Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Straight No Chaser

It’s always fun when two areas of our lives crossover. Say you love beer and your wife comes home and says “Let’s check out the new microbrewery.” Nice. Boss comes in to your office and says “I’ve got two behind homeplate for today’s game. Don’t take a sick day – let’s go!” Better than great.

The world of music and baseball collided in my life. Baseball has always been number one, year round, 24/7. As for music, you may be familiar with The Beatles, The Who, Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, Jon Bon Jovi, Lady Gaga. Well above all of that are Don, Seggie, Ryan, Walt, Mike, Randy, Dave, Jerome, Charlie and Tyler. No, it’s not the other Jackson kids. Those in the know, know these ten are Straight No Chaser.

For those sadly unaware, Straight No Chaser is an a cappella group formed at Indiana University who became an Internet sensation when their final concert at IU was taped and posted on YouTube. Their rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” went viral (over 13 million views) and the president of Atlantic records saw it, called the guys and said “Let’s make a deal.”

You have no doubt heard a cappella music whether it’s singing in the shower, listening to Rockappella, Huey Lewis and the News, Billy Joel or even the guys standing around the burning trash can in “Rocky”. I’ve heard a cappella. During my formative college years I ran around Chicago with my best friend watching “Four Guys Standing Around Singing” perform. What Straight No Chaser does is in another stratosphere, setting the Platinum Standard for a cappella if not music itself.

The way they cover The Beatles, Coldplay, Michael Jackson and Bel Biv Devoe is beyond standard. Everything they do is “with a twist”. Everything - including how they interact with their fans. During select songs they will bring an audience member up on stage. After every, I MEAN EVERY, show they meet their fans out in the lobby for autographs and pictures, waiting until everyone has been taken care of. They encourage their audience members to videotape their concerts and post them on YouTube. They go out of their way to remember and acknowledge their returning fans. These guys don’t have groupies – we are Chasers.

Certainly music is foremost in their lives, but these guys are well-rounded. Most are college basketball fans. But this is about music and baseball. Seggie’s from Detroit so he’s a Tiger fan and he’s also into fantasy sports. For some reason Walt has decided that the Mets are worth following, but he redeems himself by being an avid fantasy sports fan. Don also is a Mets fan (from Colorado?), but he redeems himself by having the same birthday as me and Mike B. Randy’s from Naperville so I can only hope that he’s a Cub fan.

Before you think this was a manufactured group ala O-Town or an American Idol winner, think again. This group has serious chops. They’ve performed with Manilow. They sold out an entire summer concert series at Harrah’s in Atlantic City last year. They’ve done the National Anthem at Wrigley and Soldier Field. They were the featured group in the nationally televised “Skate From the Heart” starring top professional ice skaters.

If you haven’t indulged yourself, I encourage you to visit their website at www.sncmusic.com and check out more videos. I’ll warn you in advance to allow for plenty of time. Just like Jays potato chips – once you start, you just can’t stop. I will end this article the way they end their shows. For their final song, they go “unplugged” putting away their microphones and just harmonize. This is from a show they did in Kansas City. .

Thursday, April 14, 2011

A Privilege Playing With The Ruffins

The first time I met Dave Holian I was a senior in high school sitting in Mr. Curry’s Journalism class at Oak Park – River Forest High School. Dave was the Sports Editor for the award winning school newspaper “The Trapeze” and had come in to consult with Mr. Curry. He looked over at me in my Cub shirt, pointed with a big grin on his face and proclaimed “They’re everywhere!”

Each morning he would grab the Tribune, turn to page 3 and read Royko. He had his walkman on with a Mo-Town mix tape, eyes closed, head swaying in a less exaggerated Stevie Wonder motion saying “Bring it home Diana!”

After the CFCL had been cooking along for two years it was time to bring in a quality owner so we asked Dave to join us. Twenty-six years later he still hasn’t forgiven me for not asking him to join in our inaugural year.

Once the invitation was offered and accepted, Dave quickly became the humor and light of the CFCL. Virtually every clip of previous drafts on YouTube, in Monroe Doctrines and on various CFCL websites is there because something amusing happened. In the middle of that amusement is Dave making a witty observation or being downright hilarious.

But before you think Dave is just a guy with seltzer water, he’s also a man with an amazing vocabulary. One night we were walking to a restaurant in Forest Park and we passed a bar called the Nut Bush. One comment led to another about whether this was a gay bar. Once this question was posed, two guys came walking in the opposite direction holding hands. Dave then pointed out “That was a perfect schematic representation.” Now in retrospect, that description makes sense and is easy to understand. But at the time I’m just a guy walking down the street when all of a sudden “schematic representation” happens.

He uses that knowledge to teach students at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (actual class he teaches – American Politics where he discusses the size of Thomas Jefferson’s hat and the impact it had on the South’s loss in the Civil War), hence the nickname “The Professor”. That professorial demeanor doesn’t preclude him from exuding boyish excitement like when he created his Ruffin logo by taking a picture of the Temptations (led by singer David Ruffin) and superimposed a baseball bat in such a manner that it looks like the Temps are pointing to the bat. “Look! They’re pointing at the bat!” he was heard to exclaim.

Some unique owners in CFCL history even make it into the Constitution. Look at Article IV and you find The Ruffin Privilege. Every year the Ruffins have thrown out the first player to be bid on. Most of the time he was successful in doing so, but even a Northwestern grad has his Ray Lankford moments (See Youtube.com and search ‘Ray Lankford Incident’).

With the retirement of the Copperfields, Dave is the second longest tenured owner and the last remaining owner named Dave (five total in CFCL history). Dave has done all of this from three different states (Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina). He’s also the only owner, other than the Copperfields, to win three CFCL titles.

It’s been a privilege to have the Ruffins in the CFCL for the past 26 years.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

CFCL Draft 2011

Welcome to CFCL 2011, the 28th year in CFCL History (League Slogan: "We're Not Even Halfway There!")

There were some interesting milestones in this year's draft. For the first time in 27 years the Copperfields were not seated at the Draft Table with their Traditional three uber-large three ring binders or computer loaded with 1500gig of player information. But the league did get a bit of a morale boost when the former 11 time champion stopped by to present last year's champion (Ruffins) with their trophy. David also took a league photo of our motley crew that is currently on display at the CFCL Internet Headquarter front page.

Along those same lines, for the first time since 1992, Owner Emeritus Mahlan was not on the Executive Committee ballot. The election provided some excitement as Rich and Mike C. received strong support. Early on in the tallies Bob and Matt B garnered some votes, but out of nowhere, exploding down the stretch Tim joined the Executive Committee going away.

With the league picture being completed and the Executive Committee being elected, it was time for our 26 year tradition to continue with the Ruffin Privilege. I think most owners were anticipating Dave to throw out Joey Votto so we could all watch the Clowns sweat immediately as he tries to build his Cincinnati Red CFCL dynasty.

That's not the way it went down. Zigging when he was expected to zag, the Ruffins nominated Hanley Ramirez for .25 at 1:13pm. Dem Rebels picked up Ramirez at .49 when the Revenge didn't want to make Ramirez the first fifty cent player of the day.

The Revenge started the next stage of entertainment as they nominated Votto and the league got to see a showdown between rivals. It came down to the Clowns and Kenndoza Line slugging it out.

First we take a side trip, the Kenndoza Line couldn't draft in person due to the birth of their second child. [The league was stunned to find out the Line's second son was born TWO WEEKS prior to the draft!!] So somehow he convinced his brother, Jeff, to be the physical presence. Kenn still called the shots via sketchy cell phone communication, but Jeff's voice was the final word in the Draft Room. The owners immediately took a liking to Jeff and even offered that he come back in Kenn's place next year. It may have had something to do with the fact that when everyone was signing the 2011 Copperfield Ball, Jeff was asked to sign for Kenn and Jeff said "Kenn's writes like a little girl."

Back to the bidding. The Clowns and Line spiritedly swung back and forth at each other. "47", "48", "49", "50", "51" almost without hesitation. When the Line said ".52" the Clowns shook their head and said "Pass." And thus the divide between the Clowns and Line became even greater.

By the end of the second round five pitchers had been drafted for .30 or higher. As a point of comparison, the last two drafts combined only produced a grand total of four pitchers over .30. This was a source of great frustration for Rebel Management.

Also by the end of the second round the newest member of the CFCL, Stranger Danger, had made an impact. Usually new owners sit back and get a feel for the lay of the land or are intimidated. Not Scott. After two rounds the Danger had picked up five players spending a total of $1.35 or 80% of their Draft Day budget.

Notable this year was the Home Town Discount players. Last year seven of eleven players had their HTD exercised. This year only three as the bidding was much more interesting. When the bidding took place for Chad Billingsley, the Bulls held Topper Rights. The Danger were the last team standing in the bidding and had the opportunity to raise their final bid in an effort to dissuade the Bulls from using their Topper. Mission accomplished. The Danger jumped from .15 to .25 and the Bulls passed.

The Red Hots held the rights to Prince Fielder so the Bulls, taking a page from the Danger Book, increased their final bid from .34 to .41 in an attempt to pry Fielder away from the Red Hots. Bob would have none of it, using his .03 to grab Fielder at .38.

Dem Rebels followed suit by jumping their final bid from .12 to .14 for Ryan Dempster. The Red Hots passed.

But the goofiest move came during the bidding for Ubaldo Jimenez. The Kenndoza Line held Topper Rights. The bidding finished with the Clowns sitting at .27. While they were deciding what, if any , amount to increase their final bid - the Line announced they would not use their Topper, thus potentially saving the Clowns a few extra pennies. Who knows? It could have been the Line's way of offering an olive branch since they strong armed Votto away from the Clowns.

Red Hots (Fielder), DemRebels (Iannetta) and the Bulls (Montero) successfully exercised their HTD rights.

Second year team Twin Killers were the first team to complete their active roster at 5:42pm when they picked up Ryan Madson.

The Red Hots completed the Draft portion of the day at 6:52 when they bid on Ryan Spilbourghs.

The entire day took seven hours and 13 minutes (only six minutes longer than last year).

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the draft (after Joey Votto pulled on his Kenndoza Line jersey) was offered by the Twin Killers. They successfully got under the skin of nearly the whole league, one by one, in their dogged pursuit of bidding on quality players. They particularly pissed off Dem Rebels consistently with their bidding on Shaun Marcum and Wilton Lopez. It didn't seem to matter to the Killers that the Rebels provided transportation to and from the draft. See if that happens next year.

The general consensus among owners was that this was one of the more enjoyable drafts in recent years. Hopefully the in-season trades that take place will allow that feeling to contine through the whole season.