Period 10

We're coming to the end of 2008's 10th reporting period, which is a significant milepost in the CFCL season.

The standings in Period 10 are what we use as the benchmark for the Dallas Green Award, which goes to the CFCL team that gains the most points from Period 10 until the end of the season.

The award is named for the architect of the Cubs' near-championship season in 1984, which was due in a large part to in-season acquisitions of players like Rick Suttcliffe and Dennis Eckersley.

The goal of the award is to recognize the CFCL GM who does the best job of improving their team during the season. We chose Period 10's standings as the starting point because it eliminated much of the flukiness of early-season standings, but also left enough of the season for GMs to have an impact on their team's fortunes.

A look at the Dallas Green Award winners from seasons past should be very encouraging to nearly all of the current CFCL GMs. Since the turn of the century, Dallas Green Award winners have averaged a gain of over 22 points from Period 10 until the end of the year.

And in the past two year, the Dallas Green winners have gained 25.5 and 30.5 points respectively. A look at the live standings while I'm writing this, shows the gap between the first place Revenge and the 11th place Copperfields to be 29.5 points, indicating that a Copperfield championship in 2008 is still within the realm of possibility - or certainly at least a money finish.

In other words at this point in the season, really only one team has fallen out of the race.

Gaining twenty-some points in the final 16 weeks is one thing, but can a team really come from 25-30 points behind to actually win?

Ask the Ruffins, who won the Dallas Green Award (+30.5 points) and the CFCL Championship in 2006. Or ask Kenndoza Line, who won the Dallas Green Award (+25.5 points) and the CFCL Championship in 2007. Can it happen again?

Food for thought...