few at the stadium this year, and barley can name three Orioles, it’s sad (it's a joke - Lopez, Roberts and Tejada). Baseball
represents summertime fun. A time when you can go to the park on the weekend and play catch. A time when you can go to a
ballpark, have a beer and hot dog (total cost $35) and scream at the top of you lungs (priceless). Baseball is America.
Baseball employs a friend of mine. And there only seven games left.
But what seven games they will be. Say what you will for the sport (steroids), but when the two best teams in baseball go at it –
one that hasn’t won a World Series in 80+ year and one that has never one a World Series – well, that’s when it is at it’s best.
Of course, since I live in this city, I take their opinions on it – Yankees not in it? Who cares?
It’s Thursday – What happened last week?
Tools Break Blade
I have no complaints. Blade was already behind the preverbal eight ball with Owens out this week, but it was the overwhelming
dominance of Santana “Best Pick of the Eighth Round (apologizes to Nose and his Ricky Williams pick)” Moss and Edgerrin
James. Overall the team performed well, with season highs from Moss, James, Martin and Heap. Of course, I just capitalized on
Blades worst game of the year. Evans continues to not produce, Collins had a slow day, and Anderson was, well, not Tatum
Bell. All in all, just a great day at the office.
Jacobins Continue to Slide
Yahoo projected this game to be a 110 – 96 victory for the ‘Bins. What happened was a 152 – 75 beating by Five. Cantor’s
crew continued to surprise the league, with every player but Travis Taylor – filling in for the “bye” week of Kevan Barlow –
breaking 10 points. Tomlinson scored 32, breaking 20+ for the fourth week in a row. Tatum Bell contributed 17, his second
week in a row at +15. Here's an interesting fact: Five isn’t just the only team to score 150+ two times this year… he’s the only
team to score 150+ in any game this year. Quickly about Jacobins – Dave’s season started with a bang, a 131 point showing,
and a point and a half win over the Bandits. Since then it has been a steady decline, with his team dropping to 109 in week 2,
96 in week 3, 90 in week 4, 89 in week 5, and now this 75 point showing. With Moss now out - and the only reason he got 75
was because of a season high day for Rod Smith (20 points) - Jacobins better start pepping up as a team, or they will have
tough times ahead (ha, I said “head”).
Even Steven Jackson - Kinda
It’s nice to have Chad Johnson. It’s nice to have Carson Palmer. But to have them play each other… well that does nothing.
While Nose’s Palmer was a delight at 25 points, Colt’s Johnson was an EQUAL delight at 23. Nose’s Horn (ha! Nose’s Horn) got
nothing, but then again neither did Colt’s Kennison. Nose’s Jackson/Williams combined for 25, while Colt’s Portis/Pearman
scored 22. Nose’s Lindell/Giants D contributed 17, while Colt’s Kasay/Cinccy D added 15 to his total. The slow chip away of
Colt .45 is what lead to Nose’s victory. A win is a win, you can get it if you just keep chipping away.
Duck Can’t Catch a Beak… I Mean Break
Poor Duck – it’s been one of those seasons. He scores 84 and his opponent gets 96. He gets 99, and his opponent scores
115. Luckily, next week McNabb shows up, and with two weeks to learn the system, there should be a new sheriff in town. Of
course, with Moore in at RB, he could use a counterpart better than Stecker. And I like Scotch... FINE.. I guess I can’t avoid it
anymore – let’s talk about the 6-0 man… I hate Scott. Actually, at this point, I think he expects my Monday morning calls giving
him my top five reason for hating him. This week: 1) Lamont Jordan and season high 24 points. 2) 4 players over 10 points,
something he has done or surpassed every week this season. 3) I love Chris Cooley (24), hence I hate him for having him. 4)
Bulger gets hurt and it doesn’t even matter. 5) Those long locks of hair. Mmmmm…
A Win is A Win, No Matter What Country You Are In
The truth about the Married With/propo game is that no one really deserved to win, and Josh certainly can’t be pissed he lost
by 0.09. Face facts Lukin, when your team ONLY scores 71, you don’t deserve to win, especially when the only reason your
points were even that high was because one of your players (McGahee) had a season high 20 points. As for propaganda, in a
season of lows (third game this year at sub 75+), this was the lowest point. Sproles at RB got you nothing, Toomer and Jenkins
provided slightly more than 5 total, and Gates – the star of the team – failed you with only 3. I’ll say this though… A win is a win,
even if it ain’t pretty. (sorry, no jokes in this posting – this game wasn’t funny at all)
No-No-No-Notorious… NOMADS... The Notorious N-O-M-A-D-S
For Born, the future began this week… and the outcome is scarey. Yes, Eli took the reigns of the Mouth this week for the first
time, and his 11 point outing had to be a little disappointing. As for the new Mouths, Taylor rode the bench with an injury (no!?
not Fragile Fred?) and McCardell only contributed 4… which added with other WR Coles made 11 points, six points less than
third WR Randle El added. As for Nomads, the 4-2 team continues to sneak under the radar – but what a sneak he is. Steve
Smith had another big day (21), recent edition Wes Welker has 22, and Preist Holmes had easily his biggest day of the year
with 24 (his first 20+ game of the year).
Someone Give Tanks a Break
Brock is good. Tanks are unlucky. And everything was proven here this week. Tanks continued to have RB woes, as Lewis
and Bennett teamed up for 17 points, his second best day for RB’s all year. Manning came alive with 22, but could have been
worth so much more had they actually passed on the 1 yard line like the Colts of 2004. Meanwhile, he had productive days out
of new Tank Mason and the “this week only special” KC D (20+). All that lead to a 106 point game. Not bad for the Tanks
(although they have failed to win any game where they score 100 or more), but not enough either. That’s right, he faced Brock,
who, since the 1.5 point loss to Jacobins in week 1, has been a powerhouse, scoring an average of 115 points per game in
those 5 weeks. This week again showed high receipts from Alexander (34; 58 points in last two weeks), Rudi (12, his second
best game of the year), and an overall great showing from his WR’s (28 points – his WR’s average a total of 37 points per
game). Brock is a force right now… personally, I can’t wait until week 12 when he takes on Brick Wall, and they both will have
full rosters.
Best of luck to everyone this week.
Swami, 5-2 this week, will be shooting to have predictions entered by the Friday night Phins/Cheifs game.
