Sunday's Ford 400 was the last race of the real and fantasy NASCAR season for 2011. My team had been stuck in 5th place in my league for a few weeks but still in striking range of a top 3 spot.
Fortunately, I switched my lineup Sunday morning and started Carl Edwards. That move earned me enough points to take 3rd place for the season! The league competition was tough this year. After 36 weeks of racing, the difference between 3rd and 4th place was only 10 points!
Then both of my fantasy football teams won their games. It's always a good week when that happens. Even better with an upset win over a higher ranked team. As a bonus, I had the highest point total of the week in a league that awards for that. First time this season I've gotten it.
One more thing to be thankful for this week.
Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Lessons From My First Fantasy Football Auction Draft
After 7 years playing fantasy football I finally did an auction draft last week. My 14 team work league made the switch this season. It was a lot of fun and kept my attention more than a traditional serpentine draft.
In an auction draft you're always on. I had to consider each player on the block, manage my budget, make bids, plan my next nomination, evaluate my team's needs and try to figure out the strategies of other coaches. That's a lot to process but it was exciting and made the draft more strategic.
Here's a summary of what I did right and wrong in my first auction draft...
My Auction Draft Mistakes:
Things I Did Right In The Auction:
One downside to the auction format is that the draft can take longer. Snake drafts in this league have taken 90 minutes to 2 hours in years past. The auction draft ran about 3 hours before the last teams were done. Some coaches were done in under 2 hours...it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to fill my roster.
Overall I liked the auction draft format better than a snake draft. It was fun and I drafted a decent team despite my rookie mistakes. What do you think...is an auction draft or snake draft better?
In an auction draft you're always on. I had to consider each player on the block, manage my budget, make bids, plan my next nomination, evaluate my team's needs and try to figure out the strategies of other coaches. That's a lot to process but it was exciting and made the draft more strategic.
Here's a summary of what I did right and wrong in my first auction draft...
My Auction Draft Mistakes:
- Overpaid for my kicker and defense. I let myself get caught up in a run on kickers and spent $4.
- Got burned a couple times trying to drive up prices. This is how I overpaid for my D...thought I could get another coach to outbid me one last time. Not.
- Didn't bid high enough on stud players early in the draft and finished the draft with $10 unspent. That money would've done me more good going after top players I wanted earlier.
- Did very little player research and barely followed NFL news over the summer. It's tough to value players, identify sleepers and avoid problem players that way.
Things I Did Right In The Auction:
- Mostly stuck to my strategy. The FantasyGuru draft kit on Yahoo's "Draft Central" tab provided good auction strategy advice.
- Did a mock auction draft the day before. This helped me learn the mechanics of the online draft tool so that I could focus on my strategy during the draft. Definitely do a mock draft before doing your first auction draft.
- Nominated some players that I wasn't interested in to determine value and get money off the table.
- Looked for other coaches' strategies during the draft. This wasn't easy to do with 13 other teams so I focused only on the guys I knew had experience with auction drafts. They were usually the ones nominating backups and kickers early in the draft.
One downside to the auction format is that the draft can take longer. Snake drafts in this league have taken 90 minutes to 2 hours in years past. The auction draft ran about 3 hours before the last teams were done. Some coaches were done in under 2 hours...it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to fill my roster.
Overall I liked the auction draft format better than a snake draft. It was fun and I drafted a decent team despite my rookie mistakes. What do you think...is an auction draft or snake draft better?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
An Afternoon At The Catoctin Central RR
My oldest and I visited the Catoctin Central Railroad in Frederick recently. It's a large HO gauge train layout built by the Frederick County Society of Model Engineers (FCSME) on the east side of town. They were having one of their regular free open houses (donations accepted).The layout's housed in an old Chesapeake & Ohio rail car originally used to transport race horses. It runs nearly the full length of the 70' rail car. There's also a G gauge garden layout outside that was running and a big hit with kids despite the drizzle.
Touring the layout was fun...we went through three times to make sure we caught as many details as possible. Members of the club gladly answered questions and one even showed us how to use an old telegraph. We'll definitely visit again and I'm adding this to my list of favorite things in Frederick County.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Shaolin Warriors Invade Maryland
Yesterday we saw the Shaolin Warriors perform at the Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown. They're a group of Shaolin disciples from China demonstrating their mastery of kung fu.
Most of the show was choreographed fight sequences with performances of individual stunts and skills mixed in. The discipline and athleticism of these guys is amazing. They did all kinds of jumps with crazy flips yet made it look effortless, appearing to move in slow motion through the air. It was impressive and fun to watch.
It's a family friendly show. We took our little one and there was a part of the show where they brought about 25 kids from the audience on stage to teach them a form.
I couldn't find a full schedule of their tour locations so check your paper or StubHub for a Shaolin Warriors show near you. If you'd like to learn about life as a Shaolin disciple, read the book American Shaolin by Matthew Polly. It's a fun read about an American who travels to the Shaolin Temple and trains to become a Shaolin monk.
Here's the show's promotional video from the theater:
This was also our first visit to the Maryland Theatre. It's a beautiful old theater built in 1915. Very intimate and nostalgic with ornate decorations, balcony box seats and vaudeville era organs. You don't find that kind of character in today's mega-plex theaters. We'll look for more shows to see there.
Most of the show was choreographed fight sequences with performances of individual stunts and skills mixed in. The discipline and athleticism of these guys is amazing. They did all kinds of jumps with crazy flips yet made it look effortless, appearing to move in slow motion through the air. It was impressive and fun to watch.
It's a family friendly show. We took our little one and there was a part of the show where they brought about 25 kids from the audience on stage to teach them a form.
I couldn't find a full schedule of their tour locations so check your paper or StubHub for a Shaolin Warriors show near you. If you'd like to learn about life as a Shaolin disciple, read the book American Shaolin by Matthew Polly. It's a fun read about an American who travels to the Shaolin Temple and trains to become a Shaolin monk.
Here's the show's promotional video from the theater:
This was also our first visit to the Maryland Theatre. It's a beautiful old theater built in 1915. Very intimate and nostalgic with ornate decorations, balcony box seats and vaudeville era organs. You don't find that kind of character in today's mega-plex theaters. We'll look for more shows to see there.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Survived The Great Urban Race
Didn't qualify for the national championships, but we had an awesome time running The Great Urban Race in DC last weekend! We finished in the top 100 out of 174 teams.
The race was fun and tougher than expected...there was only one mandatory clue on the list and none of the teams solved it. It was to take a picture at the address where XM Satellite Radio was established. We found out later that the correct answer was the NPR building.
We made a couple mistakes that cost us serious time. The biggest was not taking more time at the beginning to solve more clues and better map our route. Unlike The Amazing Race where teams get one task at a time, in the GUR you get a list of 12.
Several teams competed in costumes (there's a prize for best costume). Our favorite was the Yip-Yips. They were also the craziest for running around hot, humid DC in costumes made out of fleece blankets.
It was a great time and we got to see some cool parts of DC. We'll be back next year!
The race was fun and tougher than expected...there was only one mandatory clue on the list and none of the teams solved it. It was to take a picture at the address where XM Satellite Radio was established. We found out later that the correct answer was the NPR building.
We made a couple mistakes that cost us serious time. The biggest was not taking more time at the beginning to solve more clues and better map our route. Unlike The Amazing Race where teams get one task at a time, in the GUR you get a list of 12.
Several teams competed in costumes (there's a prize for best costume). Our favorite was the Yip-Yips. They were also the craziest for running around hot, humid DC in costumes made out of fleece blankets.
It was a great time and we got to see some cool parts of DC. We'll be back next year!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
A Mini Version of The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race is one of the best shows on TV. Similar to ABC's The Mole it takes players on an adventure around the world. My wife and I love the show and even applied once to get on...our video was horribly lame so no surprise that we didn't get selected.
Recently I discovered an event called The Great Urban Race. It's a race held in 19 US cities where two person teams compete against each other to complete a set of challenges throughout the city. It's a mini-Amazing Race that anyone can join. Brilliant!
Each team gets a list of 12 challenges to complete. The goal is to be the first team to complete 11 of the 12. Some tasks are mandatory and others are optional. Each challenge is different and could be a puzzle, physical task, scavenger hunt, etc. The rules are loose...basically you can bring anything you want (cell phone, laptop, GPS, etc) and can only walk/run or use public transportation.
The top finishing teams from each city qualify to compete for a $10,000 prize in the national championship race held in Las Vegas this November!
After securing a babysitter, we signed up for the Washington DC leg of the race on August 2! We're very excited about the race but have some preparation to do. Our knowledge of DC is mainly limited to getting around the Mall. We know the Metro system well but have no clue about the buses in DC. Odds are good we'll have to take at least one so we need to brush up on that.
I was tempted to forget the whole thing though after going through the online registration process and discovering there was a $4.19 per person "processing charge" that wasn't included in the already steep race registration fee. There was no warning about it before hand and the only way to register is online. That charge should have been included in the registration fee...not tacked on unexpectedly at the end. At least tell me about it earlier in the process. Bad form...very bad form.
Ok, I've got that off my chest...now I can focus on preparing for the race. It should be a lot of fun and I'll post about the experience here.
Recently I discovered an event called The Great Urban Race. It's a race held in 19 US cities where two person teams compete against each other to complete a set of challenges throughout the city. It's a mini-Amazing Race that anyone can join. Brilliant!
Each team gets a list of 12 challenges to complete. The goal is to be the first team to complete 11 of the 12. Some tasks are mandatory and others are optional. Each challenge is different and could be a puzzle, physical task, scavenger hunt, etc. The rules are loose...basically you can bring anything you want (cell phone, laptop, GPS, etc) and can only walk/run or use public transportation.
The top finishing teams from each city qualify to compete for a $10,000 prize in the national championship race held in Las Vegas this November!
After securing a babysitter, we signed up for the Washington DC leg of the race on August 2! We're very excited about the race but have some preparation to do. Our knowledge of DC is mainly limited to getting around the Mall. We know the Metro system well but have no clue about the buses in DC. Odds are good we'll have to take at least one so we need to brush up on that.
I was tempted to forget the whole thing though after going through the online registration process and discovering there was a $4.19 per person "processing charge" that wasn't included in the already steep race registration fee. There was no warning about it before hand and the only way to register is online. That charge should have been included in the registration fee...not tacked on unexpectedly at the end. At least tell me about it earlier in the process. Bad form...very bad form.
Ok, I've got that off my chest...now I can focus on preparing for the race. It should be a lot of fun and I'll post about the experience here.
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