My nephew Taylor Hogan’s Rochester (NY) Monarchs made it to the USA Hockey Tier1 12-and-under semi-finals of the national organization’s annual hockey tournament. We had flown into Rochester for the Passover holiday, and were able to make the drive over to Buffalo where the championships were being held to see the semi-final game. The Rochester Monarchs unfortunately lost to the Colorado Thunderbirds team 6-4. But check out the ‘do on the Rochester team members! The whole gallery can be found here.
The 2006 Leroy the Hoard FFL title game came down to the tiebreaker of bench points, with my nemesis the Cadaver Dogs winning their second league crown.
After the starters finished deadlocked 111-111, the Dogs’ bench routed the Joebobs Bombers reserves. Ironically, the bulk of the points from the Bombers’ bench came from QB Matt Hasselbeck with 14. Had the Bombers realized Drew Brees wasn’t scheduled for much action for the playoff-bound Saints, his 14 points to Brees’ 1 would have given Joebobs the win. With only 95 seconds left to go after the Manning-to-Harrison TD pass, I was up 111-104. Then Cutler passes to Scheffler, for 7 total points. Sob. A true rookie mistake on my part, not realizing Brees would be on the sidelines. I always have this loyalty thing going with my fantasy team, trying not to change my lineup too much – here, it bit me in the tush. Meanwhile, a late missed field goal against the Steelers by Shayne Graham cost both the Bengals a playoff spot and also a clear-cut win for the Cadaver Dogs.
Congrats to the Dogs. Maybe I’ll have better luck next year…
No, not the real SuperBowl – I’m talking fantasy here! For the first time since ever, my sad little fantasy football team has not only made it into the postseason but won last week’s semifinal (sorry Firf) to contend for the title of the Leroy the Hoard Fantasy Football League. It’s a pretty competitive field – mostly sports writers and current or ex- SI.com folks who tend to know a great deal more about the ins and outs of the NFL than yours truly. But in keeping with the league’s namesake, I have persevered over the years to never really distinguish myself. My opponent, the illustrious Cadaver Dogs (9-5, 4th seed) are off against my JoeBob’s Bombers (9-5, 3rd seed). The Bombers have owned their division rival in the regular season (6-2 in the modern era) including a week 14 win to claim the Rosey Potts division title and relegate the Dogs to the Wild Card play-in game. But the Cadaver Dogs hold the edge where it counts – 1-0 head-to-head in playoffs and 1-0 in league crowns. Hopefully, this year will be different. Here are the lineups:
Watching the Open Championship (aka The British Open to us Yanks), I thought I spotted an unusual mode of transportation being used by one of the roving camera positions. A quick search of the wires found the image above – a television cameraman operating a steadicam rig atop a Segway was in fact following the golfers. Having chased the likes of Tiger, Norman, Els and the rest of them in the past, I know how heavy all that gear can be – seems like a perfect application of Dean Kamen’s technology. In the image above by AP Photographer Alastair Grant), you can see the driver has the rig aimed backwards at the group walking down the fairway – probably a lot easier this way than fast-walking backwards into one of those pot bunkers! I’m pretty sure this is a custom version of the XT model – while they do sell a version of the scooter adapted for the player with more money than sense that also carries their golf bag (the GT), I don’t see a camera-ready version on their site.
No, not the real SuperBowl – I’m talking fantasy here! For the first time since ever, my sad little fantasy football team has not only made it into the postseason but won last week’s semifinal (sorry Firf) to contend for the title of the Leroy the Hoard Fantasy Football League. It’s a pretty competitive field – mostly sports writers and current or ex- SI.com folks who tend to know a great deal more about the ins and outs of the NFL than yours truly. But in keeping with the league’s 