mcinerney

We had our Fantasy Basketball draft and I am bruised and beaten. I hated my team before I even made a pick. Usually we have 11 teams in our league. This year we have nine. I had the eighth pick. I could see what was going to happen and I felt helpless. LeBron, KG, Kobe….Carmello, Agent 0, Dirk…. I was hoping, praying, begging for the team in front of me to let Dwight Howard slide. It didn’t happen. For those who know me, I probably don’t have to continue. You know what happened. I was stuck. Every year I battle between taking players I enjoy and players that I think will help me win the fantasy league. Here I was at pick # 8, not a player on my roster and I knew I was going to hate my team. All eyes in the room were on me. It was like driving on ice and needing to stop. You start to slide, you know you are going to hit the other car and there is nothing you can do about it. Then the words that I will forever regret came out of my mouth….

”I will take Tim Duncan.”

Honestly, I don’t even remember saying it. It’s all a blur now. My options at that time were Dwayne Wade (hurt), Vince Carter (I’ve done the Vince Carter experiment and it was terrible), Chris Bosh (nursing a knee), Boozer (always an injury waiting to happen), Yao Ming (injury prone), McGrady (injury prone), AI (I thought he may drop off because of playing in Denver with Carmelo Anthony), Paul Pierce (question mark with KG and Ray Allen in town), Al Jefferson (new team, carrying the load, etc.), and Amare Stoudemire (coming off a pretty good year). Knowing the next team got two picks, I assumed Stoudemire would be available given the previous year’s stats. He was an I took him. We are two weeks into the season and he is having a terrible year. I went on to take other players all having terrible years (see Luol Deng).

Anyway, the draft is over, we are two weeks into our season and I am 0-2. My team is terrible. Looking back, if all it took for Tim Duncan to become very average was for me to draft him on my fantasy team, I would have done this eight years ago. I would have done my part to help the T-Wolves advance in the playoffs. Maybe it is a good thing I draft Timmy. He’s terrible and I love every minute of it.

Fantasy sports is always fun to play. It makes me care how Damien Wilkins played on a given night. Without fantasy sports, that wouldn’t happen. I do wish my team was better, but what can I expect? The words “I will take Tim Duncan” allegedly came out of my mouth.

We have returned from Hawaii. Some of you may know Hawaii was not in my Top 10 places to see. I’m not sure why, it just wasn’t. Now that I have been there, I can say I definitely enjoyed myself and Hawaii as a whole has quite a bit to see. Would I go back? Sure, but I’d like to get to some other places first.

We made it to Oahu, Kauai and Kona. We were only in Oahu (Honolulu) for a day and a half. We visited Pearl Harbor and saw Waikiki. The reason for the trip was so we could attend our friend’s (Anna and Tony) wedding. The wedding was in Waimea, which is on the island of Kauai. It was really a nice wedding and we had a great time. We saw Waimea Canyon and also made it up to Princeville while on Kauai. From there we flew to Kona. We saw some green sea turtles, toured the volcano and had some dolphins swim with a boat we were on. It was a great trip.

We found some really cheap flights at the cost of having a layover in Seattle. The flight from Minneapolis to Seattle is about three hours and the flight from Seattle to Honolulu is about five and a half hours. I am not that tall (6’3”), but I will fight and claw and throw elbows to get an emergency exit row seat. On the way there, no luck. I chewed on my knees for a good portion of the almost nine hours of air time. Luckily the person in front of me did not try to recline. On the way home we spent the $20 extra dollars to reserve the exit row seats. I can find many ways to spend $20, but possibly never find a BETTER way to spend it. The added leg room was very much appreciated.

At some point don’t airlines have to add some more leg room at the cost of flying fewer people per plane? I am not that much taller than the average person anymore. I cannot justify the cost of first class. I’ll suck it up for the duration of the flight and deal with the bruised knees upon arrival. It just isn’t worth the drastic increase in price. However, the $20 for the exit row seat just may be worth it. This is especially true on longer flights. I can’t remember when they started offering the $20 exit row seat. This clearly would have been a good call on our way to Vietnam. 21 hours in the air. That is a long time to be flying.

I will definitely be looking to invest the $20 on any flight longer than a couple of hours. It really makes the flight much more tolerable.

Worth mentioning $20 would get about a third of a tank of gas in Hawaii, where it sells for $3.49 / gallon.

Some friends and I have played fantasy basketball for about 15 years now. Some teams have left and others have joined. The league started when we were in college. When we graduated we decided we could not let this league fall apart. Mainly because we figured it is a good reason to get together every year.

As time elapsed there were more and more online leagues available. We have thrown around the idea of using an online league just from an ease of use standpoint. One thing we will not compromise on is having the draft in person. Sure most of these leagues are setup to allow the draft to happen online as well, but our league has really been focused on the draft. We have a fair amount of participation from owners living in Chicago and Minneapolis. We also have an owner in the Bay Area. It is really a good way to have a “guys weekend.”

It used to be that we said the winner of the league would host the following year’s draft. That meant if someone in Chicago won the league, the Mpls. folks would have to (as if it is a bad thing) fly to Chicago for the next year’s draft. Over the years we have just decided to keep the draft in Minneapolis.

Well, this coming weekend is “Draft Weekend.” It really isn’t a one day event. Friday night the lie’s and rumors begin. A few things that may be mentioned Friday evening are:
• The rumor is Kobe is going to Miami to be with Shaq again. He’ll get less shots in Miami than he was getting in LA.
• I can’t believe how well Adam Morrison has been playing in the pre-season.
• What do you think about Tim Hardaway’s comeback effort? Do you think he’ll start in Memphis?
• I can’t believe Rashard Lewis just got busted for steroids

The actual draft will happen Saturday. The fun really begins with our own lottery. Put all of the teams in a hat and start picking them out. The first team out of the hat will draft last. The last team out gets the first pick.

Once the picks begin, the trash talking really gets underway. We don’t get three picks into the draft and someone is blurting out, “First mistake of the draft!” or “Whoa, you want him in the second round even though he’ll be out until February?” These are great only because we have always had the rule that if you say a name, he is on your team. You cannot undo the pick. This is mainly because there is nothing funnier than having someone draft a guy that is out for the year and have everyone immediately burst out laughing.

Through the course of the season more trash talking will happen, mainly through email and our chat room. It is all in good fun and gives us a good excuse to stay in touch.

To the teams that will be flying in….after this weekend, we’ll see you in Vegas in March. Until then, I’d highly recommend checking the injury report AND police reports this year. You may just change your draft strategy.

I have been playing softball regularly since 1993.  That means I am finishing my 15^th year of softball.  That makes me feel old!  I was talking with some friends and tried to figure out how many softball games I have played in my life.  I only play once per week now, but I used to play more (three times per week plus occasional weekend tournaments).

I broke it down this way:
1993-1995’ish: Roughly 20 games per year with a team of high school friends and a few tournaments each season = 75
1995-current: Roughly 20 games per year with some old work friends in the summer plus a couple of “one day events” = 260
1995-current: Three or four, maybe five years of fall ball with 14 games per season = 56
1994-1996’ish: 20 games per year with some college friends = 60
1998-2001’ish: 20 games per year with a friend’s team and his coworkers (plus a few tournaments) = 60
1998-2002’ish: 20 games per year with some random guys (friends of friends) plus quite a few tournaments = 180

I went with 20 games per year as I end up missing one or two weeks each year because of work or other reasons.  Generally the seasons are 22 or 24 games in the summer and 14 games in the fall.  That is almost 700 softball games.  That seems high, but I don’t remember missing too many games.  I could have the years wrong, but even if I’m a year strong on one or two of them, and I’m not sure I am, it is still well over 600.  I remember a few years where I was playing double headers Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights and tournaments on the weekend. 
 
I guess I am old.  If I have played 650 total games in 15 years that would be an average of about 43 games per year.  That seems like a lot, but there were a few years where I played three nights per week and played in a handful of tournaments.  Even now if I play 24 summer games and 14 fall league games that is 38….maybe the average of 43 games per year is right (or possibly low).  Assuming I’ll play all 14 fall league games this year, I will have played 22 summer games, 14 fall league and six in a weekend tournament.  That’s 42, and it didn’t seem like I played that much. 
 
I’m starting to think a conservative number is 650 games.  Again, that makes me feel old.

There are countless reasons to enjoy softball.  Being outdoors, the laughing and joking during and after the games, the chance to be competitive and maybe the greatest thing is hearing the lineup called for each inning.  Playing with the same guys for a number of years usually ends up in calling each other by their nickname.  A lineup could read: Moose, Hollywood, Pig, Shooter, Flash, Shorty, Deuce…

Based on names from a friend’s squad, their lineup could read: Cozzie, Moore, Moore, Byrnes, Whipple, Uber.  Or, it could read: Moore, Cozzie, Uber, Bush, Moore, Whipple, Byrnes… Read that fast like you are calling out a lineup.  You can’t make stuff like that up.  Just fantastic. If you don’t see the humor in that lineup, well, stick with book club and avoid the softball field.

Good times on the softball field.  After 650 or so games, I may love playing softball more now than I did my first year.  Softball is FUN! 

We had our second anual family reunion up north August 17th – 19th.  Up north is better defined as a legitimate four hours straight north.  In the middle of nowhere on a tiny lake that doesn’t offer much as far as waterskiing, but does offer great fishing, hunting, ATV rides, nature, hiking, etc.  There were roughly 60 people up there this year.  We have decided we will try to do this the same weekend every year.  The term Family Reunion makes it sound more formal.  That is not the case.  It is just a large group of people doing what they want to do with their time up north.

The fact is that in the 1950’s there was one cabin on a significant amount of land.  My grandparents shared the cabin with my grandma’s sisters and their families.  Over time all of the families grew in numbers and eventually the land was split up and more cabins were built.  When I was growing up there were still many families sharing only a couple of cabins.  As kids we certainly didn’t care that we were sleeping on pull out couches and the grown-ups were awake talking an laughing as we were trying to sleep.  It was fun to hang out with all of our cousins and run around in the woods, etc. 

We are now on our third generation of adults and again the families have grown.  As our grandparents sadly passed away some decisions needed to be made.  Today there are three cabins in a row, still owning a decent amount of land.  My parents own one cabin, my dad’s cousin owns the middle cabin and my dad’s brother owns the third cabin.  It is still fun to walk between cabins and see familiar faces.

The fact is that as the families have grown, it is more and more difficult for everyone to get together on the holidays.  There are just so many other families that each of us has to split time with throughout the year.  This third weekend in August has proven to be a perfect time for everyone to come together and share some laughs and enjoy each other’s company. 

By night the cabins are full.  There are motor homes and trailers and tents scattered everywhere.  A few go to be early and others stay up late by a fire.  During the day there are more kids than I can count running around playing with other kids.  A few are familiar, but overall they really don’t get to spend much time with throughout the year.  By the end of a couple of days, they could be best friends.  It is amazing how easily kids get along.

One of the only schedules we keep are for meals where we move from one cabin to the next with each passing meal.  All 60+ people eat together and catch up.  The other scheduled activity is the parade.  The kids spend hours decorating their bikes and wagons.  The parade makes a loop between the cabins and everyone sits outside to watch the parade pass.  All of the kids, and admittedly some of the adults, spent the last 51 weekends thinking about the 2nd annual parade. 

I find myself thinking that all of our grandparents, the original owners of the single log cabin, would never have dreamed this many people would be enjoying the same “middle of nowhere” area where they spent hours talking about anything and everything. 

An enjoyable weekend with better weather than the Twin Cities had.  51 weekends to go until we get to meet again!