1993 Expansion Draft

When the National League added the Marlins and Rockies for the 1993 season, we figured the CFCL should expand as well.  David Mahlan had been contacted by someone a couple years earlier about joining an AL-only Rotisserie League.  While David passed on the offer, he remembered the Commissioner of that league and wrote to him near the end of the 1992 season to see if he would be interested in joining the CFCL.  When an affirmative reply was received, an Expansion Draft was planned.

This was to be the first CFCL Expansion Draft in which the expansion team selected players from existing CFCL rosters as opposed to the rosters of teams that had left the CFCL.  As such, we were a little unsure of how to proceed, but after we floated a few different options, we settled on a plan in which each existing team would protect 15 players, and the expansion team, the Lincoln Park Zoo, would select a total of 20 unprotected players, with no single team losing more than 3.

Since the Zoo was the only team taking part in the Expansion Draft, we did not formally get together.  Rather, the list of unprotected players was submitted to their owner and he returned the list of players he selected on November 29, 1992.  The following are the players he selected for the Zoo's initial roster:

POSTSCRIPT:  Like the Wiseguys in 1989, the Lincoln Park Zoo were not long for the CFCL -- see the 1993 Draft History below to read about what happened on Draft Day.

1993 Draft

The 1993 CFCL Draft was held on Friday, April 9 at 7:00 PM in David Holian's basement.

Long Night's Journey Into Day
1993 is significant in that it was the first time in CFCL history that we drafted at night. After years of drafting on (mostly) sunny weekend days, we found ourselves facing several irreconcilable scheduling conflicts that left us with Friday evening as the only time all the owners could attend.  Not only did we have a full night of bidding ahead of us, but we were increasing the size of the Reserve Rosters from 12 to the standard 17 beginning this season.  We knew we were in for a long night.

Most of the owners had worked all day Friday, and showed up for the Draft already somewhat tired. But the anticipation of the Draft served to keep the excitement level high. Plus, we were all looking forward to finally meeting our new owner.  He had conducted his expansion draft via the mail, so this would be the first time anyone met him face-to-face.

When the new guy failed to show up on time, there was some concern, but we decided to cut him some slack and wait a little while.   We waited over an hour past our scheduled start time (wasting valuable time when all owners were still awake and somewhat coherent) before we finally decided we couldn't wait any longer. We started drafting some time around 8:00 PM and, as usual, Dave Holian had the honor of nominating the first player for bidding.

Clockwise, from the lower left:  Rich Bentel (Dem Rebels, Co-Commissioner) Tom Clark (Clark's Kents), David Holian (David's Ruffins), Eric Lamb (Eric's Lambchops), Kelly Barone (Six Packs), Paul Zeledon (Da Paul Meisters), Pat McGuire (Twin Picks), David Mahlan (David's Copperfields, Co-Commissioner).  The space at the far end of the table would have been filled by the owner of the Lincoln Park Zoo had he shown up.  While you won't find the owner of the Zoo present, you can see the balloon representing ex-owner Bob Monroe floating above Eric Lamb's head.

The Orestes Destrade Incident - 9:00 PM
It soon became clear that we weren't prepared for the rigors of nighttime drafting.  It didn't take long for exhaustion to set in, and soon we were getting punchy.  Only an hour into the draft we had some pretty bizarre bi-lingual bidding on Florida Marlins first baseman Orestes Destrade.

The Gigglesnort Hotel Incident - 9:30 PM
Soon our attention spans began to shrink.  It took only a bemused groan/yawn from one of the owners to get us off on a lengthy tangent about the Sunday morning television of our childhood.  

The Bob Monroe Incident - Midnight and Beyond
As the night wore into morning, we saw less and less humor in our situation.  Sometime after 2:00 AM, we finally ended with the last pick in the 17th round of the rotation draft for our Reserve Lists -- David's Copperfields drafting ex-CFCL owner Bob Monroe.  With that, we all vowed that we would never again draft at night.  

Draft Summary

First Player Purchased	Fred McGriff   David's Copperfields   .43
Highest-Priced Batter	Fred McGriff   David's Copperfields   .43
Highest-Priced Pitcher	Rob Dibble   Twin Picks   .42
First "Penny Player"	Willie McGee   Da Paul Meisters   8th round
Last Player Purchased	Ramon Martinez   Clark's Kents   .01
First Reserve List Pick	Brian Hunter   Clark's Kents   .15
First Minor League Pick	Phil Nevin   David's Ruffins   .05   1st round Rotation Draft

POSTSCRIPT:  The owner of the Lincoln Park Zoo never did show up.  After we had gone through two rounds of the Draft without him there, we released all of his players into the Free Agent Pool and removed the team from the league.