Live feed into the ESPN Draft Room...

 

Lou Gehrig, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth in the "green room", patiently awaiting their selection

Draft Day is set!!!

We will be live drafting for this league on Sunday, February 12!  Will start at 1PM.  Mark your calendars!!!  The computer will draft for you if you cannot make it, but please make every effort to join in the fun if you can.   Will send out information to your email addresses very soon.

No HOF newbies allowed!

We will NOT be able to use the brand new inductees to the Hall.  Ivan Rodriguez, Jeff Bagwell, and Tim Raines will have to wait for another retro league since they are not included in the Hall of Fame computer roster that we are using. 








Yep, this stance led to a Hall of Fame career!

While we are preparing for this league, you may want to check out this story on who to expect to make it to the Hall up through the year 2045!!!

http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/77378/predicting-every-hall-of-fame-class-through-2045




The Online Draft

For those who have not done the live draft through Strat-O-Matic before, here is a peek at what it will look like..

It is very similar to the typical Fantasy League draft rooms, with the ability to sort players, chat with the other managers, set up queues of potential draftees, etc.  The sorting function is not super obvious, it is hitting that upside-down triangle in the search box underneath the Draft Player  and Queue Player buttons.  That will allow you to select positions and sort by ranking, HR's, batting average, whatever. 

Draft will be serpentine, so goes 1 through 10, then 10 through 1. etc.  I would expect it to take 1.5 hours when we get it scheduled  You will be able to drop out whenever you like, so don't worry about any time constraints or conflicts.  It looks like the auto draft function will give you a full team with all positions covered.

Learn more about some of the new players available for this League!

We have done a few Hall of Fame leagues in the past so many of you are familiar with most of the old-timers, but the inclusion of the Negro League Hall of Famers opens the door for many new superstars that rank right up there with the Babe, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Walter Johnson, etc.

 

Whole lot of potential early draft picks here!

This article was the best one I found to quickly find out more about these players and how they ranked with their contemporaries...

 

Click here to learn more about the 10 greatest Negro League players in the Baseball Hall of Fame





Welcome to the 2017 Carr Hall of Fame League!!!



It's time to fill the long gap between the end of football season (designated as the day after the Lions end their season!) and Opening Day 2017 with yet another Strat-O-Matic Retro League.  This time, we fire up the Hot Tub Time Machine and bring back to life EVERY Hall of Famer!  

The classic shot of the 1939 Dedication Ceremony of the Baseball  Hall of Fame!

Top from left to right: Honus Wagner, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie, George Sisler, Walter Johnson.  Bottom left to right: Eddie Collins, Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, Cy Young.

There is an interesting story about one legend from the original Hall of Fame class that is missing from this famous picture  Click here to read more

Every at bat will be a dream matchup!  Imagine Babe Ruth digging in to face the gigantic Randy Johnson!  Sandy Koufax vs Honus Wagner, Joe DiMaggio against Cy Young.  Simply the best vs the best.  All recent inductees like Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Piazza, and Frank Thomas are available for this league.  Also for our very first time ever, we have the opportunity to draft Hall of Fame legends from the Negro Leagues, like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Turkey Stearnes, and Cool Papa Bell!

We have enough Hall of Famers to fill 10 teams of 24 players each, with 8 ''leftovers" that can be picked up off the waiver pile on a first-come, first-served basis if needed.  There will be an online draft, followed by the creation of each team's Computer Manager file, then the simulation of about 10 days worth of action at a time with all stats updated, box scores and game stories generated, etc.

 

Should be a very interesting and fun season, hoping to get all managers set up right away and schedule the draft as soon as possible!