I'm the new guy...

[Chad H.]

It seems that most of you guys either know of each other on a familiar level, or you are just connected via fantasy leagues. Well, let me be the one to explain the situation. I am a frequent reader of multiple sports blogs, most importantly The Hardball Times(THT). Just a few days ago, one of the fantasy contributers of this online sabermetrics mag has an article to connect people who fancy themselves as fantasy mavens. I responded, and was connected to your player David, the Indians fan. He said to come to the board, so here I am. My interest is in a solid keeper for some $$, there seems like the place to be.

I am certainly no fantasy god, but I would like to think that I am well versed in the statistical basis of sports. I love to play fantasy b-ball, American football, and baseball. My name is Chad. I live in Albany, NY, the Empire State's Capital.

I grew up in Rochester, NY, but just moved here to work in the government. I work for CDTA, which is like a much smaller New York City MTA, or a Las Vegas RTC. I sit at a desk for 7-8 hours a day, while pondering the works of Bill James, Branch Rickey, and Bill Veeck.

I grew up rooting for "The Big Hurt", and liked the Chisox consequently. However, as a mere lad, I found out that there was once another Frank Thomas who played the game. From that day forward it was "The Big Donkey", and the team that he helped to develop, The New York Metropolitans, that I pledged my allegiance to.

I'm 25, love talking basketball, baseball and anything to do with culture and History. I graduated from SUNY Brockport, an upstate university, with a BS in History. I try to get to at least 3-5 baseball games a year, and a few of each of the other major sports. And with the central location of Albany, I am able to easily travel to Philly, Buffalo, Montreal, Boston, NYC and anywhere in between. I'm a sarcastic North-easterner, who hate snow. Thus, I'm already angry at you guys who live in an arid or Mediterranean climate.

I'm glad to be here, you guys seems like some honest characters who are looking for a good match. I'm looking forward to competing for the long haul, and all the fun smack talk that comes along with that.

[Dave - Mistakes By The Lake]

chad12 said:

I'm a sarcastic North-easterner, who hate snow. Thus, I'm already angry at you guys who live in an arid or Mediterranean climate.

Ha, we have something in common then, except I had the good sense to get the hell out of that sh*tty weather when I had the chance.

For the record it was about 70 degrees in Charleston today and should be for the rest of the week (although the start of winter break is forcing me to trek the 700 miles up I-77 N back to Cleveland and the temperatures in the mid-30s. Great.)

Good to have you aboard, Chad.

p.s. Andrew - is Alluando one of the people who already signed up or his he still undecided? Does this make 10 or 11 people in the league? What are we aiming for for year one? I saw you said 12 as a minimum, but what's the ideal?

p.p.s. As a side note, Andrew, is there any way we can turn off the PG-13 Censorship on the board? I have been swearing like a sailor since I was 10 and having to edit myself like this is greatly slowing down my typing speed.

[Chad H.]

Yo man! Thanks for hooking me up with this league. I'm totally down.

What is the deal with the censoring anyways?

[Dave - Mistakes By The Lake]

I think proboards may just have it built in to all their message boards. Hopefully Andrew can get rid of it

[Andrew - Commissioner]

First of all, Chad, the fact that you ponder the works of Bill James at work makes me like you already. Now, David, I believe Aullando is going to stay with us along with his co-owner, dooner2000. (I'm pretty sure his name is Jason.) You may have noticed that there are now 15 registered members for the site. Keep in mind, though, that I am registered both as the Commissioner and as a manager. Additionally, we must remember that we have co-owners in Aullando and Jason. In effect, we currently have 13 owners at the moment. I'm still going to recruit more players, however, because you never know if somebody may duck out just before the auction or maybe ditch us after a year (a dick move if there ever was one). At this point, the goal is still 16 players. As long as there are 12 paid entries for the auction, though, we're good. I should also say that my dad will join if we're stuck on 11. We might as well consider his money a donation because I'm sure he wouldn't pay attention (since that would leave him less time to tear his lost sports bets), so I'd like to avoid that. As for the censorship, I didn't even realize that I had control over that. I'll change that immediately.

Oh ya. I visited my relatives over Thanksgiving in Indiana. As I've been fortunate to enjoy beautiful weather, I've come to the conclusion that anyone who voluntary chooses to live in the Midwest or on the East Coast is an idiot. (Just kidding - well, sort of anyway.) It's a rough life waking up to 80 degrees 10 months of the year in LA. More importantly, though, I don't know how you guys deal with sports telecasts being so late out there. It's no wonder there's such an East Coast bias. Just to let you guys know, there's a guy who pitches for the San Diego Padres, and his name is Jake Peavy. He is pretty good at pitching. Perhaps some day you'll stay up to watch him pitch a game. There's also a guy named Vladimir Guerrero who single-handedly carries his team to the playoffs every year. Unfortunately, I doubt East coast fans will ever truly appreciate the greatness of that guy. (And, yes, I know he played in Montreal. They still don't stay up for Angels games on the East coast unless the Yanks or the Sox are playing and even then, who knows.) At any rate, I can tell I'm rambling, so I better stop.

[jtag017]

Geppy.. haha I could not agree with you more about living in the Midwest or further east. After growing up in LA for 14 years then moving to Vegas, the East Coast was BRUTAL!! I don't care what anyone says... you never get used to the cold thats just riduculous. The two years I spent in Annapolis from January-April were called "The Dark Ages" because it was dark and cold all the time. And how anyone plays any kind of competitive sports in that cold blows my mind. Trying to kick a 45 yarder in a brutal crosswind when the temperature is 15 degrees was too much for me. Then you see guys like Vinatieri kicking 50 yarders in the snow!! Baseball players breaking bats at the plate in the cold, just makes me wince. Anyways, my point here is that I HATE the cold!! Ironically I'm heading to Nebraska in January to persue my career. Maybe I'll enjoy some fresh corn out there for you guys!! Oh, and by the way, Vlad is tremendously under appreciated!!

[Joey - A Great Teammate]

Jon, what are you gonna be doing out there in Nebraska?

[jtag017]

Theres a good sized D-II school out there who recruited me outta high school that I'm gonna go try and walk on to kick. I tore my groin a year and half ago in spring ball and since then its been very painful. I still have 3 years of eligibility so once I get out there, I plan on training for a solid year and going out for my last 2 years. My leg just isnt in shape right now. But I'm leaving in a few weeks just so I can get out there and get a feel for the place. Plus, my older brother lives in Omaha which is good to go. I've gone and kicked on Gorman's new turf a few times its soo amazing. Those guys have it easy now lol. But my groin still is bothering me. I need 10 months of work without touching a football once I get out there. Cockass!! When are we gonna get together with gep and throw back a few brews man? Do you roll the dice out here at all joey?? thats about all i do lol.