I had a great Fantasy fall…putting it mildly. I participated in three football leagues and won them all. The most important one, the money league, came down to a championship-week, defensive-points adjustment the Thursday after the title games. San Francisco was credited with 1 more sack and I went from a percentage-point loss to a percentage-point victory. The other two leagues had nothing but pride on the line, yet the taste of victory still was sweet (sorry, nephew.)

It’s now my turn for comeuppance. Our fantasy golf league is steaming toward the last weeks of the Winter season and I float helplessly around 10th spot. I’m getting  a sense (just a sense, mind you) of what Tiger feels on the golf course. I suspect that he wants a) to play well and b) to prove to others that he knows what he’s doing! That’s me…I know golfers, I just can’t pick them the correct weeks this year. Perhaps we need a tangent for a moment…

Yahoo Fantasy Golf allows participants to use a player 10 times over the course of the year. Last year, I used up guys like Stricker and Kuchar before the FedEx Final, so I was toast. To complicate things, players are classified as A, B or C players. To further complicate things, you pick 2 A, 4 B and 2 C each week, but you only use 1-2-1 each round. Want more complication? If you don’t get at least 1 A, 2 B and 1 C to the weekend, you lose potential points for those slots. More? OK, imagine the round starts at 7:30 and you have Sloppy McPutter as your A player. He is supposed to tee off at 9 but withdraws at 8:57. Think you can slot someone in to replace him for the week? Nope. For the round? Nope Nope. So there are vagaries to this game…

Back to my song of sorrow. I’ve picked guys who played well the previous week, only to see them bomb. I’ve selected fellows one week, witnessed their implosion, then watched them win the following week (after being jettisoned from my line-up, of course!)

What I need is a run. I’m about 150 points out of third spot for the Winter segment, the final paying spot in our league. If I could put together 3-4 weeks to close the trimester, I’d shoot up the list and threaten the leaders (assuming they tanked and their psychic updates went whack.) Even without that, I’d be happy to win just week, for affirmation purposes. After all, I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and gosh darn it, people like me.