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Note - I don't normally post so much in 1 day. Obviously this is an online league and I had the idea to start a diary during the previous season as I really started to learn the league, and get into it. Problem was I messed around the whole league off-season and now we are starting our season. I had a lot of this story so far all typed up, so I just started reviewing it and then posting it. I felt I had to do this as the league sims 5 days a week M-F but only sims 4 days each sim. My plan is to be caught up with the sim as this weekend which should be roughly 2 weeks into the regular season.
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My end of season meeting with team owner Gregory Bocquet Jr. which I had not been looking forward to earlier in the year, turned out to be quite delightful. I was able to show him that one way to the extreme profit that he desired was making and having a successful run into the playoffs. When he saw that we made $15+ million for our post season run, his dreary outlook on me and life in general sudden changed. The man that had been ready to fire me because we were in a pennant race but just breaking even financially, had changed. He went from Mad, Angry etc to now delighted
He decided that since fan interest was up so high (96 at this point from 88-92 during the season) and that our market increased in size (to the highest allowable in the league structure), that he was going to raise our budget to $180 million. I cautioned him that if he gave me that type of budget I was likely to spend it and he just said do what you did this year, make money at the end of the season and all will be well.
I left the meeting feeling overcome with determination to try and get the Architect's that 10th World Series Championship. Suddenly I had money to play with and several contracts I wanted to get done before the start of free agency.
But going back to late in the 2054 season, I had felt badly about how I had tried to treat what was a Chicago legend. It wasn't the first time I had done this as I didn't have a big attachment to what the club had done before I arrived (It had done a lot). No I wanted to concentrate on what the club could do in the future.
Previous management had signed one player 1B Daniel Huffman to what was not a huge contract, but it was 4 years and $24 million. Huffman was 43 and I was struggling to see why this deal was done (remember I don't know about the aging settings in the league in the 2052 or 2053 seasons). Huffman basically held all the major hitting records in Chicago and was the GLBL all-time leader in home runs (504), He was top 10 in a number of other categories, but I didn't see that. What I saw was an aging ballplayer who really couldn't play 1B anymore and was just a DH. We had another 1B with the club that first year I was in charge in Art Loder who was a much better hitter at this stage of Huffman's career. We played him in an embarrassing number of games (31) with only 9 starts. He hit 182 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI's. He still had 3 years and $18 million on his contract. Instead of letting him ride off as he saw fit, I had a prospect I wanted to bring up. We cut Daniel Huffman. He was picked up for the 2053 and 2054 seasons by his old GM in Duluth where he belt 17 more home runs to add to his 487 total in Chicago and drove in 40 RBI's in a part time role. He retired at the end of this season on his terms. He is obviously a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame and to try and make it up to him, we immediately retired his number #1 here in Chicago. We will have Daniel Huffman Day here in Chicago (if he will come) and we will try and make it up to him.
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For 2055 we still owe him $6 million for the last year of his deal.
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In light of the Huffman situation, I had been particularly hard on another Chicago legend that was signed to a much larger contract. CF Antonio Mendez who had been playing more LF for us the last season as his speed had diminished. He was a solid hitter and yet his price tag ate away at me. Likely because I hadn't signed him to that deal which was ending at the conclussion of the season. Still while I was prepared to just let him become a free agent, a part of me started to notice all the Mendez signs in the crowd, the merch that he sold and the cheers that he got. Mendez was highly respected in Chicago so I decided to see if we could come up with a deal that he could end his career here in Chicago red. We were discussing it in the last weeks of the season, we were talking 3 years and a total of $16.-17 million for the 3 years. It was a deal that he was thinking he would like to sign on for. We left it to be finalized after the playoffs.
Once the World Series was over, Mendez came to my office. No agent, just him. He told me that after talking with his wife, he wanted to spend more time with his kids and family instead of being on the road 3 more years. I asked him if it was the money and he stated no, it wasn't. Even if I had offered him another 3 year $60 million dollar deal, his answer would be the same. "I just want to spend time with my wife and kids. I miss seeing certain things during the season, and I just don't want to miss them growing up. They are 13, 11 and 9 now and they are all involved in sports. I want to be fully involved with them." So we shook hands and I said we would retire his number #30 next season and we would have Antonio Mendez Day. He said he looked forward to scheduling that and that his whole family would be there for that day. Mendez is another sure fire Hall of Famer.
We had a lot to plan for next season. We had a USA pennant to hang, two player number retirement ceremonies, free agency, and how can we make it back to the World Series.
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Remember once we start the off-season, our owner is delightly. We will see how long that lasts and obviously I can't get a delighted picture up, because we are into spring training and he might not be so delighted anymore.
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Tomorrow - We will cover the off-season. Then Spring Training and predictions. Coverage of the regular season will start on Friday and catch up to the league over the weekend.