CRL News

December 8, 2013

Pack the malls with crowds not jolly

· Fa la la la la, la la, la la

Christmas shopping, what a folly

· Fa la la la la, la la, la la la

Buying gifts that they’ll take back

· Fa la la la, la la, la la, la

If you think I like this then you’re on crack

· Fa la la, la la la, la la, la

Unfinished

That’s right boys and girls (well, actually, boys), it’s time again for picking out your holiday keepers.

We need to wrap up 2013 by choosing whom, among our tied players, we choose to have the option of keeping next season. As you all know, to prevent stockpiling, we can each only keep one of each pair of linked players. More on this later.

OK, I’m burying the lead, but congrats to Glenn and Dennis for taking the crown (you think if myself and Fraser had captured the Kerr trophy I’d have mentioned it in paragraph three?)

Speaking of Fraser – thanks to him, I know Brian McCann is now with the Yanks. I would not have known otherwise because of the whole earning a paycheck thing and not paying attention.

Now to some business.

End-of-year accounting:

Category Spending		Payouts
All Accounts
		Place	Team	Owners	Pct	Payout
Description	Amount	1st	3	Glenn & Dennis	50%	$ 2,577
Total 1st Half Free Agent	$ 1,150	2nd	11	Marcus & Matt	25%	$ 1,289
Total 2nd Half Free Agent	$ 960	3rd	6	Spence	15%	$ 773
Total 2nd Half Trade	$ 40	4th	5	Steve & Bill	7%	$ 361
Total Act from Farm	$ 70	5th	9	Jim & Jim	3%	$ 155
Total Act from Res	$ 425					$ 5,155
Total Break link	$ 5			Balance forwards
Total Draft	$ 1,430		2	Otis & Hutch		$ 5
Total Reserve	$ 725		4	Terry & Rich		$ 10
Total Sept. Roster Expansion	$ 125		5	Steve & Bill		$ 5
Total Trade	$ 80		10	Torrens’		$ 70
Total waiver	$ 145
				Expenses		$ 27
Grand Total	$ 5,155			Party		$ 550
				Acct total		$ 5,822

Note: the “party account” is for the 25^th anniversary shindig that I’ll cover a few paragraphs down.

Some dates:

Tuesday, Dec 31 – give me your list of keepers among your tied players. That does not mean you have to keep them in March – it means you want to reserve the right to keep them in March (see below).

Unspecified date in Dec/Jan – need to let us know the count for the CRL 25 reunion dinner (more on this in a bit).

March 1 – Money due – I’ll get back to you in the spring on this.

TBD (March) roster freeze day.

Thurs, April 3 – CRL 25^th anniversary dinner (again, more on this in a bit).

Fri, April 4 – Draft at some yet to be determined meeting room at Harrah’s

So now, let’s talk about this trip to Vegas (here’s the “bit” part).

This year marks the 25^th anniversary of the CRL. Who would have thought when a handful of us dreamed this up in 1989 at Way Out West in Austin that it would span the country and still be going strong a quarter century later? That, my friends, is the mark of – well, good friends. I have committed to spend at least an hour a week working on The History. I don’t know that I’ll have it complete by the draft, but I’ll at least be into this century (which is more than I can say now).

Bill and I have talked about preliminary plans …

Need to break from the regular format for this plea – we’re talking 25 %$#@ years – do whatever you can to be there, but be there.

Anyway, Bill and I talked at length this week about what we should do. We think a dinner (trying to get some mementos, also) is the way to go. We’re talking nice dinner at a nice place (maybe not Ruth Chris’ nice, but definitely better than Batista’s – or Marie Calendars, TGI Friday’s, etc. – I’ll let Bill fill in the details). Our thinking is that we all expect to spend money on meals in Vegas (some more than others). But we can defray some of that cost with our “party” account.

Here’s our thinking:

· There are 20 owners in the CRL

· We have $1100 to spend

· If we spend $40 per owner on the private room/meal, that would be $800 of our budget

o Every owner would probably be on the hook for $25-35 (we’ll pool/split it) for the total tab

o Guests would pay full freight

· That would leave us a few bucks to come up with something you can all take home (hopefully – Bill is looking into this)

· We’re also thinking that we’ll put together a slideshow of CRL memories that will be playing in the background

o So if you have any pictures or quotes that we can put on slides, please email them to me so we can put a presentation together

This should be a bunch of fun. Please make every effort for full participation. How many of you can say you’ve been involved in anything for 25 years?

I need accurate email addresses for all of you for the (I’m betting) ensuing discussion. (I’m looking at you, Glenn.)

Now back to our regularly-scheduled program:

It is now later.

Keep in mind, when looking at the list below, we voted a couple of years ago to allow teams finishing in the money (teams 3, 11, 6, 5 and 9 this year) to keep a maximum of 7 players (not including minor leaguers) – all teams finishing out of the money can keep a maximum of 10 players. Making a selection on the players below does not count towards the “keeper” number, it merely gives you the opportunity to keep the player on Roster Freeze Day in March. Players before the slash mark are on the active roster – if you keep the player behind the slash and subsequently keep him on Roster Freeze Day, you will owe $5 to the prize pool for activating a player from reserve.

As I said earlier, I need for each team to let me know who they would like to maintain the right to keep in March between the tied players below (please pick one of each pair). Let me know by Dec 31.

Team 1 – Ken

Xavier Paul/Corey Hart

Carlos Torres/Matt Garza

Team 2 – Otis & Hutch

Stults/Karstens

Team 3 – Glenn/Dennis

Liriano/Garcia

Team 4 – Terry/Rich

Ramirez/Ross

Slowey/Motte

De La Rosa/Broxton

Team 5 – Steve F and Bill

Schafer/Quintin

Blackmon/Revere

Downs/Hudson

Team 6 – Steve S/Jared

Staffer/Marshall

Ross/Parnell

Team 7 – Ron/Ron

Ruggiano/Torres

Chacin/Skaggs

Wood/Santana

Team 8 – Scott

Uribe/Maybin

Avilan/Hudson

Team 9 – Jim/Jim

Rusin/Dominguez

Team 10 – Torrens’

None

Team 11 – Cathey’s

Martinez/Harvey

Thornburg/Beachy

Jim