WELCOME TO THE SILVER SEASON

 Howdy folks! This is the start of our 25th season in Wrigleyville . And after a commish change and some turnover it's mostly the same old group of Curmudgeons playing make-believe baseball. We have several new owners with us this year . Welcome to svick39 , zsiegri , dajack87 and  blitziscomin . May the wind always be at your back.
  This year on the WHIF we will have the season previews and weekly updates. Last year I had time to do mid season reports at the all star break. I think they went well and I have yet to decide wheather to do them this year. In the past we have had several guest reporters do power rankings and we still need a volunteer this year. So if your good with numbers or someone gave you a  groovy calculater for christmas. Let me know, and we will set you up with posting privleges.
  This is the start of my 5th calendar year writing the WHIF. And while sometimes it feels like a chore. Most the time it is a joy to write. I hope I can continue to slog out posts and sometimes entertain . So break out a new bottle of blantons or whatever alcoholic beverage you have handy . Pour a glassfull and raise it to the sky.

 May the errors be few and the homers be great. Only the W I S  Computer can tabulate your fate.
May your draft be great and the IFA's be many. I wish I could sign them for a handfull of Pennys.
Here we go again on a brand new season . Could the departure of Sordie bring civility and reason.
Heres to Hoopcoach our newest Commish. Did you know a Muskellunge is just a Big Fish.
Heres to the re-build of Mark and Rbedwell. Their teams play like crap, pardon the smell.
This game we play is tough and demanding. May your team at the end be the only one standing.

Merry Christmas to all,
Madmudoon

OLEMISS'S BLACK BEARS ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPS

Even Black Bears have hangovers.

By: I. B Lyon
staff writer(Mad News Corp) 

It came down to a butt puckering seventh game in the World Series. The Black Bears trotted out Damaso Gonzalez to pitch in the rubber match. The Bruins sent out Freddie Long who was 87% on short rest. Jackson made New Britain pay for that decision and tagged Freddie "Be" Long with 4 runs in the first inning. Thats all Olemiss's dominate pitching staff needed. They won the game 4-1 to win their first World Series.
   The Black Bears players mobbed each other while the fans stormed the field. There were no goal posts to pull down but they did pull down Olemiss's slacks and exposed his Hello Kitty boxer shorts. It was total bedlam, with Liberal Democrats hugging Tea Party Republicans and Sordie was seen giving Mark a back tap bro hug. These sights may never be seen again in our world, let alone in the deep south.
   After a Sparkling Wine celebration in the Jackson locker room I caught up to the owner of the Black Bears, Olemiss33. We shook hands and he motioned me to his office .After pouring bourbon in 2 jelly jars he handed me mine and with our jars held high he said. " She offered her honor and I honored her offer. All night long it was off her and on her." We clanked the jars and drank em down. He poured 2 more, and sat down behind a very large wooden desk with papers stacked high on both sides . I positioned my chair as to see between the stacks and asked my first question of Olemiss. What did you think of your teams regular season? He took a sip and replied. "I thought we finished about what was I thinking. I had us pegged for 103 wins, and we won 105. We were able to add some important pieces in-season, but it cost us some really good prospects." I nodded . Walt Henry and Gerald O'Neil were great pick-ups for the regular season run . Which player(s) in your opinion was instrumental in your playoff run to the championship?  I grabbed the bottle and re-filled our glasses while Olemiss replied. "Without a doubt, it was Justin Brantley. He hit .377 with 20 or so RBI's. Can't leave out Walt Henry, though. He went 3-1 with a 1.11 ERA in the postseason. We wouldn't have been where we were in the postseason without those two."
  Just then two beautiful brunettes came in and started running their fingers through Olemiss's thinning hair,  I hurried my next question so not to be too distracted. In the Blog preview you wrote . "However, the prize pickup for the Black Bears was a trade made to acquire 3 time AS Jumbo MacFarlane ." How did he do for the Black Bears.? Olemiss removed his face from between 2 breasts and said. "Well, he missed half the season with an injury. When healthy, he was dynamite with a 9-4 record and 2.34 ERA. HE didn't pitch much in the playoffs, because quite frankly, he wasn't one of my top 3 SP's." Yes sometimes it's hit and miss with off-season signings. What do you think of next years chances of a re-peat?  Olemiss answered while  pouring bourbon in the navel of one of the beauties and lapping it it up feverishly. "Well, we return basically everyone, so I would like to think (slurp) barring a lot of injuries, we should be one of the favorites. Our entire rotation (Slurp,Smack) and bullpen return from a team that led the league in pitching by over .3 of a point. We had some guys that should be much better offensively than they were this year. I would be floored (Slurp) if we don't hit .25 points higher as a team next year ."
   I can see that my time is running short, so one last question for the WHIF readers. Would you like to say anything else to the Black Bear fans and team owners?  With his hair in disarray and a lipstick covered face, he touted. "Thanks for the support. We built a winner over years, as this place was a disaster when we took it over. It took two years just to get rid of terrible contracts, but after that, we built this team while still be somewhat competitive at the ML level. We never tanked a season to get higher picks. Season 17-18 we still had terrible contracts, but once those were gone, we fielded a competitive ML team, even spending very little on salary." With that the clothes started to fly and I headed for the door when the Hello Kitty boxers flew by.
   Well readers it looks like the Black Bears are gonna be a force to rekon with for many years. Olemiss is a savy owner with a passion for baseball, and he is a asset to the league. Hello Kitty my foot. Hello Black Bears Dynasty!!

MWR Results!!

Okay, here it is, the moment we have all been waiting for! The votes have been tallied, and the winner with 11 votes out of 20 votes is OPTION 1. Meaning our new MWR rule beginning at the start of next season is:


Minimum wins requirement of 55. If a team fails to win 55 games in a season, the next season they must win at east 60 games. If you don't hit MWR, you may make your case to the league if you wish to stay, and your removal will be subject to a majority league vote.

Here was the voting breakdown: and I believe you'll like what you'll see.

Option 1: 11 votes- Hoopcoach07, wishlist3677, dmann2158, jmuhtoff, dodgersgale, mark3313, rbedwell, tchagnon, rugby1, sandberg10, pbsilver11

Option 2: 2 votes- swishnev23, jeff2106

Option 3: 3 votes- ressda, pat007ohmss, madmuldoon

Option 4: 3 votes- hatton98, olemiss33, wylie75

1 write-in vote from mdymond: 55 wins in year 1, 120 wins in year 2, and 189 wins in year 3.


THANK YOU to everyone! From voting, to suggestions, to working towards a soultion. Thank you to the advisory committee for working and doing research to get the options up and to anyone who made a suggestion to help them on their way. As I said on the chat, if you're still on the fence for coming back next year, give the league one more chance. We had 23 seasons of great success and little to no drama. We had almost no rules, and are srill trying to keep the rules at a bare minimum. Next year looks better already, and the drama looks to be in the past. So, I ask you to give us another year.

MWR Vote

Hey all, the time has come to vote on what the MWR rule will be moving forward. This rule will be put into effect at the start of season 25. Below are the 4 options the the advisory committee has come up with.

The way the vote will work is simply which ever option has the most votes will become our new MWR rule. Please send your vote to me through trade chat or site mail. At the conclusion of the vote I will post what everyone voted on the blog.

If you are not planning to return next season I would ask that you abstain from voting. We can not make you not vote, but it would be in the leagues best interest to only have owners who plan to move on with us or are currently on the fence vote on this rule.

The deadline to get your vote in is: Wednesday, December 4th at 11:00pm eastern standard time. Please trace chat or site mail me your vote by then. 

Regardless of which option becomes rule: If you don't hit MWR, you may make your case to the league if you wish to stay, and your removal will be subject to a majority league vote.

(I would suggest taking a look at Sandbergs research which I posted below. Gives a good look at where the lowest amount of wins were by season)


Here are the options for MWR (please vote for only 1):

Option #1: 55 MWR. If a team fails to win 55 games in a season, the next season they must win at least 60 games.

Option #2: 125 MWR over the course of 2 seasons (62.5 average).

Option #3: A team can not win less than 60 games in 2 consecutive seasons.

Option #4: 195 MWR over the course of 3 consecutive seasons (65 average)