Sports, Sports, Sports, Sports

It was a full week of sports for me, in as much I will be updating you on the three sports-related activities I'm involved in.  In related news, the Red Sox secured the AL East pennant for just the 7th time in team history and yesterday the Gophers football team beat San Jose State to go to 4-0 against non-conference teams.  They seem like a good team this year, but the U of M has historically played pathetically within their conference. Here's hoping they buck the trend.

I bowled last week after having one week off to take a business trip to Winnipeg. I'm not yet in bowling condition, but that didn't stop me from getting my own ball.  My nickname among some of my friends and colleagues is "Frank the Tank," and I've taken a step to secure its permanence.

My scores from last week weren't all that great.  Maybe with the new ball, I'll show some improvement.  It's heavier than I'm used to, so it's going to take some time, but I have until April to build up some strength.

September 19, 2013

Game 1

62, 61, S81, X, 71, 81, X, 7/, S62, 6- = 109

Game 2

52, X, 81, 9/, 9-, X, X, X, S72, 53 = 156

Game 3

9-, 8-, 8/, 9/, 9-, 9-, S7-, 71, 9/, 3/8 = 119

Series Total:    384

Series Avg.:     128

Season Avg.:    127

Season Hdcp.:  65

Last Sunday, my Fantasy Football team came thisclose to winning its first game (out of two week played so far).  I was about 25 points shy of my opponent, but had my best receiver playing on Monday night.  I figured if he got 8 catches for 140 yards and a touchdown, that would give me enough points for the win; and this stat line wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for him.  He ended up with 6 catches for 41 yards and I fell well short of victory.  On the plus side, this week I play against the only other team at 0-2, so my odds are quite good.  Whether at winning or losing, I’m not sure.

In the football pool, I picked 8 of 16 games correctly.  I’m now in 7^th place of 12 players and 8 points away from first place.  The fact I’m having a slow start on all my seasons is an understatement.

Football Just Isn't My Game

In so many ways.

I was a scrawny youth and was typically picked on by the football players in high school. And the hockey players.  And the wrestlers.  Some members of the tennis team.  As I got older, I would attend my alma mater's home games (JMU won the Div I-AA championship in 2004, an event I watched on ESPN2 while in Phoenix) and watch the pros on TV Sundays and Mondays, mostly for the social aspect (i.e. recovering from hangovers with my college friends).

My choice of pro teams to root for varied.  My first favorite team was the Pittsburgh Steelers, mostly because they had won the most Super Bowls at the time.  Being a front runner fan doesn't take a lot of sophistication.  Growing up in Connecticut, I had a choice of the Patriots, Jets, and Giants.  My Dad liked Phil Simms and Bill Parcells of the Giants, so I followed his lead.  I started cheering for the Saints when they had their top linebacker core.  After college, I didn't spend much time following football.  I was living in Boston when the Patriots got Drew Bledsoe, but moved to Minnesota a few months later; and where I've been living for 17 years as of next month.  I think of the Vikings as the football equivalent to the pre-2004 Red Sox; mostly bad to mediocre seasons with some good ones mixed in, and constantly shooting themselves in the foot when they are good enough to get to the championship.

My lack of attention didn't stop me from participating in various football pools at work and I've been part of a family one (the Wifey's family) for the last four years.  I was the top dog for one season in that pool, but haven't been tearing it up otherwise.  I was eager to try Fantasy Football in my buddy's league and the family pool was re-upped for the 2013-14 season.

I got off to a cold start for the first week.  The Seahawks didn't play very well that week and my top Running Back and Wide Receiver are from this team.  My Tight End got more fantasy points than the two of them combined.  I lost the first game of the season 166-127.  In the process, I lost a couple players due to injury and there weren't a lot of options available for replacement.

As for the football pool, I made a bold prediction in the Smack Talk section, saying I was going to know so much about football because of my Fantasy team that I would need to start a regimen of squat thrusts considering the constant view of my behind everyone else was going to have.  The range of correct picks in the pool ranged from 13 to 4.  I got 6, so I was toward the bottom of the standings.

I will use the sports cliche that there is still a lot of football to play yet.

Introducing Your 2013-14 Minnesota Frozen Boogers! (And the crowd goes wild)

Don't let the beard fool you.  I'm a child.

Speaking of such, my childhood friend, Rob, who you all met during our Las Vegas Birthday Bash Weekend back in May 2011 (has it really been that long?!), invited me to join the Fantasy Football league he participates with a group of his friends in Connecticut.  He played last year and had a lot of fun with it, and thought I would like to join.  They were going to have a live draft on Sunday, August 25th.

Baseball has always been my game, and I had participated in fantasy leagues through Yahoo for a number of years, but nothing in the last six years or so.  I tried fantasy football once when G-Bug was still an infant.  Considering I didn't have a low level distraction (this blog being more intense and harder to stay current) and missed the chance to meet up with Rob when I was back east on vacation, I agreed to be a part of this league.  I had a couple days to get up to speed before the draft.

My first foray into fantasy sports was when I worked for a small marketing firm filled with recent college grads; very similar to my Winners Advertising job, the company name was Innova Marketing.  I was 29 years old and definitely of the "old guard."  I was invited to participate with several co-workers in a live draft for baseball using just National League players.  Every "team" had a pretend budget of $250 or so and as each player was announced, interested fantasy owners would put in bids.  The player would go to the highest bidder.  What could happen is an owner could "buy" a franchise player, like Mark McGuire in his heyday, for $60-$70 and then have to settle for lesser known players later on, getting them for $1-$2.  The process took several hours, usually delayed by bidding wars.

One such jackal would up his bid by $1 right at "going once, going twice . . ." intentionally getting owners to pony up a couple extra dollars to drain his budget for later rounds.  I thought I was annoyed with him then, but his offense was quickly forgotten when he gave me my walking papers at work right before the start of the baseball season.  I had to manage my team via email with former co-workers.  My team came in dead last.

This draft would be much easier.  There were 12 owners taking 16 rounds to draft a quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, a tight end, a kicker, a flex player, a team defense, and seven bench players.  There would be no bidding.  Every owner had a position number for the draft and the order would reverse itself each round.  The owner who picked first in the first round, would pick last in the second, first again in the third, etc. until all teams had sixteen players.  Rob would have me on the phone during the draft and let me know who was left and when it was my turn to pick.  My position number was six.

I don't follow football too closely and have rudimentary knowledge of the top names in the game.  I can probably name five players on the Vikings today.  I reviewed the Fantasy Draft lists on ESPN and checked out some videos.  One such video suggested getting running backs in your first two rounds due to the paucity of quality players at this position. Rather than print lists for each position, I went the route of printing the list ranking the top 300 players in all positions.  I saw the top 10 kickers were grouped together starting at position 150, so I knew I should chose one in later rounds.

I marked each group of 12 players going through the first 192.  Adrian Peterson - MN -RB1 was the number one overall pick and Adrian Foster - HOU - RB2 was second.  I figured they would be the first to go, so I didn't concentrate on them, but I also knew I would get at least one player in each group as owners made their selections.  I chose four players in each group of 12 and ranked them based on who I really wanted.  I had to be prepared should my first and second choices already be picked.  I felt I had a pretty good game plan as I went into the draft.

As it turns out, you can only plan so much.  Once the draft starts, you're in scramble mode. I was right that the first five owners selected players within the top 12.  In this group were 10 running backs (supporting the recommendation I heard in the video), 1 wide receiver (Calvin Johnson - DET - WR1), and 1 quarterback (Aaron Rodgers - GB -QB1).  I had missed the first few picks, so I went with my third choice of the round, Doug Martin - TB - RB5).  He was already picked.  Oh shit! I could already feel myself start to panic and went with my first choice for the first round, Marshawn Lynch - SEA - RB3 (3 overall).  He was still available.  Whew!

As the other owners picked and Rob told me who was gone, I heard many players I had selected for my subsequent rounds.  Peyton Manning, Dez Bryant, Andre Johnson, and that classic of football names, Frank Gore.  I also heard top names in other categories getting picked as well.  Drew Brees, Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall, Tom Brady, Jimmy Graham.

My second round pick was number 13 in the top 300:  AJ Green - CIN - WR2.

I listened as more players I wanted were getting snapped up by other owners.  Wes Welker, Robert Griffen III, Reggie Bush, Eric Decker.

Hearing how quickly quarterbacks were being picked and my top three picks were already gone, I went with a pick that I wasn't considering, but knew he was pretty high on the list.  I needed a top field general, even if it wasn't one of my top choices.  Matt Ryan - ATL - QB6 (43)

More players I wanted were being picked.  As I crossed off names from the list of 300, I was scanning to see the top players remaining in each position.  I had an RB, WR, and QB. I needed a TE.  I selected Tony Gonzalez - ATL - TE3 (57).

The rounds were starting to slow down as I pictured my fellow owners doing the same thing I was; crossing off names and seeing who was left.  I was still relying on some name recognition as I scanned my list and found players I wanted, but were soon picked. Marques Colston, Jason Witten, Ahmad Bradshaw, Sebastian Janikowski.  Janikowski?! This last one was a kicker and number 9 at his position, 158 overall.  Like breaking hearts for the first time in the card game, this gave others permission to start considering kickers for picks, although we were still in relative early rounds.  Similarly, once someone had picked a defense, that position started to come into play in the selections.

I held out a couple rounds before going for a kicker and defense.  I wanted to get more players who I felt would offer more in terms of points.  I picked up Shane Vereen - NE - RB32 (80) and Sidney Rice - SEA - WR33 (81).  As we got to the later rounds and owners were looking for "bench" players, the names were coming from all over the top 300 list.  I filled roster spots where I felt I needed help and knew by Round 14 who my 16th and final pick would be.  This would be a rookie wide receiver on the Vikings who I had read about when doing some research on the team.  He was number 70 for his position, 214 overall and I knew I could wait to pick him.  When it was my turn, I announced my final pick: Cordarrelle Patterson - MN - WR70.

I couldn't hear everything that was happening on site and had to rely on Rob to relay information to me.  Once I made this pick, however, I heard a loud grown of despair. Apparently another owner was going to use his last pick on Patterson as well, but I beat him to the punch.  I almost feel obligated to put him in my Flex position for Week 1.

Here is my full roster:
Quarterbacks
Matt Ryan - HOU - QB6/43
Ben Roethlisberger - PIT - QB14/97

Running Backs
Marshawn Lynch - SEA - RB3/3
Eddie Lacy - GB - RB19/37
Shane Vereen - NE - RB32/80
Shonn Green - TEN - RB48/129

Wide Receivers
A.J. Green - CIN - WR2/13
Sidney Rice - SEA - WR33/81
Chris Givens - STL - WR41/105
Santana Moss - WAS - WR58/175
Cordarrelle Patterson - MN - WR70/214

Tight Ends
Tony Gonzalez - ATL - TE3/57
Brandon Pettigrew - DET - TE14/140
Coby Fleener - IND - TE17/183

Kicker
Blair Walsh - MN - K2/151

Defense
Denver Broncos D/ST - DEF7/143