Probably being more remembered for the soap opera owner scuffles, the 2002 GMDS season will go down as the most lackluster pennant race ever. After being spoiled by last year’s race to the wire in which the Taylor Mades narrowly beat the Long Dingers on the last day of the year by a 2-4, 1 run, 1 rbi Garret Anderson box score, this year was anything but close. It was certainly a season that will be forgotten by most but not by our league winner, Glenn Schroter. Glenn and his Bayside Bar Bisons drafted a formidable team with such draft day standouts as Alfonso Soriano($18), Tori Hunter($4), Colon ($10), and AJ Burnett ($2) to name a few. Glenn only bolstered his team further with shrewd trades such as with the early acquisition of Garret Anderson for Luis Rivas. While Kimo and his Kimo plan (drafting a pitching staff composed of closers) was laughed at by many and respected by few, he put up a fantastic fight with Glenn for the majority of the year but ultimately succumbed to Goliath. Glenn was the early odds on favorite to win and his team finally pulled away with a double digit lead in August and never really looked back. To seal the deal or add insult to injury, however you may look at it, Glenn acquired half an all-star team at the trading deadline. Pedro Martinez, Jeff Bagwell, Roger Clemens, Jason Isringhausen, and Shannon Stewart all became Bisons as Glenn traded ubertalented but under priced Nick Johnson and Tori Hunter to the SnappleBoyz. While still amounting an impressive 101 points, Kimo fell well short of Schroter’s 118.5 points on the final day of the season. Glenn was harshly criticized for his arrogant “5 titles in 6 years” statement before draft day but he did indeed back up his words and has made it 8 titles in 8 years (he won his other league). Glenn does appear to have the best offensive and pitching weapons in the league going into next year but in 2003 everyone will be gunning for him. A repeat will be tough but Glenn has proven he is at the top of the GM class.
In other team news, a strong performance was turned in by Gary Blanchard who marched his team back from a horrendous draft to finish a very respectable 3rd place. Although Glenn won this year’s GDFLOOTY award, Blanchard won the popular vote and this will surely spell some rules changes for GDFLOOTY in the upcoming season. Paul Jarosik announced in early September that he would not be returning in 2003 but still played tough and garnered a very admirable 4th place finish for the Jarosik Park. In an all out fight for the 5th place and the 2003 #1 draft pick, the underachieving October Fury (remember when GM Chris Kwan called Loew’s acquisition of Mussina the title sealer) battled David Grindley’s SnappleBoyz for a tie. I guess this will have to be settled by the coin toss. 7th place was turned in by Rishi Vohora who despite the sub par performance should be content as he was written off early in the season and showed some sparks of a team that may contend for the 2003 title. The bottom of the standings were rounded out by Brian Mueller’s Axis of Evil, Kwan’s Quixotian Windmills, Long Dingers, Suicide Kings, and the Buddah-Bellies. In last place finishing with half as many points as the 12th place finisher, was Beerman. However taking over a team left for dead by Brent “Going going gone” Powers, Beerman poured a lot of effort into improving the team for the future by arguably being the league’s most active trader. All in all, this was perhaps the best season of the GMDS. Hopefully the league will keep 12/13 owners and already designating James Mycroft as owner of Jarosik Park after spending almost a year on the waiting list, and the possibility of adding a few more teams, the future does indeed look bright. Anticipation is mounting for Jan. 1st when trading may again resume. Enjoy the off-season. Congratulations Glenn Schroter.
