Letter From The Commish

Wow. A lot has happened the past three days and as much of it has occurred off the field as it has on the field. First the reason we're here:

Week 4 was full of some close games, something that seemed lacking the first three weeks. PMS pulled out a 10 point play late to salvage a tie with the Bearded Clams. Ladies, you need a win! You're endangering the record for consecutive losses. Protesters are beginning to line up outside the Commish's door. The Retreads lost a heartbreaker, 40-39 to the Iguanas. Muhsin Muhammad once again piled up the yardage but not the TDs. The loss had Coach Detwiler mumbling about additional points for 200 yards! The Swords picked up Jeff Garcia, crossed their fingers and walked off with a slim 34-28 win over the Stanley Steamers. The Iguana and Sword wins allowed them to keep pace with Grande To The Party in the competitive Cheatem division. Montezuma's Revenge regained a piece of 1st in the Dewey division by defeating the Strange Highways while the NFC Norris was losing to the Natural Mystics. The Commish was told by an anonymous source that Coach Unger was more excited about hitting the high pionts for the week than with the win over his brother in law. The Mystics' lead increased to 2 games as all the other Howe teams lost in Week 4.

The King of Dogs, growing frustrated with their popgun offense, cleaned house after Week 4. On Wednesday, the Dogs signed RB Derek Loville and followed that up with a 6 player involving the NFC Norris. The Dogs' gave up their only decent RB, Rickey Watters, along with Lamar Smith and Jake Reed for running backs Napoleon Kaufman and Lawrence Phillips and WR Jimmy Smith. The Dogs still have no running game. But at least they can pair Jimmy Smith up with Terrell Owens, Jerry Rice, Tony Martin and Frank Sanders. There's no truth to the rumor that the Dogs front office is considering a name change to the Queens of Frisco.

The Dogs' roster moves are only the latest in a flurry of off-the-field activity around the league this week. In the biggest news, Coach Pedersen called for an inquiry into the league's interpretation of Rule 7A3, while not realizing rule 7B3 might have clarified the situation. To recap, Coach P shot an email to the Commish asking for an interpretation of 7A3. Coach has always understood the rule to mean that a team can only change two players per week (whether by trade or waiver). Upon receiving a response stating that the rule talks about transactins and not players, Coach P canvassed the league. The Commish did likewise. If turns out that Coach Pedersen was the only league member misinterpreting the rule. For the record, 7B3 states that a trade may contain any number of players, thus bolstering the intent behind 7A3. This was the Commish's primary focus early in the week.

On Wednesday, the Commish heard from Coach Detwiler and the discussion turned toward the weekly ordering for pickups. The Retread front office is on-record as saying they prefer to rank according to win/loss record regardless of the score. The league used to rank according to points scored by a team for THAT week. The rule was changed a couple years back to its current format of total points for the year. To open a dialogue regarding this issue, and also to respond to Coach Pedersen's suggestion that the drop/add order be published in any event, the Commish has published the weekly order of pickups using both the current method, the Retreads proposed version and the previous league model. You decide. This may come up for a vote if any team follows through by submitting the official proposal.

Which brings up to this week's pickups..

The King of Dogs had 1st pick and they selected Derek Loville. No surprise there. With Terrell Davis' season ending injury, Loville was the obvious choice. It'll be interesting to see if Loville plays any better than Terrell did before he has hurt.

NFC Norris had next pick but made no selection nor did PMS with the #3 pick. The Steamers and Swords each had 112 points. The Steamers made no move but the Swords opted for Ken Oxendine after their 1st pick Loville was already off the board. The Highways were next. After acknowledging their lack of a QB last week, the Strange Highways this week acknowledged the lack of depth in the running game by waiving Fred Lane, bringing to three the total number of backs currently on the Highways. They added Jerome Pathon. One can only surmise that the intent is to insert Pathon this week vs. the Mystics in an attempt to bogart some points off of Peyton Manning. Maybe it'll work better than when the Dogs attempted the same thing with Terrell Fletcher at Natrone Means' expense. The Retreads took Az-Zahir Hakim next one spot before the Iguanas wanted him. The Iguanas settled for the Bills' D. Grande To The Party reacted to the news of Brian Grieses' demotion by adding Bubby Brister to go with Griese on the roster. Lastly, the Mystics add a TE for the week by nabbing Dave Moore.

Another suggestion that came across my desk this week regarded looking into using CBS Sportsline's fantasy page next year. In a nutshell, what happens is that the league would be set up on their site. It runs some money of course. I would need to check but it's probably in the neighborhood of $50 a head. I'm actually using it in another league. Transactions are done directly on the site (listing the names of all available players either as a group or by position), the draft may be conducted on-line, it has a chat room and mails out updates throughout the week. It contains live scoring throughout each week's games. Rostes and schedules are accessible. Basically it lacks little of what we already have. So the main drawback is the additional money it would cost above and beyond what we're each investing already. The Commish would love to hear from you either via email or through an open dialogue on the bulletin board.

To end the way we started and the way we want it, let's quickly turn to Week 5. As you all know, it's division week. Here's when things begin to get interesting. Out in the Dewey division, we have a pair of 2-2 teams leading. They square off for sole possession of the lead. The 3rd place team, the Clams will play the newly vamped King of Dogs their run and shoot offense. The Cheatem division has three teams all sitting at 3-1. One is guaranteed of losing this week (barring a tie) because the Swords and Iguanas will play one another. Grande To The Party, the other team tied, must defeat 0-3-1 PMS to keep up while PMS would simply like a win before it's too late. In the Howe division, the Mystics still lead at 4-0. The 2nd place Highways need a win to avoid falling 3 games back after five. The other 2-2 team, the Stanley Steamers play the last place Retreads. A loss by the Retreads could put them in deeper in the hole.

Well, you have it. It's on to Week 5. We're already 1/3 of the way through.

Go deep, I'll throw it!

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