This is my personal history in the CSHL. Many of you know it all, but for those of you that don't, it's long and not always boring. As soon as I write it I'll post it here.
Part One (Werewolves):
I started as GM of the Phoenix Werewolves. I took over there from the immortal Jory Margaritis. Unlike most GMs in this league, I had no previous knowledge of FHL and I was not confined to an AGM position (at this point). No, I was thrown right into the fire and if I remember correctly it was a week before the trade deadline in Y16. I made a couple of very minor deals at the deadline.
My main problem in my short time as Werewolves GM was figuring out FHL and all the ratings. Like I said, before I got the team I didn't even know a simulator like this even existed. I got the hang of it fairly quickly, but by the end of the season I found myself shunted to another team. Of course I was the last to know that I had moved, but when I finally found out I was pretty happy.
Part Two (Nighthawks):
I began as GM of the Nighthawks in the offseason between Y16 and Y17. I presided over free agency for the club in that offseason as well as the draft where we had many picks. Among the players I selected are Billy Durang, Kevin Ryerson, and Jing Ma. While the draft was a lot of fun my time with the Nighthawks is etched in my memory as the time of my alliance with the terrible Russian: Greg Beresnev.
Initially Greg seemed to be helping me a great deal. There were other disciples of Greg, none of them still in the league today, but I was his star pupil simply because I was the GM of his beloved Nighthawks. My first contact with Greg was when he made a deal with me on the Nighthawks behalf while I was GM of the Werewolves. He acted on behalf of then Hawks GM Clint someone or other. When I became GM of the Hawks he was always around with advice and at times an almost smothering influence.
It wasn't until Greg went nuts when Steph F. and I were joking about me dealing Mike Kasse'Lemour to the Habs that I began to realize that the russian was crazy. Before my time in the league Greg had apparently written article after article (maybe one everyday) mostly complaining about one thing or another. The Kasse'Lemour issue is actually a very funny one. It seems that Greg had created Mike as a result of some very strange dealings with the Kasse-Lemour family. Tiff Kasse'Lemour, Mike's mother was widely reputed to be sleeping with numerous players in the league. Greg took offense to this everytime and took it personally. Apparently he felt that he was Tiff's one and only. (*Clears throat* Greg, it's a fantasy league for crying out loud). Anyways, for some reason Greg hung around the league even though he had received the golden boot not long before. Meddling is what they called it at the time. How do I fit into this story? Wait and see.
They (Ken and most of the league's veterans) called what Greg was doing meddling. I thought different at the time because Greg was 'helping' me manage my team. I was staunchly in Greg's camp as were a few other young, new GMs. I constantly defended Greg to Ken and all other comers. Why? I don't know anymore. Suffice to say that Greg was the worst thing that happened to me in this league. I became an outsider, probably hated by most of the GMs I consider friends now. All of this led to a rather exciting, but completely idiotic climax.
Part Three (The Climax):
The climax itself was really fairly innocent, but the result of it was terrible. A former GM (one of Greg's friends) was talking to me in mirc one day. His name was and still is Daryl Fransoo. At the time I thought he was older, but it turns out he was about 12. During the Greg meddling times the league had brought a bot into #cshl. Sputnik was his name. At the time I knew virtually nothing about irc, but Daryl told me to go into #cshl with the name PREDS_GM. Why PREDS_GM? Well that was Jory's nick and Sputnik private messaged Jory when he came in. So anyway, being the idiot that I was I did what Daryl said and cut and paste what sputnik said to the main room. Of course with the bot there Jory could retrieve what was said in the room. It was simple to find out what had happened - that I had stole his nick and entered the room. On the surface of it this may seem fairly innocent albeit very stupid, but because of my close association with Greg I was terminated. The way I was terminated is another story.
First, Jory emailed the league the log which showed me acting as him. He told me later that he only intended it to go to the BOD, but he hit the wrong button. So the league knew how much of an idiot I was and I got on mirc and waited for Ken so that I could resign. He came along, I apologized and resigned and basically that was it. For about a day. A day later Patrick Alonso sent an email to me and a couple of other of Greg's followers in incredibly small text. I determined that the email, after much squinting, said that I was terminated due to my lack of skill as a GM and because of my association with Greg Beresnev. This was fine with me, whether I resigned or was booted didn't make much difference - either way I was still out of the league. About a day after that email, Ken or Pat sent me a message to disregard that email since I had already resigned. Again, this didn't make much difference to me. What did make a difference was what happened next.
The exact details of how the next action came about escape me, but I remember the incident well. I believe what happened was that Jory and Darrell were in #cshl while Darrell was talking to me on icq. After a short conversation he brought me into #cshl and the three of us talked for about an hour. Not always about the Greg thing either. As a result of that conversation and Darrell's trust in me, Jory and Darrell stuck their own necks out to bring me back into the league. I returned as the Leafs AGM and was there for the remainder of the season (Y17 I believe).
Part Four (Leafs AGM):
There really isn't much to tell about my time as Leafs AGM. I think I wrote an article or two, I learned an awful lot from one of if not the best CSHL GM ever, and it led to me being allowed back in the league as a GM to start Y18. At that time I became the GM of the New York Knights where I am today.
Part Five (Knights GM):
This section will wait for a while.