Typically, around this time of year were are all poised to begin our final fantasy baseball draft preparations and start conducting our respective leagues drafts. Unfortunately, MLB is obviously in amid of a lockout without any end in sight which is impeding with and postponing the drafting process. Instead of looking forward to drafting within the near future, I have elected to reminisce about one of the most intriguing drafts that I ever participated in.
Back in March of 2007, I had been a Super Moderator and a frequent poster on a local Arizona sports website and Jay, a close friend of mine from that particular site, decided to create a local Fantasy Baseball league consisting of 10 owners and to have a live draft at a centrally located bar. Us 10 owners settled on 3/18/07 to be our draft at a restaurant called Red Devil Pizza. Unfortunately, for no apparent reason they accidentally booked our date for 4/18 opposed to 3/18 which of course would have been way too late with the season vastly approaching for a 4/1 start. We then had a league-wide poll between either Buffalo Wild Wings or a Red Owl Pizza. The latter ended up winning the poll, and on March 18th, 2007 we all embarked on that venue to partake in a live draft.
True, 2007 is not exactly ancient history, but we were somewhat primitive in the resources we ended up using to keep track of the draft. First, we all gathered outside in their back patio with pizza, soda, and wings in hand while one person brought a hardcopy of all the draft eligible players printed out on several pieces of paper. We had one designated person manually write down who each and every single pick was and to be later entered into Yahoo. The draft went smooth for the most part, however, there were some rather hilarious oversights and gaffes that were made. We accidentally skipped one owner’s picks twice and also we could not exactly figure out one owner’s 17th round pick since it was scribbled in and not very legible whatsoever. The draft was 22 rounds and lasted for a few precious hours that I will forever cherish. It was such a wonderful bonding experience.
The league abruptly disbanded though after one season since Jay ended-up moving out-of-state and it seemed several of the owners were not consistently committed enough beyond the draft. I finished in 2nd place barely losing 4-3 in the championship round. I wish the league had continued, but the live draft experience was beyond rewarding and made the experience more worthwhile in itself than anyone would ever realize.
For fun, here’s the first round picks:
1. Chris Sanders– Albert Pujols
2. ASUHoopsNut– Ryan Howard
3. KLL — Alfonso Soriano
4. DevilFan02– Jose Reyes
5. Sun Devil Jay — Alex Rodriguez
6. Green Machine– Miguel Cabrera
7. Phill11– Carl Crawford
8. Espo — Johan Santana
9. BIGTONY — Derrek Lee
10. Cardinals.Ken — Carlos Beltran
I was KLL.
Here’s a photo of some of the owners taken post draft: I’m third one in the back wearing a red shirt, and on the right is Jay, the commissioner.
Do any of you readers have a live draft experience to share? If so, please feel free to do so in the comment section below.
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