First newsletter in a long time, but there are a lot of things to cover.

It was wild and wooly and face to face and, in the end, Buffalo triumphed over an upset-minded Zaca’s squad. The championship was decided in the bottom of the 13^th inning of game 7 as the Meat roared back from being down 3 games to 1 and on the brink, (precipice actually) of losing in game 5 to take it all.

Buffalo got into the World Series by defeating Gotham City and Zaca’s by doing the same to New York.

Jim Schembari was thrilled to get to the championship round for the first time and the Rogues were worthy foes. For the Meat, it was their 7^th championship overall (4th Current) having won titles in 1949, 1961, 1962, 1983, 1984, and 1992. Dave’s title holdings are second only to Rocky Hall’s 8 championships in TML Current.

Congratulations to Dave, Jim(s) and Mike for making it an exciting Final Four Saturday.

Both of these drafts went off without a hitch (in spite of a grumpy Commissioner) through the efforts of Kevin Powers. Without Kevin’s diligence and watchdogging we would not be heading in our 22^nd current season (and 15^th and 16^th Seasons) in as fine a shape as we are.

The only holdups were due to a communication error that we weren’t aware of and we thank everyone for being at the chat room and maintaining their good humor.

Side note:

(The team with the number 1 pick in 1967 (and took Johnny Bench) is still looking for a manager BTW.)

The rule proposal regarding rookies was shelved and we will proceed as we always have regarding draft picks.

There is one proposal that I would like to get everyone’s vote on ASAP.

The proposal is very simple…

The TML 2000 season will officially kick off on April 3^rd. Trading will cease on March 27^th at midnight. Your cuts are due in to Kevin Powers no later than March 28^th at midnight. This will enable Kevin to assemble the rosters and get them to me to build the teams and the TML file. Failure to meet either of these deadlines will result in forfeiture of your first round pick. We are operating with not much wiggle room here and we wanted to give everyone as much time as they needed to trade. I don’t think that anyone will have a problem with these dates.

The unofficial season opener will be held the weekend of May 4-6 here in the Capital District. Let me know if you are planning on making it up here by the March 27^th so we can start checking with the Clarion Motel in Latham for facilities.

3 teams are changing divisions for 2000. North Adams will move into the Clemente, Berne into the Mantle and Fort Lauderdale into the Aaron. Please check the schedule on the Web Site (www.tmlreplay.com) for details.

Again, the TML2000 season will open on April 3^rd, run for 9 periods and end on October 22^nd.

Well, we are finally going to do it. The 1951 (Mantle/Mays) draft will be held on Friday Night, March 16^th at 9 PM Eastern. AOL chatroom (TML1951) will be set up around 8:30 PM Eastern. If anyone would like to be here in person, the draft will be held at my house. The draft list and rosters are on the Web Site.

We surveyed the retro managers and have decided to retrofit 1951 and 1967 back to their original schedules. When we started 1961 in 1994, it was intended as a fall/winter league to fill in the time between current seasons. As our eyes got bigger and the number of retros increased, manageability suffered and where we were once playing 4 retro seasons, we are back to a comfortable 2.

In order to put us back on track, 1967’s kick off will be on October 23, 2001. It will run over 6 periods and end on March 19, 2002. Back to the Fall/Winter schedule.

1951 (which we have been waiting for awhile) will open on April 24^th, run 7 periods, and end on October 1^st. Trading for 1951 will end on April 16^th, with the cuts due back to Kevin by the 17^th. I will be in Florida from April 12-21, and will attack the disk as soon as I get back. I have already created both 1967 and 1951 and will just have to fill in trades and cuts.

Note to all managers (AGAIN) remember to name your files with the season (e.g. CFNY67). This will greatly increase the sanity level of your aging commissioner. I am thrilled that we are attacking the 50’s again as the players of my youth are now starting to appear.

Card information is available on the Diamond Dreams Web Site for all who are interested. The disk is out, so contact Chris ASAP to purchase your copy.

All TMLers playing the 60’s should send Chris Krebs an eMail indicating interest in 1969. Reason, he says that only 9 people have expressed an interest in the season and that is not enough to pursue making the season. In that there are 16 TMLers playing 1967, our communal interest would be best served by letting him know you want the season.

That’s about all for now. I hope you are all well.

Jim Pertierra