Over the last 25 years, I've attended hundreds of +Oakland Athletics games. From 2005 to 2008, +Kristine Gray and I had season tickets that saw us attending as many as 40 games a season. We've seen dramatic home runs, 20-2 blowouts and plenty of controversial calls and tough losses. But before this month, there's one thing I'd never done - stepped onto the field and thrown out the ceremonial first pitch to get the game started. On August 1st, I did, and I'm happy to report it was a quality throw, which will prevent me from being immortalized on YouTube or Sportscenter for all time.

Some of you may have seen my Google+ post on how I got this "Bucket List" opportunity. But if you didn't, I got a surprise phone call at work in late July from +Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich, who thanked me for my being a good Sunrun customer, and then extended the option to throw out the first pitch at the game on August 1st, where the company was sponsoring that night's fireworks display. After some schedule flexing, I agreed.

In preparing for throwing out the first pitch, one must understand you essentially have one minute of fame, tops, and you only get one pitch, so it had better be a good one. There's no "best two out of three" or do overs. You walk to the mound, throw, and then leave. Not being a regular pitcher from just about 60 feet, I guesstimated the distance in our backyard, and in the week prior, practiced throwing the full length of our backyard, enlisting my kids to act as retrievers, picking up the ball after my pitches, and throwing it back. When the day came to actually do the same in front of what was eventually a sellout crowd of more than 30,000 in Oakland, I was confident I wouldn't make a dramatic mistake.

The game was at 6:35 p.m. that Friday, and I was asked by the A's to be in my seat by 6. At that time, an A's representative would pick me up and escort me to the field. I was given a lanyard that granted me access to the field, and I was awaiting my role by 6:10, standing just off the A's on deck circle. I was given a brand new +MLB ball, and was told that A's relief pitcher Fernando Abad would be playing the role of receiver. As I assumed, and was told, any player in the starting lineup is not going to step in for the ceremony, so it always falls to whomever has nothing to do.

I remarked my biggest concern, beyond making a fool of myself, was possibly injuring the player with an errant toss. My guide said the players were instructed to make the guest pitchers "look good" but not to get hurt. Simple enough. I was also told to throw as if I were playing catch in the backyard, and not to fire it in, as many people end up spiking the grass, not prepared for the ball's descent.

It turns out there were to be two ceremonial first pitches that evening, and I was to go second. As our time came, the first pitcher approached the mound and made his throw, while I stood just off the third base foul line. Then it was my time to stroll up. As I did, despite not being nervous up to that point, I started to be very aware I had a chance to make a mistake. The ball started to feel lighter in my hand, and I didn't want to overgrip or undergrip it, which would send it sailing way beyond my target.


Over the loudspeakers, A's public address announcer Dick Callahan introduced me, as representing Sunrun, his familiar voice drawing out the vowels in my name: "Loooouiiissss Graaayyy..." Then he guided along, "Go ahead, Louis." (Catch the video from +Drew Olanoff on Instagram)

I got the nod from the A's guide on the third base line, and fired a strong throw with good velocity. Instead of it being in slow motion, as you might expect, I simply saw the ball hit his mitt, like I'd seen so many thousands of strikes do before. He barely moved. The throw in reality was much better than I'd even had in my head. Over the speakers, Callahan commented, "Nice pitch." Then I got off the mound, and strode quickly toward the third base line, knowing my moment was up.


Abad, as is customary, came by to sign the ball. There were photos, which I'm told I'll get in a couple weeks. We stayed on the field for the national anthem, and at the song's conclusion, walked past the A's dugout as the players readied for the game, re-entered the stands, and the ceremony was over.


When I got back to my seat, I was just me again. Just a fan, sitting with my wife and parents, watching the A's play a game. And despite my nice pitch, they lost 1-0 to the surging +Kansas City Royals. It was a fantastic event, even though they lost, but like any good fan, I'd have traded it for a win. Thanks a ton to Lynn, +Christa Keizer and the Sunrun team for inviting me for an unforgettable experience.

No two fingerprints, people, or businesses are exactly alike. While learning from the experiences of others can be illuminating and inspiring, your own challenges are unique, and following a path previously trod may not deliver you the same outcome. Often, taking an unconventional approach can deliver results far beyond those anyone anticipated, and your differentiation can start to be part of your story.

While Microsoft was building a dominating market share position for operating systems through licensing its software to OEMs, one of Steve Jobs' first moves upon returning to Apple was to discontinue licensing of the Mac OS to 'clones' including Motorola and Power Computing. The clones were not, in fact, helping the Mac increase market share, but were cannibalizing Apple, and going a different way was needed. Jobs similarly canceled the Newton handheld, and pushed the company to focus on a select few products, and do them extremely well.

More recently, on a backdrop of failed P2P networks from Kazaa to LimeWire and others, when music peddlers argued customers want to own their songs instead of stream them, Daniel Ek and the Spotify team created a subscription-based streaming service on the back of P2P technology, and are now valued at a billion dollars, while the company is still in its youth.

Square unconventionally found a solution for a universal adapter for wireless payments by determining the one similarity between all smartphones was an audio port. Instagram differentiated through elegant display and an array of filters that made casual photographers feel like artists. Path discarded the trend of wide sharing and focused on a more intimate network - discarding the status quo of the time.

On this backdrop, turning away from tech and toward sports, if you'll allow it, we come across one of the more intriguing storylines in recent football memory, as Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, believed to be a below-average professional passer with almost no experience, but a robust college resume, as well known for his spirituality as anything else, has rattled off six consecutive wins in remarkable fashion, sparking his team to the division lead after a moribund start.

In an era when leading signal-callers are posting 300 and even 400 yards passing per game, Tebow has famously won games where he has thrown for less than 100. He won one game without a single completion in the first half, and has become as feared an offensive weapon for his running game - posting 118 yards in a game on November 6th, and amassing more than 500 yards rushing over nine games. What Tebow has managed to do, despite all the critics and low expectations, is largely avoid mistakes (see only 2 interceptions against 198 completion attempts) and keep his team in the game, acting as a riddle for opposing defenses.

Those who've been talking about the Tebow phenomenon across the country in recent months (and I've had this post in my to-do pile for several weeks) note that the Broncos' turn-around has not been solely due to one man's effort. The team's defense has been outstanding, letting four of the last five team wins come despite 17 or fewer points, including a 13-10 victory yesterday over the Bears. In fact, yesterday's game saw the team kicker smash two field goals of fifty yards or more, including a 59 yarder at the end of regulation, and the 51 yarder that won the game in overtime. Regardless, the team is winning unconventially, changing the rules to match the talent set provided. To ask Tebow to throw for 300 plus yards, and look downfield on the majority of plays doesn't seem to be where he's best suited and the team's record of win after win shows the differentiated approach is working. Even the most casual football and sports fans has to be intrigued by the seeming magic that is happening in Denver.

Back the world of Silicon Valley and entrepreneurs, there are few sure things, except for the knowledge that your challenges and opportunities are in a combination previously unseen. For every superstar like Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, there are players like Tim Tebow, who can leverage their talents and drive the most possible out of their own abilities, if empowered and given the opportunity. There's plenty to read on best practices of doing a startup or architecting a successful social network or going viral, but sometimes it takes a different path - an unconventional approach - to the problem, to achieve something incredible.

I became a full-on baseball fanatic around the age of 10 or 11. While I remember watching the 1986 and 1987 World Series with my dad, seeing the chants of "Darryl, Darryl" in the first and the 7 home wins in the latter, 1988 was when I got completely immersed in the national pastime. Being a Northern California resident, the daily paper was full of exploits featuring the Bash Brothers, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, as the team won 104 games, losing only 58, for a .642 winning percentage. Canseco was the first to hit 40+ home runs and steal 40 bases. Dave Stewart won 21 games and Eckersley had 45 saves. The team was incredible.

After scouring all the boxscores, listening to radio broadcasts and catching the rare televised game, my dad finally took me to a major league game in Oakland. Sure enough, the A's won. Not only that, but Canseco homered, and Eckersley got the save. This same formula repeated three times that year, to the point, for me, only 11, I swore this was the way it always was.

Needless to say, I was hooked. Not just to baseball, but the A's, who I followed to their demise in the 1988 World Series against the LA Dodgers. The next Spring, I got the yearly baseball prediction magazines, and memorized all the stats. They're practically hard-coded now, with Canseco's .307 average, .569 slugging, 120 runs scored, 124 driven in, 24 doubles, 40 stolen bases (against 16 caught stealing) being the most obvious.

Now in the South Bay, and with the A's not exactly being amazing of late, I sometimes get asked why I am an A's fan (and not say... a Giants fan). For me, it comes back to 1988, and the beginning of the A's dynasty that saw them win 4 division titles through 1992, and 3 league championships, crowned by the earthquake-marred 1989 Bay Bridge Series against the Giants.

My wife and I had season tickets for the A's for 3 years until the twins were born in 2008, and we still watch as much as we can. But no matter what happens with this team, who Bud Selig seems to have little interest for, I'm an A's fan and baseball nut for life.

BTW - they are winning 8-0 right now.


/via My Google+ Profile.

Athletes have taken to social media, specifically Twitter, in droves, using the network as a way to quickly connect with fans and press without traditional media filters. As Twitter became more visible and top celebrities from Hollywood took the network, athletes soon followed - with Shaquille O'Neal being among the first and biggest name to make the service part of his arsenal. With the unfiltered capability upon them, athletes have often made mistakes for updates to the network, and it's possible some regret saying many of the things they have. With the advent of Google+ from Google, Chris Peoples asked me to join him on a regular podcast he calls "The Peoples' Court" to discuss how athletes could benefit from Google+ and what to expect in terms of adoption.

As I mentioned on the podcast, athletes are not the fastest adopters, but if history repeats, they may follow the Hollywood celebrities to the network, and find value in limited distribution of content via Circles, dedicated Hangouts with family, fans or press, and unlike Twitter, the option to not only post in long form, but to edit content after it has been posted. Until Google+ is open to mass registration, I would expect uptake from athletes looking to use the medium for marketing to be slow, but once the doors open, it could be a very different story. Per usual, I had some audio difficulties on the call, so if you don't mind skipping through occasional static, you might enjoy our discussion, embedded below.

In our home (and blog) we don't celebrate April Fool's Day. But we do celebrate the opening of the baseball season. While for some teams, the season actually started yesterday, true opening day for major league baseball hasn't begun until today - as that's when the A's take the field. Kicking off the baseball season this year, there are some great advances in the world of baseball that every baseball fan should know to start the 2011 season off right, including a new site in the amazing Sports Blogs Nation franchise, a new baseball game for iOS and Android, and the extension of one month's MLB.TV to all MLB At Bat purchasers on all platforms.

In the tradition of baseball's 1-2-3 strikes, here are the three big stories.

1) Baseball Nation from Sports Blogs Nation

Sports Blogs Nation has been the true fans' sports network for almost 8 years, starting with my favorite, Athletics Nation, and first slowly, then rapidly, taking over the world with dedicated blogs for all major sports teams, most colleges and many specific sports globally. The fast-growing network is practically going pro this year, with the higher of former ESPNer Rob Neyer, one of the most respected baseball authors and stat geeks you'll ever see. He is now running a brand new baseball entry page to SB Nation, which pops up the league's top news, runs near-live scores, columns, and deep integration into the dedicated team sites. Every baseball fan has to check this out: http://mlb.sbnation.com/

Sports Blogs Nation's success has me somewhat wistful I didn't double down on my early work with Athletics Nation in 2005 and Sactown Royalty from 2006 on, but I traded in my athletic gear for a slide rule and glasses with tape in going geek. Tyler Bleszinski, Jim Bankoff and team have done an amazing job with the franchise.


2) Free MLB.TV for the month of April from MLB

I've purchased MLB At Bat 11 on both my Android and iOS products. It's the best way to follow games around the country. MLB.com sent me a note today that customers will get access to streaming live video from any game through the month of April. They're hoping they'll get you hooked and you just might.

3) 9 Innings Pro Baseball Hits Android for Free

Com2uS has long made the best baseball games for mobile devices. In early 2010, I told you how 9 innings on iOS kept me from missing real baseball too much after a long and cold off-season. The company's Home Run Battle 3D game is amazing on both iOS and Android, looking fantastic on my Samsung Galaxy Tab, wasting countless hours for me swinging at off-speed pitches. The new 9 Innings Pro baseball game for android comes to Android for the first time, and is free, using the newly released in-app building to help you follow your favorite teams during the baseball season. The game is made in association with the Major League Baseball Player's Association. It also works on iOS.

So there you go. In a few hours, my favorite team takes the field. But before that, I am going to read Baseball Nation to see what's new, maybe catch an out of region game on MLB TV and play a little 9 innings. It's in the name of the real holiday - Opening Day.

Professional sports leagues are warming up quickly to mobile customers who can't be at the game or in front of their TV sets at home. The MLB At Bat application is a top program on iPhones, iPads and Android phones alike, and is so good, I swear I bought it three times - once for each platform. With baseball on hiatus in lieu of NFL contests on the gridiron, leatherheads can get their football fill with the NFL's answer - Game Center. With games being played on Thursday night in addition to Sunday, Sunday Night and Monday night, you could spend a lot of quality time with your favorite phone and favorite team, starting this evening.


   Game Center Scores and Current Game Status

Like most sports score oriented applications, the central starting point for Game Center is today's scoreboard, along with the option to see past weeks' results and next weeks' schedule. But live game updates are where the app delivers the most value. You can jump into games being played to grab the game's current situation, view play by play, and relive top plays from the game, including audio.


   Play by play and Other Highlights in Game Center

Lest the current game be in timeout or halftime, you can tap over to read headlines and blogs from around the league, view press conference videos, or see high quality photographs from other games - including, yes, cheerleaders, if you're into that.


   News and Audio Highlights in Game Center

Like its MLB equivalent, the NFL app is not free, but worth it if you want a single place to catch up with the entire league, or simply want to check in on how your favorite fantasy players are doing. The premium version is $4.99, while the light version is free.

Find the app on AndroidZoom.

Behind only technology, sports, specifically baseball, is my true obsession. I've dedicated a good amount of my idle time and brain power over the last 20 years absorbing statistics and remembering the sport's lore, and for several years, before we had our twins, my wife and I had season tickets to the Oakland A's. In the months when baseball isn't played, it can get very frustrating to not have the regularity of the sport, the speculation on players and trades, and the daily contests. This offseason, I cheated a bit, thanks to Com2Us' game 9 Innings, on the iPhone. Though the game doesn't deliver highest-quality graphics or have the official blessing of Major League Baseball and the Players Association, it features practically every wrinkle of the game and is challenging enough to play again and again.


Like its sister game, Home Run Battle 3D, 9 Innings puts the bat in your hands and expects you to deliver results. But it's not just about hitting balls out of the yard in this game. Whether you choose an exhibition contest or start off a full 126-game season, you are expected to pitch, bat, steal bases, take a walk, and all those things that make the game of baseball a real pleasure.


Any sports games nut knows there are fine lines in the degree of difficulty for a game. You can make it too easy, practically guaranteeing a win every time out and rapidly becoming boring. Or, conversely, you can wrap a game in difficulty and odd combinations that eliminate the fun, as you rack up your losses. Whether on "Easy" mode or "Hard" mode, I have managed to be just good enough to feel competitive, and still growl in frustration as I popped up with the bases loaded, or saw my closer give up a 9th inning bomb to lose the game. And for every game I won by a margin of 5 or more, I have seen the 3-2 losses as well, that slipped away thanks to a misplaced pitch or mistimed swing.


Gameplay on the iPhone is relatively simple and intuitive. Instead of using a gamepad, like the Wii or Playstation, for example, 9 innings leverages a baseball diamond diagram for the up, down, left or right. You can move up or down to select pitches, and toggle left to right to determine pitch location. Hit OK to confirm and again to release the pitch. The better your timing, the better the location and chance for success. Similarly, when batting, you want to swing at pitches that get good wood on the ball and can pass by fielders.


Just like in the real game, there are good hitters and bad, fast and slow, those prone to strike out or ground into double plays. Some pitchers have more stamina than others, and a sometimes annoying manager will urge you to put in a relief pitcher or tell you it's okay to give up one or two runs if you've gotten the bases loaded and nobody out. There are errors and stolen bases, wild pitches and hit batsmen. And practically every activity is being recorded for statistics, by player, team and league-wide. Meanwhile, the game is also tracking your team's record and standings, and there is a short postseason.


In addition to the gameplay, you gain points for specific activity. The more difficult the activity, such as a three run homer, instead of a double play or three consecutive strikes, the more points you get. You can exchange these points to improve your coaches' ability, and theoretically, your winning percentage. This can lead to intentional hit batsmen to strand the bases full and garner points, or pulling a double steal with runners on the corners to rack up a theft of home.


Unlike a real baseball game, a 9 innings contest doesn't take 3 hours. It can take about 20 minutes for a full game, and as you can expect, it can take several weeks or a few months to wrap up a full 126 games, with dedicated playing. What it may lack in perfect management of defense, or cutting-edge graphics, it makes up for in sheer entertainment and bringing the most realistic flavor of the national pastime to the iPhone which I've seen. While I haven't turned my back on the real world of baseball in these cold winter months, it hasn't been that dramatic, thanks to having a methadone equivalent for my fix.

9 Innings costs $4.99 from Apple's iTunes Store. You can find it here, and it's worth the five bucks.

My Batter Poses After A Strong Showing
I knew I was in trouble when I looked at the Apple Web site after their latest iPhone OS update and saw a screenshot featuring Com2uS's Homerun Battle 3D application. Combining two of my obsessions (baseball and the iPhone), it wasn't too long before I had opened up the iTunes Store and downloaded the game, for $4.99. What I found was more than just a simple game that let me swing for the fences, but a high quality video game with built-in social functions, letting me challenge people wirelessly from around the world, and the option to send my scores to Facebook and Twitter.


Hitting A Home Run in the Left Field Seats
The concept behind Homerun Battle 3D is a fairly simple one. In the classic version of the game, the pitcher throws the ball, and you tap the iPhone at just the right time to send the ball on a trajectory that may lead out of the ballpark. If it goes over the fence, you get a point. If it doesn't, you get an out - just like in the real home run derby you can see during every All-Star Break.


Checking My Home Run Records

Seeing How I Stack Up Against Other Players
Homerun Battle 3D is a lot more fun than "see ball hit ball". Depending on the pitch's speed and type (from fastballs to sliders and curves), you need to tilt the iPhone up or down to match the bat head to the ball and then swing away as the ball dives into the strike zone - which can be challenging. And it becomes even more involved when you discover additional options, such as an "Arcade" version that features contests in terms of hitting the ball to all fields, getting double the points on a single swing, or taking away an out if you find a ball with angel wings.


Going Down to Defeat After One Battle
The social elements in Homerun Battle 3D are reminiscent of those on some Nintendo Wii games. You can choose to challenge anybody from around the world who wants to do battle. If somebody of your rank is up for it, you and the opponent will both be swinging for the fences at the same time. If you hit more home runs or get more home runs in a row than they do, then you are the winner, and they are the loser. So far, I've only won once, but assume I may get better with practice. If you win, your ranking goes up, and if you lose, yes, it goes down.


I Can Send My Records to Social Networks
Should you be so inclined, you can send your current rankings on Homerun Battle 3D to Facebook or Twitter, and request that your friends add you as a rival, letting you take on your friends, rather than strangers, and yes, spreading the word about what is a very cool game for the sports junkie in each of us.

At Apple's recent event, Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller highlighted the iPod/iPhone platform's growth as a game device. While I still make plenty of calls and browse the Web from my iPhone, I'm also growing an impressive number of games in my application library. If you want to add Homerun Battle 3D to yours, you can find it on the iTunes Store here.

This last weekend marked the beginning of the college football season at universities across the country. My Cal Bears managed to wallop the visiting Maryland Terrapins by a 52-13 margin, avenging last year's ugly loss at College Park. As I couldn't watch the game, traveling to Southern California, I kept tabs, using my iPhone, by using ESPN's ScoreCenter, a low-frills app from the self-proclaimed "Worldwide Leader in Sports" designed to get me the data I want quickly - with a clear focus on real-time game results, instead the more fluffy features you can find with just about any sports media.


ESPN ScoreCenter on the iPhone: Scores from Any League
ESPN has a long history of experimenting with its Web site - being among the first to embrace Java in the mid-1990s, and streaming video earlier this decade. (See also: ESPN.com Launches New Beta Site, Reduces Ads, Integrates Video from December 2008) It has similarly moved its tech leadership to the mobile Web, with a dedicated site for old-school cell phones and the iPhone, including fun games, like ESPN Cameraman, and ScoreCenter - a cute play on its famous franchise, SportsCenter.

ScoreCenter, like the ESPN Web site, separates out the day's scores by sport. MLB is separate from the NBA, which is separate from College Football, the NFL and so on. But what displays on your iPhone is up to your own preferences. You pick the sports you want updates from, and you pick your favorite teams. You can even select which sports appear first when you open the application, and you never have to see updates from sports you don't care about. These selections are helpfully titled "mySports" and "myTeams", as part of the company's My ESPN push.


Drilling Down on Top Teams' Games on ScoreCenter
Sports already plays a big role on my iPhone. There are dedicated applications out there for MLB, NFL scores or College Football scores, each of which I've previously covered. And yes, you can get updates on sports news from many media apps. But ESPN's ScoreCenter gives me a customized cut of all the information, providing me the top level answer I need in terms of current scores from all my leagues, and with a few clicks, I can see the boxscores or even live gameday action. And for those of us raised on the ESPN franchise through TV, you should be happy to see they even have the familiar "Bottom Line" bringing headlines from around the sports world.


ScoreCenter, Customized For Me, Also Goes Deep Into Data
The app is a welcome alternative to other non-custom apps that give me way too much information about things I don't care about. With college football kicking off last weekend, I know I'll be checking in to ESPN's ScoreCenter to see what every team in the Pac-10 conference is doing, or browsing the Top 25, and getting updates on every game as they roll from East to West. The application, supported by ads, which display alongside the scores, is free. Find it here.

It's well-known that I am a big iPhone fan. It's almost as well-known that I'm also a huge baseball fan, and have been since I was very small. These two factors contributed to my buying the iPhone application from Major League Baseball a no-brainer before the season started. In addition to getting live "gameday" information for any game, box scores and a post-game recap for any contest, the application also features rich media, such as video highlights and audio coverage from both home and away squads - keeping me up to date to any contest, anywhere my iPhone can pick up a few bars from AT&T's 3G network, or over WiFi.


Condensed Game Recaps In Video Are Available Post-Game
At some point in the last two weeks, MLB updated their application, adding a new feature that is extremely valuable if you want to rapidly get a recap of a game you missed - posting video summaries of the contest after every game, lasting only ten minutes or less.

Instead of some suit in a studio interpreting what they think are the best games to display, or the best highlights from each game for you to consume, you can see practically every play, condensed. If there was a hit, it will be there. A run, it's there. Strikeouts. Big plays. All of it.


This Yankees/Rangers Game Can Take Only About 7 Minutes
This is no three-hour time sink, that an archived game on TiVo would be. Today, I literally watched Saturday's Oakland A's game, from start to finish, as my wife drove to church. And with the abbreviated games, I can watch more than just my favorite team. I can see the Yankees play the Red Sox. I can watch the Tampa Bay Rays play their cross-state rivals, the Florida Marlins, or any rivalry, real or imagined. And I don't have to sit through stretches of well... stretching. Or spitting. Or scratching. I don't have to watch foul balls, or coaching visits to the mound. It's a rapid fire approach to the national pastime.


I Can See All the Plays, Big and Small, Quickly
If you are one of the many who already bought the MLB app for the iPhone, you've already got it. Find the condensed versions in the "Video" section of any game. If you don't have it yet, but love baseball, now would be the time.

As the Super Bowl wrapped up the year's NFL season, so to ended the year's fantasy football season - which on some days seems dramatically more important. And, now that the dust has cleared, my team has finished 1st overall, just like it did the last time I played, in the 2005-06 season, and the 2001-02 season, my rookie year. And while I should be elated, given my push to be competitive, and love of sports and all things statistical, ending up the winner is met more with a shrug than jubilation - partly because of the knowledge the competition is complete, with no more weekly battles, and also, as the margin of victory was already guaranteed, making today's game moot.

As I mentioned back on January 4th (See: Geek Leading Fantasy Football League During Playoff Push), I managed to take a lead after the 1st week of the playoffs, and knew I was well-positioned going into week two, but surprisingly, a lot of little things went right for my squad, and badly for everyone else - so while there were many upsets each weekend, the only real surprise in our league was that I managed to not only keep the lead - but score highest every single Sunday, increasing my lead.


By the time the Pittsburgh Steelers were crowned NFL champions this evening, I had finished the four-week playoff round with a total of 391 points, almost twice that of the second-place finisher, who had 217 points, followed by the stragglers at 190 points and 101. To give you an idea of how wild it is that I scored so many points, just three years ago I won it all with 281 points, beating out the second place team, who scored 239, and the prior year, I had finished second, losing 290 to 265 - much closer contests than the 2008-09 playoffs. (See: Kiss of Death League: History)

So how did this happen? As with any good fantasy squad, significant luck was involved. I had expected the Carolina Panthers to do very well, and possibly contend for the Super Bowl title. But as we were drafting one Saturday morning, I wanted to make sure I didn't post a zero in the initial Wild Card contests, and loaded up on the high-offense Arizona Cardinals, getting the quarterback and wide receiver pair of Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald, as well as the San Diego Chargers' Darren Sproles, who I expected to rack up points returning kickoffs against what was supposed to be a superior Colts squad. But then Sproles became the primary running back as Ladanian Tomlinson was injured, and the Chargers beat the Colts. And virtually everyone knows what happened to Arizona. They went all the way to the Super Bowl, and both Warner and Fitzgerald set records along the way. It almost didn't seem fair as my team excelled while others were virtually eliminated by week one.


I'm torn because I love the fact I blew out the field. But I also would have liked some better competition, and to have been watching Sunday's Super Bowl with the knowledge my fantasy season could also be on the line. I love that I won by such big margins because I'm going to enjoy going through the stats, but it isn't exactly fun to talk trash (a major part of fantasy football) when you're ahead by 100 points, so for the last month, that piece has practically been eliminated.

How much did loading up on Arizona help me? According to the league statistics, Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner were the 1st and 2nd highest scorers, garnering me 180 points between them. Add in the 44 points from Arizona special teams, and I'd be at 224, already ahead of the second-place finisher, and that doesn't even take into consideration the 74 points picked up by Sproles, who had an amazing first two weeks.

So now it's all done. At some point, I'll probably get a PayPal notification rewarding me about $200 or so, which is nice, but not life-changing. The first thing I'll likely do? Go out and see if I have to buy my own trophy to match the other two on my bookshelf. What's the fun in winning three times if you can't show everyone?