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Happy 25th Anniversary! On January 18, 1993, the later-to-be-named DTBL held its inaugural draft. When thinking about how I would commemorate this important date in league history, I was originally planning on writing about how the league came together and what happened on this date 25 years ago. But then it dawned on me that I already did that, exactly five years ago. So I invite you to read that article again. While today is the official league anniversary date, I intend to celebrate it all year long. Yes, 2018 will be our 26th season. But now we have 25 full years of history to look back upon. Today, however, I am going to share some news instead. Our 15 year run with the same 10 league members is coming to an end. One of our original members has decided to step down. Greg will be relinquishing control of the Gators.
Greg informed me shortly after the season that he intended to retire from the league. He indicated that he simply doesn’t follow baseball like he used to and thus fantasy baseball had lost its appeal to him. At that time, I told him I would give him a couple months to think it over, although it was clear he had already given it plenty of thought. This week, he confirmed that he will be stepping down.
Greg, if you are reading this, thank you for your 25 years of service to this league. It never would have gotten started without you and the other original members of the league. You all were crazy enough to let me talk you into giving fantasy baseball a shot, even though none of us, myself included, really knew what we were doing in 1993. The fact that this league still exists is definitely something I am extremely proud of. But it wouldn’t have happened without you. So thanks again, Greg. You will be missed in this league, but we’ll certainly keep in touch.
When looking at the Gators franchise history, obviously they haven’t been very successful of late, but that was not always the case. They won two DTBL championships, in 1995 and 1998, and were arguably the most dominant franchise in the league during the late 90′s. From 1995 to 2000, they never finished worse than third place. The ’95 championship squad was probably their strongest ever, and in the discussion as one of the most talented rosters in the league history. They were led offensively by Mo Vaughn, Dante Bichette, plus a couple of guys who passed away far too young: Kirby Puckett and Ken Caminiti. The roster featured a pair of DTBL rookies who went on to become two of the best players in league history: Manny Ramirez and Pedro Martinez. The Gators ’95 draft is on the short list of best drafts any team has ever had. In addition to the stars of that ’95 squad, some of the other Gators all-time greats include Derek Jeter, who is the only player in league history to accumulate 3,000 hits, Nelson Cruz, C.C. Sabathia, Tom Glavine and Billy Wagner. An interesting fact that I didn’t realize until looking over the Gators team page this evening is that they only finished in last place twice: their first (1993) and last (2017) seasons. Since 1994 was an expansion season, this means the only time they ever had the first pick in the draft was that inaugural year of 1993. So while there were a lot of down years towards the end of the franchise’s history, the Gators were almost never the worst team in the league.
I know plenty of people who probably would have been interested in taking Greg’s place in the league. But it was a pretty easy decision to whom I would give the first offer. My youngest sister, Kathleen, will be joining the league as a full member. As you know, last year she filled in admirably for Jay while he was deployed overseas. So now she will have full control with much more freedom to build the roster however she sees fit. By the way, Kathleen is younger than this league! She was born a couple weeks after that inaugural draft of ’93. Welcome, Kathleen! Oh, and while I’m at it, welcome back, Jay!
Since we haven’t had an ownership change in 15 years, there isn’t a lot of recent precedent on how to handle this situation. In the past, we have not had new owners inherit existing rosters, even when there was only one new team. However, I suggest we change that now. Our previous “expansion” process was pretty rough on the newcomers, particularly considering how deep of a keeper league this is. Many of you experienced that first-hand, particular Nick, who I believe is the only current league member who came into the league as a lone newcomer. So I would understand it if you feel it is unfair for a new member to not have to go through that as well. On the other hand, it would be *far* less work for me if we simply allow Kathleen to inherit Greg’s team as is. And let’s be honest, she wouldn’t be taking over a stacked roster. I am proposing that from here on out, as long as there is only one newcomer to the league, that person simply takes over the existing roster of the departing owner. If there are multiple new members in a season, they will have a mini-draft to pick keepers from the rosters of the departed. If anyone has a problem with my proposal, please let me know with a reply to this post, a forum post, or a direct email. We obviously need to get this squared away pretty soon since roster cuts will be due in just a couple weeks.
There will be a whole lot more to come soon on the upcoming season and our year long 25th Anniversary celebration. Congrats to all on a great quarter century!