For the past seventeen weeks of this NFL season I have been following the picks of 54 different people and two computer games (see my zipped excel file), though I’d like to note that the two computer games apparently didn’t pick for three of the seventeen weeks unfortunately. Picks were made by celebrities, ranging from celebrities from the stage to the mother of a sports celebrity. I think that only the people living in Philadelphia consider Wilma McNabb a celebrity. After seventeen weeks I have learned the following things:
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Another Season Down the Drains
Call me Ernie Banks. Call me the 1918-2003 Red Sox. Call me the pre-2004 Phil Mickelson, for I am cursed.
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NBA Power Rankings January 4th 2005
Here are the new NBA Power Rankings. Comments, questions, and gripes are welcome.
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Fountain of Youth
Brian Sabean is a busy man these days. This week alone, he’s managed to add All-Star Moises Alou to the San Francisco outfield, and is on the verge of signing a deal with the Rolling Stones that would allow the Giants to coordinate their road trips with the Stones’ U.S. summer tour. Rumors are swirling that the Giants are also prepared to offer a bullpen spot to Pat Summerall, but neither side has confirmed the talks. The San Francisco Giants have been an old team for years and continue to get older, made to look downright geriatric when compared to the daycare center now being housed in the Oakland Coliseum. But the Giants also represent the Bay Area’s best hope for a playoff team in 2005, in any sport. This is crucial for me, because I’m running out of creative ways to say that my teams suck (there’s a limit to the number of times you can write things like, “for the 11th consecutive year, the Western Conference playoffs will narrowly elude the grasp of the Golden State Warriors”).
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2004- Year Of The Peyton
The first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Peyton Manning is the word touchdown. The 6 foot 5, 230 pound perennial superstar has racked up 356 fantasy points this year on yahoo fantasy football, the most points in fantasy football history.
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Week 17 NFL Picks
Well folks, after a long season, it all comes down to week 17. Milehigh and I are battling it out for the top picks champion. A late season surge by Milehigh (and collapse by yours truly) has Milehigh in the lead by 4 games. But there are plenty of games in contention this week. On the flip side, Guru Ganu and Mr. X (retiring after this season) are battling to get out of the cellar. We’ll be picking the playoffs as well but for now, let’s get the regular season sorted out.
Here we go with the Week 17 Picks. If you want to see how well the experts here at SC stack up against the competition, check out this excel file.
Gather `round the fire, kids, it’s time for a story. About eight years ago I was studying abroad when a friend of mine, Ben Insel, told me rather nonchalantly that he was going to kick his nasty smoking habit. Given how hard quitting is, especially with the inherent pressures in a culture that worships tobacco, I didn’t believe Ben for a second. Later, when talking to some friends about some of the Americans in school who had taken up smoking during the year I listed Ben, to which my friends said “Ben quit.” For the next month I never saw a cigarette in Ben’s mouth and eventually began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, I had underestimated the strength of my friend’s will. Of course the second that happened I walked outside and saw Ben hanging out with the Marlboro Man.
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NBA Power Rankings December 28th
Here is another edition of the NBA Power Rankings. All comments, concerns, and beefs are encouraged. Enjoy.
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Hudson the Brave
The A’s traded ace Tim Hudson last week. You can either read “Moneyball” again, or just read this column. That’s what I thought.
Every once in a while, being a sports fan comes back to punch you in the gut. There are a few times in your life when your team makes a move you hate so strongly, you realize how hopeless you are as a fan. Your team will sign and trade players, select players in the draft, win or lose games, with or without you. You have no control over anything that happens with your team. And 99% of the time, you go along with that without even noticing. But there are those rare instances when the goings-on in the sports world become something more than white noise, and your body tries to reject it. You can’t help but sit back with a look on your face like Matt Damon, after losing his entire bankroll to Teddy KGB in “Rounders”. I went through one of these moments a few months ago, when the Warriors signed Derek Fisher. And then came today’s bombshell: Tim Hudson has pitched his last game for the Oakland A’s.
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Week 16 Power Rankings
The theme this week (and I suspect next) are losses by teams that don’t mean anything. Eagles lose to the Rams and Falcons lose to the Saints but maintain their positions because they had nothing to play for. Meanwhile, teams that had golden opportunities to help themselves reach the playoffs laid eggs. Not much change at the top and bottom of the rankings but just like the playoff race, the middle is packed with teams jockeying for position.