WIFL - A Brief History

WIFL – A BRIEF HISTORY

They say a tree is only as healthy as its roots. The roots of WIFL go deep. All the way back to 1988.

It was originally known as the CCFBL (Contra Costa Fantasy Baseball League). It was American League only. And it employed straight Rotisserie Rules.

The league would subsequently go thru several name changes before finally arriving at the Western Independent Fantasy League (WIFL).

In 1993, it would change from Rotisserie Rules to Front Office Rules. In 1998, it switched from American League only to full MLB. In 2008, the Front Office Rules would be modified to create the current Rocco Rules.

One of those original members, Lawr Michaels, would go on to create his own website; Creative Sports; win the nationally famous Tout Wars in 2001; and become a featured character in the best-selling book and movie about fantasy baseball, "Fantasyland".

To help preserve WIFL’s heritage, an attachment shows the final standings from each of its years.

Also attached is a complete list of the (33) teams that have competed, showing the years of their existence. WIFL teams are not lost to history, they become part of history.

Following is a quick capsule summary of those many memorable seasons:

1988: The first title would be won by the "Dobert Man Pinchers" of Bill Dobert with 77 points. Bill Emrick’s "Billy’s Bozos" would finish 2^nd with 64.5 points. The "Man Pinchers" would change their name in 1993 to "Willy and the Poorboys" and remain a league mainstay until 2006. But they would never again win the league title.

1989: The "Arabians" of Lawr Michaels would win the title and a love of fantasy baseball would take off. The "Freedrinks" of Mike Friedrich would take 2^nd and inspire the league commissioner as he almost single-handedly held the league together in those early years performing a myriad of tasks. The "Brushbacks" of Frank Brush would drop out before the season. They would return again in 2001. They were replaced by the "No Clues", a team that would last a single season.

1990: In a reversal of the prior year’s finish, the Freedrinks would reward the commissioner with his first title with 80 points, just edging the Arabians who finished with 76. Two teams, the "No Clues" and "Aaron’s Hankies" would drop out. They were replaced by Dan Kennedy’s "Dankees" and Pete Roger’s "Hammersteins".

1991: The Bozos would finish first in 4 of the 8 categories to win easily with 84.5 points. The "Man Pinchers" edged the Arabians for 2^nd – 69 to 68.5. The "Pumpkin Eaters" quit, to be replaced by the "Santa Claussens" of Steve and Betty Claussen.

1992: The Freedrinks become our first repeat winner in one of our tightest races. They end with 68 points, just ahead of the Jocks with 67, Shillelaghs with 65.5 and Poorboys with 63. "Norton’s Emperors" enter the league replacing "Paul’s Pop N’Pitch".

1993: The switch is made from Rotisserie to Front Office Rules. The "Freedrinks" change their name to "Frido’s Banditos". The Dankees win the title with 5,907 points. The Bozos take 2^nd with 5,739 points.

1994: This was the strike-shortened season. Though nobody knew it would be the season’s last game, Randy Johnson finishes baseball’s last night with a 3-hit shutout over the A’s. Johnson is a Dankee and that performance allows the Dankees to edge the Banditos 4,610 to 4,604.

1995: The Dankees complete the only "three-peat" in WIFL history. Their 5,663 points easily outdistance the 5,133 of the 2^nd place Arabians. The "Cavaliers" of Steve Klisch enter the league to replace one of the league originals, the "Jimsox", and finish 3^rd in their first season.

1996: The Bozos win their 2^nd WIFL title by edging the Banditos, 6,439 to 6,309. The "Moonfish" of Bob Hughes enter the league to replace the "Dukes of Earl". The teams in the league will remain constant until league expansion in 2000.

1997: After faltering for a season, the Dankees win their 4^th title in 5 years of Front Office Rules. The Dankees enter the last weekend with a 99-point lead. But on Sunday morning, it’s down to 2.5. But they hold on that last day to win by 20.

1998: In our first season of full MLB, the Bozos field perhaps the most dominant team in WIFL history. The Bozos finish with 8,862 points. The 2^nd place Shillelaghs are 911 behind.

1999: After a 10-year lull, the Arabians win their 2^nd title with 8,832 points. The Banditos are a distant 2^nd with 8,543 points.

2000: The Arabians go back-to-back. The Bozos come from far behind to take the lead late in the season, but the Arabians recover with some late-season trades. Trades are the story of the battle and set the strategy in WIFL for years to come. The Arabians final roster has an aggregate salary of 444 bid points and leads indirectly to a league salary cap. That final roster is so good it posts an amazing 535-point week in September. The league also expands to 14 teams with the addition of the DeJays and the Golddiggers.

2001: The Dankees return to the top with 8,063 points. The Bozos have to settle for their second straight 2^nd place finish with 7,716 points. The Brushbacks return to the league for the first time since their 1989 departure as the league expands to 15 teams. Those teams are divided into three divisions and we have our first division champions – the Dankees, Poorboys and Jocks.

2002: Patterning the 10-year gap of the Arabians, the Banditos win their 3^rd league title 10 years after their last. They coast to the title with a lead of 200+ for the last half of the season.

2003: The Jocks become the first team in league history to go wire-to-wire. The Dankees actually cut the lead to 14 points with a week to go, but the Jocks finish strongly to win by 112. The Poorboys win their third division title in our three years of division play. It’s the first time since WIFL’s inaugural season of 1988 that a team other than the Dankees, Banditos, Bozos or Arabians has won the title.

2004: Ten years after beginning the last day of the season in 2^nd place and then winning the title, the Dankees do it again. The DeJays began that last day in 1^st place but had only one starting pitcher going while the Dankees had four. If the season was one day longer or shorter . . .!

2005: In their 6^th season of existence, the Golddiggers win their first WIFL title. Their team is the culmination of a building process begun two years earlier in a down year and will become the model of multi-year building for the rest of the league.

2006: The Golddiggers repeat to make it two titles in their brief 7-year existence. The season will go down as the year the title was decided by the game that WASN’T played. The Golddiggers and Bozos exchanged the lead almost daily for the last several weeks. Chris Carpenter of the Bozos was scheduled to pitch the last day of the season for the Cardinals, but they withheld him to see if a playoff game would be required. It wasn’t, the Bozos didn’t get that last start, and the Golddiggers won by 16 points.

2007: The Cavaliers win their first WIFL title, and make it look easy with a 340-point gap over the 2^nd place Dankees. 2007 also marks the initial seasons of the Bengal Stompers and Gigantes as they replace two WIFL originals – the Arabians and Poorboys.

2008: Continuing the pattern of new WIFL champions, the Emperors win their first title. Like the Golddiggers before them, their powerful team is the result of a well-planned, multi-year building process. The 78ers enter the league and inherit a strong keeper list from the Santa Claussens. They use this keeper list to build a team that goes down to MLB’s final game before finishing 39 points behind the Emperors.

2009: In just their third year in the league, the Stompers win the league title with a record 9,721 points. They also become the first team in league history to ever finish first in both hitting and pitching points. As an object lesson for the old guard, the Gigantes finish in 2nd place in just their third year in the league as well.

2010: The Stompers become just the fourth team in WIFL history to win back-to-back championships. They also became the first team in WIFL history to top 4,000 pitching points on their way to 9,371 total points. A strong Cavalier team also topped 9,000 points, but a powerful first half of the season left little doubt as to which team would be the eventual champion. In fact, the last trade made by a contender in an attempt to catch the powerful Stompers was on June 13th.

2011: After a number of frustrating seasons in which they entered the season as one of the favorites, the DeJays put their frustrations to rest in a big way. They not only one their first league title, but they became the first team to break the magical 10,000-point barrier with 10,085 points. They also joined the 2003 Jocks as the only team to be in first place at the end of each of the season's scoring periods. They also joined the 2009 Stompers as the only team to ever finish first in both hitting and pitching points. Trying for a three-peat, a powerful Stompers team ended up in second place but ultimately trailed the mighty DeJays by 842 points.

2012: Continuing the pattern of new WIFL champions, the Gigantes win their first title. The Gigantes and Stompers both joined WIFL in 2007, and between the two won 3 of the next 6 titles. The Gigantes broke open a two-team race with the 78ers shortly after the All-Star break and went on to win by 658 points. Continuing their pattern of going all-out for the title every other year, in their five years in the league the 78ers have now finished 2-15-3-13-2.

2013: Midway thru the season, the Cavaliers and Gigantes announced it would their final season in WIFL. Then they promptly finished 1-2 in the standings. The Cavaliers broke the record for total points as they went wire-to-wire in 1st place. Sadly, one of the original league members, the Angels, also announced it was their final year after 26 years.

2014: The Stompers won their 3rd title in the last 6 years, breaking open a three-team race with the Dankees and Bozos in the final month. Two of the three new teams, Majher League and the Ichiros, finished in the money in their first season.

2015: The only team to compete in all 28 WIFL seasons, the Bozos, won their 4th title in those 28 years. But their first since 1998. They won in a tight battle with the 2nd year Majher League team. After adding three new teams in 2014, the league added three more new teams in 2015 as it entered a new era. But with a veteran champion.

2016: In just their third year in the league, the Bash Brothers won the league title. Apart from Week 2 of the season, they went wire-to-wire. Teams who joined since 2014 finished 3-4-5 in the standings. But the only original league member, the Bozos, finished 2nd to complete a three-year run of 3-1-2 finishes to show there was still something to be said for experience.

2017: The Bash Brothers won back-to-back titles, giving them two titles in just four years in the league! And again, the original league member Bozos finished 2nd, giving them a four year run of 3-1-2-2.

2018: The three newest teams in the league - the Moneyballers, Street 45's and Roy Hobbs - all joined the league in 2015. In 2018, those three teams, in that order, finished 1-2-4 in the standings.

2019: Coming into this season, Roy Hobbs had the highest average finishing position among all teams in WIFL history. But they had never won a title, not even a division title. Suffice it to say, they put an end to that. They not only won the title but they won it by 750 points. The defending champion Moneyballers finished 2nd.

2020: In a season shortened by a pandema, the Dingers won he title in only their 2nd season in the league. In a unique situation, the teams ranked 1-5 in average finishing position in the 33-yar history of WIFL ended up finishing 1 thru 5.

2021: In the biggest comeback in WIFL history, the Ichiros came from more than 400 points behind to pass the Stompers in the closing week of the season.