For The Champion In The Rotisserie League, Joy Is A Yoo-hoo Shampoo

Where were we?

" Ivan DeJesus, eight dollars."

That voice belonged to Bob Sklar, professor of Cinema Studies at New York University, and the man revisionist historians consider the true auteur of the Rotisserie League. It seems he devised a crude prototype of the league when he taught at the University of Michigan, where one of his students was the callow youth Daniel Okrent.

The only reason we could think of for Sklar's bid was that he was a member of the "Jews for DeJesus" movement. The Phillies' shortstop batted .239 in '82, before helping the Sklar Gazers finish ninth. In the league's first year the Gazers finished second, but since then they've fallen upon hard times. Sklar walks around a lot, muttering like Brando: "I coulda been a contender."

In June of '82, Sklar married psychologist Adrienne Harris, and they honeymooned with Mookie Wilson at a game at Shea Stadium. They became the first true Rotisserie couple last year when Adrienne assembled the Harris Diet-Doc Killers of the Junior Circuit.

Our spring training expedition to St. Pete has become quite a tradition. For four days in the latter part of March, we stay at the Don Ce Sar Hotel and descend like locusts upon Al Lang Field, devouring Rolloburgers and any tidbits we pick up about players. Those of us who can find a way to get on the field report back to the others with such exciting news as "Hub Kittle says Andy Rincon is going to win 20 games."

We are of a single purpose in Florida, and that is to improve our ball clubs. Trading activity is dependent on both the number of rum punches consumed and the amount of time left before we board the plane for home. Ask not for whom the steel band at poolside tolls, it tolls for thee.

"Craig McMurtry, one dollar."

That bid rode the dulcet tones of the sole female owner in the Rotisserie League, Valerie Salembier. Onetime publisher of Inside Sports, Salembier is now advertising director of USA Today .

It's a mistake to underestimate the Salembier Flamb�s, who finished in the money the first year and nearly crept up there again in '83. Valerie has a tendency to draft "cute" players. The cute McMurtry won 15 games for her.