League History
The LSFBL was founded in 1995 via the joint
efforts of Bill McIntosh, Colin Crothers, and Steve Smith, who had
played
in an unnamed fantasy league while at the University of Georgia. and
decided that they missed it. Among the charter owners
were Bill, Colin (and his wife Doris, who had taken a job at
Appalachian State), Steve Smith, Irv Culpepper, Peter McDonald (NGCSU),
and Brian Clancy (who, ironically, is responsible for our league's name
even though he is from Philadelphia and was notorious for making
lopsided trades just to acquire his favorite Phillies). Early drafts
were held mostly over the phone -- we had yet to even hear of the
"World Wide Web."
Appalachian State's influence on the league
began to grow with the addition of Doug Waring and Tim Ludwig in 1996,
and the draft
was held over e-mail. This was the year Tim drafted Derek Jeter and the
Disastros drafted Alex Rodriguez. Within two years, these two
players' performances convinced the other owners to demand revised
freeze rules to prevent players from spending their entire
careers on one person's roster. Dave Klein also joined the league in
1996, and was a pioneer on two fronts: (1) his ability to mine the
internet for player info led to his 1997 title and served as a lesson
to us all; (2) his constant rule change requests established a norm
which has carried to the present (rule changes were uncommon in the
earlier, UGA-only version of the league).
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