Here's a little more about this particular league. If nothing else, I think you and sini will at least find it interesting.
I'm guessing it has to be the longest continuously on-going league in Chicago. I think it started in 1982 and has been going since then. It had a dual scoring format with a schedule of head-to-head games including playoffs, as well as an overall points champion. I always considered the points title more prestigious. I haven't played in more than a few years. I think my first season was 1988. I know my first draft pick was Dwight Gooden. At the time this league had a certain cachet. It predated all the online stuff and guys could actually sell a team for cash.
I got my team from two friends who had two teams in the league at the time. One was a Sox fan and the other was a Cub fan. The team was called the Comigley Cox. It had previously been owned by a guy named Jim. When Jim owned it it was called the Urban Shockers. The league always had a midseason redraft where you could pick up free agents based on the standings. One year Jim drafted a bunch of Dodgers. The next day he went to the store bought six bags of groceries, came home and blew his fucking brains out. When I took over the team I renamed it the Suicide Squeeze in Jim's honor. That might seem mean, but it was in keeping with the spirit of the league. I think Jim would have found it funny. Bart Giamatti died the same year. The league's year end banquet had a program that featured pictures of Jim and Bart on the cover and the title, "QABL Loses Two Giants".
During the 1989 Cub playoffs some channel sent a news crew into Quencher’s to do some interviews. At Fullerton and Western it was pretty far from Wrigley, but I guess they were looking for a different angle or all the bars by the park had already been staked out by other reporters. So the reporter was interviewing my friend Rickey and he started by saying to the camera, “We’re here at Quencher’s, and though it’s a couple miles from Wrigley Field it’s loaded with diehard fans of the Cubs and, more importantly, diehard baseball fans.” Then the cameraman swung his shot to the top of the piano which was covered by baseball books including a couple Baseball Abstracts and the Baseball Encyclopedia. The reporter turned back to Rickey and said, “I assume those books are to settle any baseball arguments that might arise.” Rickey took a long pull on his beer and said, “Ackshully, da guy dat died jus’ lef’ dose here before he killed himself.”
The league had some very specific rules. Bonuses were a big key to scoring. For example there was a three-hit bonus, a four-RBI bonus, and a ten-strikeout bonus for pitchers. You could list an “A” and a “B” starting pitcher. If the “A” guy didn’t pitch, you would get the points from the “B” guy as long as he started on Friday or Saturday.
There was also a bonus for a cycle. This caused immense controversy when Kelly Gruber stopped at second on what was surely his second triple of the game and the guy who had him got the bonus. Eventually, it was changed to a total bases bonus.
I remember having Jim Abbot on the bench when he pitched his no-hitter which was worth giant points. I wasn’t even too angry about it. I remember saying, “I don’t like Abbot. He only has one hand.” That earned me the nickname, “The Director of Sensitivity”. I did get the points from the game where Pedro took the perfecto into extra innings. But I lost the no-hitter bonus when he gave it up. I think the biggest game ever scored by a position player was that Cardinal third baseman- his name escape me- who hit the two grand slams off Nomo. My friend Mike had pitched Nomo that day too.
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