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So,  I technically haven’t given up yet on my team.  But desperate times call for desparate actions.  Roger Clemens has come out of retirement and as a Yankee is an eligible free agent in the pool.  Disgustingly he will be paid on average about $1,000,000 per outing!  And the 44 year old will have the luxury of not having to travel out of town with the team for away games.  Only has to privately fly his way out to the parks where he is scheduled to pitch.

Regardless, this pitcher has remarkable value for my team and better yet a name that can draw some serious trade bait.  The problem is that this pickup is going to go for serious coin.  I need to figure out how much I want this guy and for how much am I willing to pay.  It will be a certainty that should I pick him up I will be hamstrung for any future pickups severely limiting my ability to pickup agents when players go down with injuries etc.

I’ll post the waiver results on Thursday when the week’s pickups are made….

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Blogging about the Jays game reminded me that I should say a few words about my ‘07 AL fantasy team.  Quite bluntly, I’m not happy with my team.  The reason has more to do with the fact that I went completely against my auction strategy and ended up with a roster of players I would’ve liked to have avoided. (more…)

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Last night during the ‘real’ Super Bowl XLI in which Indianopolis finally won a title with Peyton Manning, there was supposed to be an award ceremony for the MMQB Football Fantasy Champion at one of the team owner’s place during half-time. Unfortunately I, the champion, was unable to attend due to late arrival home from our ski trip to Mt. Tremblant along with the crazy -30 C and windy weather that was resulting in poor driving conditions.

Thus, the award ceremony was delayed to this morning and reduced to a simple handshake from Pat and the handover of the trophy. The group was a little disheartened that I was unable to attend last night for it was the 1st time in league history that the champion did not receive the trophy in person.

Therefore, I crafted an ‘acceptance email’ that I sent to all the owners in lieu of giving an acceptance speech in person. Here is a copy of the contents I delivered. SInce it may never happen again I was sure to be humble and thankful in order to set a good example for future winners. Because really, it is mostly luck that wins the championship. A good team to get you into position but to finish on top requires a lot of things that are out of your control.

The Acceptance Email:

Subject: Gushing with ‘Pride’ over the Dick Buttkiss Trophy

1st of all: I apologize to all for not attending Super Bowl XLI at Don’s place last night. I heard great things about the party and the spread put on by the gracious host and guests. Unfortunately I was in transit on the 401 until midway into the 3rd quarter due to poor weather conditions and a long trip from Mt. Tremblant

This morning Pat presented me with the Dick Butkiss Trophy. I immediately proceeded to parade around the office holding the trophy high up for all to see. I intend to leave it in my office for a few days so that visitors can look upon it in wonder and awe until they find out what the award is for and then quickly lose interest. It will also be there for Pat to look at covetously each time he drops in for a visit.

I would like to thank the owners of the league for allowing me to enter the league and participate. The competition is very high in this league and I was forced to ramp up quickly on many areas of the NFL that are not necessary in the traditional spread pools that I’ve regularly played. Fortunately, it seems that MLB Rotisserie skills do migrate over to this format and having used the CBS website for those leagues I didn’t have to spend time learning how to use the site for gathering information, etc.

But most importantly I’d like to thank the previous owner of the franchise, formerly known as Steeler Pride. I inherited a team that had the tools to win again this year. Since taking over, I’ve enhanced the team by drafting talent for the future and making a trade to compliment the team but the solid core remains intact.

As for winning the season it simply came down to being in the right place at the right time. There are better teams in this league that in the long run would be the horse to bet on and almost always payoff. From what I can see, the only reason I topped out was that I lucked into having some really hot players down the stretch, most notably Steven Jackson and Vince Young. As for the final game itself, that was literally a coin flip and Tony deserves the trophy as much as I. I know we both left a lot of points on the bench that game and would love to go back and adjust the lineups. But I’m glad we can’t because the outcome would most certainly have been reversed.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful season and look forward to meeting you next season at the draft.

Roach.

By the way, the Dick Butkiss Trophy (the name is a modification of the real ‘Dick Butkis’ who I believed played for the Bears and was in a bunch of Miller Lite commercials in the 80’s) is a beauty. About 2 ft tall with engravings of all past champions including the newly anointed 2006 champions: “Roach’s Ruddigers”. A picture will be posted.

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Warning! This blog is quite long and full of sports nonsense.

That being said, if you are interested in learning what a ‘Fantasy’ sports league is all about, how obsessed one needs to be to play successfully in one, and an understanding of what has been absorbing my life (beyond family of course) the past 4 months I suggest you read on. (more…)

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Every year as the season comes to a close I debate whether this is my last year.  How much did I enjoy the season this time around?  Well, I can honestly say this has been the least enjoyable season so far.  Not because of the quality of the team.  Au contraire this team equals the best teams I’ve ever played on.  Not because of any other reason than I have lost a lot of the motivation I once had.  The desire to win has dissipated in a league where winning is key.

I did enjoy the games, but only after I got to the game and started warming up.  Leading up to the day, and on the day of, I had a sensation akin to dread that left me saying over and over in my head “Crap, there’s a game coming up.  I don’t want to play”.

Now, Sonia hears this all the time and know me better than I know myself.  Once I’m there and playing I’m as competitive as ever.  And I’m hitting the ball as good as I ever have.  In fact, before this year I think I’ve only had 1 or 2 out of the park HRs on the NCR diamonds.  This year alone I’ve had 4 or 5 and they’ve been spread out on all the diamonds.  So what’s the problem?

Most of it is the incosistent playing time.  As opposed to playing every game in past seasons, this year Sonia and I have each played about half the games.  For me, this results in games where it sometimes takes a few ABs to get a decent hit.  But more importantly, my fielding is not what it used to be.  And that results in lack of confidence.  Which results in a sense of dread leading up to games.  I don’t want my inconsistencies to hurt the team.
I see my future in baseball continuing on the trend of fewer chances to play in a season and hence a decrease in the quality of my game.  The family is now bigger and priorities have changed.  It would be nice to use that night of baseball for something else - especially when OG starts going off to play sports herself, or whatever extra-curricular events pop up.  To eliminate this commitment to ball is a very appealing notion.

If I can’t play regularly I degrade - and then I compare myself to what I used to be and get frustrated knowing the potential I’m unable to achieve.  When faced with this reality, pro players retire, so shouldn’t I?  I haven’t entertained ideas of playing a more recreational version of the game, but right now it doesn’t feel like a good idea.

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One of the problems of living in a part of the world where Winter accounts for about 5 months of no golf and no baseball is how to maintain your swing from season to season.  One of the bitter-sweet facts of golf is that just when you’re swinging your best and scoring your lowest the season is rapidly coming to a close.  And looking at the calendar, it’s getting close to that time of year again.  The baseball season ending tournament is this week-end which signals the end of baseball and the beginning of the end of golf.  Aside:  as I write this I am writhing in agony over a torn hamstring.  Happened last night in a meaningless game against the MudHens (who I hate with a passion - apparently the only one on the team that does for some reason).  With our unfortunate loss to the BrewJays due to lack of starters, we were unable to pull off the miracle 2nd place finish that my previous blogs were leading up to.  We needed 5 of the last 5 to steal it but only ended up with 4 of 5 with the loss coming from the game I would have least expected.  To my defence, I wasn’t there so really there’s nothing I could have done .

Yes I digress.  Back to the pains of living in Canada.  Right now, I believe I have my swing tuned to the best it’s ever been.  Consistent off the tees, better than usual in the fairway and in my opinion very good around and on the greens.  I have been working hard on the short game and have reaped some rewards.  So, at this point in time, my mind knows exactly what to tell my body to do during a swing.  (more…)

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I have been spoiled a bit this year when it comes to golf.  First of all, I feel I’ve been able to play far more rounds than expected.  And they have been on some nice courses.

2 rounds in particular have been on Clublink courses.  For those of you not familiar with our wedding venue, it took place at Rattlesnake Point - a ClubLink course.  The day before the wedding I was able to play my first ClubLink course (other than Granite Ridge - but it wasn’t ClubLink at the time).  These courses are premium courses.  In fact the entire facility is premium from the change rooms through to the staff service.  It does make one feel like a snob but it certainly leaves an impact.

The 1st round this year was at Glen Abbey.  Pat, my colleague at work has a friend from school that has earned enough money as a consultant to afford the high priced premium level membership that allows access to all the Clublink courses - of which Glen Abbey is their signature course.  This course is the home of many Canadian Opens and the ‘pro’ element has been stamped on this course.  It is a very difficult course but by no means the most difficult I’ve played.  The intangible element is the uniqueness of many of the holes and the sheer artistic beauty of their layouts.  When playing the valley holes you can see what makes a pro-level course different from any other type of course.  It is the thought put into virtually every yard of the hole that creates a challenge deserving of hosting a professional tourney.

I ended up shooting 86 that day on a par 71 course but I chalk that up to being to wrapped up in being at Glen Abbey.  If I played it again (which I hope to as long as I can keep my connection) I am certain I can get into the 70’s.   The most enjoyable part of the round was that we were able to play from the pro tees which gave us the true feel of how the course should be played.

The 2nd ClubLink round this year was just south of Barrie at their most difficult course:  National Pines.  This course is extremely tight and extremely long.  We decided we would not play the tips as it was very wet and humid out.  Since the tips top over 7000 yards it would have been virtually unplayable for some of the guys in the group.  So we opted for the next level down which sets the course at 6600 yards which is still longer than almost any course you might play.  There were many par 4’s that were within the 420-440 range and almost all par 4’s were over 400 yds.  Any under that were hard dog-legs that still presented a plus-150 yd shot into the multi-tiered undulating double-cut greens.  The par 3’s were typically long as well except for one that was 158 (still long in most people’s books) but riddled with traps and water.

It was the biggest challenge I’ve had in quite some time and I am very proud to have carded an 81 on this par 72 track.  I was certain I was going to score well as -even though I’ve been negligent in logging my scores to HandiWeb -  I believe I’ve brought my handicap down to its career low.  My educated guess would be I’m sitting around a 6 to 6.5 at this time.

To get an idea of how an 81 fares on this par 72 - the rating and slope from our tees were 73.1 and 139 - which puts 81 at around a 6 handicap.

Admittedly, playing ClubLink is pretty much as good as it gets for a non-millionaire like myself.  But the prices still hit the wallet.  Both outings were over $100 for the green fees and it’s tough to find any public course that would come close to that fee.  But it was worth it and I think I could manage a few of these a year.

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Since the debacle that I wrote about on June 7th, things have markedly improved.   After discussing with the team the negativity that was abounding, an assertive effort has been made to be eliminate criticism during play and only offer shouts of encouragement.  In addition, the team has a mandate to do a lot more cheering from the bench and on the field.  This sort of chatter has proven to be beneficial in elevating motivation.

It has worked and here’s the proof:

During that all-time low, we lost 3 consecutive games:  14-12L to the Flyers (the game that started the debacle), 7-5L to the Dodgers and a 19-18L slugfest to the Strikeouts - the ultimate low since this team was promoted from B and should not have been able to dress-down last year’s champs.  But it was this game where the attitude shift occurred.  Although it was a loss, it was one in which we didn’t lose because of errors and poor communication.

We followed those 3 losses with a very structured practice in which mental approach was the focus.  Since this practice we have gone 8-2 with the 2 losses coming to Farm Team (6-4L) and the Dodgers for the 2nd time this season (13-12L).  But the high point is that all eight wins have been large margin wins that include recent wins against teams we lost to earlier in the season:  a defensive masterpiece against Farm Team (9-3W), a ship re-balancing to Strikeouts (18-12W).

And that’s not all.  This team is starting to peak at the right time to gear up for the play-offs.  The last 2 games have been must-wins if we hope to finish 2nd in the league and get into the $$:  Last week we performed a monster thrash against the #1 team Flyers giving them a whooping they’ll not forget for quite some time:  21-8.  The beauty of this win is that they were working on an undefeated season and we were the only stopper left of preventing that.

Then there was last night.  Against the current #2 team Dodgers.  Two (close) losses against them so far.  Another loss gives them the confidence they sorely need to compete against us in the playoffs.  We have owned this team in the playoffs handing them heartbreak after heartbreak each year as we stepped over them to make it into the finals.   A sweep could give them that feeling they can actually beat us when it counts.  Even though the two losses to date this year were by two runs (7-5) and one run (13-12).

We came into this game coming off a big win and feeling that this game is a must win to have a shot at #2.  Now, there is more than just $$ on the line for #2.  With a #2 seed going into the playoffs, it ensures us home field advantage in the round-robin grouping, puts us in a separate division than the Flyers, and gives us home field through the knock-out rounds until we meet Flyers in the finals.  Which may not happen as was the case last year when we faced off against the Farm Team instead (and proceeded to defeat for the title).   With that on the line and a chance of re-establishing ourselves as the team to beat, we proceeded to trounce the Dodgers 33-14, perhaps the largest run total we’ve ever had in a single game.  This was accomplished in no small part by the 10 (yes ten) home runs (including a 3-run shot by yours truly) we racked up.  In total, in the last 3 games against teams #1, #2 and #3 we have won all three by a margin of 63-25.

The Sluggers have turned a page and are back to playing ball their way:  Selfless hitting, excellent defence, big 2-out rallies, and huge bats when it’s time to close shop.

We have 3 games left - if we can win 2 of those 3 we are guaranteed 2nd.

And a note to myself, who had lost his swing during the rough bumps:  swing down at the ball - that’s how you hit for power.  Who’d a thought a downward swing will result in an arcing ball flight that can sometimes result in HRs?

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The Roger’s Cup was held this week at the Rexall Centre at York University.   It was the men coming to Toronto this year.  Sonia had premium VIP tickets to go see some of the action on Tuesday but had to decline at the last minute because O.G. was going through the midst of a strept throat incident.  Tuesday was reserved instead for picking up antibiotics and nursing our little one back to health.

Not to be swayed, Sonia worked the web to get 2 tickets to the early session on Friday.  1st row of the bronze (section 136) for somewhere approx $70 a seat.  With these tickets there was a good chance that Nadal or Federer would be playing.

It turns out that I was to be the holder of ticket #2 - so with Grandma willing to babysit, we journeyed to York to watch some tennis action.

Due to stupid T.O. traffic, we didn’t make it there until after the noon hr so we missed the 1st match in its entirety.  We were early enough however to be able to walk around the grounds and check out the booths/promotions/eating facilities.  If you’ve ever been to a golf or tennis event you’ll know what I mean:  the grounds are kind of like a temporary village and shopping mall where the corp sponsors peddle their wares for outrageous prices.  There are deals to be had but you have to look very hard.  And the $$ of the food is ridiculous:  6 bucks for a hotdog.  4.50 for a BOTTLE OF WATER!!!  We were able to find what we thought was the best deal:  A chicken nacho salad for $10 - and it was large enough for one salad to satisfy us both.

Fortunately I had my Amex card which allowed us access to the AMEX VIP lounge where we could drink free (yes free) water and eat free (yes free) snacks.  No alcohol but for a couple of normal non-VIP access attendees, that ain’t bad.

We did catch some of the tennis:  Andy Murray vs Jerko Niemenin - one a young British hopeful, the other a tour lifer.  The match played out the entire 3 sets so I kind of felt that I got my money’s worth.  I’ve seen matches complete within 1 hr so I was hoping for at least a 2hr match which this one turned out to be with Murray taking it in the end.

After the match - instead of watching some doubles (which doesn’t really interest me), we walked around the grounds and took in the atmosphere.  We went to the grandstand (the other, smaller court) and watched a few points of another doubles match after unsuccessfully finding an outer court where there were some big names practicing.  Admittedly, in such a small arena it is very interesting to watch these pros play up-close and pick up some hitting tips.

The atmosphere got to us and we rationalized a reason to purchase 2 more tickets for the night session to watch number 1 Federer play young phenom (yet unseeded) Xavier Malisse.  With the blessing of Grandma we hung around to watch the highlight match.  Since Nadal was eliminated the day before, the day session didn’t hold any famous or exciting players so we felt a little bit cheated.  With the night tickets we were guaranteed to see a star….even though we were up in the nose-bleeds.  But the nose-bleeds at a tennis stadium are not really that bad — nor are they cheap!  We paid roughly the same for these tickets as we did for the very respectable seats we had earlier that day.

The match was excellent although we did have to leave before it completed.  It was clear that Federer was going to prevail even though he was taken to a 3rd set.

Some tips when going to these events:

1) Bring your own water and food

2) Try to score corporate seats - allows you to get the best seat in the house as well as some complimentary food and drink in the VIP lounges

3) Bring a sweater in case you do end up sitting in the rafters.  That wind blows up there and you’re not protected!  Even though it’s a beautiful sunny day it can get chilly up there at night.

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It amazes me how people do not know how to put proper value on players.  Nor are they logical in figuring out how a trade can improve their position.  I had a trade situation where I was providing somebody with a couple of players that he did not initially ask for in the trade.  This particular person was interested in one of my starting pitchers because he believed he could gain points in wins, K’s, and ERA.  When I worked it through with him I looked like he could possibly get a point in W a stretch for a point in K’s and a possible gain in ERA.  That amounts to a possible 2 points, big stretch for 3.  So I walked him through a scenario where getting a closer from me (which is more ideal for me) would actually be more beneficial.  Initially he was downright adament against it but I walked him through the points he could gain:  1 1/2 pts GUARANTEED in saves.  This closer would provide about 2/3s the K’s of the starter, and has a lower ERA.  So 1 1/2 pts for sure, possibly 2 1/2.  I would throw in a lesser yet quality starter to help him with the W pt.  This amounts to 3 1/2 pts that are more realistic than the 3 with the starter.

Instead of going with that, the greedy bugger then re-offers a deal that included the original starter plus the closer for the same player.  That is pure buffoonery and is common practice amongst the clowns that play in this baseball pool.  Typically, owners are blatantly trying for deals that are way lopsided and not well thought out. 

While I’m ranting, a very strange occurrence happened with the waiver process.  I had three free agents I wanted to pick up in this order:

player a @ $20 and drop existing player d

player b @ $13 and drop existing player d

player c @ $5 and drop existing player d

Therefore, I wanted player a more than b more than c.  I.e. if I had a winning bet on more than one player, I would only get the player I had higher in the list.  This is ‘enforced’ by the fact that I had indicated the same player to be dropped in all cases.

As it turned out, I did not bid the highest on player a, but had bid the highest on player b and player c.  To my surprise, I did not receive player b, but received player c instead?  I was shocked.  And, insult to injury, the player that I’m trying to catch is just ahead of me in the standings received player b.

How did this happen?  Well, it happened based on a procedure used by the website that was not indicated to us by the commissioner nor was known by any other member in the pool.  The procedure is based on the waiver order.  It is common knowledge that the waiver pool was only used as a means to break ties when there are multiple bids on the same player.  The higher player in the waiver list gets the baseball player.  In this case, I had the higher bid but I still lost the player.  Here’s the unknown ‘other’ usage of the waiver list that is documented on the site, but WAYYYYY down in the out of the way “Help Centre” area:

The waiver list is also used for ‘calling up’ the players that are in the list of free agents being acquired for the period.  So, the 1st player in the waiver list, if he is bidding on a free agent then the first name in his list is ‘auctioned’ and determined who wins.  This is where I got screwed.  Somebody above me in the list had my 3rd pick as his 1st pick and hence it was auctioned.  I won the bid so that entailed dropping of player d.  When it came time for ‘my turn’ in the process, player a was already auctioned and lost so player b was auctioned.  I was unable to win this bid because I no longer had a player d to drop and thus the bid was ineligible.  The 2nd highest bid took the prize. 

So, the widely known process of being able to ‘rank’ your bids by dropping the same player for each bid is flawed for reasons not outlined up front.  If I had known this rule I would not have made my flyer bid on player c.  But I didn’t know and all other players would have made the same assumptions.

The fallout of this is that there is a poll being taken to determine if I do deserve player b based on the common knowledge, etc.  I doubt this poll will go in my favour.  But at least this obscure rule will be brought into the open so that it doesn’t bite other people - which I could care less.

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