Constitutional Updates

At long last, the Constitution has been updated with the changes that were voted in earlier this year. Both the online version and the PDF version available from in the Download Center were updated.

A couple notes:

• The Constitution still reflects the letter-based contract statuses rather than the new approach we've been discussing in the Forum. It seems like there are still some things to settle before the proposed changes become official, so I wanted to wait before making updates that might not reflect the final approach.
• I'm the only one who has really reviewed/proofed the changes to the Constitution. Since I'm also the one who drafted them, there's the chance that I may have left something out, misrepresented a rule, left a loophole open, etc. I mention this just to stress that while the Constitution represents the "official" rules, we should all keep in mind that I'm only human and I don't always think of everything. We should all be aware of what the new rules are and the reasons/intent behind them, so if something in the Constitution seems at odds with what we intended, the written word will have to take a back seat to common sense until we can revise the Constitution as needed. I know that's not the way it works in court, but that's the way we operate.

That second bullet point (which is basically about the human frailty of the League Secretary) is an important one, and we've added a blurb to the Governance section of the Constitution to spell out how we'll handle things when I slip up (like when I included the Stones' Pedro Martinez in the Winter Waiver list and awarded him to the Red Hots before anyone noticed the error).

Also, the sections of the Constitution that were most-heavily revised or contain changes you'll want to make sure you understand are:

• ARTICLE XXI. Transactions
• ARTICLE XIV. Movement Between Active Roster and Reserve List
• ARTICLE XV. Signing Free Agents

If, in browsing the Constitution, you notice anything that seems inaccurate or inconsistent with your understanding of the rules, please let me know.

The Twenty-Fifth

About this date 24 years ago (give or take a week or two), a little green paperback made its appearance on bookstore shelves. From that time on, the lives of baseball fans everywhere -- and two of them in particular -- would never be the same.

That book was the first edition of Rotisserie League Baseball, and your truly was one of those fans intrigued enough by the tag line "The Greatest Game for Baseball Fans Since Baseball" to pick the book up up in Kroch's and Brentano's. A quick browse through it was enough to hook me, and I bought the book, little realizing what I was letting myself in for.

Of course, one can't experience Rotisserie baseball alone, so I lent the book to my best friend, Rich Bentel, who became equally intrigued by the concept. We quickly decided we had to start a league, and scraped together four other baseball fans who agreed to join us in the endeavor (yes, we freely admit that we were such nerds that four were all we could find -- Dave Holian has never forgiven Rich for not inviting him in for the inaugural season).

Now, nearly a quarter of a century later Rich and I are preparing for our 25th season of CFCL baseball. I'm sure Rich will agree that neither one of us imagined back in 1984 that we'd still be playing this game in our 40s, with wives and kids in tow.

We didn't want this occasion to pass without some kind of commemoration, so we asked the CFCL's resident graphics expert, Nick Hansen to cook up a logo to help up celebrate our 25th season, and I think you'll agree that Nick did a bang-up job:

You too can join in this historic celebration. We've taken Nick's designs (there's a square version of the logo as well), slapped them on some products at Cafe Press, and made them available for purchase.

Visit the CFCL Souvenir Stand at http://www.cafepress.com/cfcl and browse through the selection of apparel, mugs, and assorted other goodies. If you see something you kind of like but would prefer a slight variation (for example, a shirt with a small logo over the heart rather than the large logo centered), let me know and I might be able to set that up for you.

Order soon to get your goodies in time for Draft Day!

NOTE: We certainly don't want to trivialize our 25th season by commercializing it. We did want to make things things available to those who might want to partake, but there's no pressure to participate. Tempted as I was to add a mark-up to the items and make a little cash on the side, the prices listed are the base price of having the items made -- neither I nor the CFCL will be making any cash on this deal.

De Aza's Revenge

Don't look now, but 2007's favorite CFCL whipping boy is having an incredible spring, and this time he's added power to his arsenal - check out that SLG!

So, who's gonna bite?

Red Hots - Bulls Trade

The deals keep coming, fast and furious.

In the lastest, the Graging Bulls send Brent Lillibridge (.05M) and their 5th round Rotation Draft pick in 2008 to Mo's Red Hots for the Hots' 7th and 15th round picks in the '08 Rotation Draft.