This is very good and what I was looking for. Thank you for putting together all of your recollections. By the way, was the Lets Go Tribe forum about the Cleveland Indians?Calzones wrote:Since John is a busy man, I will fill in a few details to get you started.
The original idea came about by a poster on the Let's Go Tribe forum. I was not a member of that forum, but John was interested in the idea, and John happened to be in a fantasy league I was in and pitched the idea to myself and Chris (Tempe) to come join this new OOTP league.
Well, John was not the originator of the idea. The person who was quickly flaked out before anything got off the ground. John kept the idea alive however, and starting from scratch, with no OOTP experience, put this league together. I am willing to say, that even a person of vast experience could not have achieved what John did here. This league is second to none. He took the original idea, did his homework, and came up with a vision for what the league should be. That vision has evolved with time, but always in a direction that makes the league that much better.
A great many of the original owners came from those LGT forums. So naturally you will find quite a few Indians fans here. If the person is an Indians fan, there's a better than even chance that he's also an original member of PEBA.
The LRS came about because of the vast interest there was in the league, but an unwillingness to actually expand PEBA so early in it's existance. At least that's what I gathered at the time. It certainly gave the entire PEBA universe that much more depth, and you will find that the LRS owners are as engaged as the PEBA owners in every way.
Many of our owners have are from the original group of owners that started from the beginning. Almost the entire Dixie division is original owners or owners who came aboard during the first season to replace a failed owner. I believe 5 of the 6 Dixie owners were the owner of their team when the first PEBA pitch was thrown.
In the Pan_Atlantic, Manchester is an original owner. The other teams have changed hands at least a couple of times, but NJ has been here a while, as has Gloucester and Arlington.
In the Desert Hills division, Tempe, Bakersfield and Palm Springs are all original owners. Aurora is on it's second owner, and that is only because John stepped down and relinquished control of Aurora in order to concentrate fully on Commissioner duties. In the Great Lakes, I think only Crystal Lake is an original owner, but Fargo has been with us quite a long time, maybe since the second season, I think.
Thanks again for taking the time to put this history together.