The Dork Days of September

The circle of life.  As one sport winds down it’s season another one begins anew.  With summer in the books and the 2008 baseball regular season nearing it’s end with Urethra Franklin (my fantasy baseball team) firmly entrenched in a first round playoff battle, it’s time to make a new start…or two new starts.

The past two days have been filled with extreme pragmatism in determining the direction of these fresh foundations as I spent both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings attending to the needs of not one but two teams in two separate fantasy football leagues.

Tuesday’s festivities took place at The Lighthouse Tavern as a largely unfamiliar cluster of owners took to the bar’s backroom to draft the squad which they will count on to carry them to the pantheon of Fantasy Football greatness for the 2008 season.  I was in the fortunate position of drafting third for my team The New Clear Hollow Cost (if you think really hard you can figure out what they were called last year) and thus was confident my first three pics would be of high caliber.  Seated with Adam, his girlfriend Kelly, and Cory; familiar faces from last year’s proceedings, I rattled off my first three picks.  Brian Westbrook, Braylon Edwards, Reggie Bush.  In the past, I would’ve never picked someone such as Brian Westbrook a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, hated rivals of my beloved New York Giants…but this is a business and when it’s business time this GM picks the best player around

Brian Westbrook: Hated Philadelphia Eagle, Beloved Member of The New Clear Hollow Cost

I was quite pleased with myself the way the proceedings were going until I reached a crucial decision in the fourth round.  Debating the merits of two running backs,  Julius Jones vs. Thomas Jones, and having not read enough on either of their teams the previous two days I picked the former, a crucial error as Julius Jones would be splitting his workload with two other players.  Round 5 resumed business as usual as I scooped up Green Bay Wide Receiver Greg Jennings.  While I’m not exactly thrilled with my two quarterbacks, I’d say the rest of the affair, while lengthy, went off without incident.  I may have even picked a sleeper to compensate for my earlier mistake in a certain Baltimore Ravens Running Back.  Only time will tell if I was redeemed and it’s certainly a long season.

Wednesday evening was quite a different story.  Curled up on my couch with the horribly disturbing and distracting Republican national convention playing in the background, I sat with my computer and my cheatsheets not typing in a lot of idle chatter in the draft room, simply trying to select the very best players to make up the team I affectionately and hilariously (at least I think it’s hilarious) named Who Favre-ted?  I was not blessed with the best order as I was given the eight selection and often found the players I planned on picking were gone by the time it was my turn.  I was however fortunate to score some reasonably big names in the first ten rounds, the biggest victory being St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson lasting until the eighth spot.  Hallelujah.

Who Favre-ted?: Steven Jackson

Somewhere in there though I was quite distracted by the TV goings on as the douchebag Republican delegation started chanting “Drill Baby Drill!” in response to a call for more offshore drilling to decrease dependency on foreign resources.  I thought to myself, this is a sensitive environmental issue that requires real discussion, it’s not as if you’re cheering for the fucking mindless Go Cornhuskers Go chant to score a touchdown.  Drill baby drill?  Really?

Anyway, I think I sort of lost my concentration at this point but ended up with a decent draft here too.  Again, it is a long season and every little bit of information and the results of all of the non-scientific research relied upon are subject to change on a dime.  Half of these guys probably won’t be on my team by year’s end…but for 5 shining hours over two days, I spent my precious time selecting them to be part of my elite few.

Are you ready for some football?  I am.

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