We have our second ever opening in the 5 Year Plan Progressive league. The 5 year plan progressive league will progress 5 years at a time, with the initial season being 1941-1945 and the second season being 1946-1950. Each season you may select which of the 5 seasons you want to use for each of your players. We will be starting season 9 which will be 1981-1985, The 1976-1980 season does not end until May 4 so I am getting an early start on finding a replacement owner. One of our original owners, jeff4noles, is reducing his WIS commitments and has given me early notice. The team available is the Cleveland Indians, who are currently 51-51, 3rd in the 4 team AL West .

This league is based on an idea originated by Boddicker (who is a member of the league).

Full rules for the league are posted immediately below. If interested, please sign up below or by site mail to dspahlinger. I will also be happy to answer any questions you may have by site mail. or by posting below.

ORIGINAL RULES. We will have an initial draft of players from 1941-45....you take a player and you own him for his entire career.You can keep any and all of your roster to play Season 2, if they are still active, which will be seasons 1946-1950. We will draft all the new players after Season 1.....so you keep who you want, and fill out your roster with players active from 1946-1950 during a pre-season 2 draft....and so on and so on. So as an example, say you draft TED WILLIAMS....maybe you use his 1941 season for SEASON 1....you keep him for SEASON 2 and use his 1949 season....you keep him for SEASON 3 and use his 1954 season...SEASON 4 comes around and you use his 1957 season....his last season is 1960 so he retires before SEASON 5, opening a roster spot on your squad. Unlimited keepers and cuts, manage your team as you see fit.......We will have these seasons to play, one at a time:
SEASON 1- 1941-1945
SEASON 2- 1946-1950
SEASON 3- 1951-1955
SEASON 4- 1956-1960
SEASON 5- 1961-1965
SEASON 6- 1966-1970
SEASON 7- 1971-1975
SEASON 8- 1976-1980
SEASON 9- 1981-1985
SEASON 10- 1986-1990
SEASON 11-1991-1995
SEASON 12- 1996-2000
SEASON 13- 2002-2005
SEASON 14-2006-2010
SEASON 15- 2011-2015
SEASON 16- 2016-2020
SEASON 17- 2021-2025

OTHER RULES- 16 TEAMS/OWNERS, NO WW, YES AAA- average to help with fatigue, especially first couple seasons, 125 MILLION CAP, TRADES ARE OK. NO CLONES.NO DH UNTIL SEASON 7 (prior to season 7 we will vote on whether to have DH in AL only or both leagues..... ONCE WE HAVE 16 OWNERS, WE WILL HAVE A RANDOM DRAFT FOR ACTIVE BALLPARKS. A list of available Ballparks will be posted....THE INITIAL DRAFT WILL BE SERPENTINE (1-16; 16-1), SUBSEQUENT DRAFTS WILL BE IN THE INVERSE ORDER OF FINISH, WORST TO FIRST BY RECORD ( 50 WIN MINIMUM BY GAME 150 TO AVOID A TOTAL TANK JOB)....some interesting strategies will be in play every off-season draft, you can bet on that...and with only 16 clubs, as RL baseball expands, our team salaries will increase. Also, let's shoot for realistic team names, please( city and mascot)......

AS A PRECAUTION AGAINST TANKING in subsequent drafts there will be a random lottery for the first 4 positions in the first round only, with the team with the worst record having 4 chances for the #1 pick, the team with the second worst record having 3 chances for the #1 pick, the team with the third worst record having 2 chances for the #1 pick and the team with the 4th worst record having 1 chance for the #1 pick. If a team fails to meet the 50 win requirement by game 150, they will automatically draft no higher than 3rd, regardless of the results of the lottery.
1/8/2020 11:26 AM (edited)

This methodology (as originated by Boddicker) is being successfully used in the 7 Year Itch League, which progresses 7 years at a time with the first season having been 1903-1909 and which is now in it's 11th season. I have enjoyed that league very much, but I have always best liked the 1940's and 1950's periods (I grew up as a child during those decades) so I decided to start this league as well. As stated above, this league is now in it's 8th season. I subsequently also started the Triple Play season, which progresses 3 seasons at a time with the first season being 1921-1923. That league is now in it's 4th season.

Because of the multi-season nature of these 3 leagues and the large number of Rookie available every season (the current 7 year Itch League draft currently underway has 793 Rookies, the next 5 Year Plan League draft has 548 Rookies and the next Triple Play League draft will have 187 Rookies. This number of Rookies coupled with the rapid turnover from the large number of retirements every season, means that teams may improve much more rapidly (and of course also decline much more rapidly) than in single season progressives

Following is the 1976-1980 roster for the Cleveland Indians. You will notice that 5 players are noted as having retired after the 1976-1980 season. The new owner will need to decide how many of the other 20 players he wishes to keep for the new season. We will begin posting keepers in about a week from today.

Cleveland Indians 1976-1980 Roster:

Carlton	Fisk	C
Manny	Sanguillen	C	Ret.
Andy	Thornton	1B
Ron	Oester	2B
Rennie	Stennett	2B
Steve	Braun	3B/OF
Glenn	Hoffman	3B
Luis	Salazar	3B
Toby	Harrah	SS
Dusty	Baker	OF
Gary	Matthews	OF
Jerry	Mumphrey	OF
Dwayne	Murphy	OF
Ben	Ogilvie	OF
Don	Aase	P
Ken	Brett	P
Bill	Castro	P
Dock	Ellis	P	Ret.
Woodie	Fryman	P
Don	Gullett	P	Ret.
Ed	Halicki	P	Ret.
Scott	McGregor	P
Gary	Nolan	P	Ret.

Following is a list of some of the top Rookies in the 1981-1985 Draft:

FIRST	LAST
NAME	NAME	Team
Roger	Clemens		P
Cal	Ripken, Jr.		SS
Wade	Boggs		1B
Tony	Gwynn		OF
Brett	Butler		OF
Ryne	Sandberg		3B
Orel	Hershiser		P
Tim	Raines		OF
Kirby	Puckett		OF
Dwight	Gooden		P
Fernando	Valenzuela		P
Bret	Saberhagen		P
Tony	Fernandez		SS
Andres	Galarraga		1B
Julio	Franco		SS
Tony	Phillips		SS
Gary	Gaetti		3B
Mark	Langston		P
Chili	Davis		OF
Tom	Candiotti		P
Jimmy	Key		P

The Indians will probably be drafting about 8th in the 16 team draft