Most everyone's favorite player, Darnell Uhland, debuted and broke our color barrier on May 7th, 2000. It should have been back in 1999, but Darnell kept putting it off, dragging his feet and leading many to question the amount of desire he'd bring to the league. Little did we know then that Darnell would eventually grow to arguably be not only the most reliable player in the league, not only one of the most funs guys to compete with or against, but one of the best players as well. After Darnell debuted in May of 2000, he showed up sporadically that season, finishing with only 40 ABs. He did win the Rookie of the Year award, but that was more a case of a sad rookie crop than Darnell blowing everybody away.

In 2001 however, Darnell was drafted by Terry Creighton to the Road Warriors and the transformation began. Despite terrible players and guys refusing to show up, Darnell kept playing, and kept smiling. The league rewarded his love in late 2002 with Dave Cain, and in 2003 Darnell drafted two more studs to complete the juggernaut. After two horrible seasons of losing and forfeits and Kempers/Registers/Sanzones/Keefers, Darnell had himself a team of horses. So grateful was he that he would routinely fly up from UC San Diego (school) to compete in weekend games with his boys. He never complained, he was always having fun, and you couldn't help but enjoy the game a bit more when playing opposite him, let alone with him. There seemed to be nothing he wouldn't do for the league. And as luck would have it, Darnell ended his career where it belonged: atop the league, holding the 'Series at the Sac' trophy.