, because not only do we get the details of the Chico Incident, but we also mention The Brett Barberie Incident, The Ramon Martinez Incident, and The Kevin McReynolds Incident. Four incidents for the price of one!

The Rebel Puberty Incident

Ok, this has nothing to do with baseball, but it seems fitting that today, on the anniversary of Rich’s birth, we celebrate the time he seemingly went through puberty right in the middle of the Draft.

First, a little background … after the 1991 season, Bald Eagle owner and defending CFCL Champion Bob Monroe announced he was withdrawing from the CFCL. Bob’s job had taken him out of town, and in 1992 the CFCL hadn’t yet made the transition to the Internet. Long-distance ownership was a non-starter.

Bob’s departure led to two new features at the 1992 Draft:

• We knew we’d miss having Bob around, so to take his place at the Draft, we placed a helium-filled balloon at the corner of the draft table. To ensure everyone recognized him, Rich used a marker to draw a fringe of hair around the bare top, glasses, and a beard … the splitting image of Bob.
• Bob made it clear he was going to miss being at the Draft too. After hearing him bemoan the fact that he’d miss out on the fun of Draft Day, we decided to video tape the whole Draft and send it to him. It was the first Draft we recorded, something we did for the next 15 years or so.

 So what does this have to do with Rich’s puberty?

At one point in the Draft, I got up to fill in an acquisition on the big Draft Tracker on the wall. Since Bob’s head was nearby, I gave it a vigorous spin on its string. At the same time I was doing this, Rich was finishing up a pretzel rod, stuffing the last half of it in his mouth at once.

He noticed Bob’s Linda Blair act and – showing great restraint and respect for the owners sitting across the table from him – tried to laugh without spewing half chewed pretzel across the room. What emanated from him wasn’t a laugh so much as on odd squeak.

This caught the attention of David’s Ruffins owner, Dave Holian, who wondered if Rich was “going through that change thing”. That comment set us off on what would prove to be the first of many digressions into 1970s television that we enjoyed over the years.

Before we go to the film, just one quick note about 1992. Between the Ramon Martinez Incident, the Bret Barberie Incident (listen for him being nominated at the end of this clip), the Origin of the Ruffin Privilege, light hearted moments such as this, plus a number of others to be shared later, 1992 is far and away the most entertaining Draft we recorded.

The Darryl Kile Tragedy

This story is much too serious and somber to carry the label of "Incident".  "Tragedy" is very fitting indeed.

On June 22, 2002, St Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile was found dead in his hotel room in Chicago, where the Cardinals were due to play the Cubs in a Saturday afternoon game.

Pre-game preparations were already underway when Kile was found, and Cub catcher and captain Joe Girardi made a very classy yet very emotional announcement to the crowd assembled at Wrigley Field that the day's game had been cancelled. He didn't explain why at the time, saying only that the Cardinal family had been struck by a tragedy. News that Kile had passed away came out shortly thereafter.

Of course when something like this happens, baseball - whether fantasy or the real thing - takes a back seat, and rightly so. However the fact remains that Kile’s death did have an effect on fantasy leagues, as petty and insignificant as that effect was compared to those personally impacted by the loss of Kile.

I think it’s safe to say that the CFCL’s experience with Kile’s passing was unique among all fantasy leagues. While teams in thousands and thousands of fantasy leagues I’d wager that very few of those fantasy league teams had traded for Kile less than 24 hours before his death. What, maybe 10 or so?

And of those 10 fantasy leagues in which Kile had been traded the day before he died, how many were in the process of being filmed for a documentary?

I’d guess only the CFCL.

I don’t say that to brag or puff up the significance of our little league, but just out of sheer wonder … I mean, what are the chances that a team in the one fantasy baseball league being followed by a documentary crew would acquire Darryl Kile the day before his passing? They’ve got to be miniscule.

On June 22, 2002, the Six Packs traded Bobby Abreu, Edgar Renteria, Darryl Kile, and their 12th round Rotation Draft pick in 2003 to Eric’s Lambchops for Terry Adams, Carlos Hernandez, Roosevelt Brown, and Aaron Heilman. The Lambchops were gunning for their first CFCL Championship, and felt this deal could set the up nicely for a pennant run.

While the filmmakers didn’t capture the trade being made, they happened to be filming Six Pack’s owner Kelly Barone at a birthday party the day Kile died, but he hadn’t heard the news yet. Here’s how the Kile tragedy was portrayed in Trading the Gator:



When the film was finally released, the Lambchops’ owner Eric Lamb took some flak for what appeared to be an insensitive reaction to Kile’s death – for thinking more about its impact on his fantasy team than for mourning the loss of a human life.

I got to know Eric fairly well over the years, both as a fellow owner and as a friend outside of the league, and I’d be hard-pressed to name a more caring and compassionate person. I have a feeling that editing had a good deal to do with how things appeared (not that it was intentionally cut that way by the filmmakers). I have no doubt that the human side of this hit Eric very hard indeed, regardless of the impact to his team, and it’s not as if he immediately started drafting trade proposals upon hearing the news. It was a number of weeks before they made their next deal. 

That said, fantasy owners are conditioned to evaluate all news in terms of the impact to their team and league. Eric’s trading partner, Kelly, was very honest about his reaction in a post to the league message board:

==========================

Posted by Kelly on 6/22/2002, 3:28 pm
A few things on a very tragic subject...

-- I had absolutely no idea Daryl Kile was going to die
-- I hope this isn't a hex on Eric
-- This instantly becomes a classic bit of roto lore that you couldn't possibly dream up for a documentary
-- It’s sad and its selfish, but one of the first thoughts that went through my head was "Good thing I traded him when I did". And anyone in a roto league who says they wouldn't think something like that is just lying.

Other owners agreed:

Posted by Matt on 6/23/2002, 7:58 am
I'm with Kelly, one of my first thoughts was thankfulness that I didn't have him on any of my teams. What God awful timing on Eric's part to deal for him (I said wow about another dozen times this morning).

Well, my condolences to Daryl's family and friends and his current and former teammates throughout the league. I'm sure they'll all miss him, especially his kids. What a horrible week for the Cardinal nation.

Posted by Paul on 6/23/2002, 8:09 am
Unfortunately, Kelly is correct in his above assumptions. Obviously, the first three (and most importantly, the first two) go w/o saying, and the last item is one that is tragically true to at least one small degree, at least for yours truly.

I had a chance to talk to Eric yesterday and the whole conversation was just strange and surreal. In the big scheme of things, it doesn't (and shouldn't) really matter to Eric, but, as Kelly alluded to above to some degree, he was shaken (as I interpreted it) by this whole thing. I really wish it was something we could laugh about, like Kile was just out for the year after falling victim to having a tarp come up to Busch Stadium and rolling over his leg. This was something, however, that you just couldn't make fun of or joke about.

==========================

A few days after Kile’s death, I paid tribute to him in the weekly Roster Change report by listing the stats he had accumulated with each of the CFCL teams he had played for, and recapping his entire CFCL career. You can read the tribute in the report linked below:

Roster Change Report: June 25, 2002

The Bret Barberie Incident

Last week, we heard about the disastrous start to the Six Packs' 1992 Draft, with The Ramon Martinez Incident.

As I alluded to at the time, that incident didn't mark the low point of the Six Packs' draft that day. Six Packs' owner Kelly Barone fell into a distracted, brooding funk after getting stuck with Martinez. He came into the Draft with significantly less money to spend than all but one other owner, and blowing .13 on a pitcher he wanted nothing to do with threw his entire strategy and approach into chaos.

When he should have been focused on moving on, all Kelly could think about was his misjudgment in bidding on Martinez. This festering wound was brought back to the surface when Kelly tried to bid on Tom Candioti, a pitcher he had come into the Draft wanting, but was unable to bid high enough because of the money he'd wasted on Martinez.

Of course, Pitcher wasn’t the only roster spot Kelly needed to fill that day. He also came into the Draft with all three corner infield spots open (1B, 3B, 1B/3B). Combined, the other eight teams needed to fill 11 corner spots. Considering the disadvantage Kelly was working with money-wise compared to the other teams, he had is work cut out for him.

Throughout the Draft, there had been a lot of joking about which team would end up with Cub third baseman Gary Scott. In 1991, Scott had torn the cover off the ball in Spring Training and went early in the Draft, for .09 to Dem Rebels. Scott had a terrible season, hitting just .165, and the Rebels cut him. When Scott had another great Spring Training in 1992 and was again named the Cubs’ starting third baseman, Scott’s availability in the Draft became a running gag.

As the Draft wore on, corner infielder after corner infielder was put up for bid, 7 of them over the first several rounds of the Draft, and Kelly did not acquire a single one of them. Whether it was by design or the effects of the Martinez/Candiotti debacle, the 6th round of the Draft was drawing to a close and Kelly had not filled any of his corner infield spots. In fact he hadn’t drafted a single player since Ramon Martinez.

Dem Rebels owner, Rich, was sitting directly across from Kelly, and noticed him dropping out of the bidding early on corner men, and began to speculate about who Kelly was waiting for. When Ruffins’ owner, Dave, nominated Expos infielder Bret Barberie, Rich and Kelly began to discuss whether Barberie, the Expos’ Opening Day third baseman, had been the corner infielder Kelly had been waiting for. Kelly claimed he had forgotten about Barberie, but he joined in the bidding, clearly encouraged by the opportunity to fill his 3B roster spot.

Unfortunately Kelly and Rich failed to check Barberie’s defensive games played for the previous season. Although he had played 10 games at 3B, that was short of the 20 needed to qualify to be drafted there in 1992 – Barberie qualified only at SS, the position he had played the most in 1991.

When Kelly finally won the bidding for Barberie, there was some good natured celebration over the fact that Kelly had recovered from his earlier troubles, but the celebration was short-lived as other owners put the kibosh on his plans to put Barberie at 3B.

The Bret Barberie Incident was yet another mishap in Kelly’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, but it wasn’t the final insult. That came later, when Kelly was forced to draft Gary Scott for .09 to fill his last corner infielder spot.

Enjoy…

The Ramon Martinez Incident

If you play Rotisserie Baseball long enough, eventually you’ll have one of THOSE Drafts. You know the ones … where, despite the months of careful preparation, you can’t do anything right and everything that can go wrong, does.

For Six Packs’ owner Kelly Barone, that Draft was 1992. Unfortunately for Kelly, 1992 was the year we started video taping our Drafts, so his Disaster Draft was preserved for posterity and can now be relived in front of the entire world via the magic of the Internet.

Ok, first I ought to explain what’s up with this whole video taping thing. Long-time owner Bob Monroe (Bald Eagles) had to resign from the league following the 1991 season because he moved out of state. During the off-season he had mentioned a number of times how much he would miss the fun of Draft Day, so as a gag we decided to record the Draft and send it to him. There were so many classic moments in that 1992 Draft, we decided to tape again the following year, and continued doing so for the next 15 or so Drafts.

But back to the matter at hand … Kelly entered the 1992 Draft with .85 to spend on 11 players, but only one other team had less than $1.30 available. After he acquired second baseman Juan Samuel in the first round he was left with just .69 to spend the rest of the day, so Kelly knew he had to be careful with his money.

When Dodger pitcher Ramon Martinez was nominated for bidding, Kelly figured he could safely participate – feigning interest and hoping to drive up the bidding to force someone else to spend their money.

Martinez had turned in some very solid seasons for the Dodgers, winning 20 games in 1990 with a 2.92 ERA and winning 17 with a 3.27 ERA in 1991. However, he also pitched over 450 innings during those two years and there were reports out of a tired arm coming out of Spring Training. Here’s what Bill Mazeroski’s Baseball Magazine had to say in 1992:

Who would have thought the Dodgers’ list of worries would include Dominican right hander Ramon Martinez? … a sore elbow caused Martinez to leave an all start team touring Japan last winter (1990) … As it turned out, Martinez may have paying for the elbow injury all season. His smooth mechanics became disjointed, his arm weakened, and … he wasn’t close to the Ramon Martinez of old.

So the warning signs were there, and apparently they were enough to give most of the CFCL owners second thoughts about bidding too high on Martinez.

Kelly got stuck with Martinez, sucking another .13 out of his available budget, and driving Kelly into a stunned funk that lasted over an hour. As you’ll see in the video, Kelly brooded about The Ramon Martinez Incident for quite a while, feeling “absolutely shattered.” When a pitcher he had hoped to acquire, Martinez’s Dodger teammate Tom Candiotti, was nominated later in the Draft, Kelly wasn’t able to bid high enough to get him.

Eventually Kelly shook it off and acquired another player, but this too turned into a disaster. But the Bret Barberie Incident is a tale for another day. For now, enjoy Kelly’s agony with The Ramon Martinez Incident…

The Steve Carlton Incident

It was 1986.  The first year of the Bald Eagles and David’s Ruffins.  Bob graciously opened his home to the draft.  It was also the first evidence of deliberate price enforcement and may have been the beginning of the torment the Eagles heaped on the Rebels for six years.

Oh, don’t get me wrong.  The CFCL had already seen its own version of price enforcement with Jeff Stone the previous year and Will Clark earlier in this draft (yeah, yeah, yeah – We’ll get to “The Thrill” in a later post.  I’m offering some fore-shadowing).  But those instances (soon to be named “Incidents”) were price enforcement from maniacal owner belief and over-hyped media.  The Steve Carlton Incident, I truly believe, was the first evidence of price enforcement of the “Oh, I can’t let that happen” variety.  And unsurprisingly, Bob Monroe was right in the middle of it.

We set the stage.  In the basement of the Bald Eagle’s Nest, we have three or four card  tables laid out end to end to accommodate Dem Rebels, Paul’s Penguins, David’s Copperfields, Fred’s Friars, Bald Eagles and David’s Ruffins.  After the draft we ended up having two vile, despicable scum owners join the league.  Why?  Well ON DRAFT DAY we were notified that the ForGoetzMeNots and Ghostbusters would not be returning for 1986.  We kept those teams intact, maybe because I knew I could ask the scum to join us.  They were acquaintances of mine from work and I must have thought that we could keep the league at eight teams with their involvement.

Eight teams meant we had to dig a little deeper into the National League rosters.  Eight teams and digging deeper into National League rosters meant we had to develop and follow a different strategy than in the previous two years.  PLUS we had two new owners attending the draft.  How would they handle their team?  How would they budget their money?  We were all learning there are games within the game.

It turns out my recollection of how things played out with the Steve Carlton Incident were a little off from what really happened.  With a BIG THANKS to CFCL League Historian and Archivist David Mahlan, here’s how it went down.

Bob and I were seated next to each other, Bob on my left.  When it came to be my turn to nominate a player in the second round I was looking to bring somebody up that I didn’t want on my team.  Why would I do that?  Well (and again, this comes from league archives) in the first round I picked up three players.  So when my turn to nominate a player came up, I had 29 cents to spend and needed four players.  So for some reason (don’t ask me why), I nominated Carlton for a penny.  I guess I figured he was a big name pitcher and might attract some interest.  I was hoping and praying and rubbing my little talisman (no that’s not code) that someone, anyone would bid .02

He was coming off a year where he was 1-8 and a 1.49 WHiP, so what I didn’t want was Carlton at a penny.

Bob was next to bid.  I recall him saying something like “Well Rich can’t have him for just a penny.  2 cents.”  David doesn’t recall Bob saying anything other than “2”.  Either way, the weight jettisoned off my shoulders and directly onto Bob’s as he heard the Copperfields, Ruffins, Friars, Penguins and then Dem Rebels all say “pass” in quick order.

The look on Bob’s face was priceless but all I cared about was I didn’t have Carlton.  I don’t think I fully appreciated getting the better of the Bald Eagle until much later.  Clearly our drafting (or my nominating) of players was still a work in progress.  While Carlton was a 300 game winner, it was very obvious he didn’t have much left in the tank.  Nominating him as the eleventh player in the draft is just insane.  But that may have worked to my advantage if Bob’s motivation was to make sure that no one walked away with a penny player in the second round.

That also could have worked to my disadvantage as that may have set Bob’s crosshairs on me for the next six years.  We’ll never know for sure as dust and cobwebs have taken over many parts of the league.  But it did make for a classic moment in a CFCL draft.

The Jeff Stone Incident

Every CFCL season is littered with memorable events: a tense or entertaining moment on Draft Day, a brilliant trade, or a key tactical error by an owner. Most of these events are forgotten once the season passes, but others are so memorable, such defining moments, that they live on in CFCL history. It is these events that earn the label of “Incident” in CFCL lore.

Perhaps the earliest “Incident” resulted from one of the first times the Co-Commissioners Rich Bentel and David Mahlan squared off against each other in a D-Day bidding confrontation (though it was far from the last). It's also a classic illustration of the phenomenon of Hyper-Inflation resulting from Pre-Draft Obsession.

Kick back and relax as the CFCL’s founders recall The Jeff Stone Incident:

RICH:
It was 1985. We had just completed our first fantasy year and I thought I was getting the hang of building a team. I spent the early spring reading magazines and newspaper articles trying to glean some information that would vault me past my fellow owners and nab a superstar. And then I found it. Bill Mazeroski had written a blurb (or his editors did) in his magazine about a young Phee-Nom in Philadelphia that was the next Big Thing. Jeff Stone!

DAVID:
No CFCL team owned Jeff Stone in 1984, when he hit .362 and stole 27 bases in 51 games. This is surprising until you consider the following: 1) with only 6 CFCL teams, we only used a maximum of 36 OFs; 2) most of the 36 OFs we owned were players who started the 1984 season in a starting role -- Stone did not -- and the only way to pick up a free agent was if you had an injured player to replace.

In 1985, Bill Mazeroski's Baseball magazine was the ultimate draft prep tool. Even so, only a few of our owners used it. But when it comes to Hyper-Inflation resulting from Pre-Draft Obsession, a few owners is all it takes. The 1985 edition of Bill Mazeroski's Baseball had this to say about Jeff Stone:  

RICH:
Once again, keep in mind this was 1985 and ESPN at best was making us watch Australian Rules Football. There really wasn’t national coverage of all teams. Somehow Stone went unnoticed by the Original 6 in 1984. His numbers were good, but he was an unknown to our league. Until the spring of 1985 when the newly named Dem Rebels were looking for a face for their franchise, someone who would lead them to the Promised Land. I . . . Could . . . Not . . . Wait for Draft Day.

DAVID:
It was fairly easy to "backdoor" a player in the early days. For the majority of the owners, Draft Day research consisted of browsing the previous year's stats the day before the Draft. Rich and I, however, had both read the comment about Jeff Stone in early March. As Draft Day drew nearer we spoke to each other and dropped heavily veiled hints about a "sleeper", little realizing that we had the same player in mind. 

RICH:
I made the mistake of talking about draft prep with David. I remember trying to be coy and point out that I had my eye on a real stud and I thought I could backdoor him for a really low price.

David has always been more low-key than me and I was surprised he even commented on my statement. He said he also had his eye on a Special Someone but he wouldn’t go any further. Through the course of the late winter/early spring I would try to get David to elaborate. We would exchange sly grins in a way that said each of us thought we knew more than the other.

DAVID:
In our own minds, we spent the weeks before the Draft visualizing the moment late in the auction when we would say, "Jeff Stone for a penny," and then watch as the other owners all dropped out of the bidding on this unknown quantity. We both knew we would come out of the Draft with Jeff Stone -- and therein laid the danger.

RICH:
As we got closer to the draft we both must have felt bolder as we started making statements. Rich: “My guy plays on offense.” David: “So does mine.” Eventually our momentum carried out to where we had identified we were both looking at an outfielder who played in the National League East. I think at that point we both feared/assumed we were shooting for the same guy.

DAVID:
The obsession grew so deep and so frenzied in the days before the Draft that Rich and I were both willing pay any price to own Jeff Stone. When the day arrived, almost four rounds of the Draft went by before Stone was nominated. The bidding started innocently enough, with most reasonable owners dropping out early on.  

RICH:
I don’t recall who brought up Stone but after about two bids each we knew this was the guy we were both targeting.  

DAVID:
Things began to seem fishy as the bidding went over ten and into the low teens. Rich and I grinned at each other as we realized we both had same thing in mind. When we were the only two left bidding in the high teens, the grins were gone and it became clear where things were headed. The rest of the league looked on in shocked silence as the founding fathers and the leaders of the CFCL batted bids for a reserve Philadelphia outfielder back and forth into the high .20s.

RICH:
The Rebels won the battle by outlasting the Copperfields and getting Stone for .32, but lost the war because Stone had all of 3 homeruns, 15 RBIs, 15 stolen bases and a batting average of .265.  

DAVID
Jeff Stone was the highest-priced player in the 1985 Draft. To illustrate just how far out of hand things got, Andre Dawson was the player drafted immediately before Stone and he went for all of .22.

RICH:
Turns out 1984 was Stone’s pinnacle and Mazeroski and Dem Rebels were way off. The Copperfields dodged a bullet, but wouldn’t be so lucky the following year.

DAVID
Ouch. Leave it to Rich to get a final dig in. Check back later in the year for the tale of The Will Clark Incident...

POSTSCRIPT: Many, many years later, on the anniversary of the 1985 Draft, David celebrated the event by sponsoring Jeff Stone's page at Baseball-Reference.com for a year in Rich's honor.

The Orestes Destrade Incident

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, here's a little something from the CFCL archives with a "south of the border" flavor.

It was 1993, and for the first time in our history, we were drafting at night.  Not that it was our first choice, but we had made special arrangements to accomodate the schedule of a new owner.  When our schedule 7:00 PM start time arrived, we had yet to see or hear anything of that new owner.  By 8:00 PM, we figured he wasn't coming (which ultimately proved to be correct) and decided to begin without him.

The late start, combined with the shock of being blown off by our new owner may have made us a bit punchy.  For whatever reason, by the time bidding began on Orestes Destrade, a Cuban-born first baseman making his return to MLB after a number of successful years in Japan, it didn't take us too long to "go international."

So, without further ado, here is The Orestes Destrade Incident:

The De Aza-o-Meter

One of the few bright spots for the White Sox in this afternoon’s 9-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians was a homerun by outfielder Alejandro de Aza. Whenever I hear his name, I’m transported back to 2007 when he was a spring training sensation for the Florida Marlins.

The 22-year-old prospect hit .364 and stole 4 bases in the pre-season and began the season as the Marlin’s starting centerfielder. After stealing 27 bases the year before in AA, he was the target of much speculation among CFCL owners. When his name came up for bid in the 2007 CFCL Draft, it  provided one of the more memorable and enduring CFCL Incidents.

At some point in the bidding, I asked Ruffins owner Dave Holian if he had read the blurb on de Aza in the 2007 Baseball Prospectus book. Dave grabbed his copy of the book, flipped to the Marlins section, and burst into laughter. Unperturbed, the owner of Teddy’s Splendid Splinters continued pursuing de Aza, finally acquiring him for .12.

With the bidding done, Dave and I shared what the Prospectus authors had written:

"At the plate, Alejandro de Aza is like the CGI Yoda in a lightsaber duel -- swift, nimble, hyperkinetic, and never lays a good stroke on anything."

We all shared a good laugh (Teddy not joining in so much) but the whole thing might have been forgotten had it not been revisited in Rich's "Draft Day Rebroadcast" in The Monroe Doctrine the next day.  Rich referenced the incident there with this entry in his timeline:

9:27 Teddy bids .12 (and acquires much to his dismay) the “Light Sabre Dude”

 

And at the end of the article, Rich actually hinted at it joining other Draft Day "incidents" in CFCL lore:

Only time will tell if Teddy stole the show with De Aza or if he created the sequel to the “Ramon Martinez Incident”.  De Aza is officially the new currency of the CFCL, as in “I had to pay three De Aza’s at the toll booth; this promises to be much more enjoyable than what Orestes Destrada did to the CFCL minted greens.

That reference to the "De Aza" as the new currency of the CFCL was all the encouragement I needed.  Starting with in the very next week's roster change report, Rich and I teamed to establish the "De Aza-o-Meter", a weekly update on Alejandro's statistical performance, combined with a blurb from Rich describing some numeric value in terms of "De Azas".  From the April 16 report:

Now, those aren't terrbile stats for the first couple weeks of the season, and Alejandro might have come close to earning his salary if he had kept up that pace.  Unfortunately, he injured himself just a week later, so for the next four months the stats in the De Aza-o-Meter remained unchanged, but we were treated to a weekly bon mot from Rich, such as the following note from the July 16 report:

Finally, in mid-August, De Aza returned - an event commemorated with this o-Meter update from August 13:

De Aza never did get things going after his return, and the season-ending report painted a pretty bleak picture and led Rich to speculate that De Aza's lack of performance might net him the Esasky recognition for worst return on investment in the 2007 Draft:

In the end, De Aza was not honored with the Nick Esasky Award, though he did receive votes - no doubt helped by the season long reminder of his futility.

Every CFCL Draft has at least a couple moments when an owner experiences instant regret and in some cases those moments and the owners' reactions become part of the historic fabric of the league and are revisted time and again, usually with much self-depricating humor from the owners involved.  We'll no doubt be reliving many of those incidents in this blog over the course of the next year.

The De Aza incident was relived on a weekly basis over the course of a season, though.  While the well-intentioned ribbing may have been all in fun, it appeared Teddy - De Aza's owner - didn't quite see the humor.  The Splinters did not make a roster move after mid-May and withdrew from the CFCL at the end of the season.  I'd like to think that the De Aza-o-Meter wasn't the cause, but for whatever reason Teddy pretty much disappeared.

De Aza disappeared as well ... at least for a couple years, before resurfacing with the White Sox, where he's had a couple decent seasons including at least one in which he would have earned well above his 2007 salary of .12. 

The Ray Lankford Incident

So yesterday we learned about the origin of the Ruffin Privilege. It's pretty cool and it developed unintentionally, but we were all more than happy to have Dave throw out the first player each year. Kind of like the baseball season officially starts when the first pitch is thrown in Cincinnati. Oh wait, that no longer happens. Commissioner Selig and baseball cowed down to television and moved away from a day game in Cincinnati starting the baseball season.

Well, we here in the CFCL hold on to our sacred traditions. That being said, while the Ruffin Privilege is sacred, it should also be easy. Just spend the ENTIRE off season looking over available players and nominate one. It could be the Ruffins nominate someone they want, or they nominate someone that they feel will go for a high price that will suck a bunch of money out of someone's budget. In 1996 there didn't seem to be a logical reason for the Ruffins to nominate someone . . . already owned by another team. We have enjoyed referencing this Incident for the last 18 years.