BBL INFO

Jake Smith - Commissioner

Myron DeVoto - Vice Commissioner
 

The BBL is a 16 team, continuous-ownership computer baseball league, playing APBA Baseball for Windows.  

The BBL was established in 1997 (using the 1996 season disk) under the name MVBA (Mississippi Valley Baseball Association). 

In 1997 the MVBA was originally began as a 18 team summer league.  Starting a new league always brings some growing pains and the MVBA was no exception.  Usually the growing pains consist of primarily member turnover but the MVBA had other experiences (scandals).  Our first scandal happened during MVBA's first season when we experienced theft.  Once the league was aware of the situation several BBL members formed together as one to overthrow the thief(ves). 

In 1998 the take over (lead by Jake Smith, who took over as Commissioner for the 1998 thru 2000 seasons) was complete.  The league was renamed the "Bleacher Bum League" (BBL) and continued on with a fresh start.  The league now known as the BBL was now to continue as an ethical, honest and fun league for everyone!...or that was what we thought.  In this 1998 season we continued as a 15 team league under our new league name, BBL, in which we held a supplemental draft to disperse the players fairly from the 3 teams that had been disbanded from the league.  The league continued in harmony until some suspicious activity was reported by members of the league.  After a lengthy investigation it was found that a few members in the league were not played on the same level playing field as everyone else and they were asked to leave.

In 1999 the league regrouped once again after our own 'Black Sox' scandal, this time as a 16 team league (as we now see today).  In 1999 most teams renamed their franchises looking for a fresh start.  This was the just the beginning of the BBL creating it's new identity under 2nd year commissioner Jake Smith.

The 2000 season gave us our 2nd season without any scandals (a streak that we are happy to say continues today).  This 2000 season gave Jake Smith what he had worked very hard for as his West L.A. Fadeaway became champions of the 2000 season.  After the 2000 season and 3 successful years Jake stepped down as commissioner of the BBL and handed over the resurrected league to Rocco Del Sesto.

The 2001 to present seasons have continued to thrive under the helm of the Rocco Del Sesto and we are happy to say that the BBL is stronger than ever.  We now can say that the scandals of our past have only strengthened the core of this fantastic league.

In 2007 we were sorry to see Rocco Del Sesto step down as the commissioner of the BBL to take on other responsibilities in "real" life.  We feel very thankful for the years, time and effort that Rocco put his heart and sole into the BBL.  All the best!

In 2007 Jake Smith once again stepped-up in the time of need and took control of the BBL and continued the stellar success of the BBL.

In 2008 Jake Smith decided to make some major changes in the BBL instituting (for the first time ever) the "Best Interest of the League" rule.  Modifications include the beginning process of making the BBL a summer league, addressing the competitive balance in the league by changing how the non-playoff teams draft, addressing the timing of how games are played on a weekly basis and addressed the issue of "two heads are better than one" by introducing Myron DeVoto as Vice Commissioner to the BBL.

These changes along with the great members that we have in the BBL will continue to make the BBL one of the best APBA Baseball leagues in the world!