Messing with My Emotions

Sup.  There's this really cliched line in the really cliched movie Fever Pitch, where Jimmy Fallon's character is explaining why he is such a die hard Red Sox fan.  After rambling, he finally goes, "it's good for your soul to have an emotional attachment to something you can't control."

Really emotional

It might be good for your soul, but it can be a real bitch on your life.  Does sports ever completely ruin your day?  Your week?  Your entire *insert name of sport* season?

If so, then you're not alone.  In fact, I'm pretty sure you and 30,000,000 NFL fans feel the same.  I experienced a week like this last week, so wanted to share it with you all to make sure I'm not crazy because... well, I don't know why.  The ol' blog has gotten person on occasion of late, I'm writing this on 9/11, and well... I guess I'm in the mood to share a little piece of who I am tonight.  So there's that.




So last week, all of the following were occurring in my sports world...

1.  My fantasy baseball team, having climbed from midway through the pack to take the regular season lead, then promptly blow it when my best player hit the DL (and now may not be back at all), was 1/2 game back with one week to play.  That is a damn near statistical impossibility.

Slow

2.  I had the last of my three fantasy football drafts (note to self:  3 teams is 1 too many... note to self:  I'll probably do it again next year), hence, the start of three fantasy football seasons.  For those not in any of my leagues, and for those who are and don't give a crap about any team but your own (that's all of us), I am a notorious slow starter in all fantasy sports.

Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame!

3.  It was the final Michigan v. Notre Dame Fighting Chickens for the next few years, because, you know, the Chickens were concerned about "strength of schedule."  So to remedy that, they are going to schedule 5 ACC games against football powerhouses Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, and NC State, rather than playing a long time rival that's consistently ranked in the Top 20.  Brilliant.

Thankfully, the Tigers are pretty much locked into the playoffs, so that wasn't going on.  But as an aside, the wife is now managing her own fantasy football team in a couples' league we joined.  Given I taught her about drafting and whatnot, there was a little pressure on me there.

Side Note - Most fantasy football players constantly and annoyingly check their team every 5 seconds on Sundays.  The wife was like, "why would I watch my team, I just want to know if I won when it's all over."  She didn't ask me about it until Monday morning.  I really, really wish I could do that, cause I scoreboard-watched that baseball team all day on Sunday, and stayed up til 11 to see when Kershaw got pulled from that game.  More on that in a second...

Side Side Note - I love fantasy sports, don't get me wrong.  But when this all occurred to me, I would have traded losses in the baseball regular season, the whole baseball playoffs, and 0-13 seasons in all three of my football leagues to beat Notre Dame.  In fact, I probably would have sacrificed 0-13 in three leagues next year, too.  Real sports always trumps fantasy.  I think resident Chickens fan Fah T would have done the same.

Here's how I felt going into the week, knowing my week rested on this.  When I told the wife this, she didn't flinch, thank God...

And the results were in...

1.  Close week all week in fantasy baseball.  I was up a few games, down a few games... in the end, I stayed up to watch that game because with a Kershaw loss/no decision, I locked up the regular season title.  I was completely beat that night.  I managed to stay up to see him pulled with the game tied at 2.  WIN!!!

2.  Won 2 games, lost 1.  But I lost to a friend who gives great hugs.  So that's okay.  The wife lost, too, in the same league I lost in.  She was cool with it.  And in "only those who play fantasy football will appreciate this news"... the Eagles offense led me to victory in those 2 games, and beat me in the other.  And I actually beat the guy who had Manning in one league.  WIN!!!

3.  MICHIGAN 41, CHICKENS 30, EAT IT ALL YOU FRAUD NOTRE DAME FANS HAVE FUN IN THE ACC GETTING UPSET BY WAKE FOREST AND BOSTON COLLEGE AND LOSING IN THE SYRACUSE DOME BUT AT LEAST FAH'S DAD WILL LIKE THAT A LITTLE BIT I HATE HOW THE MEDIA SLURPS YOU FOR NO REASON AND OH YEAH YOU GUYS WERE TOTALLY OVERRATED LAST YEAR AND LOST TO STANFORD AND PITT AND WE ALL GOT SCREWED WITH THAT CRAPPY BCS TITLE GAME BUT THE BCS SUCKS ANYWAYS SO I GUESS IT DIDN'T MATTER THAT MUCH AND WE'RE GETTING A PLAYOFF NOW SO I'M OVER IT.

Win.  Bitches.

So I'm having a pretty damn good week.  And I hope you are, too.  For those who have been looking for my NFL picks, I'm not picking all games this year, and, per my rules of LB (I'm too lazy to link that anymore, can you just search the archives for me?  Thanks), not betting the first 3 weeks.  Contact Logical Betting at logicalbetting@gmail.com and twitter.com/logicalbetting.  Hoping to be back in the D for the World Series.  More new content soon.  And hell no, I didn't forget...

Never forget.