[Aussie Mark]

OK, my turn to p!ss in the pockets of the commishes of the leagues that I'm in -

Let's start with Cooley, since he's such a legend around here :-)

HHBC - Cooley started the fictional Home Town Baseball in the 1918 season with 10 teams, and expanded to 12 teams a couple of seasons later. By 1926 the interest in HBL was sufficient for him to create the sister 12 team Heritage Baseball League. Along the way, with such a solid owner base (I think HTB only lost 2 owners in 12 seasons) Cooley was able to move on to his next projects and pass on the Commish duties to other owners. For the 1931 season the HTB and HBL merged to form the HHBC, commished by the aforementioned Bob Monroe. This league continues to be a fantastic league, and remains my only fictional league, since I am a historical nut and never thought I'd ever stick out a fictional league beyond 2 seasons. Much kudos to Cooley, Bob Monroe and Dan Nicol, who was the HTB commish for several seasons.

UBL - As Andy mentioned, this is Cooley's latest baby, a league starting in 1927 featuring MLB, Negro league and Pacific Coast league players. Each team starts off by keeping 2 players, then it's into a fantasy draft. Bring it on!

MLB1966 - as the name suggests, this league commenced in 1966 with Don Krause (King of Diamonds) as the Commish. Don passed the baton to Drew Baltzley, who ran the league for many seasons before personal circumstances saw Drew hand over to Shane Hoffman (and his trusty sidekick Paul Derbyshire). Now in it's 15th season, this league is a classic example of a league where the owners are bigger than the league itself. No fancy website, but a solid core of long term owners and new faces who make an effort to make the league as realistic and historically accurate as possible.

BBDL - Started in 1984 by Jeff Hazlett, this league is now in 1992. Of all the leagues I've been in, Jeff is the most consistent and clearest communicator I've encountered. He plays hardball when it comes to league rules, but he is known as being tough but fair which again has resulted in a strong loyal core owner group. One of the few leagues to use scouts and coaches, BBDL also has an innovative participation points system and cash bonuses for team and player milestones.

Crackerjack - Commish Bill Traxler (most people know him as Bird) is one of the nicest guys in the online OOTP league world. A great family man, Bird is no website guru but nevertheless has created a very informative league website that looks the part and reflects the nature of this league, which started in 1970 and is now in 1980. This league has an extremely stable owner base - there have only been 2 vacancies in the last 4 seasons, which speaks volumes for the respect that Bird has.

Shiba - Mark Dillard runs this little known league that started in 1947 and is now in 1952. Having a geeky commish like Dillard means that we have the latest Cato Gazette and History utilities, plus an innovative contract extension Excel spreadsheet to make resigning those FAs a piece of cake. This league also uses the supplementary rookie database that imports rookies 3 years before they made their MLB debut. An extremely accurate historical league with a touch of madcap humor and whacky website additions at times. Appeals to eccentric fans of historical leagues (just like me)

TMSL - We made it to the second sim before the Commish Jay Thomas went down with a serious illness. We're currently on hold waiting for him to return from his sick bed. This league started with a bang, lots of interest, several league reporters, not an AOL email address to be seen, very literate owners - all good indicators. A present day (2002) league.

ORB - Started in 1982, currently in 1984. Very active owners, cash earned for posting on the message board helps. Commish Matt Rectenwald has his fingers in a few pies, but appears to run a tight ship in this league. I've only just joined (in the offseason) so am looking forward to the real stuff soon)