2006 Red vs Blue Party League Announces - Sign ups starting!

[CHARLESBELL]

Announcing the 2006 version of the Red Party vs Blue Party League

Last season (2004) was the first for this league, and it was so much fun I hope we can do it again this year! The 2006 season is winding down a bit, and the November elections will shortly be upon us, so this seems like the ideal time to announce this year's version of the league. The theme is politics, but in a light-hearted way. Smack talk is encouraged and winning gives bragging rights until next season.

Here is the basic setup:

For those who remember the red and blue state charts used in the 2004 Presidential election, that served as the basis for the theme. I won't call this a Democrat/Liberal leaning Vs Republican/conservative leaning League since I don't want to pigeon hole anyone. So it is the Blue Party vs the Red Party, with six teams in each party competing against each other. But you don't have to be politically minded to sign up and anyone is allowed to sign up for either party, regardless of affiliation.

The basic rules are very simple:
* Since we are talking politics here, it will of course be a $200M, autodraft, weighted waiver league with DH
* Divisions will include two each red and blue teams
* Owners choose their party and division on a first-come-first-served basis
* Stadiums do not have to be unique, but each party will have a unique pool to pick from
* Stadiums do not have to be declared until all teams are ready to enter the league
* Each party will have it's own unigue player pool to draft from
* Only players in the appropriate pool may be selected in the autodraft and during waivers
* Trading between teams in the same party can be done at any time
* Trading between teams in different parties is ok once waivers are complete
* Trading between team in different parties may be done pre-waivers ONLY IF the purpose is to get to a "pure" roster; ie, replacing players not in your pool you may have gotten in the autodraft (which means at least one player in that trade should be a blue players moving from a red team to blue or a red player moving from a blue team to red)
* Trading is the ONLY way for a team to acquire players from the other parties pool. At no time can a red team, for example, get a blue player from the FA pool. A blue team would have to acquire that player and then trade him to the red team
* Collusion among owners in the same party is encouraged! As long as TSN rules and the rules set down here are not broken, owners in the same party can share draft lists, cooperate on trades, work together on waivers, etc. It can be as loose or as regimented as the owners in each party want it to be. Some restrictions:
* No player can be traded more than once between teams in the same party once the season starts (to prevent constant movement of players)
* There is no arbitration process outside whatever each party agrees to internally or enforcement of any deals/rules made by the parties (ie, I'm not getting in the middle of any internal party disagreements)

Winning:
* President of the League is awarded to the winner of the Championship
* League Party Champion is awarded to the party which wins the highest number of regular season games.
* Note that the above titles could be roughly equivalent to winning the Presidency and to winning control of Congress.

Last year's player pools were unique and challenging. Each party had a player pool based on whether the player was born in a red state or a blue state (non-US born players were excluded from the draft). However, it was a lot of work to put together and a little complicated to keep straight during the draft and season. So I am going to try something diiferent this time around to make things simpler.

For this season my idea is that player pools will be based on a draft between the two parties of whole teams (ie, Red party picks Cardinals, etc). Each party will be able to select players and stadiums only from the teams they win in the draft.

League Sign ups:

Last year's participants have return rights and will have preference. The list of owners is below. Please let me know if you would like to participate this season or not so I'll know how many spots will be taken. Newcomers please go ahead and sign up. Once I know how many returnees I have, newcomers will fill the open spots in the order in which you sign up. We have some prior owners who no longer play regularly so there should be plenty of room for new blood.

Last Year's Owners
etdefender (98-64, President of the League, west div winner)
scoobysnacks (98-64, Finals, central Div winner)
charliewb (86-76, Semis, east div winner)
sjh0825 (90-72, Semis, wildcard winner)
zimharry
vol_fan
bunbury
durantjerry
cummings2
catom
mr. baseball world
t.richardson

I am posting this in both the SOM Online forum and the Bullpen.

[CHARLESBELL]

Sign up here - (please include your party (red or blue)

1. charliewb, red party

[Minoso Express]

Sounds like fun, charlie. Count me in if someone bails from the original list of owners.

Minoso Express, blue party

[CHARLESBELL]

Welcome, minoso!

1. charliewb, red party
2. Minoso express, blue party

[cummings2]

Bummer :cry:

You know I've been looking forward to Red/Blue Charlie...but work is taking much more time than usual, to the point where I won't be signing up for any leagues in the next month or so.

Bummer, Red/Blue was lots of fun last year, I am sure it'll be great again this year.

Sorry about missing this year's version.

[CHARLESBELL]

That is a bummer, it's always a lot of fun with you in the league. But I understand, work/family has to take the front seat. :)

[CHARLESBELL]

I know some of you out there have credits to burn or want to try your hand at a unique theme league.

Here's a sample of some of the tongue-in-cheek "reports" that mix baseball and politics in desribing progress during the season last year:

This news just in (AP report): The recently merged DC newspaper Washington Times-Post has begun running a front page column on the progress of the Blue vs Red Party league as interest in the league sweeps the political spectrum in the nation's capital. Quoted with permission of the Times-Post:

Vote Count: 39% (of games played)
League Championship Race: Blue Party leads by 18 games with a 198-180 record.
League Presidential Race: Tied 2-2. Blue Party currently holds the East and West Districts while the Red Party holds the Central District as well as the "at large" vote.

The irony of a sporting event resulting in Blue party control of both coasts while Red holds the central was not lost on Washington insiders, although both sides are reporting polls that show the remaining 61% "leaning their way". The Red Party is asking for a vote recount in the Championship Race, claiming that etdefender's Progressives and zimharry's Wobblies are wooing voters with visions of new publicly financed ballparks which will be used as subsidized medical centers during the off-season. Scoobysnacks Republicans also came under attack from Blue Party, claiming that the Republicans were using scare tactics by threatening to stop sales of beer and hinting that Red Party voters would be required to register for national ID cards and be tracked by microchip. "Stopping beer sales at the ballpark goes way beyond human decency" claimed one pundit who refused to be identified. When Blue Party officials were asked about the other leading contender of the moment, at large candidate SpinDoctors, the team was dismissed as just hot air and too much bloviating. Stay tuned.

Please sign up below!

1. charliewb, red party
2. Minoso express, blue party

[Minoso Express]

Thanks, Charlie. I'll check the message boards occasionally to see how the sign ups are coming along. But if you need to reach me in a hurry, PM me.

Minoso

[CHARLESBELL]

I'm going to put this league on hiatus for the time being as I will be travelling a good part of the next two weeks.

thanks for signing up, Minoso. I'll let you know when I try to set this up again.

charlie