Season 24 In The Books

The 24th Season of the CFCL has come to a close. We bring it all full circle with a couple of firsts and a 22nd.

We have a first-time champion – Congratulations to the Kenndoza Line. Despite living and working in the Queen City and letting his son flail about on the floor next to him while he’s on the computer, Kenn ran a strong campaign and executed the necessary trade to put him over the top.

For the first time ever it took the fourth extra inning of the 163rd game of the season to officially crown the CFCL Champion.

For the 22nd time in CFCL history the National League Home Run Champ was not on the CFCL Champion. Prince Fielder joined dad Cecil as the only father/son duos to have over 50 homeruns in a season, but it wasn’t enough to power the Rebels past the powerhouse Copperfields, defending champion Ruffins and new champion Line. There’s a certain logic out there that says “Dudes dig the longball” and therefore will over pay for it. So Pujols goes for .55. In years past McGwire, Bonds, Sosa, Strawberry and the ilk would command top penny. The owner providing the winning bid would rationalize that it helped tremendously in one category (HRs, then TBs) and if the guy was hitting that many HRs, then RBIs and Runs must surely come in abundance as well. That would then effectively restrict the salary cap for additional talented players. What’s interesting is that the last two National League Home Run Champions, Fielder and Ryan Howard, were playing at the Minor League Call-Up salary, so Dem Rebels and David’s Copperfields had plenty of other money to spend.

For the first time in history we had two worthy owners completely disappear for no apparent reason. Oh sure, we’ve had owners give up in years past, but they were basically vile, despicable scum. This year’s disappearance is baffling.

For the first time ever we had the top four teams enter the final weekend of the season separated by only 4.5 points with many points in play. The six point spread, 1st-4th, at the close of the day Monday belies how close this race really was. With two games still being played on Sunday (Dodgers and Giants in the 7th inning; the Rockies and Diamondbacks in the 8th inning) the Ruffins still had a chance to gain one point and the Line had a chance to lost two points which would have put both teams in a flat footed tie (has there ever been a tippy-toe tie?) with 92 points. Sunday didn’t end in a tie. The Line led the Ruffins 93 – 90.5. But then we had the Play In game. At the end of the second inning, The Line was up to 95 points and the Ruffins were at 90.5. Going in to the top of the 6th, The Line lost all the points the gained and now there was one point separating the top two spots AND they were deadlocked in Runs with 983. That means that if Adrian Gonzalez scored one more run, we would have a tie at 92.

For the fifth time in CFCL history, nine of us are thrilled that the Cubs will be playing in October. And nine of us are petrified as to what lies ahead in the post-season.

And for the first time in CFCL history, we owners are left with the conundrum of what to do at night without Sportsline’s Live Scoring.

Great season, ten of you! Enjoy the playoffs!