October 6, 2000

Happy Robert Person Day!

Note: this page was written in honor of Robert Person, who makes me look better with each passing day.  Happy Robert Person Day, everybody!

As Commish of this unique and wonderful league of ours, I get a lot of unique and wonderful e-mail. For instance, just the other day I received a note from an ex-league member who wanted back in the league. Believe it or not, this is the fifth time I have received such an e-mail, which I think is a revealing indicator of just how great this league really is.  After all, it takes a lot of guts to admit the error of your ways.  In addition to this type of mail, I also receive mail from commissioners of other leagues who ask for help in designing their league's web page.   I don't mind at all giving it to them, as long as they don't get carried away copying my design.  Gratefully, I also receive a fair amount of praise for this league.

Imagine my shock and horror, however, when I opened up my in-box the other day and read the following:

"Who is Robert Person and why do you have a day devoted to him?"

Imagine! There is actually a human being living and breathing on this planet - who has not been locked in the Big Brother house for the past two years - who has no idea who the Immortal Robert Person is!  Outrageous!  

Then it suddenly dawned on me.  I sometimes get so wrapped up in this league, I lose myself in our fantasy world. For example, just the other day I learned that in addition to being the captain of my team, John Olerud also plays for some team called the "Seattle Mariners."  It is hard to believe that there are actually people who are unfamiliar with the significance of names like Robert Person, Ben Davis, Teddy Higuera and - dare I say - Rick Reuschel.  But it's true.   These folks actually exist.

So, as a public service...no, a public DUTY to these poor uninformed people, I have decided to devote this entire month's "From the Desk of the Commish" page to BDBL legends and immortals. Even if you've been in the league since its inception, you might find this piece entertaining (especially the various links you might not have seen before.)  I start off this list of Ten BDBL Immortals with the biggest of them all:

Immortal #1: Rick Reuschel

Where would the BDBL be without Rick Reuschel?   Well...it wouldn't be called the BDBL for starters.  You see, Rick Reuschel (NOT Commissioner Glander) is the "BD" in the BDBL.  And it is his silhouette you see on the BDBL logo.  (Note: any similarity between Big Daddy and myself is purely coincidental.)  Why Rick Reuschel?  Well...a long, long time ago, when Ronald Reagan was President and George W. Bush was just a coke-snorting, beer-guzzling idiot (as opposed to the clean-living idiot he is today), a computer-based fantasy baseball league called the "CBL" was born in a small rural village in Connecticut called "New Milford."  (Note: if you are really interested in the history of this ancient league, visit the History of the CBL page.)  Paul Marazita, Phil Geisel and Billy Romaniello were members of this league.  And the commissioner was a skinny, yet strapping, young lad by the name of Mike Glander.  The BDBL began as a sort of reunion league of the old CBL.  And since the biggest star (in more ways than one) in the CBL was Reuschel, the league was named after him.

Immortal #2: Brett Butler

Butler was the prototypical star player in the CBL because he did all the little things well.  A prerequisite to stardom in the Earl Weaver Baseball-based CBL was the ability to bunt, run and avoid striking out.  Butler did all three things very, very well.  He batted .407 for the Zoots in the July '88 season, .387 for the Ironmen in May/June of '89 and .300 for the 1990 DT's.  He is the only player to have played for all three legendary owners, and thus participated in more World Series games than probably any other player.  He was also the lead runner in the most infamous CBL play of all time: the "Double Steal ala Butler" in Game Five of the July, 1988 Series.  (And if you've never heard of this play, you REALLY must be new to this league!)

Immortal #3: Andy Benes

The year is 1991.  The setting is the Geisel residence.  The occassion is the 1991 GRiBbLe draft - the first known rotisserie baseball draft in New Milford history.  Mike Glander bids $1 on a young pitcher named Andy Benes, and declares that Benes will win the 1991 Cy Young Award.  All four owners in attendance enjoy a huge laugh at Glander's expense and pass, leaving Glander with a $1 Andy Benes.  Benes does not win the Cy Young Award in 1991, but he does win 15 games while posting a respectable 3.03 ERA.   The world still waits for Benes to win that elusive Cy Young Award, but I'll take a $1 Andy Benes any day.

Immortal #4: Alfredo Griffin

For three CBL seasons, Griffin wallowed in anonymity while posting respectable numbers for Bob Murphy and Paul Marazita.  Then, in December of 1987, Griffin was inexplicably drafted by Phil Geisel (who makes a habit of drafting players no one else would even consider for their roster.)  Instantly, Griffin (a.k.a. "The Chicken Man") became a legend.  Griffin was the epitomy of the Geisel-led "Buttwads" of the CBL.  In fact, he was the team's captain.  In six CBL seasons with Geisel, Griffin batted .321, .258, .166, .071, .188 and .142.  Yet he brought such tremendous team leadership to the clubhouse that his faults at the plate were easily overlooked.

Immortal #5: Teddy Higuera

Higuera was a four-time all-star in the CBL and a Cy Young Award winner for the Zoots back in the 1988 and 1989 seasons.  Higuera compiled ERA's of 1.13, 2.61, 2.17, 1.11 and 3.00 during his last five CBL seasons, and finished his CBL career with eleven straight wins and an 18-5 record.  His crowning achievement was a complete game one-hitter against the DT's in 1989 that completed a sweep of the World Series.  He is the only true fat guy ever allowed on a Zoots roster.

Immortal #6: Robert Person

Originally, the "Person Division" was named the "Petralli Division" after legendary Zoots catcher Geno Petralli.  But when I couldn't find a picture of Petralli for the web page, the division was renamed after Person.  Person is truly the first "legendary" player in the BDBL, and he is also the first BDBL player to be honored with a division named after him.  And the reason for his notoriety dates back to May of 1999.  At that time, Person was a key component in a notorious trade between myself and Bill Romaniello of the Blazers.  In that deal, the Blazers received Person, Ben Davis and Eric Valent from the Cowtippers in exchange for pitcher Robb Nen.   Soon after, a year-long debate began on the league message board.  Time and again, Person's value as both a player and a man was questioned by a group of unbelievers led by Tim Zigmund of the Plattsburgh Champs.   And time and again, I defended Person's honor.  I argued that Person would eventually be worthy of half a year of Nen all by himself, while Zigmund argued that Person was as worthless as a can of diet soda in Rick Reuschel's refrigerator.  In the end, Person proved to be more than worthy.  Here is a comparison of Person to the four starting pitchers on the 2001 Plattsburgh Champs roster:

Unfortunately, Tim Zigmund isn't around anymore, so I can't gloat.  But Zigmund's idea of having an official "Robert Person Day" lives on.  And that is why October 6th, Person's birthday, is still celebrated to this day.

Immortal #7: Kent Hrbek

Herbie was the "Designated Fat Guy" for my perrennial second-place "Bashers" in the CBL.  Today, he serves as my first base coach (but only for home games, as the trip across the infield every inning is too taxing on him.)  He never fulfilled his vast potential in the CBL (career batting average of .213), but that's Earl Weaver Baseball for you.  After several years of playing on second-place teams, Herbie finally got his chance to shine in the post-season during the CBL's final season.  He batted .111 (1-for-9) in a losing effort.  Considering the fact that every game in the CBL ended with a 1-0 score, though, that actually wasn't too bad.  My pitching staff finished that series with a 1.46 ERA over five games and lost four of five games.  I out-hit my opponent in that series .185 to .169, and scored just as many runs (nine!) as he did.  Makes you wonder why we bothered playing at all, doesn't it?

Immortal #8: Ozzie Smith

If you thought the Ozzie League was named after Mr. Osbourne, think again.  Smith was the biggest offensive star of the CBL, hands-down.   Like Butler, Ozzie did all the little things extremely well.  But he did those things on a different level than anyone else who played the game.  In six seasons as my team co-captain (Reuschel was the other co-captain), Ozzie was a three-time all-star and two-time MVP.  He hit .427 over 157 at-bats in the three 1988 seasons combined, batting in the two-hole between Tony Gwynn and Andre Dawson. 

Immortal #9: Dennis Eckersley

The "Eckersley League" had far too many syllables, so the league was simply named the "Eck League."  Where Ozzie was arguably the best hitter in CBL history, the Eck was without hesitation the league's most dominating pitcher.  He played only four seasons in the CBL and pitched just 41 innings total, but he took home more hardware than anyone in the league - his manager included.  His manager, of course, was Paul Marazita, who plucked Eckersley off the free agent wire back before the Eck was "The Eck."  Eckersley was an all-star four times, an MVP winner twice, a World Series MVP twice, a Cy Young winner once and a Rookie of the Season.  In his 41 1/3 career CBL innings, Eckersley (6-2 lifetime record) allowed just 20 hits, 7 walks and 4 earned runs (a 0.87 lifetime ERA), struck out 48 and saved 18 games.

Immortal #10: Ben Davis

Along with Person, Davis was the target of ridicule by the Zigmund camp as well.  I thought Davis was a young Ivan Rodriguez in the making (and bid $2 million for him in the Inaugural Draft as proof of my faith in him.)  Zigmund thought he was a poor man's Charles Johnson.  So far, it looks like Ziggy was right.   Although to be fair, Davis hasn't exactly had a lot of opportunity to this point.   Here are Davis' big league stats so far, compared to Zigmund's preferred catching prospect, Mark Johnson:

It sure looks like we were BOTH wrong - at least so far.   Of course, neither player has had a full season of Major League experience to prove himself yet.  Even if he did, Davis is still just 23 years old, so it may be another year or two before we know for certain what he can do at the big league level.  If we're making predictions of future greatness (or even future mediocrity), my money still rides on Davis.

There are other borderline immortals such as Kevin Lowary, Mike Fitzgerald, Bryan Sakolsky, Chuck Shaeffer, Kip Wells and Luis Alicea.  But for the most part, that's it.   If there is ever a BDBL Hall of Fame, the ten names above would surely be first-ballot entries.