2016 – Opening Day

It’s almost here! The start of the 21^th season of the GCCGL! We have a lot to talk about so let’s start with the 2016 Draft. What in the hell happened? Now, I’ve been around this crazy league for a while and I’ve seen some head scratching moments like when The Golf Angel picked Lip Gloss as the overall #1 pick in the draft back in the 2013 draft. And of course who can forget the year before that when Syndrome inexplicably passed on drafting a B Player and thus wound up with Big Donkey and three D Players and then named their team, Menace to Sobriety. They were a menace alright….a menace to this great game of golf and to the GCCGL! They wound up 61 points out of first place that year. I guess that little experiment didn’t work. This brings us to this year’s draft where Mike “Radio”, a.k.a., “Squints” Tucker, pulled a “Syndrome” by passing on a proven B Player and went in another direction. This genius move catapulted Squints to a B Player status and turned Big Donkey’s dream of an 8th GCCGL Championship into a living nightmare. And we haven’t even hit the driving range yet folks.

Most of you have heard the old saying, “Hell has no fury like a woman scorned“, right? Well, I’m thinking about updating it to something like, “Hell has no fury like a Prince Albert dropping down to the 2nd round”. Check out this exclusive GCCGL beauty of an email by a dejected and humiliated Prince Albert. Click the image below for a larger view.

Click for larger view

Um, note to self……..scratch the “Smith +1 party” off the annual Almeida’s Wine and Cheese guest list…..quickly. Wow, the Prince has some deep rooted anger buried deeply in that skull of his. However, I believe that it may be somewhat misdirected. Sure, Cletus passed up on Mitch but so did several others but for some reason, Cletus received the brunt of Prince Albert’s wrath. Whatever the reasoning behind this, it makes for great blog material and sets up a season long side story that could take on a life of its own. I’m thinking about calling it the “Prince Albert Chronicles” with guest posts from the Prince himself.

Let’s all welcome, Mike Morell, to the full-time GCCGL family. Mike was a late addition when suddenly and in-explicitly, without reason, Bleaker announced that he was not participating in the GCCGL this season. Mike was next up on the waiting list and was called up to play in the show. Let that be a lesson to all you subs out there who have dreamt about playing full-time in the GCCGL. Get yourselves added to the waiting list! Your dreams may soon be realized. The Bleaker resignation sent the draft board at the GCCGL commissioner’s office into a frenzy. The entire draft order had to be recalculated, new handicaps had to be generated for the newcomer and the player rankings had to be reorganized. All this did not sit well with Co-Commissioner Lipgloss, our resident Draft Order Preparation Executive (DOPE). The DOPE was pissed to say the least. The DOPE organized an emergency counsel session and quickly drafted new sanctions that would suspend Bleaker for the 2016 season effective immediately. The new measures were passed (2-1) thus solidifying the first ever GCCGL suspension. I’m going to get a lot of flack for this but I don’t care…..it’s funny!

The Hall of Fame results are in! It was extremely close this year and we had approximately a 50% participation rate again this season. Those of you who did not vote should be ashamed of yourselves. At any rate, this was a tough one as only one HOF inductee could be voted in this season. In a very close decision, the 2016 GCCGL Hall of Fame inductee is  CLICK HERE!

The teams are set and the team names have been submitted. The 2016 predictions were tough to make this season due to Radio and Boot Boy going off script, but here are what most experts are predicting.

The Prince Albert Syndrome (1)
The Prince exacts his revenge and throws it in the face of all who rejected him…..and then realizes about a minute later that it’s just a fun-loving, beer-drinking golf league and apologizes to Cletus and the others that he devoured on his way to his first GCCGL Championship. It’s tough to go against this team with two A-Players on the squad.

Three Men and a Sub (2)
GCCGL rookie, Scratch, leads his team to a respectable 2nd place finish and battles it out all year with Prince Albert to prove that Cletus made the right decision selecting him over PA in the first round of the GCCGL draft.

Gamblers Fallacy and Protein for Pefforcorn (3-tied)
Finishing tied for 3rd, just a few points out of 2nd. Two very strong teams on paper, but can they hold it together once the dog days of the GCCGL is upon them?

Grandpa’s Cough Medicine (4)
I’m picking this team 4th because this is the team I’m on and there’s no way I’m jinxing our season by predicting a top 3 finish. Also, I’ve been trying to pawn off this team name for the last three years and FINALLY got a chance to pitch it to a smart audience who appreciated and accepted it.

Laying 8 (5)
One A Player and three D Players.

Who do you think are the favorites and who do you think will be eliminated from contention by the end of April? Tweet us @TheRealGCCGL!

There’s a new rule for the 2016 season, Section 13 Rule 17 OLD – The Retirement Rule. You know we’re always good for one crazy rule a year.

I haven’t even gotten to the 2016 team names or the “real” reason for the short 24-hour period for the team name submissions or the plight of Syndrome’s stock as he fell to the overall last pick of the draft. So much to talk about but only so much time.

The schedule is set! Remember, we tee off this season at 5:16PM. In the words of the eccentric Bernie Sanders, “This is HUGE!” Especially this time of year. So let’s take advantage of it. We hope to see you on the golf course and as always, hit ’em straight!

George Almeida – GCCGL Co- Comissioner