"Genteel
in its origins, proletarian in its development, egalitarian in its demands and
appeal, effortless in its adaptation to nature, raucous, hard-nosed, and
glamorous as a profession, expanding with the country like fingers unfolding
from a fist, image of a lost past, ever-green reminder of America’s best
promises, baseball fits America."- Bart Giamatti
As our forefathers provided us with the
liberty we currently enjoy and celebrate on July 4th
we will forego with the foreplay (something Grage
hasn’t seen in a while either) and embark on a
journey to enjoy the number 4.
We could start chronologically and
recognize that Georgia became the fourth state of
the union on January 2, 1788, beating Connecticut by
a week. Or we could go back a few months and revisit
our draft. Albert Pujols was the fourth player (and
most expensive) drafted. Carlos Delgado was the
first player that took four minutes to draft. Dustin
by Rich Bentel
Hermanson (who?) was the first
player drafted for .04. The fourth round took 40 minutes to complete. All of
which led to the teams we currently have and The Kenndoza Line being in fourth
place.
To be a little less geocentric we could look to the heavens
and realize that Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. Mars gave the name to
March, but April is the fourth month of the year.
Going back to a baseball theme, the Lambchops were the fourth
owner (of the current twelve) to join the CFCL but the Splinters and Kenndoza
Line are in their fourth year with the CFCL. Four of our owners are single and a
fourth of our owners live outside of Illinois. Is it fore-shadowing that the
fourth letter in the alphabet is “D” (as in Dem Rebels) and that Mars is known
as the Red Planet (Red being the main uniform color of Dem Rebels) that Dem
Rebels are on their way to the next fourth of what will hopefully someday be
four CFCL Championships? Or has their owner simply had a fourth of vodka to
drink?
Lou Gehrig, known as the Iron Horse (Iron being in Period 4 on
the Periodic Chart and horse being a four legged equine) and Don Zimmer (who
managed the Cubs for four years) both wore number 4.
Keep in mind the reason for the season, our country is
celebrating its 231st year of freedom and when you plug that into this
mathematical for-mula it reads 2(3-1) = 4!
While I wish each of you a Happy 4th of July I also wish a
safe one for you as well. Please come back with four fingers (and a thumb) on
each hand.
As we begin our holiday celebration I send you off with the
appropriate warning:
“FORE!”
De
Aza (.12)-o-Meter
OBP:
.314
TB:
15
RS:
4
RBI:
3
SB:
1
While you are
enjoying the fireworks display this 4th of July,
keep in mind that professional displays run anywhere
between 25,000 and 166,666 De Azas.
Hometown Discount Watch
In 2008, the teams that finished in 5th-12th
place in 2007 will receive a budget of up to .06 to use toward reacquiring
players who had played out their option with the team (B-contract players). The
exact amount each team receives will be based on how far behind the 5th
place team they are at the end of the year, in terms of a percentage of the 5th
place team's point total.
Team
Points
% of 5th
Place
Discount
Budget
Kenndoza Line
78.0
100.00%
.06
Red Hots
64.0
82.05%
.04
DoorMatts
62.0
79.49%
.04
Steve's Stones
58.0
74.36%
.04
Nick's Picts
56.0
71.79%
.04
Splendid Splinters
56.0
71.79%
.04
Eric's Lambchops
45.5
58.33%
.03
Da
Paul Meisters
32.5
41.67%
.02
Record Book
Week Ending 07/01: No new
records were set this week.