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Holy smoke, our 9th year eh? Well, we did count the
1995 strike season when there wasn't any fantasy baseball,
but we figure people would had played anyway, right?
1994
- HLB started in 1994 with 7 teams consisting of Ken's
Killers, Bad News Bears, Butcher Shop Boys, The Baseball
Beatles, Lady's Choice, Hollywood Henchmen and Field
of Nightmares. Of those, three are still original members
which include the Hollywood Henchmen, Field of Nightmares
and Lady's Choice, who are now Flipper's Fantasy. Ken's
Killers got killed off, so to speak, after the 7th game
and were later taken over by D's Destroyers who currently
play now as the Phat Boyz. Information is of course
sketchy, but the season did end after the 29th game
due to the famous and stupid 1994 strike which canceled
the World Series. The top pick in the draft? A man trying
to comeback this year, Andres Galaraga. Second pick
was Barry Bonds - still good after all these years.
Top player for the year was Gary Sheffield.
1995
- Well, a lot happened in 1995. Let me start by saying,
there was a strike and being that we don't believe in
replacement players - meaning, we don't know a thing
about them - we didn't have a season. Um, that's it.
1996
- This was the start of Flipper's Fantasy dominance
for the next 2-3 years. The Hollywood Henchmen finished
first during the regular season with a 25-15 record,
just ahead of Flipper's Fantasy's record of 23-17. Flipper
ended up winning the whole thing though by beating the
Henchmen in a best of 3 series playoff. Field of Nightmares
(run by the Phat Boyz) and East Meets West both tied
for 3rd at 21-19. Top player that year was Jeff Bagwell
with a 1.18 rpg average. Second was Dante Bichette with
1.16. John Smoltz led all pitchers with a sparkling
0.90 WHIP. Unfortunately, we don't know who the top
pick was in the draft, although it probably was Greg
Maddux.
1997
- We played 42 games this year which made for a hectic
season. In the end, Field of Nightmares won the regular
season by coming back and edging The Dilberts to finish
with a 26-16 record, one better than The Dilberts. Flipper's
Fantasy was right behind at 24-18 with East Meets West
finishing at 21-21. Top batter that year was Barry Bonds
with a 1.24 rpg average. Larry Walker was second at
1.19. On the pitching side, Greg Maddux did his thing
by finishing with a 0.91 WHIP to edge out Pedro Martinez's
0.97 average. In the playoffs, Flipper won again, edging
out Field of Nightmares in a 5 game series to capture
their second consecutive title. Top pick in the draft
that year was Mike Piazza with Greg Maddux second.
1998
- What a tight year this was. The four top finishers
in the standings were all within one game of first.
In the end though, the Hollywood Henchmen won the regular
season outright, beating Flipper's Fantasy 12-6 in the
last game of the season to capture their second regular
season title with a 21-14 record. Flipper, Field of
Nightmares and R&M finished tied for second at 20-15.
This was also the year of Mark McGwire as he hit the
record 70 homers which translated to 20 in HLB league
play - by far a record. McGwire dominated just about
every offensive category, including rpg average with
1.62 (a record, of course). Top pitcher was Greg Maddux
again, with a 0.83 WHIP. During the playoffs, Flipper's
Fantasy run ended as they lost in the semifinals to
Field of Nightmares. Nightmares ended up taking the
first of two titles by edging the Hollywood Henchmen,
4 games to 3 in the HLB World Series. Top player in
the draft was Mike Piazza.
1999
- Who Are These Guys? had been struggling since their
inception in 1996, but that finally changed this year
as they came out as regular season champions, posting
a 23-12 record. Field of Nightmares finished second
at 20-15 but the interesting thing this year was that
all the other teams finished under the .500 mark. The
Hollywood Henchmen, Phat Boyz and Flipper's Fantasy
all finished at 17-18, with the Henchmen and Boyz making
the upper division playoffs. In the end, it came down
to the strong pitching of Guys? to the hitting of Nightmares
and hitting won out this time as Nightmares won their
second consecutive title, beating Guys? 4 games to 3.
Top player this year was Larry Walker with a 1.30 rpg
average. John Smoltz came back to win the WHIP title
with a record 0.73 WHIP, despite all the injuries. First
player taken in the draft was Mike Piazza, again. Greg
Maddux was taken second with Larry Walker third.
2000
- Threes have it. Field of Nightmares won their third
consecutive title, beating Constant Control 4 games
to 1. Led by Jeff Bagwell and company, Nightmares used
timely hitting to get by the injured Constant Control.
With Biggio and Tatis out, Control just didn't have
much left over to make a run at it. Overall for the
season, Control did win the regular season title with
a 23-12 record. Flipper's Revenge (co-owners East Meets
West and Flipper's Fantasy) had a great year also, finishing
also with a 23-12 record, but losing 1st due to a losing
head-to-head record against Control. Nightmares was
a close 3rd, sporting a 22-13 record. Top player for
the year was Jim Edmonds, a surprise, with a 1.35 rpg
average. Close second was Mike Piazza with a 1.33 rpg
average. Jeff D'Amico won the WHIP title with a 0.84
WHIP. Kevin Brown was a distance second with 1.08 WHIP.
First player taken in the draft was Ken Griffey Jr.
by Constant Control. Following Griffey was Mike Piazza,
Vladimir Guerrero, Sammy Sosa and Larry Walker. Amazing
but true, Kevin Millwood was the first pitcher taken
with the 24th pick! Randy Johnson wasn't taken until
round 6 as the 42nd pick!
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