Following the 1985 season, Jim Fenton, owner of the CFCL Champion Mudville Sluggers decided that there was nowhere to go but down, and consequently elected to withdraw his franchise from the league.
The CFCL decided to not only replace the departing Sluggers, but to add two additional teams, theoretically raising the membership of the league to 8.
Since we had only completed our second season, none of the Mudville Sluggers' players had played out their options, so their entire roster (23 players) was made available to the three new teams, David's Ruffins (David Holian), the Bald Eagles (Bob Monroe), and an unnamed team owned by Dan Harder. To give the new owners a taste of the real Draft, an auction was held as opposed to a straight draft.
The Expansion Draft was held in Rich Bentel's kitchen. Things got off to an auspicious start when Dan Harder failed to show up for the Expansion Draft. The auction went on without him and it was decided that the Ruffins and Bald Eagles could each draft eight players. The remaining seven players would be assigned to Dan Harder's team at their current salaries.
Things began quickly, as Dale Murphy was the first player nominated. Murphy went to the Bald Eagles for .54. The Ruffins were quick to respond, though, drafting the next player nominated, Keith Hernandez, at .35.
After that, the bidding went fairly smoothly, except for Dwight Gooden, whom the Ruffins purchased for .50 (.50!!), still a CFCL record for a pitcher.
When the Draft was over, the CFCL's three newest teams looked like this (players are listed in the order drafted):
| Bald Eagles | David's Ruffins | Dan Harder |
| D Murphy .54 C Martinez .12 O Smith .17 R Cey .07 J Tudor .06 F Valenzuela .01 C Lefferts .01 J Thompson .03 |
K Hernandez .35 B Doran .27 B Brenly .05 D Gooden .50 T Power .12 J Reuss .05 J Reardon .16 J Clark .21 |
D Walling .10 G Foster .05 K Landereaux .08 T Kennedy .41 S Carlton .03 R Rhoden .10 S Bedrosian .01 |
POSTSCRIPT: The Ruffins went right to work after this Draft and traded Jeff Reardon to Dem Rebels in a pre-arranged deal. The Ruffins got Tony Pena, Terry Harper, Ken Howell, Bob Dernier, and Tim Burke in the trade.
POSTSCRIPT: After making a trade or two during the offseason, Dan Harder dropped out of the league before Draft Day 1986. His players were released into the Free Agent Pool for the 1986 Draft.
The 1986 Draft was on held on Saturday, Arpil 13 in the basement of new owner Bob Monroe, and is notable for two innovations and the establishment of one of the CFCL's oldest traditions.
Bob was the first to create the CFCL Draft Board -- a huge sheet of plain white paper hung on the wall listing each team's pre-Draft roster. As players were drafted, their names were added to the Draft Board under the proper team, giving every owner a complete view of who needed what at any particular moment.
Bob, who quickly became known as the CFCL's "Computer Mole-Man", also provided Draft Lists for the first time. These sheets listed all the players available in the Draft, sorted by position, and helped to make the processes of nominating players for bidding and determining position eligibility go much smoother.
These two Eagle-innovations continued every year until the Draft Board was retired in 1994. The Draft Lists (compiled by League Secretary David Mahlan since Bob's departure in 1992), remain a CFCL staple to this day.
As a courtesy, new owner Dave Holian was allowed to nominate the first player of the 1986 Draft. Little did we realize at the time, but we were setting a precedent which will last until the Ruffins leave the league. By sheer coincidence, the Ruffins had the privilege (responsibility?) of nominating the first player for the next couple years. For the next few years after that, it just became kind of a habit to have Dave Holian nominate the first player. In 1992, we finally formally recognized the Ruffin Privilege, and it now stands as a clause in our Constitution.
The 1986 Draft also had its share of "incidents", which ensure its place in CFCL lore forever:
The Will Clark Incident
Flashback to spring training, 1986 -- This was in the early days of Rotisserie
and fantasy baseball, and information on minor leaguers and prospects was
still fairly hard to come by. The minor league overview in Bill Mazaroski's
annual magazine was the best of the easily-obtainable sources, and the owner
who knew about Baseball America's "Top Ten Prospects" issues, let alone who
could find one on a newstand, had an incredible advantage.
So it wasn't until March that stories of "The Natural" came drifting Chicago-way. Tales told of an intense young slugger with only 65 minor league games under his belt who was the hit of the Giants' spring camp. There were rumors that he hit a ball THROUGH the outfield fence in a spring training game. Of course, every CFCL owner hoped -- no, believed -- that he was the only one to be hearing this info. Every one of us expected to sneak Clark though at the end of the Draft. Of course, this was another textbook case of Hyper-Inflation resulting from Pre-Draft Obssession.
These hopes were dashed somewhat when Clark had the gall to hit a mammoth homer in his first major league at bat -- off of Nolan Ryan in the Astrodome, no less. Still the dream was there ...
Flash forward, to Draft Day 1986 -- Our new owner, Dave Holian, received the honor of nominating the first player of the Draft. Of course, it's obvious who he chose to make the first player up for bid in 1986 -- Will the Thrill.
Bidding quickly escalated, with the Bald Eagles, Copperfields, and Dem Rebels the main participants. Bob Monroe, owner of the Eagles, called a conference with Head Copperfield David Mahlan in a side room. The Bald One offered to drop out of the bidding on Clark if Mahlan would promise not to bid up another player later in the Draft. Mahlan refused, and the two returned to the draft table where the bidding continued. Monroe remained in a little while longer, then dropped out, leaving David Mahlan and Rebel owner Rich Bentel as the only two active bidders. Another showdown between the Co-Founders/Co-Commissioners. As the bidding reached the upper 30s, memories of the Jeff Stone Incident crept into both their heads (see 1985 Draft History).
Perhaps it was the memory of what Jeff Stone did to his team, but whatever the reason, after the Copperfields said ".40", Bentel said "Pass", and Mahlan brought his head crashing to the table at the realization of what he had done.
Clark's stats for the year: .287-11-41-4. Respectable, but not worthy of .40.
The Steve Carlton Incident
The CFCL got to see very early what they had to deal with when bidding against
new owner Bob Monroe. While most owners' sole objective in the Draft
was to acquire the best team possible, Bob had the additional aim of trying
to screw as many of his fellow owners as possible.
Bob employed several methods to achieve this objective, including nominating players early whom he knew other teams were hoping to save for later in the Draft when they might come cheaper. The most direct tactic was driving the price up on players that other teams wanted or needed. As The Bald One very quickly learned, this is a dangerous game to play.
It was still very early in the Draft, only the second round, but Head Rebel, Rich Bentel, was having trouble deciding whom to nominate for bidding. The Rebels had already purchased Dale Murphy (.44) and Steve Sax (.23), leaving them with only about .25 for their remaining players, so they knew they couldn't afford to spend much on any one player. Rather than bring up the name of someone he was interested in, Rich nominated Steve Carlton, who was on the steep downside of his stellar career. Well, Bob was bound and determined that no one was going to get away with a .01 player, especially so early in the Draft. After all, Carlton was the first pitcher who had been nominated. So Bob quickly spat out a bid of .02 and sat in increasingly stupified silence as each owner, including Rich, quickly passed on Carlton.
Observers still debate to this day, who had the more "priceless" expression -- Rich, when he realized Bob had taken him off the hook, or Bob, as every owner "passed" in quick succession.
Draft Summary
| First Player Purchased | Will Clark David's Copperfields .40 |
| Highest-Priced Batter | Dale Murphy Dem Rebels .44 |
| Highest-Priced Pitcher | Todd Worrell Bald Eagles .18 |
| First "Penny Player" | Ed VandeBerg David's Ruffins 3rd round |
| Last Player Purchased | Carlos Diaz Fred's Friars .01 |
| First Minor League Pick | Barry Bonds David's Copperfields |