Bridge To Victory

Congrats to “Sagamore Squad” for not just winning the week but nailing the tie breaker score on the button.  “Tony C” tied him in wins but was 4 points off on the total. The win vaulted “Sagamore Squad” up 5 spots into sole passion of 1^st place.  Poor “Tony C” with the same 12 win total he did jump 25 spots moving him all the way up to 79^th place. What does that tell us?  Well it tells me that “Sagaomore Squad”   has had a pretty good season ( in the season top 15 since week 4) and that “Tony C”    (First time out of triple digits since week one) has sucked all season.  But he did come within a FG of winning the week so he can hang his hat on that but he still sucks.

It was a unusual week, we are in the midst of the “bye” weeks   but for some reason no team had a bye this past week.  In weeks 5,6,7,8,9 teams had byes, no byes in week 10 then this weekend teams have the bye again.  I wonder why? Actually I really don’t care.  But .. This number may shock you but there are only 120 games left this NFL season! That counts playoffs (but not the all-star game err Probowl) One Hundred -Twenty-One games left… seems like yester … you get the pun … ! I have no research on this but I’d bet that  if anyone in the top 5 right now goes at worst 60-60 the rest of the way would finish in a top 15 money spot!

In my lifetime I have had the pleasure doing a shitload of travel. I’ve been all over the country and visited many cities. The one city I have never liked is Philly ..  we all know where this is gong but stay with me and let me vent on behalf of the 18 other people who hate Philly this week as well.  Every time I have to  Philly I dread it, when I am there I hate it, the only time I smile is when I  get to leave.  The people are rude, the chicks are ugly, the city is disgusting and the sports teams all suck. Their biggest claim to sports fame is Rocky who isn’t  even a real person but everyone in Philly thinks he is.  The fans talk about how great their teams are and shit yet in the last 28 season they have won ONE title, which is one less than the Florida Marlins!  Their “dream team” football team employees a convicted dog killer and  all the fans cheer for him and not that their season is going down the crapper they are all making excuses.   So as I am watching the game Sunday and seeing my Survivor dreams come crashing down along with 18 other players I took solace in knowing the entire city of Philly was also suffering the loss.   Really, never in the history of the Survivor has a team single handily committed genocide in one week like what we saw Sunday.  How bad was it, there are just 5 players left last season at the time there were 23 players left.  If Philly would have won Sunday guess how many players would still be alive? Yup, 23! That is how much Philly screwed up the normal set of events. So fuck Philly, Fuck Vick, Fuck Andy Reid and Fuck the Liberty Bell!

The Thursday night games are always an odd thing. Each week since the Thursday games started the number of players who have the favorite is always above 70%. I don’t have any data to back up my theory but I’d bet eh reason is people forget to get their picks in by Wednesday so they get stuck with the favorite.  Last night %78 took the JETS despite the face they played Sunday night I NY, had only a days  in a half of practice, had to fly across the country, play in high-altitude and were giving 4.5 points. It is easy to say now but I was very happy taking the points and climbing up a few spots higher in the top 15.

Right now is about as good as a time as ever to take a look at how the top end-of-season top 15 players from last year are doing this season (as of Wednesday)…  here is a hint, all but one player sucks this season. “Ed O” (7^th last season, 2^nd tight now) is the only top 15 player from last season ranked higher than 29^th.  “dflogue” who finished 12^th last season is 2^nd to last this season.

(*through November 16)

2010	Name	*2011
1st	Ghastly	44th
2nd	EdO	7th
3rd	The Dirty 712	88th
4th	The Highlanders	95th
5th	Clay Davis	63rd
6th	WVU PETE	43rd
7th	Drew	46th
8th	Emmado	Not Playing
9th	Bob W	81st
10th	Mike S	39th
11th	Gravy Train	29th
12th	dflogue	125th
13th	gigi	57th
14th	Bolt Fever	93rd
15th	Darby	66th

Other Tidbits

“frenchy”  currently has a dubious honor, he is the worst player at picking the Monday Night winner (3-8) and also last place to the tiebreaker average (13.30).     

Like past seasons the magic number each week for wins to achieve is 8, if you average 8 wins a week you are guaranteed a money spot.  The current season leader, “Sagamore Squad” is averaging 8.09 wins a week.  The current 15^th player, “Kasmire” is averaging 7.27 wins per week. The point, if you only half-suck each week you will win money!

In week 8, just 2-weeks ago we did not lose one player from the Survivor pool. The number of players alive stood at 36. Today that number is 5.

Can someone explain what the “Pool Experts”  page is?  I have no idea what the fuck it even means.  It says at the bottom the pool experts are 28-98 for the season, 22% ?? Experts? In what? I’m on the list and I have no idea why.

Today’s random fact of the week

Tim Tebow’s game winning TD run Thursday was the longest game winning TD run by a QB in the last minute of  the 4^th quarter in NFL history.

HE BE HUSTLIN'

Congrats to "I.B.HUSTLIN" for a solid 12 win week which is hard to pull off  when we are in the bye week of the season.  He jumped 27th spots into 15th place.  That was not the biggest jump of th week though, "Mustang" jumped 35 spots but he went from really shitty 86th place to just shitty 51st place.  Three other places jumped up into the top ten, "wtrman","Thadalicious", "EdO".  "Rayfab" leaped 5 spots to take over the top spot. The last place spot still belongs to "G.O" who at 50-80 has a lock on the basement.  It is beating a dead horse but if "G.O" took the exact opposite of his picks this season he would be in first-place.

One of the best things about writing this is I can make fun of people without an worry of getting beat up.  I mean, I know who knows who i am in the pool so the people who where I live I will go easy on  the rest I don't care about.  But The tough part is I also play in the pool, two spots in fact "05"and "-fenway617" so when I make fun of you idiots for fucking up I have to worry that I may also fuck up the same way throughout the season.  For example, I like to make fun of those people who fail to make ether picks either in the Survivor pool or Regular Pool.  Really, who is that stupid to pay for the season and not have the time to submit your picks. I also like to make fun of the idiots who do really-really bad each week. Like the dope "Dai-ma"   who pulled the first ever O-fer. This takes us to Sunday, 4:30pm . As I am tallying up my record for the early games I pull out my "-Fenway617"sheet and start to circle the games I won -  and I circled exactly 0 games. 7 games 7 losses. Panic! Fortunately I did get a few wins in the later games but it was a few hours of me trying to decided how I like my crow.

In the land of Survivor 11 people took their final bows this week. KC, OAK, PIT and PHI screwed those poor soles.  We are down to 26 players, 4 with no losses.  Last year at this time we had 29 players left, 9 with no losses so we are in the same area.  This week we will see more people go away, with just two games that have more than a 7pt spread the total number of players should drop into the teens.  Around this time, the mid-way point you can start to forecast playoff teams. Not this year. Look at the AFC alone, the East 3 teams with 5-3 records, the JETS who has a horrible offence, the PATRIOTS who couldn't stop a running nose and the BILLS who are as unstable as a Kardashian marriage.  The North, Cincy, BAl and PIT al with 6 wins, The west, thee teams at 4-4 and Denver a game back at 3-5.  Go ahead, pick the 4 AFC division winners and 2 wild card teams right now? I bet you ask 20 people you get 20 different answers. 

My picks -

EAST (NE, after Sunday they have an easy schedule and should finish 13-3 or 12-4)

NORTH (BAL, tough but they have the head to head on Pit and Cincy can't keep this going -can they)

SOUTH (HOU. by default)

WEST (SD, flip a coin but of the 4 teams they are prob the best of the worst)

WILDCARDS (PIT, NYJ)

Speaking of Survivor, I went 9 days without power - NINE DAYS! I knew it was a bad sign on day 6 when Governor Deval Patrick was walking wround my neighborhood with National Grid people.  Being without power, TV, internet for 9 days has to be harder than being on Survivor? Right?

Random NFL fact of the day … IF an NFL game every has to be forfeited the official score will be 2-0? Why 2? A Safety (2 points) is the only type of score that doesn’t get credited to any player.

Limited Resources, Not So Lucky!

Sorry folks but this one will be quick with no pictures. I live in Western, Mass and have not had power since Saturday night.  No one in the area had power until mid-week, homes or buisness (aka bars) so I spent football Sunday watching the scores on my Blackberry. I am in Panera catching up on things and have a little bit of time to get this post up.  

Congrats to "luckyone", getting the win outright - he didn't need no stinking tiebreaker score. I followed up my dynasty building weekly win with a shitty 5 win week this week. That dropped me 6 spots overall. "Luckyone" jumped 19 spots into 8th place with his big week.

This week was the old 1/2 point screw job. Ya know. When you win (or lose) a game by a mere half a point. Four games were decided ATS by a 1/2 point this week.  Only four players were on the winning side of all four games: "Boom Roasted",  "Roy", "Sleeve of Wizard", and "tabaccy" all were loving the 1/2 point screw job everyone else got.

In Survivor land we have now gone three weeks I a row with everyone making a pick - serious stuff.  Two players suffered their first loss and we said good bye to no one.

Random fact of the week I uncovered - in 2009 Indy was 14-0 going into week 16. They did not need to win either of the last two games, their spot was secure as the top seed. So they didn't try to win either game and lost both.  Since that 14-0 start they have gone 10-16 in the regular season.

Om Twitter @fenway617 if I ever get power I'll be there too,

A Dynasty is Born ...

DUH Winning!

While watching the final minutes of the Monday night game and it became obvious I would win the week I was bursting at the seems and couldn’t wait to get this newsletter up. Not just because I won but so much happened in the pool this weekend I could not wait. I even went so far as to text Ed at 1am Tuesday morning to check an unbelievable pool fact which I’ll talk about later….

First about this weeks winner ... me! And the start of my dynasty that will be as unstoppable as the 2007 Patriots.  I started to explain to my fiancee before the Monday night game what I needed the result to be in order to win the week. She doesn’t know a lot about football spreads, over/under, tiebreaker scores etc .. I explained to her that two things had to happen; I needed the combined score to be less than 37; AND I needed Jacksonville to either win or not lost by more than 7 points. For example I said "a final score of 20-14 would be great". She doesn’t get the whole point spread concept and thinks the spread is included in the over/under total. Our conversation got more complex until I just started agreeing with everything she said and went upstairs to watch the game alone. 

As the time ticked away and it became clear that I would win the week I was exited, did a celebratory shot of Zambuka (don't judge me) and for some reason she was excited too. A little too excited. She asked how much we won. When I said $125 her dreams of shoe shopping quickly faded and she lost interest. Sensing a chance to pile it on I further explained that I really only won $15 because the pool fee was $110. Then I took it a step deeper explaining I really didn’t win anything because I played two spots this season at $110 each so I am still in the hole overall. By then her attitude was indifferent and didn't understand why I was so excited about winning but whatever, girls are dumb.

The Monday night game was a horrible game to watch. If I didn’t have the weekly win riding on it I would have preferred to watch a Lifetime movie while drinking tea and hanging pictures.  I kept thinking about the two poor saps in the Survivor pool that took Baltimore (Vamp & Pickle).  The game looked like a gimmie on paper then they had to suffer though all this:

• Baltimore had no first downs in the 1^st half
• Baltimore had 1 net passing yards in 1^st half
• Joe Flaco completed a pass for negative -8 yards to HIMSELF
• There were 6 official fumbles and at least 2 others that were not called fumbles
• Jacksonville’s kicker Josh Scobee made 3 FG’s of 50+ yards ( a side note, a few years ago when I was single I had a one night stand with a local DJ who’s on-air name was "DJ Scooby" so I knew this was a good sign when he nailed that 3^rd FG)
• At one point Baltimore had 3^rd down and 25 at their own 30 yard line, they gained 12 yards but got called for holding. Jacksonville could have declined the penalty making it 4^th and 13 and made Baltimore punt BUT they had so little fear of Baltimore’s offense they took the risk and accepted the penalty making it 3^rd and 35 for Baltimore.  

Ugly sure ... but not for me it was a beautiful game.

About that unbelievable fact I had to text Ed about.... as I was looking through the final weekly standings one thing jumped right out at me, you know besides seeing “05” with the word “WINNER” next to it, was all the way at the bottom – last place for the week “Dai-ma” 0-13 … zero and thirteen H-O-L-Y S-H-I-T.. I immediately sent Ed a text to confirm what I thought was true. Since this pool started back in 1997 no one has ever pulled an 0-fer for a week in the regular season?  EVER!  And Ed confirmed it was true. Not only did “Dai-ma” not win a single game he also took 52 (the highest [no pun intended but intended] of the week) as the tiebreaker score for a game that had a over/under line at 37!  The 0-13 week dropped him from 14^th place all the way to 73^rd place, a 59 point drop! Smoke up my friend, puff the magic dragon ...

That takes us to poor old “Grampy”. When I looked at all the Survivor picks Sunday morning the teams  that I figured I’d see I did. Dallas and New Orleans. One pick looked like it didn’t belong; Miami! “Grampy” picked Miami. My first reaction was "idiot".  Then I thought, hmm maybe - genius? They are playing Denver who sucks. So this could be a brilliant pick. He can burn a non-playoff team which you have to do in order to last to the end and get a cheap win.  But "Grampy" already had one loss so this was a life or death pick risk. Further muddying the waters is Miami sucks, especially at home. They went 1-7 at home last season, they were 0-2 this season. Their coach sucks, their QB sucks, their fans suck and inexplicably it was Tim Tebow day at the stadium.  Who in case you didn’t know is the QB of the team they were facing in that very game!  Miami was honoring a QB that they are about to face for his college career in their home stadium, in the shadows of the U of Miami, despite the fact he played his college football 6 hours and 350 miles away at a rival college! What is next? UConn having Marcus Camby day?

BUT … Grampy’s faith almost paid off - almost!  .. Lets dig in but this game too was atrocious so I’ll just jump to the end ….. Miami was up 15-0 with 2:44 left. In order for Denver to win all the following things had to happen in the final 2:44 or Miami wins…

• Denver had to complete a 4^th down play
• Denver had to score a TD
• Denver had to make the extra point
• Denver had to do an onside kick
• Denver had to recover the onside kick
• Denver had to score a TD
• Denver had to complete the 2 point conversion

Check - Check -  Check -  Check -  Check -  Check - Check

But Miami still had a chance in OT, but two possessions 0 points. Denver drove the ball past midfield then called upon their FG kicker, a guy who had missed two FGs of about 40 yards earlier in the game to make a 52 yard FG in OT  - he nailed it - game over! Denver wins on Tim Tebow day in Miami!  Mercy!

Overall the top three in the season pool remained unchanged and I ... “05” jumped up 14 spots into 6^th place.  The bottom three also remained unchanged.

Today’s random fact of the week… 
In St. Louis, if you go watch a Rams game the cost is $9 for a 12 oz. draft beer, the most expensive in the NFL...  And

I won the week! In case you haven't heard!

Yes, this is a picture of me in my softball shirt

An Appetizer or Meal

The only thing I enjoy more than winning a week myself is when  someone else wins with a username I can work with. And lets face it I can count on one finger the number of weeks I have won in the past five seasons so when a usable names win it is an treat.  This week "Riblet" took home the bacon  ... ribs with a 10 win week. It was a vanilla, nothing all that great week, not so bad week for most people our little pool. Of the 126 players 87 players had between 7-10 wins so almost 75% of us were withing 3 games of winning.  If you started the week in the top 9 you finished the week in the top 9. The only player who dropped out of the top 10 was "uncle billy" which is just a really creepy nickname to use in this pool. Last seasons overall biggest loser  and season last place "winner" "Tabaccy" continues his impressive turn around, he  is up 2 spots into 8th place.  This begs the question, if "Tabaccy" finishes the season in the top 10 after being dead last a year ago is that the greatest accomplishment ever in this pool?  Last season he said he was trying to lose and he did and now he is trying to win and he is. I need a ruling on this and I need it now!


Meanwhile the "Suck for Luck" campaign is going strong. Three teams win no losses,   five teams with one win  so I can leave my shoes on and count,eight teams have a combined 5 wins and we are at the 40% point of the season.

In Survivor last night the said farewell to SPOILER ALERT 22 year-old "Mikayla Wingle" and you probably don't get why this is important.  Besides the fact she has a really cool name Mikayla plays  for the Tampa Breeze of the Lingerie Football League?  Has been in playboy and was the hottest girl on the island where you have nothing to do but talk and look at each other.  If I was sent to an island and could bring three things with me Mikayla would  be one of the items.  And they vote her off.  Barbaric!

But I'm not on a island I am here playing in our Survivor version.  Once again this week we lost three players who choose not to make a pick.  But what is worse, not making a pick or picking a team twice which is what "BGW" did which gave him loss #2 and an early shower.  Really, at least the three people who didn't make a pick could have an excuse but what excuse do you have for actual picking a team that you just picked two-weeks ago. Loser!  But we still have 40 players left, 8 with no losses.

Random fact of the week, Tom Brady has not lost a home regular season game since November 12, 2006. Think about that - 2006. Yea sure he is 2-2 at home in the playoffs in that same time frame so save your facts they don't work for my point.

This is a rudimentary list of things that happened in 2006:

The Celtics sucked, so did the Bruins ... Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby and was still alive .. so was Anna Nicole Smith (they both died the same day in 2007).  GW Bush was president, Tony Blair was PM. Curt Gowdy, Don Knotts, James Brown, Red Auerbach, Ed Bradley, Kirby Puckett, Gerald Ford, Aaron Spelling all died in 2006. Steve "the Crocodile Hunter" Irwin  took on and lost a battle with a sting ray and died in 2006. Raiders owner Al Davis who also died but no one realized it until this week. In 2006 our little NFL pool had 68 players, Drew took home the top spot and won a cool $1,100. I ...  yes me ..  won the Survivor Poll and became the first and until last season only sole winner of the Survivor pool.  I clinch it in week 13 when Chicago beat Tampa Bay in OT.  And Finally in 2006... Giselle was still banging Leonard DiCaprio and Brady was tagging Bridget Moynahan and not yet a father.

On twitter @fenway617

Where Has The Time Gone

My plan was to do one post each-week but at the start of the season it is too vanilla. It woudl take me days to pour over everything and quite frankly I was working on my thesis so my time was limited.  As you probably guessed or hoped my thesis is not in English, literature and any discipline close to any of them.  I am still working on it, almost done. So between that, getting engaged and work something had to go and this blog was cut for a while. Now that the season is past the quarter pole and the survivor pool has gone to shit I figured I'd chime in.    Unlike last season there will be no post blog Nomar final words, I think you now understand why he is the greatest SS in Red Sox history so no need to drive the point home any more. 

Speaking of the team formally known as the Red Sox. On the day they were knocked out of the playoffs I received my playoff tickets in the mail. One could argue they were knocked out of the playoffs on September 1st but lets keep it official here.

I am playing this season under two user-names "05" and "-Fenway617" why the -(dash) in front of the user-name? With "05" being at the top of the list I was hoping the added - woudl make "Fenway617" up there as well.  The hope was on Sunday's when I print my pick sheet I just had to pring one page but that plan failed. -Fenway617 is on page two!  Ed made a foolish bet with me this baseball season, we each took 4 players and the person with the most total HR's won so he is now covering 25% of my entry fee so why not play two spots. By the way I won the bet 100 - 58. He was doomed from the get-go when I saw he took JD Drew.

I am not faithful to this NFL pool, I do play in another survivor only pool as well. That one is single elimination.  I was knocked out of that pool this week with the shitty Giants screwing me. I wasn't alone.  The ironic part is in that pool only 8 players remain, in our survivor pool only 8 players have no losses! How succinct. 42 people took the NY Giants this week!  Crazy! 44 players remain, 8 have no losses. I got a feeling this isn't lasting to the playoffs this season.  We also continued the streak going of at least one player no making a pick thus getting a loss. 

The odd fact I uncovered is last season's survivor pool winner Boston Rob  - "Angry Mike" who took home a cool $1,070 was eliminated in week two. And to add to the more bizarre part he was eliminated after he failed to make a pick in week two!  So his title defense lasted two-weeks!

While trying to come up with content for the regular pool I thought it woudl be a good time to look at last years final money winners and the spot they finished and the spot they are in after week 5.

So I present in order how the top 15 finished last season with their current stand on the left.  Note that there are 126 people playing this season!

1st : Ghastly 96th Place
2nd: EdO 23rd Place
3rd: The Dirty 712 106th Place
4th: The Highlanders 24th Place
5th: Clay Davis 95th Place
6th: WVU PETE 26th Place
7th: Drew 68th Place
8th: Emmado (not playing or under a new username)
9th: Bob W 70th Place
10th: Mike S 29th Place
11th: Gravy Train 42nd Place
12th: dflogue 126th Place (DEAD LAST) but he is in a money spot at least.
13th: gigi 37th Place
14th: Bolt Fever 98th place
15th: Darby 51th Place

Not one player in the top 20, only player in the "money" is the last place "dflogue".  Last years final dead last spot went to "Tabaccy" who claimed last year he was "trying" to lose, now this season he sits in 10th place. Guess he is now "trying" to win.

My point? I don't have one, it is early still. But there is a 24 win spread between the #1 spot and the last spot and with the NFL in the bye week part of the schedule there are less games each week so no time like the present to start collecting wins and moving up.  Now  please let me be, it is beer, chicken and video game time - Terry said it was OK!

As far as today's random fact ....  Green Bay lost 6 games last season but they never trailed by more than 7 points in  any of the 20 games they played!

HaHa August 17 Preseason Blog

Follow me on Twitter (@fenway617)

It had to start somewhere this season . Why not at 2:20am on 8/17/2011 after I have has 4 pops of zambuca which helped me wash down an Ambien. Don't worry, I am OK. Or if I am not this blog post will be worth money tomorrow.  This is what is great of just being my own boss here. Do what I want to do. Of course I don't get paid shit.  But that's OK, it is fun. And I didn't really booze with Ambien, it just sounded so Hollywood to say it.   Other big events to happened on August 17th.

• 2008 Michael Phelps wins 8 Gold Medals in 2008 Olympics
• 2000 The Democratic party nominates Al Gore to run for president
• 1998 President Bill Clinton testifies before a grand jury investigating his conduct and admits an 'inappropriate relationship' with Monica Lewinsk
• 1980 George Brett goes 4-for-4, raising his batting average to .401

 If you followed me last year you know I am a Nomar fan. I still feel he is one of the best Red Sox players ever, I'm not going to argue that here though. But I do wear #5 in softball for him.   But I can announce that I will not end this or any future blogs with a Nomar quote like last year. Nomar sent me  and asked me to stop so I always listen to my god. So I need a new idea this year to end this silly thing.

This blog has evolved a great deal.  I find awesome is people actually read it despite my butchering of the English language.  If readership ever drops I thought about posting a nude picture of Brady's kid to grab some attention but someone beat me to that.

Does anyone care about the preseason? I thought I did, really I did.  Patriots 1st preseason game last Thursday. I was actuallty looking forward to it. So the game comes on, 5 min later my girlfriend screams from the shower "Only cold water" I knew what that meant, we ran out of oil. My fault, I knew it was very low. I was watching the stock markets and oil prices all week and hedging my bet for a bigger drop in oil prices.. opppps. It was now 10pm, she is col. I really want sex so I need to spring into action.  Off to the gas station I go, 6 gallons of diesel in the container.  Heading back home. Chug, Chug, Chug, Chug, Chug, the tank has the six gallons. It fires up slow, I bleed the lines and we are good to go. I feel so gettto but hey we got hot water. The next day I had the tank filled.

So back to the preseason, I saw one play before the oil went dry so I DVR the game.  By the timegot to watch it later that night I completely lot interest. Did I really want to FF trough 2nd and 3rd string players. I stood there looking at it until I finally clicked "delete" & "yes"to confirm".. and it was gone. I feel like I missed nothing.

As far as this blog goes. I will be around more. I will be writing a lot about folks in the pool but I'll mix in random stuff as well.  I am wrapping up grad school so my thesis will be done soon. Anyone out there hiring? I'll need a job after my thesis and my MS in IT. Follow me on Twitter to see when this thing is updated.

Down The Stretch They Come ....

After 266 games for a handful it comes down to one game, a game that can be the difference between a few hundred dollars for some or nothing at all. Heading down the final furlong we have 17 players vying for the 15 money spots. For “Ghastly” it is simply smooth sailing, he clinched first place last week.  What is more impressive; “Ghastly” with a 6 game lead into the final weekend or “tabaccy” with an umm… 10 game lead on last place?  I know I have beaten the  “tabaccy” sucks at picks all season but it is noteworthy for me. She (it can’t be a guy can it?) has spent 14 straight weeks in last place or second to last place and 12 straight weeks in last place.  The highest season rank she was at is 89^th place. 

In the spirit of transparency, I am writing this on a Friday late afternoon after maybe 3 or 5, 6 Captain & Cokes (with a lime) drinking home alone well I am with my dog “Fenway” so I am not really alone, I have “Fenway” and the Captain with me…   the moral of the story, if the facts following this are wrong, blame the Captain.

For many, so much is at stake in the Super Bowl, a closer look at the current standings what is at stake for each player. The Super Bowl will be big for players, in terms of picking the winner AND picking a tiebreaker score.

- "EdO" Can clinch first place with a win OR a loss by "The Dirty 712" ... "EdO's" tiebreaker score is worse than "The Dirty 712" so he will likely need to finish a game up to seal 2nd place. 

- "The Dirty 712" has to look behind him at "The Highlanders" and "Clay Davis", both just are just a game back.  "The Dirty 712" can finish anywhere from 2nd place to 6th place, just a difference of $550 in the money standings, no biggie ...

- "The Highlanders" and "Clay Davis" are both battling for 3rd place, both have 150 wins. 

- Then there is "WVU Pete" with 149 wins who with a lot of help can move up to 4th place or finish as low as 9th.

- "Drew", "Bob W", "Emmado" all have 148 wins and can finish anywhere from 6th to 12th place.

- "Mike S", "Gravy Train", "dflogue" sit at 147 wins are all are looking at a finish between 7th and 12th place.

The 13th - 15th spots are where it gets interesting, five players going after three money spots.

- The current 13th spot "Darby" seems to be in real good shape to finish in the money, with 145 wins and a great tiebreaker average (11.5) even with a loss in the Super Bowl that should be enough to stick in the top 15.

- "gigi" owns the 14th spot now with 145 wins and with a a so-so tiebreaker of 12.8, all "gigi" and "Darby" have to do is pick the winner in the Super Bowl and they clinch a money spot.  Even if both lose they are in good shape based on the tie breaker average to stay in the top 15.

The 15th spot is where it gets interesting, "Bolt Fever" owns it now and can clinch it with a win OR a loss by "rhonda b" and "Muffin Tops".  It would be prudent for "Bolt Fever" to just win because should he lose and either "rhonda b" and "Muffin Tops" (or both) win "Bolt Fever" will be SOL because of his horrible tiebreaker score of 14.8 he would almost certainly lost if it came to that.

That is where things stand, 17 players for 15 spots.   The moral of this for next season, the tiebreaker is just as good as a win so taking it serious each week can be a huge difference in the standings.

And speaking of the 16th player "rhonda b", talk about a weak bullpen closing things out, we are  talking John “Way Back” Wasdin stuff with her … from week 3 to 13 she was in the season top 10 each week except in week 9 when she fell to 13th.  After back to back weeks 10 and 11 in 9th place the floor caved in, dropping in consecutive weeks in the season rankings starting with week 14: 21th place, 26^th place, 29th place to finish the regular season. Yikes! Now she is just fighting to finish 15^th place.  

 Over in the middleman prize, as you know the player who finishes in 62nd place wins money as well and the current 62nd place person is ... NO ONE!  Yup, the standings look like this:

60 Smacky               135  131   0   50.8    16.6   20     266     63      + 3
61 Irishman74           134  132   0   50.4    11.7   20     266     58      - 3
61 Underdog             134  132   0   50.4    11.7   20     266     52      - 9
63 TMac                  134  132    0   50.4    11.9   20     266     59      - 4
64 05Nomar              134  132   0   50.4    12.3   20     266     65      + 1

I'll say no more! Ok I will,  there is a 3^rd tiebreaker, I know this because I helped write the rules so “Underdog” is 62^nd.  But even though I hate this prize … hellfire, save matches, fuck a duck and see what hatches, I’d love to win it. But I don’t know how?

My English major girlfriend is hovering around, she wants to proof this before I post it .. WTF, go away and get me another drink. She hasn’t proofed one thing I wrote all season all season and not we are at the end she wants to get involved.. …. chicks!

Super Bowl Prediction. I hate Pitt, I liked them last week because I hate the Jets more so I rooted for them, then promptly took a hot shower and scrubbed myself until there was blood. Plus I have been to Wisconsin many times, I spent many of weekends at Lake Geneva, WI and there isn’t much besides drinking and football so Go packers.

GB 30

Pitt 27

And those of you who do win, and even if you don’t make sure you tip the pool commish. He busts his ass and pays out of pocket for server and hosting fees. He’d never ask but I am .. tip you bastards.

Nomar Fact of the Week

Nomar wore the #5 in the major leagues except for his first 3 months with the A's when he wore #1 (which is fitting) . Matt Holliday already had #5 but was traded in the summer so Nomar took #5 back.

Take a Knee Ghastly Becuase...

It's over .. "Ghastly" has won the 2010/11 NFLPOOL championship. With a five game lead and only three games left he can coast his way to a higher tax bracket.   How impressive was his season, look at these numbers:

• He spent the last 8 weeks in the top spot
• The lowest he was this season was 8th
• He spent 14 of the 19 weeks in the top 3
• He had 6, 10+ win weeks
• He only had 2 weeks when he was under .500

His weekly average win total was 8.21 which I said at the start of the season is where you needed to be to have a shot at the money spots.

The rest of look like this: Edo has clinched a top 5 spot and The Dirty 712, Clay Davis, The Highlanders, Bob W, and WVU Pete have all clinched a money spot.  The rest, from 8th place to 15th place is still up in the air.  Spots 8 - 13 have 146 or 145 wins each while spots 14 and 15 have 144 and 143 wins. That 15th and final money spot will be fun to watch, Currently JoeF defied the odds (my odds) and climbed 15 spots in two weeks from 30th place to 15th place after a 3-1 finish this week following his 4-0 finish last week.  His tiebreaker score is a good 12.6 and the players tied with him in wins all have weaker scores but lurking win behind is Lone Wolf (pun intended) with an outstanding 10.6 tiebreaker.  A 2-0 weekend by Lone Wolf would put great pressure on JoeF because there is no way JoeF wins a tiebreaker shootout with him. ENZO is also sitting there with Lone Wolf at 142 wins but with a 14.0 tiebreaker ENZO needs a miracle finish to leap into the top 15. 

As far as me and the middle man prize (62nd), I went 1-3 this week and dropped to 65th place, Stella who went 2-2 now occupies 62nd place - whatever.

My playoff predictions last week here went 3-1, I whiffed on the NE/NYJ game but who didn't.  This week I'll nail both of them!

GB 31

CHI 13

NYJ 14

PIT 24

(if I were NY I'd be really scared of kicker Nick Folk this week)

And as a Patriots fan the AFC CG is a tough one to pick a side to root, I can't say either team I like but the way I see it is IF one of those teams has to win the Super Bowl who would I rather have it be? It has to be Pitt because most Jets fans are Yankees fans and the Yankees are douches just like their fans.  Rooting for a team in this game is like rooting for a casino in Blackjack but I have to root for someone or I can't watch. Plus if Pitt wins that will make back to back years the Jets made it that far and lost which will start the rumblings that they are a bridesmaid team.  But anyway .. I am rooting for GB to win the super bowl.  So Pit and GB this week and GB in two weeks (with Chi as the alternate team). 

Nomar Fact of the week

Nomar is the first player ever to hit three home runs over two consecutive innings as he did so in the first two frames of a Red Sox 22-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on July 23, 2002 (Also tied a major league record for most home runs over two days with five as he had hit two against the New York Yankees the previous day)

There's No Place Like Home ... Unless ..

....You were the home team last weekend .. four games, four road wins! 

Throughout the season I usually lead this with a congrats to the weekly winner but in the playoffs with so few games you won't get credit for winning a week here however it was amazing that only one player went undefeated this week, "JoeF". I'd thought I'd chalk that up to the Seattle effect and no one taking them but more people took Seattle (35) than took the Jets (31) and KC (26). 

The big congrats goes to "Angry Mike" who won the Survivor pool and has now joined elite company (me) as we are now the only two players to ever win the Survivor pool solely!   I'd like to point out that when I won it a few year's ago (under the name 22) I locked it up in week 13 but "Angry Mike" was equally impressive when you consider that not only did he win it he still had 2 of the 8 playoffs teams alive available to pick (NE and GB) so if he had to he could have made a pick this week.  Congrats young man and don't forget to claim your winnings with the IRS! 

The regular pool with seven games left only two money spots have been clinched, "Ghastly" is assured of at least a top 5 finish and "tabaccy" has clinched last place. Outside of that the rest of the top 15 is still in flux.   After this weekend things will settle down for sure and we will have a good idea of who will make up the top 10 spots at least.  The last money spot, 15th place  has 142 wins (Bolt Fever) but "Bolt" has a terrible tiebreaker score (15.2) so that spot is shaky at best. Especially with four players sitting behind him with 141 wins and all four have superior tiebreaker scores to "Bolt".  After that we have two players with 140 wins and five with 139 wins. Those five will need help, like go undefeated this week and hope the players above them go 0-4 or 1-3 to have a chance at a money spot.  Last week I boldly predicted that if a player was not in the top 26 they were SOL, well "JoeF" took it personal and went 4-0 and jumped 10 spots from 30th place to 20th place, he is one of the 140 win players alive. "JoeF" does have a shot at a money spot, he has a decent enough tiebreaker (12.7) and if he follows up last weeks 4-0 with a another 4-0 he could jump into the top 15.  A 10 spot jump is rare in the playoffs.

One money spot I have not mentioned all season because as I talked about a lot last season I hate is the "Middle Man Prize" basically it is like playing the lottery, there is no strategy involved. The dead middle is 62nd place this season. Basically you could go 4-0 and be screwed or go 0-4 and be OK. I fought to have that prize eliminated and use the prize money elsewhere but it fell on deaf ears.  With that said, if the season ended today the player in the 62nd spot is .. well .. me! Karma, maybe? I have no idea how to maintain that spot, do I try to lose? Do I try to win? Do I not make a pick?  I kind of wish I didn't look and see me in 62nd place, there are eight players with the same amount as wins as me (131) I just have the 62nd spot because my tiebreaker score is 4th best of those 8 players !!! Pray for me.

Seven games left this season ...

My weekend predictions to fill more space ... 

BAL 16
PIT 20

GB 21
ATL 20

SEA 17
CHI 27

NYJ 17
NE 38

Nomar Fact of the Week
Nomar's career playoff batting average is .321