[IBL] PAD Becomes OXY

[D G]

Hello all -

Thanks to the kind invitation and approval of Nelson, Sean, and Rusty --
and the ever-diminishing interest of my high-school-aged son and
college-aged daughter in the spending time with their parents -- I am going
to graduate from PAD caretaker and jump back into IBL as the owner of PAD.
The team will become the Occidental Millers, call sign OXY.

Many of you were owners when I was last in the league as owner of the
Minneapolis Millers, now more ably run by Billy as the Sparkle City
Sluggers.  I enjoyed IBL a great deal, and look forward to getting back
into the fray and enjoying this great game with you all.

I'd like to thank Nelson, very much, for his kindness during the
transition.  Nelson showed the same kindness to me as a new owner when I
joined IBL the first time as he has in recent months, and I know he's been
a very skilled owner.  I'm very lucky to inherit PAD.  Thanks Nelson.

As for the team name.  The Minneapolis Millers franchise was centered on my
home city of Minneapolis and its baseball heritage.  The Minneapolis
Millers were a baseball team in Minneapolis as far back the 1880s
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis_Millers>, and its mid-20th
century versions included stints by then minor leaguers Willie Mays and Ted
Williams.  The Millers' home park, Nicollet Field, no longer exists but
once stood a stone's throw from my home.  The "Millers" name derives from
Minneapolis' history as a center of flour milling, driven by fertile soil
and the water and transportation system provided by the Mississippi
River.  As I sit at my desk at work and look out the window, the signs for
the old Pillsbury and Gold Medal flour mills are still prominently seen
(although the mills themselves now contain condos and a museum).  In
recognition of this heritage, the youth baseball team my son played on and
I coached over the years was also called the Minneapolis Millers.

With a new IBL beginning, the Millers are moving to the Occident.  The move
and new team name maintain the franchise's California roots from PAD's Palo
Alto of Los Angeles tradition, while splicing them with its new Minneapolis
influence.

We have a sponsor, Grist and Toll <https://www.gristandtoll.com/>, an urban
flour mill located -- quite fittingly for this now-ramshackle franchise --
in a strip mall in Pasadena.  We celebrate Grist and Toll's prescient
anticipation of OXY's marriage of California roots to Minneapolis'
heritage  Befitting of OXY's imminent decline from the expert stewardship
of Nelson, OXY's front office is now located in the back of the strip
mall, furnished by a few bags of artisan flour and the high-brow family of
mice that feeds upon them.

OXY's stadium will be built in Eagle Rock, a few miles from the front
office.  The play on the field may be stale, but the flour biscuits served
at the concession stand won't be.  At least not on opening day.

Thanks again to Nelson, Sean, and Rusty for welcoming me back into IBL.  I
look forward to reconnecting with "old" owners and getting to know those
new to me.

Now back to mill....

- David
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