Martinsville Results

Good race to watch this week. With the threatening weather around the half-way mark, I felt like I watched two finishes. I spent quite a bit of time flipping between hoops and the race this afternoon. As a matter of fact, Stephan Curry is on pace for another 30 point game. Gotta love the Cinderella story.

Between Michael Waltrip, Robby Gordon, and Matt Kenseth it was like a freaking demo derby today. I loved the wrecked 55 turning laps all afternoon with the hood pushed in. Nothing is quite like short track racing.

I am, however, tired of Denny Hamlin. He has 4 wins in 3 years. That's great. He drives real hard all the time. That's also great. What he is missing is a soul. I believe if you can get a glimpse of Satan's business records, you will find a line item reading something like "Hamlin, Denny - 1 soul, 2004, in exchange for making him the slow cousin of NASCAR." Goofball.

Also, I know everyone was critical of Michael McDowell after he raced the leaders at the end and possible kept the 31 from challenging for a win. I agree, but go easy on the guy. He's the spokeman for ASR'08, so he can't be all that bad.

Here are your weekly standings:

1 - Jon - 17 total ([41]5/[18]4/[99]1/[88]3/[29]2/[24]2)
2 - Wingman - 25 total ([20]3/[48]2/[18]11/[24]5/[07]3/[11]1)
3 - PT - 27 total ([41]5/[99]1/[18]11/[24]5/[31]1/[48]4)
4 - Shaffer - 33 total ([20]3/[48]2/[18]11/[24]5/[07]3/[99]9)
5 - Kenny - 38 total ([88]9/[17]5/[18]11/[16]4/[9]7/[24]2)
6 - Scott - 41 total ([88]9/[17]5/[18]11/[48]13[29]2/[11]1)
7 - Tony - 50 total ([88]9/[48]2/[18]11/[24]5/[99]18/[20]5)
8 - TBA - 66 total ([88]9/[24]3/[18]11/[17]8/[29]2/[41]/36)
9 - Shaw - 75 total ([88]9/[48]2/[9]6/[11]15/[17]10/[2]33)
10 - Joe - 78 total ([55]29/[9]9/[18]11/[88]3/[19]21/[20]5)
11- Inskeep - 94 total ([88]9/[11]41/[24]35/[18]1/[16]4/[48]4)
12 - Susie - 95 total ([88]9/[24]3/[18]11/[1]21/[9]7/[8]42)
13 - Wayne - 105 total ([88]9/[5]42/[48]29/[24]5/[18]19/[11]1)
14 - Shane - 128 total ([88]9/[11]41/[18]11/[24]5/[48]20/[8]42)
15 - Hau Ling - 180 total ([6]42/[24]3/[2]38/[11]15/[5]42/[7]40)

Next week we finally get back to a mile-and-a-half track. Texas. Home of our fearless leader, Dubya. Don't forget to get your picks in. Look what happened to Shane and Susie - they got stuck with a stinker based on qualifying position.

Who has Who - Martinsville

Here are the picks as I have recorded them so far:

Jon - #24 Jeff Gordon
PT - #48 Jimmy Johnson
Shaffer - #99 Carl Edwards
Wingman - #11 Denny Hamlin
TBA - #41 Reed Sorensen
Susie - #8 Eric Almirola
Kenny - #24 Jeff Gordon (begrudgingly)
Es Scott - #11 Denny Hamlin
Shaw - #2 Kurt Busch
Tony - #20 Tony Stewart
Joe - #20 Tony Stewart
Shane - #8 Eric Almirola
Inskeep - #48 Jimmy Johnson
Wayne - #11 Denny Hamlin
Hau Ling - #7 Robby Gordon

Wedding Pictures - FINALLY!

I have finally posted some pictures from our wedding on snapfish. You can check them out HERE. I will try to follow up later with a synopsis of our trip, if I can remember it all.

Too Much Meat

"hey, those guys are sitting at my regular table!"

Last night 6 of us from the office went on down to Brasa for a little good ole fashioned Brazilian all you can eat meat festival. Six went in, and 2 hours later about 12 came out. We actually had to intervene into Tershack's dining. He refused to quit. I sat for at least 45 minutes digesting and watching him cram 16 cuts of meat down his throat. By the end of the night, I couldn't even stand to look at the skewer guys carrying lamb, or ribs, or steak. Eeeaugh. Just thinking about it is making me sick.

Of course, we got dessert.

Martinsville this weekend

NASCAR is back form a 2 week hiatus. Don't forget to get me your picks for the week. We still have 6 races to go after this. No one is out of the game at this point.

FYI - the #24 of Jeff Gordon is on the pole, which prior to his marraige to that hot brunette and the birth of his child would have been considered a double-entendre.

Results after Round 3 - 2008 pick-em

Well, since my brackets were busted long ago, and my Spartans lost last night, and the only other team I liked was WVU, and they blew it on a Joe Alexander free throw, I guess all I have left to enjoy about the tourney is the pick-em challenge between Myself, Mike, Mark, and Jon.

Following round 2, Mike lost Hibbert when Georgetown lost (one of my final 4 teams, of course) so he is in a lot of trouble. The rest of us survived round 2, but it set the stage for a critical round 3. Thursday and Friday of this week proved that picking players from 1 seeds was the way to go.

Here are the current standings:

ME - 175 (all 3 players remaining)
Jon - 160 (all 3 players remaining)
Mark - 144 (all 3 players remaining)
Mike - 90 (2 players remaining)

It has come down to a 3 horse race. The three of us all have 2 players in common, so after all the trouble we put into picking 5 players 3 weeks ago, its all about 1 on each team. I have Rose from Memphis, Jon has Rush from Kansas, and Mark has Collison from UCLA.

Collison has been underachieving in the tourney, averaging just 10 ppg (about 5 below his season average). With a little help from losses by Memphis and Kansas, Mark may still have a shot.

Rush has been averaging about 3 points higher than his season average in the tourney, but being 15 points behind, he's going to have to pick up the pace to overtake my squad.

Rose has been playing out of his mind - almost 7 points above his season average. Keep it up, pal.

These players present some interesting upcoming matchups for us. A potential final 4 matchup between Memphis and UCLA (Rose and Collison) could make a difference, except if Memphis makes it that far I think Collison's performance will be in vain. However, should Memphis and Kansas make the final, we should have a 1v1, guard-guard matchup to remember.

In summary, I am now on the Memphis bandwagon, but only for selfish reasons. But then again, isn't selfishness what the bandwagon is all about?

Round 1 results - Hoops Pick-em

Ok, well the response to my NCAA tourney draft style pool wasn't exactly astounding, but we did get 4 enthusiastic entries. At $5 each, we are looking at a whopping $20 payout, almost enough for one of us to re-coupe our losses in another pool.

Here are the standings after round 1:

Jon - 57, PT - 56, Mark - 44, Mike - 24

I have a much more sophisticated scoring spreadsheet, and as soon as I figure out how to post it here, I will.

I thought the first round was pretty good. Yesterday was a little hard on my office brackets with all the upsets, but its cool to see teams I hate like UCONN and USC lose to a lower seed despite their affect on my brackets. At this point I am in second place in my Yahoo bracket, but only to a guy who took Clemson the distance. I should re-establish my position at the top in the middle of the second round. I'm not usually this good in the pools, I guess I am getting lucky so far this year with some lucky upset picks.

Now, as far as the selection committee goes, I think they are idiots. They routinely place great small schools in super low seeds, resulting in the 15-2 games being better than the 8-9 games. if they would give some respect to the teams that win the smaller conferences to secure their invite to the tourney and penalize the mediocre teams from the big conferences a little, we may actually see some benefit to being a 2 or 3 seed. Otherwise, these 2 and 3 and 4 seeds are running up against what amounts to a 4 or 5 seed in the first round.

OK, I've said enough.

Bristol Results - The #31 wins!

I love Sundays. I sit on the couch with the dog snoring next to me. I watch 43 cars run in a circle, maybe napping for a portion of that time, and then after 500 (or so) laps I get to see the #31 in victory lane. Even better, I picked my favorite driver this week. Nothing is more difficult for a fantasy leaguer than to agonize over whether to pick your favorite player or not for fear you are acting on emotion rather than intelligence. In this case, it worked in my favor.

They couldn't have done it without me

As I stated earlier in this blog, I watched the #18 car spinning. Nothing makes me happier each week than watching that car wreck. I'm not sure what it is. Even when Sadler was behind the wheel of the Ford version, and then Gilliland - watching that yellow M&M's car out of control was enjoyable. Having Kyle Busch behind the wheel just makes it that much more satisfying. You have to give Busch credit, though. Every week he looks like the car to beat. He just seems to hang it out there a little too far some times and then I spill my root beer jumping off the couch in glee. When he does manage to keep the car under him, he wins though. I guess I have to respect that.

Well, here are the standings after today's race. Please note that I originally had Inskeep's pick incorrect. As soon as he saw it he let me know (he had texted the #16 to me earlier this week, and I forgot about it). I knew someone had Biffle, i just couldn't figure out who. Please follow his example if you see any mistakes. I'm not perfect, but I try.

Jon is pulling away slightly by making some great picks. 5th is his worst finish so far. I have 2nd place right now with 2 victories, but an 11th place from the #18 is holding me back. Go figure.

1 - Jon - 15 total ([41]5/[18]4/[99]1/[88]3/[29]2)
2 - PT - 23 total ([41]5/[99]1/[18]11/[24]5/[31]1)
T3 - Shaffer - 24 total ([20]3/[48]2/[18]11/[24]5/[07]3)
T3 - Wingman - 24 total ([20]3/[48]2/[18]11/[24]5/[07]3)
5 - TBA - 33 total ([88]9/[24]3/[18]11/[17]8/[29]2)
6 - Susie - 53 total ([88]9/[24]3/[18]11/[1]21/[9]7) - adjusted 3/30/08
7 - Kenny - 36 total ([88]9/[17]5/[18]11/[16]4/[9]7)
8 - Scott - 40 total ([88]9/[17]5/[18]11/[48]13[29]2)
9 - Shaw - 42 total ([88]9/[48]2/[9]6/[11]15/[17]10)
10 - Tony - 45 total ([88]9/[48]2/[18]11/[24]5/[99]18)
11 - Joe - 73 total ([55]29/[9]9/[18]11/[88]3/[19]21)
12 - Shane - 86 total ([88]9/[11]41/[18]11/[24]5/[48]20)
13 - Inskeep - 90 total ([88]9/[11]41/[24]35/[18]1/[16]4)
14 - Wayne - 104 total ([88]9/[5]42/[48]29/[24]5/[18]19)
15 - Hau Ling - 140 total ([6]42/[24]3/[2]38/[11]15/[5]42)

No race next weekend. Easter instead. Don't forget to get me you Martinsville picks before the race in 2 weeks. Another short track. Always exciting racing on the short tracks.

Fu Manchu at Peabody's - 3-14-08

My ears are still ringing 2 days later

NCAA fantasy pool - Tourney Pick-em

OK, here is what I am thinking for the tourney this year. We will make it as simple as the NASCAR league. Prior to the tip of the first game on Thursday (the play-in game won't matter for this, I would hope) send me your best 5 player team. Any 5 guys from any teams - BUT you cannot have more than 2 players from any 1 team. We will tally points scored in the tourney. Highest final tally wins (I'm gambling that we won't have 2 identical teams). $5 per person - 1 entry limit. Winner takes the pot minus second place's entry fee, which is returned.

Get me your picks via email or fax or phone or post-it-note or pony express. Just get it to me prior to the tip of the first game.

I will post standings here after each round.

I will need player name and team.

Good luck.

PT

Oh yeah - as I typed this the #18 wrecked. Outstanding!

Winter football for latex salemen

Winter football ended yesterday. I can't say I'm happy its over, but I can now be productive on Saturday's again for a while. I actually lucked out. With all the bad weather here 2 weeks ago while Vicki and I were in Antigua, the season finale single elim tourney was postponed, so I got to play.

Vandelay went 8-0 in the regular season (a first for Vandelay's 8 years of existence) thanks to a veteran offense with the B.O.B. and Mark Hedegore at the helm, and with what I will argue as the best defense in the league. We hit the first week of playoffs as the #1 seed (another first for us) and cleaned the clocks of the lowly 16 seed. Then the weather worked in my favor and we wound up playing this past weekend to close out the tourney.

With a dominant victory against a 5-3 ODP Mudders team we entered the semis against the only team we played all through the regular season with a winning record - Team Jager.

In a nail biter that came down to a no-time-on-the-clock play on the 2 yard line after a first play of the drive hail mary that resulted in a pass interference call (I pushed off - he pushed back and I got the call with some effective acting) we failed to get it into the end zone and walked away 10-1 on the year.

Our girls played a great season. Our defense was tenacious (yes, we were a tenacious D this season) and our O was as effective as I can remember. We just couldn't pull it off.

Vandelay will be back next fall with what should be the toughest lineup yet. We will get Will's and Loren's speed back, ShawnRoss' monkey arms back in the center of the D, and Mikey hands back. Based on our performance this season without those guys, I'd say we are going to be tough to beat.

Bristol Picks

Here are the picks for today's race (in progress) at Bristol:

Jon - #29 Harvick
Shaffer - #07 Bowyer
Wingman - #07 Bowyer
PT - #31 Burton
Tony - #99 Edwards
Susie - #9 Kahne
Kenny - #9 Kahne
TBA - #29 Harvick
Shaw - #17 Kenseth
Scott - #29 Harvick
Joe - #19 Sadler
Shane - #48 Johnson
Wayne - #18 Busch
Inskeep - #16 Biffle
Hau-Ling - #5 Mears

Results after Atlanta (with Vegas included) - I'M BACK!

OK Folks, I made it back in late last night. Here are the standings:

1 - Jon - 13 total ([41]5/[18]4/[99]1/[88]3)
T2 - Shaffer - 21 total ([20]3/[48]2/[18]11/[24]5)
T2 - Wingman - 21 total ([20]3/[48]2/[18]11/[24]5)
4 - PT - 22 total ([41]5/[99]1/[18]11/[24]5)
5 - Tony - 27 total ([88]9/[48]2/[18]11/[24]5)
6 - Susie - 28 total ([88]9/[24]3/[18]11/[24]5)
7 - Kenny - 29 total ([88]9/[17]5/[18]11/[16]4)
8 - TBA - 31 total ([88]9/[24]3/[18]11/[17]8)
9 - Shaw - 32 total ([88]9/[48]2/[9]6/[11]15)
10 - Scott - 38 total ([88]9/[17]5/[18]11/[48]13)
11 - Joe - 52 total ([55]29/[9]9/[18]11/[88]3)
12 - Shane - 66 total ([88]9/[11]41/[18]11/[24]5)
13 - Wayne - 85 total ([88]9/[5]42/[48]29/[24]5)
14 - Inskeep - 86 total ([88]9/[11]41/[24]35/[18]1)
15 - Hau Ling - 98 total ([6]42/[24]3/[2]38/[11]15)

Sorry I don't have commentary on the races this time. I only caught the last 5 laps of Vegas, and even then Vicki made me leave for dinner with 1/2 lap left (gotta keep the peace in the relationship, especially 2 days before the wedding). I'll be back on track this week.

Don't forget to get your picks in before the drop of hte green this weekend!

Vegas Picks - Preliminary

Not sure if I will get to a computer before the race tomorrow. I don't have many picks so far, except:

Shaw - #9, Inskeep #24 (this is pretty much an exercise in me not forgetting who picked who).

Hopefully I can find a TV with FOX on it in St Martens as we have a 4 hour layover around the time of the race ending. Then, hopefully I will find a complimentary internet access point to get results and post standings.

Get those picks in!!!