Or maybe it was Padres in the World Series.

Speaking of the Padres, I know this issue is a bit, OK a lot, tardy, but lately I’ve felt like putting as much effort into baseball as San Diego did. A couple of you had asked when I was going to put out another newsletter. Every time you asked, I told you I was working on it. What that meant was that I thought about for a few seconds before laying on the couch and surfing through infomercials. What finally got me to sit down and do this was the hot-stove league. (Hey Kerr, don’t worry,. Paul Konerko will save you from some ration of shit because he can’t win Rookie of the year for the White Sox next season. He had too many at bats this year -- not that it helped.)

Before I get to the main reason for these musings (we do have a couple of loose ends to tie up before putting a cap on this season) I’d like to make a personal plea to all of you. GET E-MAIL. I’m sure most of you have it already, but I don’t have most of your addresses. If you don’t have an e-mail, git one. You’ll love doin’ bidness with Microsoft. (To those of you out there scratching your heads, ask one of us Texans, we’ll explain it to you.) The biggest pain in the ass about this entire process is not writing, it’s printing, copying, addressing and stuffing envelopes, and postage. With e-mail, I could just write the damn thing, open my address book, and hit the send key. Communicating by e-mail is a breeze, and you don’t have to write a check to Ma Bell every month.

OK, I’ll get down off the soapbox now. Seriously though, I’ve included an updated address, phone and e-mail list. Check yours. Let me know of any changes. (You can always e-mail them to me, then I’ll have your address. Mine is: jim@austin.rr.com.)

Saw a blurb in the local paper about how, after the season’s first week, Mark McGwire was outhomering the state of Pennsylvania. McGwire had four, while the Phillies and Pirates had combined for zero. "We’re just not a fast-starting state," Ruben Amaro said. He was right. The Pirates rallied for five unanswered home runs, and the Phillies even chipped in a couple. Going into the season’s second weekend, the standings were Pennsylvania 7, McGwire 4. "I think we’re going to get him," Amaro said. "It may take some time to put him away, but in my professional opinion, we’ll beat him. Probably."

Speaking of McGwire, how can someone have the game’s best slugger, for $5 no less, and the game’s premier starter (Greg Maddux), and finish fourth? I have the pleasure of sitting next to Mr. Fraser at work. That means I got to listen to him mutter under his breath each morning while checking the box scores. He sounded kind of like Orlando Magic GM Pat Williams who once said of his team’s 7-27 record, "We can’t win at home. We can’t win on the road. As general manager, I just can’t figure out where else to play."

More McGwire: During a pregame show, the folks at FOX flashed up pictures of Big Mac alongside Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. This prompted Steve Lyons to comment, "You know you’re pretty good when the pictures of the people they are comparing you with are in black and white."

Anyway, back to the reason we’re here. As you know, after the season, all CRL teams with players on the reserve list are supposed to call me and let me know who they want to keep between the reserved players and their counterparts on the active roster. Well, it’s after the season. Give me a call, or drop me an e-mail, by Sunday, November 22 to let me know who you want to keep. If I don't hear from you, you automatically keep the player who finished the season on your active roster. Remember, if you decide to keep the guy on reserve, and subsequently keep him on your team come Roster Freeze Day, it’ll cost you a $5 activation fee payable at next year’s draft. As per usual, I’ve made some decisions for you. If one of your guys is on a long-term contract and is tied to another player, you have no choice but to keep the guy under contract and cut the other player. (If you are going to buy out the contract, you can’t do it until roster freeze day.) Similarly, if one of if one of your linked players was playing out his option, or was in the last year of a long-term contract (example, Todd Hollandsworth -- if you don’t remember him, look him up in the dictionary under "flash in the pan.") then you’ve got the player who was linked to him, at least until next spring. With our further adieu, here’s the list. (Note: the active player is listed first.)

Team 1
Bob Henley -- Chris Widger
Greg Colbrunn -- John Cangelosi

Team 2
Pete Harnisch -- Branden Looper

Team 3
Shawon Dunston -- Brent Brede
Lance Painter -- Alan Benes

Team 5
Ed Giovanola -- Craig Pauquette
Aaron Boone -- Danny Klassen
Adrian Brown -- Jeff Blauser

Team 7
Brian Anderson -- Ramon Garcia

Team 9
Fernando Tatis -- Mike Frank
Jason Christiansen -- Jose Cabrera, Brad Clontz, Alex Fernandez

Team 10
Kevin Tapani -- Chris Holt

Team 12
Rich Loiselle -- Jon Lieber

As I’ve already indicated, I haven’t spent a whole lot of time on baseball, but there is one thing we need to start working on. We need an expansion team. If you’ve got any candidates, let me know. We’ll take them on a first-come, first-served basis.

Draft Day is looking like April 10. The weekend that before that is Easter.

Please let me know about any rule changes or clarifications that you want to bring up for a vote so I can let everybody know about them next time. I’ll get you all a copy of the constitution and addendum next time, also. (I’m going to scan them, so if you’ve got e-mail and any kind of imaging software, I’ll send them to you as an e-mail attachment and you’ll have a copy on you hard drive.)

Finally, Larry Anderson, former major league pitcher who’s claim to fame (as in Hall of) is that he is the player who was traded to Boston for Jeff Bagwell, asked, "If and atheist is involved in an accident that’s classified as an ‘Act of God,’ can he sue?"

Till next time,

Jim.