The first of the big changes

Saturday was the 17th Annual draft for the rotisserie baseball league that I've been in since 10th grade. Back in Year One, there were five teams drafting in my parent's living room, and we had no idea what the hell we were doing. I also believe that was the only year that everybody actually showed up in person. Years Two through Six moved into my parents' basement, oftentimes accompanied with carrying our large computer down there in order to speak in real time with missing owners via dial-in connection to the Vax (the height of free technology at the point). Years Seven through Nine were in DanNation's parents' dining room, with a happy volunteer sitting in the adjoining home office to log in to the unix (my, how times had changed) to type to the missing owners, although I'm fairly certain that by the third year there, we were using an Instant Messenger group chat. Then we went ultra-luxe, crashing the Short Hills Hilton in the NY suburbs for two years, with fine linens and bathrobes in the room, and a wall switch that allowed you to play the audio from ESPN in the ceiling and in the bathroom. After that, our dynamic league commissioner, who had secured our rent-free acommodations at the Hilton, moved us back to Pittsburgh for a more office-like setting at the Pitt business school, where multiple persons could simultaneously use broadband internet connections for the first time. It was a little weird the third year there, when he had already graduated and we were very unauthorized. After that, we went on tour, with McClendon's Folly securing us a location at his workplace, the U. Chicago Law School, the highlight of which was brunch the following morning at Orange, reason alone to visit the Windy City. Then the next year I got to play host at my workplace in DC, adding a projector and screen to display the chat page for everyone to see. And this year the draft returned to New Jersey and to a residence for the first time in eight years at the home of Gobo, wife, son, and child-to-be.

I bring this all up to sadly lament my first ever absence from the annual league auction. For sixteen years, Auction Draft Day had been much more than the start of the fantasy baseball season. It was an annual reunion of my closest friends in high school. A guaranteed way to stay in touch with face-to-face contact. Nothing had kept me from the draft before, whether living a five hour drive away (Philly) or a five hour flight away (Seattle). So, the first official Change from the triplets, before they even arrive: drafting online. In the grand scheme of things, not a very big deal, but still very significant.