Beginnings

The Draft
Draft Day is done, and so is the clean up, I think. We had a few people unable to be online at draft time, but those of us who were there had a good time. The conversation has an ebb and flow. There's the joking and joshing as we arrive in the minutes preceding the start of the draft and once it's underway (there's a countdown clock and you can tell people are watching it) the (mild) smack talk shows up as we ridicule each other's picks and curse in symbols when someone snags the guy we were going to grab this round. The Kansas City Royals receive their requisite mocking. Then in the middle rounds (this thing lasts 25 rounds) things die down, it gets so quiet I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one still online, but as the last couple rounds roll around, the chatter picks up again and people often make their adieux as their final pick approaches.

We run a keeper league in a non-keeper setting. Each team owner/manager is allowed to retain four players from his roster as it stood on the last day of the previous season. The first couple seasons we were using a service that let us just check a box beside the names of players we each wanted to keep and come next year, they'd be waiting for us. We had a couple of issues with that service and moved to Yahoo! which wipes the slate clean so maintaining keepers is a matter of recordkeeping by the commissioner. Actually, the commissioner is supposed to keep all of the rosters over the winter (which is only as successful as the current commissioner is at keeping track of where her dad moved that particular pile of papers) and in the month preceding draft day, post the rosters, and as people name their keepers, keep a running tally of them. Everyone is asked to put these players on their exclusion list so they won't be in anyone's queue and get drafted by someone else.

We've had mixed results with this. We usually have a conversation about when to draft our keepers, but I think we've finally got that part down. You don't have to draft your keepers at all, draft other players whom you cut when you pick up your keepers after the draft. It works as a built-in "Oops" mechanism: if you drafted someone you didn't really mean to, you still have a chance to pick up someone you want during the draft. Learning that the player you just drafted announced his retirement that morning, something you learn only through our draft-time chitchat, might mean you'd rather have a player who's actually going to play this year. Oops factor to the rescue.

People not excluding players is the problem, and every year we have a couple keepers drafted by another team by mistake. This year we had it in spades. Two owners/managers apparently hadn't had a chance to put any players on the excluded list and neither of them was online for the draft; of 52 keepers, at least 40 of them were drafted by those two teams. After the first five or six keepers who were snagged by the MIA, it became something of game guessing which keeper they were going to draft next. It was funny, and frustrating, and in the late rounds I decided to play it safe, decided to draft my keepers, only to see Jason Varitek headed south. I spent the next evening sorting who had whose and which players to drop and add from which rosters. I ran into problems with the "Can't Cut List", a feature Yahoo has that prevents anyone from moving certain players to avoid stacking of rosters. Next day I finally found out the commissioner can shut the damn thing off! Once I did that, things went fairly smoothly and I think, I hope, everyone has his correct players before opening day, when the stats start counting.

Here's my opening day roster:

Aaron Hill* (New Hamshpire-AA)
Brian Schneider
Bronson Arroyo*(Pawtucket-AAA)
David Ortiz* (Boston)
David Wright*(Binghamton-AA)
Dontrelle Willis
Jason Varitek* (Boston)
John Buck *(Auburn-short season A)
Jose Guillen
Josh Beckett
Josh Towers* (Syracuse-AAA)
Justin Morneau*(New Britain-AA)
Ken Griffey Jr.
Lenny DiNardo(?*)
Mark Ellis
Matt Clement
Mike Mussina
Moises Alou
Russ Adams*(Auburn-short season A)
Tim Wakefield*(Boston)
Ty Wigginton*(Binghamton-AA)
Vernon Wells*(Syracuse-AAA)
Vinnie Chulk*(Syracuse-AAA)
Yusmeiro Petit*(Binghamton-AA)
Zach Day

Again, a mix weighted to Red Sox and guys I've seen play in person*. I've been scouting them in the minors, I guess.


Decisions, Decisions
The season hasn't started yet and already I've had to make the decision of whether to go to a specific game or skip it. My extended family used to have a lot of gatherings. There are 23 cousins in my generation and for a long time most of us lived within shouting distance of each other and our grandparents house. Time and distance has increased to the point that over the past few years the only time we seem to get together is for calling hours and funerals. This week an invitation to a birthday celebration for one of my uncles, his 80th. Since the chances to gather with family are getting scarcer, it's hard to say no, but it's the first Saturday the B-Mets will be home, one of the rare day games they play, and everybody knows baseball was meant to be enjoyed in daylight. When my dad told his ladyfriend about the celebration, the first thing she said was that if there's a ball game I wouldn't be there and that the family wouldn't be expecting me. I did skip Easter dinner last year to be at the ballpark. I wrestled with this for a couple days, and when I saw a day game the next Wednesday in Syracuse I figured that was my consolation prize. I'll be at the celebration, but I'll be wearing my baseball earrings.