Bicentennial Theme League - West Loading

The year was 1976.

Gerald Ford was President and America was gearing up for its biggest celebration ever - the Bicentennial. In addition to All in the Family, the Carol Burnett Show, and the Waltons, CBS was airing nightly "Bicentennial Minutes". One American car manufacturer tied itself to the celebration, proclaiming "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet."

I was a skinny sixteen year old with a white-boy afro that added a good six inches to my height. The shoes were platforms, the pants were bell bottoms, the necklaces were (faux) gold. I was the coolest kid in . . . or maybe not.

Anyway,

It's time for a Bicentennial Theme League. Here's how it works:

- Twelve managers will participate in a two-round serpentine draft of the twenty-four teams in existence in 1976. If a player saw action for one of your teams in 1976, he's yours regardless if 1976 is one of his cards or not.
- Players who were on two teams in 1976 belong to the team for which they had the most total at-bats and/or innings pitched.
- $100M/DH/standard waivers.
- Unlimited moves provided a player belongs to one of your two teams.
- No trades.
- Use one of the two stadiums belonging to your chosen teams.

Rule Adjustment for Second Round: Manager(s) not securing enough pitching through the draft will be assigned the available pitchers with the highest WHip. If more than one manager is short on pitching a randomizer will be run after the draft concludes to assign pitchers. We will use the available player list sorted by WHip.

Use this link to see which players played for which teams: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagu ... 1976.shtml

SIgn up below.

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Here are the players who spent time in 1976 with two teams. The team they belong to is noted.

Alexander - NYY
Biitner - CHC
Blyleven - TEX
K. Brett - CHW
Carbo - MIL
Colbert - MON
Coleman - CHC
Crowley - BAL
Cubbage - MIN
Darwin - BOS
Dempsey - BAL
T. Davis - CAL
Dwyer - MON
Da. Evans - SFG
Fairly - STL
Ferguson - STL
Frisella - MIL
P. Garcia - DET
Garrett - NYM
Greif - STL
T. Griffin - SDP
Hall - KCR
Hassler - KCR
Hendricks - BAL
R. Hernandez - PIT
Herrmann - HOU
Holtzman - NYY
G. Jackson - NYY
Joshua - MIL
Lacy - ATL
Lahoud - CAL
M. Marshall - LAD
T. Martinez - BAL
C. May - NYY
R. May - BAL
McCovey - SDP
Montanez - ATL
T. Murphy - BOS
M. Perez - SFG
Peterson - CLE
Renko - CHC
Sadecki - MIL
Sanders - NYM
Singer - MIN
Smalley - MIN
R. Smith - LAD
Sosa - ATL
Sutherland - MIL
D. Thompson - TEX
Thornton - MTL
Tovar - OAK
Unser - NYM
E. Williams - ATL

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Back in 76, I was livin in Cincinnati. They had a pretty good starting 8 that year, Bicentenial quarters were a big deal. I think it was the first season of Saturday Night Live, which I enjoyed even though I hadn't yet discovered dope.

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Let's see, 1976, I was 12 years old, a MUCH higher fro than Paul unfortunately. Just discovering pimples and girls. Celebrating with the Yankees!

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1976 Is pent most of the summer in Avalon NJ and felt a little separated from my Phillies even though we were only about an hour away.

I had broken my arm that year so I wasn't able to be an "extra" in the movie "1776" that now runs in the Visitor's Center in Philly (I think it still does?). My Mom and both my brothers were in that movie.

One of my brothers was also in a Diehard Battery commercial where the family toured Independence Hall and returned to their car to see they left their lights on.

And now...after all these years........I am the guy playing SOM online.....YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

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In 1976 I was eleven years old. My Grandfather took me to my very first MLB regular season game (I lived in FL and had gone to Spring Training games). He and I went to NYC. We stayed at the Mayflower Hotel next to the park. The hotel was old then so I doubt it is still around today. The Yanks were out of town but the Mets were at home so we went to Shea. We took two subway trains to the stadium and the Dodgers were in town. I remember cracking up at how Ron Cey ran. Kingman played 1B for the Mets. We had a great time. I sure do miss my Grandpa.

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1976 has great memories for me. Our family moved from Piscataway, NJ to Satellite Beach, FL. We spent months in a motel until our house was ready, eating out a bunch (our favorite: Sizzler!), finally moving into house a block and a half to the beach! I was 13 and started 7th grade and remember seeing the 9th graders and wondering if I would ever be that big. Rode my bike to school everyday and since everyone did in those days, we basically shut down the street on the way to school and no cars ever drove down it, even though they had every right. In English class, we had an assignment to set a song to pictures, a pre-cursor to music videos! I chose "My Little Town" by Paul Simon and made it into a showcase for inner city poverty and despair. Obviously, I was a deep kid and was doing everything I could to impress the girls. I distinctly remember seeing my Social Studies teacher at the beach, all tanned and hanging with bikini'ed friends. I thought he was super cool.

1976 was the year of my first "real" kiss from a girl. Donna Brewton. We are friends on Facebook and she doesn't remember kissing me! LOL.

1976 was the year of my first "real" kiss from a girl. Donna Brewton. We are friends on Facebook and she doesn't remember kissing me! LOL.

I get the same treatment from my 2nd wife LOL

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Now I was only 3 but I am pretty sure that was when I first kissed a girl also

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You had me at Bicentennial.

I was 12/13 that year and living in East Central MN, close to the Wisconsin border. I remember the TV/radio commercials for the Bicentennial ("The first two hundred years.... Get into America!"). I had a crush on a ninth grader in another town and even had a friend take a polaroid of me to send to her (wearing a 1976 bible camp T-shirt and a Twins helmet - how could she resist?). To make a long story short, my first kiss did not happen with her, and the fact that I still have the photo testifies that I never even sent it. You only got a single copy of those polaroids, and I was pretty gun shy at 13, so lacked the necessary cajones to send it off.

Gene Mauch was managing the Twins and I spent some time at Met Stadium that summer. Maybe 2-3 games. We were not on a budget to head to a lot of games, so it was always a treat.

And we played baseball EVERY day at the park - league games, pick-up games, anything to play. I was no superstar, but I did hit one ball literally out of one little park, over some trees and smack onto the hood of a car in a church parking lot. It made a terrible sound, but let's just say that was considered a "walk-off" and the ball was never recovered. The game quickly disbanded and I have been "on the lamb" ever since. For years I have driven my kids past that spot and told them the story. I think of it as a Ruthian shot, but it's really not very far now looking at it as a "big kid". Though for years I had friends tell me that was the longest homer they'd ever seen hit in our games.