BUTLER TWP — While laying in a hospital bed, Tom Green uttered the name that started it all.

Dwight Gooden.

The then-dominant New York Mets pitcher became the first-ever selection of the Tommy John Fantasy Baseball League.

That was in 1985. The league is still going. Green, John Grenci, Randy Cavalero and Don Noullet — all Butler graduates and area residents — have been in the league for its duration. Grenci and Green formed the league five years after their high school graduation.

“We were big baseball fans and I was always into statistics,” Grenci said. “I approached Tom about the idea ... I thought it’d be fun.

“He knew people who would be interested and it didn’t take long to put it together.”

The league was named “Tommy John” as a combination of their names, which happened to be the name of the legendary major league pitcher.

The league has also stood the test of time.

“It was harder back in the beginning, but that’s why it was fun,” Cavalero said. “Nobody but true baseball fans did this.

“The word ‘fantasy’ wasn’t even coined when we started. It was called Rotisserie, but we just called it The Baseball Draft.”

Green was in the hospital with a staph infection, resulting from a knee injury while playing softball. He received the first pick of the league’s first draft purely by chance.

“It’s not like anyone was feeling sorry for him,” Grenci said. “We all wanted that first pick.”

The draft is held annually in Green’s basement. A lifelong Pirates fan, he has numerous bobbleheads and Pirates memorabilia in his basement.

“It’s a neat place to talk baseball,” Cavalero said.

Some of the league participants met through playing softball together.

Green and Noullet have been best friends for years.

“We were each other’s best man at our weddings,” Noullet said.

Noullet is the only league participant to never win the championship.

The Tommy John League drafts only National League players, allows each team to keep 12 players from the previous season, and consists of nine teams with 25 players on each squad.

“The other guys kid me about never winning it,” Noullet said. “But secretly, I think they’re kind of rooting for me.”

With limited access to the American League 30 years ago, the league founders decided to stick with National League players.

“Being in a National League city, those were the players we followed,” Green said. “Before the Internet came along, I did all of the scoring for the league myself.

“It took two or three hours, once a month, to figure it all out by hand. But I’m a baseball fan. I loved it.”

The only access to box scores when they started the league was the Sunday newspaper, USA Today, Baseball Digest of the Sporting News.

“Those publications were huge back then. We couldn’t wait for them to come out,” Green recalled. “Now that stuff is everywhere.”

Green’s daughter, Amanda, helped supply chips and beverages as a little girl for the draft during its early years.

She eventually joined the league and won it during her only year of participation.

Jim Ford took over her team two years ago and has won the league both times.

Other league members are Dave Karenbauer, Pat Noullet, Tom Angert and Steve Hrip. Each has been in the league for at least 15 years.

“We’ve had very little turnover,” Grenci said. “We’re nine laid-back guys and we’ve never had an argument in this league in 30 years.

“The entry fee is cheap and everyone is dedicated to just having fun with it.”

Cavalero said the annual draft is “a good excuse to stay in touch.”

A traveling plaque — with each winner’s name and year of victory engraved on it — is given to the league champion every year.

“I only won the league once. John moved and misplaced the plaque that year, so I never did really reap that reward,” Cavalero said

“No big deal.”

The league itself is.

“We all love baseball and it gets us together every year,” Noullet said. “We poke fun at each other. Some show up at the draft with all kinds of notes, others are un-organized.

“It’s a blast. I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”