Welcome to the 5th season of the Best Ballers League. As many of you know, this league is an offshoot of the Shell League now in its 28th season. Crazy how time flies. That's how long I've known George Moon, pictured with his BB partner, John Beltrami, from last night's debacle of trivia night. 

     We had 7 teams from Shell in Best Ballers last year, but unfortunately Jeff "Money" Edwards had to cut down on his leagues this year. However, we now have 8 teams from Shell as John Shenkir replaces Money. Once Money left, I replaced his buddy Vic with Carter Moring who had been sharing a team with his dad Chris. Well-placed sources within the Moring household told me that Carter was tired of his dad weighing him down and wanted to experience success on his own. 

     While technically we have 8 teams in BB that are from Shell, we have 9 current members of the Shell league and Moon is a former member. We also have 4 Johns in the leaugue. Let's meet the teams:

We have 7 teams that have been in the league for all 4 seasons.

Joe - I'm the Commissioner of both Shell and Best Ballers. I'm the only team to make the playoffs in all 4 season. I have one Championship, 1 third place finish, and 2 other playoff appearances.

Harry & Perry - Harry and Perry run separate teams in Shell, but are partners in this one. They have been in the league 4 seasons and have made the playoffs in 3 of them. In their 3 playoff appearances, they were the runner-up once, third place once, and 1 other trip to the playoffs.

Jeff Alleman - Not to be confused with Jeff "Money" Edwards, Jeff was formerly known as "White Jeff", but still known as Chris Moring's brother in law.  Jeff has 2 trips to the playoffs in 4 seasons and is currently the reigning Champion from last year.

Raffy - Another member from Shell, Raffy has been in BB for 4 years making the playoffs 3 times. Raffy has a third place finish and 2 other playoff appearances. He's also a distant cousin of the Brazilian Gracie family and is a former Jiu-Jitsu champion in the Accounting division dojo of Houston.

Chris Moring - Chris was a former Champion in Shell who took 10 years off for spiritual guidance, returned to Shell 2 years ago, but has been a member of Best Ballers since its inception. Chris was a little rusty at first, but returned to the playoffs last year for the first time in 4 seasons.

Carter Moring -  Carter is known as the better looking, smarter, and more even-tempered Moring. He's been co-manager with Chris in this league for 4 seasons and two seasons of Shell. Carter is also known as the "Mastermind" behind the Moring team who counters his dad's wackiness in the football laboratory. He's known for his deep analysis, many spreadsheets, and soccer skills.

Andrew - Andrew is the only other team to make the playoffs in each of his Best Ball seasons, but he didn't participate in the first year of Best Ballers. In three seasons, Andrew has been the runner-up, third, and made one other playoff appearance.

John Shenkir - John is our 8th team from Shell. For some reason, Perry (who co-manages a team with Harry in this league) always goes on vacation during the Shell draft. Last year, John (Harry's friend) helped Perry draft and co-manage the Shell team. They remained partners in Shell this year, but John branched out on his own for Best Ballers. 

Johnny Vegas - Alas, someone not from the Shell league. I've known John from other leagues for over 10 years now as we have done football, hockey, and baseball leagues together.  John has been in Best Ballers for 4 seasons, making the playoffs twice and winning the Championship  in 2022.

George Moon, John Beltrami (both pictured above), and Schuyler Beltrami - I've known George since 1998 when he sent some porn via email to a co-worker who then forwarded it to me and caused some naked hairy lady to be my computer's wallpaper. I met George when I pretended to be my co-worker's boss and I scolded George for sending porn. That's when we realized that we were both from the same university (Yes, Division 2 Football Champs and Economics powerhouse University of West Florida). Moon was a former member of Shell who also left the league for spiritual guidance and lots of masturbation personal time. I also met John Beltrami at Shell. A controversial figure at Shell known for his brash NY personality and intimidating ways, Beltrami brought his son Schuyler into the fold as their partner. Schuyler is the brain-child of this team that is known for great drafts, but no transactions throughout the season. In four seasons, the Fins2Win team has made the playoffs once. 

John Dixon - The 4th John in the league hails from the west coast and unfortunately for us, he is also a Jets fan. Dixon has been in the league for 2 seasons and he made the playoffs for the first time last year. 

Jenn - Jenn comes from a nursing background and happens to be my girlfriend's Manager. Although rumored to look like Rosie O'Donnell (albeit a rumor started by me after she insulted the Jets), I saw a video of her recent birthday party and can assure you that she does not look anything like Rosie O'Donnell.  I would say that Ellen DeGeneres is a closer match. Just kidding. I'm just giving Jenn shit for somehow miraculously beating me out so far for the #1 seed of our $650 fantasy baseball league (which also includes Johnny Vegas, Harry, and Jeff). Anyway, in 2 seasons, Jenn has failed to make the playoffs. I know she watches a ton of sports, but girl, I expect a better fantasy football season from you since now that I know you can at least do well in baseball. 

DRAFT DATE AND LEAGUE PAYMENT 

     Our draft will be on Labor Day (Monday Sept 1st), a tradition in this league dating back 4 years. As of now, I have it set at 1pm CST because we have Schuyler drafting from Europe and that's a 7-8 hour time difference.

     I will be setting up our Leaguesafe today for payment. I have commitment from all 12 teams that they are in for this year. Let's get this league paid by mid-August because it's hard to find replacements. I will come back and add the Leaguesafe link to this news article, but also send it out to the emails listed from last year's LS payments.

     I don't know that we need a rules meeting this year. The only rule change isn't really a rules change. It's an unwritten rule that I'm now writing. I'm adding that you can't have a player that isn't playing that week to get a "zero" score if you have a negative score from a player in your lineup that week.

e.g. Your defense gets a negative 3 points that week. You cannot have a zero from a team defense that is on a bye. Technically a player on a bye is not playing so it cannot count in the scoring that week. The website will count it unfortunately as part of its scoring algorithm, but if you let me know that your opponent has done this, I can adjust the score. For the most part, this will likely only happen to a team defense, but i guess it's possible for other positions due to interceptions and fumbles. Just extremely unlikely. 

Leaguesafe info:

https://www.leaguesafe.com/join/4333081