ITS A 30-YEAR CELEBRATION
The Robert E. McCabe Baseball League Turns 30
Dallas, Texas (McC.com) – 30 years and counting, it has been
an amazing and exciting 30 years in the Robert E. McCabe Baseball League. The
great teams, the outstanding players, and the best group of owners I’ve ever
been associated with since joining my first fantasy site in 1989, the Bill James
Fantasy Baseball and Football Leagues. In those days you found fantasy leagues
by looking in the advertise section of magazines like “The Sporting News,
Street and Smith” and other simpler publications. Everything was handled by calling
long distance and US mail. Looking back now really makes me think we were all
insane, and for the newbies coming on board today, they’ll be saying the same
exact thing about us 30 years from now.
How can we talk about the 30 years in Hard Ball Dynasty without
recognizing the founder, the creator, the almighty, and all knowing, our
beloved commissioner, Patrick McCabe aka pat007ohmss. Scripture has it that on the first day Patrick
had a vision to form a league in honor of his father, Robert E. McCabe who passed
away in 1986. On the second day he formed the league, on the third day he
contacted owners who were interested in his league, on the fourth day he
decided to use major-league teams (stroke of genius), on the fifth day he
issued the teams to the new owners, on the six-day the league was open for
business, and on the seventh day he rested, and the website what if sports and HBD
was changed forever, thanks Pat!
Season one could not have gotten underway without the Fantastic
Four (4), which is the original owners. The next issue will focus on the
players and teams, nevertheless this issue we wanted to look at all the
owners that make this league possible. However, as a reminder if you would like
to flash back to see the McCabe Magazines All-Decade teams of seasons 1-10, and
11-20 go to the Blog and checkout issues posted February 5, 2014, and February
8, 2014.
The Original Four
Owner
|
Team
|
Won
|
Lost
|
World Series Titles
|
Division Titles
|
San Diego Padres
|
2869
|
1917
|
6
|
16
|
|
Anaheim Angels
|
2557
|
2229
|
2
|
12
|
|
Boston Red Sox
|
2516
|
2270
|
3
|
8
|
|
San Francisco Giants
|
2345
|
2441
|
0
|
8
|
The Twenty Year Veterans
Owner
|
Team
|
Seasons
|
Won
|
Lost
|
World Series
|
Kansas City Royals
|
28
|
2353
|
2276
|
1
|
|
Toronto Blue Jays
|
26
|
2428
|
1875
|
1
|
|
Tampa Bay Rays
|
24
|
1809
|
2172
|
0
|
|
Milwaukee Brewers
|
21
|
1643
|
1850
|
0
|
And the Rest of the Owners
Owner
|
Team
|
Seasons
|
World Series Titles
|
axtell
|
Colorado Rockies
|
18
|
0
|
patrickkm
|
Detroit Tigers
|
17
|
2
|
yoker70
|
Arizona Diamondbacks
|
17
|
0
|
kgrffth
|
Chicago White Sox
|
17
|
0
|
Arte
|
Los Angeles Dodgers
|
17
|
0
|
basebalguru
|
New York Mets
|
13
|
1
|
lido9613
|
Florida Marlins
|
13
|
3
|
goldenbaer88
|
Texas Rangers
|
11
|
0
|
Fantasy Frea
|
Cleveland Indians
|
10
|
0
|
optistrat
|
Minnesota Twins
|
10
|
0
|
Saffron
|
Washington D.C. Nationals
|
10
|
1
|
cpintens
|
Cincinnati Reds
|
9
|
0
|
spintens
|
Richmond Virginians
|
8
|
0
|
mark3313
|
Seattle Mariners
|
7
|
0
|
slurie2001
|
St. Louis Cardinals
|
6
|
0
|
sportbanker
|
Pittsburgh Pirates
|
4
|
0
|
runnrun
|
Houston Astros
|
3
|
0
|
ajaxx88
|
Rochester Broncos
|
2
|
0
|
GuerillaZen1
|
Baltimore Orioles
|
2
|
0
|
daddiothree
|
Philadelphia Phillies
|
1
|
0
|
Jeter2020
|
New York Yankees
|
1
|
0
|
troutis
|
Oakland Athletics
|
1
|
0
|
bobkordecki
|
Chicago Cubs
|
0
|
0
|
McCabe Magazines New Feature
WHERE ARE THEY NOW
 |
| ||||||||||||||
Season 1 MVP Earl Wingo
Season 1 Most Valuable Player Earl Wingo (RF), Texas Rangers
now 61 years-old lives in Aurora, Texas population 1,267. Wingo and wife Libby
has been married for 42 years, they have one son and two grandchildren that
live in Dallas. The couple moved to Aurora after Wingo’s retirement. In season 1
the right-handed outfielder had the best year of his major league career with
53 HR, 138 RBI, and a team leading 1.136 OPS. Season 1 was his finest season,
appearing in his only All-Star Game, Silver Slugger Award, and a World Series
winner, sweeping the Cincinnati Reds 4-0. He appeared in one other post-season
series, getting beat by the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 in the divisional round, and
he never duplicated that season 1 statistical numbers again, and retired in
season 8, playing his last professional game in season 7. Another interesting note
about season 1 is future Hall of Framer Placido Ortiz was named Rookie of the Year that
season collecting 40 Home Runs, 108 RBI, 370 BA, and a 1.138 OPS. In season 9 Wingo
did some coaching in the Rangers organization and also managed the Corpus
Christi Hooks of the Texas League for 2 ½ seasons before being relieved of his
duties after Wingo sucker punched the teams PR director over a Earl Wingo bubblehead
give away. Wingo became upset when the director labeled the bobble head promotion
“Earl Wingo the One Hit Wonder.”
Life in Aurora
Earl and his wife wear a lot of hats in Aurora. He owns the
only diner in town in which his wife Libby runs from 6 AM to 6 PM daily. They
also run the post office, the Aurora Sports Museum, and the local radio station
that features a nightly show from 6 to 10 called “The Earl Wingo Sports Talk
Show.” The show takes nightly calls about the local high school sports scene,
Texas League AA baseball, Dallas Cowboys, and the Rangers. All of the calls
these days are about the Rangers last place position in the AL South which made
the playoffs last season with a 96-66 record. However, when I visited the station
90% of the calls were complaining about Rangers season 30 All-Star second
baseman Orlando Campos (29 HR, 321 BA, 1.040 OPS) not being invited to the Home
Run Derby contest at this year’s All-Star game. Lifelong friend Glen Cornelius (1B) another former Ranger player
and teammate of Wingo helps out at the radio station doing a morning farm
report from 5 AM to 9AM. Cornelius also teams with Wingo doing Aurora high
school football games, Earl handles the play by play with Cornelius playing the
jock in the booth role.
Wingo says life has been good since leaving baseball,
you can find him nightly sitting on the front porch drinking sarsaparilla with
Libby, Cornelius and his season one MVP
trophy at his side, telling stories about days gone by.
