March 31, 2002

To those of you who are new to the Santa Lechuga Power League, let me be the first to extend a big Santa Lechuga welcome. To those who are returning for another season, let me suggest you get a life.

First I should introduce myself. I am Rube Furrow (aka Joe Livernois, aka "the sexiest columnist in Monterey County -- 'B' Division"). I am the mayor of Santa Lechuga, commissioner of the Santa Lechuga Power League and generally a pain in the soft tissue.

The great news this year is we've got 48 ownership groups participating this year! We've created six divisions, drawn at random, that Pedregoso Ríos will be posting on the website soon -- www.santa-lechuga.com .

Speaking of Pedregoso (aka Tony Livernois, aka brother of the sexiest columnist in Monterey County), he is the SLPL Administrative Assistant [Editor's Note: For the record, Pedregoso hates this title ... he much prefers Webmaster or Universal Love God!] and he deserves our gratitude for the work he's done for this league. He's responsible for the faboo website and will be responsible for keeping tabs on results. He should have the teams and divisions posted on the website soon. Please check and let him know if he's botched the job on your team so he can correct asap. He can be reached at pedregoso@santa-lechuga.com.

More great news: Veterans of SLPL will be grateful to know that the Santa Lechuga brain trust decided to spread out the payouts this year so that winners of divisions and a couple of other categories can come out of the year with a few bucks. That way, we won't all get shut out after Scott Brown somehow manages to the overall championship. (Scott is the two-time defending champ who won last year DESPITE SELECTING RICK ANKIEL IN THE ORIGINAL DRAFT.)

Also, because of the incredible numbers of teams this year, we've decided to increase the payouts to the various winners even higher than we originally intended. With buy-in fees alone, we will have more than $1,000 to divide among the winners. We estimate we'll have about $2,000 in the pot at season's end after collecting trade and DL fees (please check rules and payout schedule on the website).

(By the way, this is a not-for-profit fantasy league. All money collected will be distributed to winners.)

SLPL goes international: This year's SLPL includes several teams from the great city of Leon, Mexico. If you're ever south of the border, be certain to check out the great new sports facilities at Booty Stadium, which is adjacent to the bullring. Chuy Chicle is proprietor of the bullring and the famous Leon baseball team known as "Zapata's Zapatos."

©2002 Tony Livernois and Joe Livernois. All rights reserved.