1993

While running a baseball pool and complaining that bottom teams are not faring so well and are no longer participating, I start thinking about a new way to run a pool.

First plans for the pool as we know it are created in the Summer of 1993, between Mike and Jason Fields.  We were thinking of going ahead with this for the following year.

Jason won the pool that year.

1994

Plans to launch the pool fail.  Not enough interest, too many people about to leave St Thomas/London for college or other commitments.  Plenty of interest in running a 1-year pool again. 

Mike Marshall is in, Collin Hulst is out.

Jason wins the pool, 2nd year in a row.

1995 - Year 1

The pool is finally launched!  7 teams, even though I really wanted to start with 10.

The original teams:

Jason wasn't a part of this, after losing touch with him during the offseason.  These were the days before e-mail and the internet became anywhere what it is now.

Each team starts out with $37,500,000

Roster limits are 25 per team.  Minimum player contract was $200,000.  Farm systems were picked out of a hat.

The way the players were distributed was through an auction draft.  Players were pre-assigned dollar values, these were used as each player's minimum contract.  You could only sign 1 player per round, and as long as you hadn't sign someone in that round, you could bid away on anyone.  Draft ranks were pre-determined.  When it was your turn, you called out a name, and the bidding would start.  If someone signed a player on your turn, you would gain his position in the round.  Owning the last spot in a round meant getting the player at the marked price, and no one to drive it up.

1st player selected, 3B Matt Williams, by Evan Reid.

Kris Warren wins the first season of the pool.

1996 - Year 2

First Expansion!  Every team gets to protect 3 INF, 2 OF, 5 SP.  Players with expired contract are not included in the Expansion Draft.

Jason Harvey drops out of the pool, and Mike Bax takes over, renaming the team to the Software Pirates.

Sam Aboumourad and Jacques Catudal are the new owners.  First expansion player taken in the round:  2B Roberto Alomar

Alex Rodriguez is signed late on Free Agent Day.  Without much thought, I offer him a 5 year contract for $350,000, his opening bid.  Evan decides that Rodriguez is too good of a prospect and decides to bid up the price until it reaches $975,000, leaving me at $0.  Evan is satisfied that this signing will drain me, and lets me have him.  No one else bids on Arod....

Mike Borduas won the pool's 2nd season.

1997 - Year 3

More ownership changes.  Collin Hulst is in, to replace Mark.  Collin keeps the team name. 

In an attempt to bolster a bad relief combination, Collin trades OF Mondesi for RP Wohlers.  The rest, as they say, is history...

Linc wins the pool that year.

1998 - Year 4

Poolsters comes to be as a league name.  While working for an internet company, I take advantage of registering a domain name and come up with this name.

Carl Thomas is brought in to replace Kris Warren, and Luc Lebel is in to replace Evan Reid.  Carl keeps the team's name, Luc renames to the Tuktoyaktuk Freeze.

Luc makes some moves that will eventually impact the team.  Lets Appier go, takes Magglio Ordonez as compensation.  Re-signs Matt Williams, and later trades Albert Belle for Manny Ramirez and Mike Hampton, a move many thought was a mistake.

Linc repeats as pool champ.

This is also the year the Sam Rule comes to be.

1999 - Year 5

Another year brings more ownership changes.  No one hears from Sam all offseason so a decision is made to replace him with a new owner.  Luc is also on the way out.  Mike "Vern" Lampman and Scott Haggis are in.  Because Vern was the first to officially join, we give him first pick of the 2 teams.  Following advises from Linc and I, Vern decides to take Luc's team, and renames it the St Thomas Smokes.  Scott renames his team the Florida Fish, as he is a big Dolphins fan.

Free Agent Day that year gets a little out of hand.  When the even started, the Pool's history included 4 - 5 million players, Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Curt Schilling and the memorable Mark Wohlers.  By the end of the day, Sosa, Griffey, Pudge Rodriguez and Mike Piazza were all signed to new 7+ million dollar contracts.  Mark McGwire, Greg Vaughn and Randy Johnson also joined the 5 million dollar club.

Vern goes on to win the pool rather easily, doing very few trades, but calling up Ordonez and Rocker to put him over the top.  His best players that year included Williams, Ramirez, Ordonez and Hampton, all acquired the previous season by Luc.

2000 - Year 6

Yet more ownership changes.  This time, Jacques is tossed from the pool, literally, and replaced by Jeremy Kinsella, and promptly renames the team to the Boston Blood Sox.  Just like the Red Sox, this franchise is destined to fail....

Some more big contracts get handed out, but nothing like the year before.  A new trend is emerging:  No Bids.  Linc is the first to collect all No Bids for one player.  Pedro Martinez is that player.

Linc gets back to the top, winning his 3rd pool championship, obviously the 1st Poolsters to do so.

2001 - Year 7

No ownership changes.  Every owner from the previous year returns.

Biggest story of the year is a couple of mid-season trades.  Linc acquires Chipper Jones from Collin for an apparently cheap price (Korey Koskie), which upsets Scott.  Scott decides he can't compete that year, and wants to trade me Charles Johnson, in a vengeful way.  Roy Oswalt and Johnny Damon later, I have Johnson.  The pool has a bit more controversy.  Things blow over, settle down, Charles Johnson becomes the pool's biggest sleeper.  In a bad way.  I will soon regret trading those 2 for this stiff...

4 of us head out to Boston.  Linc, Collin, Jeremy and I rent a car, leave in the middle of the night, listen to body piercing stories from Jeremy for a couple of hours, and find ourselves in Boston come morning.  Getting to Boston is easy.  And getting to Fenway, the first time, was pretty easy as well.  But when we decided to go look for a place to stay....  Thank god for a little rain delay, otherwise we'd be late for the game.  Hot and muggy, but it was a great game in a great park.

Mike Borduas wins the pool, becoming the 2nd Poolsters to win multiple times.

2002 - Year 8

More ownership changes.  Probably the biggest year as far as changes go.  Scott couldn't stay, so he was replaced by Duane Young, and named the team the Rainbow Demons.  Vern also wanted out, Mike Doyle (aka Mark Boyle) took over that team.  Ken Trueman replaced Ken Koornneef, and just like that, FAD attendance was at a all-time high.

On April 17, tragedy struck.  Duane Young was killed in an accident while at work.

Mike Borduas went on to win the pool, 2nd to win back to back seasons and 2nd to win 3 times.

2003 - Year 9

Not the best feeling in the world doing this, but we did need a replacement for Duane's team.  I did toss the idea of retiring the franchise and making a Free Agent out of all his players, and maybe expanding, but in the end the decision was to bring in a replacement.  Mike Molnar is in, renaming the team to the Springfield Isotopes.

Mike Molnar was acctually in line to take over that team before Duane became an option, but opted out of the pool.  This actually allowed Duane into the pool, otherwise he may never have been a part of it.