10th Anniversary

[TheRock]

So since the league is entering its 10th year of existence, it seems appropriate to take a little trip down memory lane. How many leagues make it to 10 years anyway?

The league was formed here at the cafe and has always called the cafe home. You may notice that the cafe is barely 10 years old itself. So in the early years while the cafe was still evolving into what we see today, some members had the idea to form a league. Being no classified section yet, a call went out in the general baseball chat forum for people interested in playing in such a league. The first 12 people to sign up and commit banded together, had a draft at the cafe, and played out the 2004 season on Yahoo. This is not that league. Nope, there were so many people who wanted to join a league full of knowledgeable fellow cafe members that there were enough people to make another league. Those who were too late for the first league, a bunch of leftovers if you will. No idea what ever happened to that first league, it probably sucked.

So here we are 10 years later. We've changed a few things here and there, but we've always remained a redraft league, no money involved, only for fun. And the competition has (usually) been pretty stiff. Just for fun, let's take a look through the final standings for the past 9 years.


Year 1 - 2004:


Inaugural year, clearly we had a couple of less than active teams. Let's see, that's me at the top, and there's oscar in 9th. and I think that's all we have left from 2004.


Year 2 - 2005:


Second year, we had some return from year one plus many new faces. Many names still around and kicking today. Looks like we picked up beerdog, thomasps3, and seancasey. Not sure on the others, they didn't keep their team names consistent.

If you've ever wondered if the so-called "experts" from many fantasy sites know what they're talking about, we got to find out. mbuser still posts at the cafe I believe, and still works at Yahoo as a writer/expert. He focuses mostly on basketball, but apparently knows his baseball as well as you can see he whooped all of us (booze crew). Where are you oscar? Oh, took me a while to find you down there in 11th.


Year 3 - 2006:


Our third season saw another victory for Mr. Buser. TonyZ only played this one year with us I believe, he was a friend of mine from work. I dropped to a disappointing 6th, and I think this may be an all-time high finish for the owner formerly known as thomasps3. Oscar climbed to 10th.


Year 4 - 2007:


The beerdogs proved triumphant in year 4. Booze crew dropped to 10th? I think he tried something clever in the draft that year and it backfired on him. Check out oscar in 8th place. I think this is the first year Old_Style joined us, he was with us for several years.

This was the first year we tried out a new drafting website that was just starting up called couchmanagers. Prior to this year the draft had been conducted via the message board, the same way the cafe conducts mock drafts every year. This was slow and frustrating, and took 3 weeks at a minimum to complete a draft. But with the couchmanagers queue feature, we were able to cut the time to under two weeks, often closer to one. Our league conducted the first ever private custom draft at couchmanagers, and we still draft there today.


Year 5 - 2008:


I found my way back to the top in 2008. It looks like we welcomed new members Amazing_Oopah and RedBullVodka into our little club, along with one of oscar's teaching compadres, stoggie.


Year 6 - 2009:


2009 saw Old_Style pull off a win after starting his Leftover's career in 11th just 2 years earlier. That list looks remarkably similar to 2008, I think we may have kept the whole crew.


Year 7 - 2010:


Two things happened in 2010 which defied the laws of the known universe. For the first time ever, oscar's team finished out of the bottom 6. What's more, he actually finished ahead of me, also for the first time ever. Seven years of pwnage right there. Oopah puled off the first of what would become back-to-back wins. Third Day joined in the fun.


Year 8 - 2011:


Oopah on top again, and I just wasn't feeling the love for baseball. But I still finished in 7th with half my brain tied behind my back. Oscar will try to make a big deal out of beating me two years in a row. And it looks like we once again kept all 12 owners.

Year 9 - 2012:


RBV took the crown last year in dominating fashion. In looking through all these past years I just noticed his climb to the top. He was 7th in 2008, 5th in 2009, 4th in 2010, 2nd in 2011, and last year it all came together. Oopahs' hopes for a three-peat were crushed, as he limped in to an 8th place finish. Last year we welcomed rotoquest and friend.

What will this year bring? Who knows, but it should be a great time finding out. Stay tuned for information about the upcoming draft. Looking forward to another awesome year.

[Amazing Oopah]

nice retrospective. Just a small sidenote, both my titles were decided on the last day of the season! Incredible, huh?

[oscar15]

That was excellent Rock. I knew there were not many left, but I had no idea we were the only ones. I noticed something interesting about your retrospective; when I finished in the bottom you were precise enough to report my exact place in the standings. However, when I was defeated on the last day of the season for the championship it was simply reported that I "finished out of the bottom 6 for the first time". Fox News Network would be proud.

This league has helped me win my money league on more than one occasion.

Here is to another great year.

I'm ready for Round 0!!!!

[stoggie10]

Fox News Network would be proud.

You need to include, if not replace FOX with, CNN, MSNBC, and every other left wing station that IGNORES our country's real issues.

Sorry for the detour!

I agree Rock, very nice recap of the past decade. Glad to be apart of the league and looking to improve like RBV has. Stoggie/Shockers team finishes 9, 6, 7, 5, 4, ?

[sheilst]

I have to say this is probably The most depressing thing I have read all day.....

I have always enjoyed the redraft status of our league, although I can honestly say I should have given a better showing that what the record says!

Thanks Rock, always like reading about the past in our little Leftover League....

And I will still say thomasps3 is going to take the title this year!

[RedBullVodka]

Nice work Rock.

Of course, I particularly like how you noticed my rise to dominance last year (and I really should have won the previous year too).

The bad part is I really can go only one way from here.

Still, I'll settle for only winning by 10 points this year!

(PS Not completely sure how I will fare this year - the internet police have caught up with me too, so most sites we use are out of bounds during work hours for me - might also affect how quickly / how much I'm online during the draft, although will try to use mobile during work hours if possible).