6. As a relatively new member of the Baltimore Hawks, I’d like to write my Offseason Task this season about a part of their history. The event I had in mind was the hiring of Buttersqauch rather than Amidships by Huskies for the GM spot. I don’t remember the exact season this took place, only that it was around Season 25 and ended up having a massive impact on not just the Baltimore Hawks, but the Austin Copperheads as well. The story starts with Huskies looking for a replacement GM to partner with to lead the Hawks. The hire that most people expected at the time was Amidships, who had joined the league in S23 and very quickly had become one of the most sought after new users in both the DSFL and ISFL (then NSFL) drafts after dazzling as a waiver pickup for the Tijuana Luchadores. In addition to Amidships, Baltimore had drafted Tonzy, another new, highly sought after user that quickly developed a close relationship with Amidships. The stage seemed to be set for these two to be the new future faces of the franchise. However in a surprise move, instead of going with the star homegrown talent, Huskies elected to poach the user Buttersqauch from the San Jose Sabercats instead. While Buttersqauch wasn’t necessarily a bad choice at the time, as he had just begun his second career in the league and thus had already established himself, it’s always surprising when a team looks outside for it’s replacement GM despite having qualified homegrown applicants. What happened next was a tale of two teams.
On the Amidships front, he was soon after traded to Austin, and Tonzy was traded to the same team not long after. The two would go on to become key members of that team and have an extremely successful run. They integrated well with already existing leadership at the team, and attracted various friends and family and helped continue and create a culture that I still see shades of to this day, despite multiple general managers coming and going from the team since then.
On the other hand, things wouldn’t be quite so rosy for Baltimore. Not long after hiring Butters, Huskies stepped down and was replaced by Starboy. The two absolutely tried their best, but as an outside observer there was always the sense that something wasn’t quite right behind the scenes. Namely the Hawks began to suffer key free agent loss after key free agent loss, making it impossible to find continued success as a team. While there was definitely an aspect of it becoming a feedback loop where poor performance led to departures, which led to poor performance, which led to departures, and so on, many of those that departed also didn’t paint the Hawks locker room in a particularly positive light.
Things came to a head later when Starboy stepped down as GM of the Hawks. While Buttersqauch was still in the process of looking for a new GM partner, ISFL head office launched an investigation into what was actually going on with the team. While I’m not sure the specifics of what the investigation found, it resulted in Buttersqauch stepping down from his GM role, leaving the team with no permanent leadership. Two users who were already on the team would be named as interim GMs for the remainder of the season who would work with HO to eventually name Frick Nasty, a former Colorado GM, and HallMonitor, a former Philadelphia GM, as the full time replacements, who would essentially tear what was left of the team down to start again.
I’ve always thought of this event as one of the biggest “what if” events of the league, since the decision to hire Buttersqauch over Amid resulted in both Austin becoming a sort of textbook definition of stability in the seasons since, while Baltimore ended up going through multiple major changes as a direct result.
On the Amidships front, he was soon after traded to Austin, and Tonzy was traded to the same team not long after. The two would go on to become key members of that team and have an extremely successful run. They integrated well with already existing leadership at the team, and attracted various friends and family and helped continue and create a culture that I still see shades of to this day, despite multiple general managers coming and going from the team since then.
On the other hand, things wouldn’t be quite so rosy for Baltimore. Not long after hiring Butters, Huskies stepped down and was replaced by Starboy. The two absolutely tried their best, but as an outside observer there was always the sense that something wasn’t quite right behind the scenes. Namely the Hawks began to suffer key free agent loss after key free agent loss, making it impossible to find continued success as a team. While there was definitely an aspect of it becoming a feedback loop where poor performance led to departures, which led to poor performance, which led to departures, and so on, many of those that departed also didn’t paint the Hawks locker room in a particularly positive light.
Things came to a head later when Starboy stepped down as GM of the Hawks. While Buttersqauch was still in the process of looking for a new GM partner, ISFL head office launched an investigation into what was actually going on with the team. While I’m not sure the specifics of what the investigation found, it resulted in Buttersqauch stepping down from his GM role, leaving the team with no permanent leadership. Two users who were already on the team would be named as interim GMs for the remainder of the season who would work with HO to eventually name Frick Nasty, a former Colorado GM, and HallMonitor, a former Philadelphia GM, as the full time replacements, who would essentially tear what was left of the team down to start again.
I’ve always thought of this event as one of the biggest “what if” events of the league, since the decision to hire Buttersqauch over Amid resulted in both Austin becoming a sort of textbook definition of stability in the seasons since, while Baltimore ended up going through multiple major changes as a direct result.