Here’s another update on my world of sports.

I went 1-2 in fantasy football this past week.   Not my best performance, but I’m predicted to win all three games this weekend, so I’ll keep thinking positively.   Also I remain  in the top half of the leagues: 3 of 12, 5 of 10, and 5 of 12.   I remain in second in college pick’em and moved up one spot to eighth in the pro level.

Hockey was pretty brutal this week, as we lost 7-2 to one of the perennial powerhouses in the league.   My team is sponsored by the bar/restaurant in the rink, while our opponents are actually sponsored by the rink itself.   With a 2-2 record, we are now in 7th place in the 12 team league.

Prior to last night’s round of bowling, my average was close to my new goal of 120.   It was at 114, but I expect that to possibly fall a little after last night’s performance.   My first game was a nice warmup score of 106.   However, my second game went down to 101, before I rebounded to finish at 126 for the third game.   My team should remain in first place, though we only took four of the possible seven points last night.   Fortunately the team closest to us lost all seven points last night.

We will be venturing out for a game watch tonight as the University of Cincinnati takes on the University of South Florida.   After last weeks win over Louisville, the Bearcats have won thirteen straight Big East Conference games, looking to take that even higher tonight.   For those interested in tuning in,  the game is on ESPN2 at 8pm EDT.   Go Cats!

I attended my first Broncos game yesterday, along with Kim and a couple of our friends.   When our friends told us that they had some extra tickets for the game, we jumped on the chance to get face value seats for a pretty high demand stadium.   We arrived at a nearby church parking lot around 12:45, paid our $10, and had a few drinks and snacks.   Shortly before game time  we walked over the stadium, but unfortunately were too slow to catch the opening kickoff.   Our seats were up in the 500 level, and though they were high up, the stadium is very well built  so that we felt on top of the action.   This is definitely better than the upper seats I have sat in at Arrowhead in Kansas City, and on par with the uppers at Paul Brown in Cincinnati.

The fans were very energetic, and I was amazed  at how  much noise could be generated using lots of feet and the metal floor surfaces of the stands.   I’m told it is a little more calm in the lower sections, where season ticket holders for decades remain  in their assigned seats for the most part.   However, it couldn’t get much crazier than the crowd in the upper sections.   Included were an individual two seats down from us with the most fowl mouth I have ever heard.   Even more surprisingly was that it was coming from a rather normal looking female.   We had the guy in front of us who tried unsuccessfully for a full quarter to start the wave.   As soon as he left his seat for a moment, the wave was on, originating just a few sections overs.

The game was a good one, full of excitement, some questionable calls, long field goals, and a few touchdowns.   We were able to see Tim Tebow’s  first NFL touchdown, though I actually saw it from the concession line.   Matt Prater hit a 59 yard field goal at the end of the first half, the longest of his career, and the 8th longest in NFL history.   He later missed a 49-yarder.   So obviously there were some obvious  high points for the Broncos’ fans but unfortunately they lost the game 24-20.   There were some really upset fans, many whom blamed the game on a questionable pass interference penalty late in the game.   We saw a couple of arguments, and what appeared like a royal rumble near the ramps exiting the stadium.  I don’t know if we will be back to Invesco Field at Mile High, but it was quite a first experience.

Here’s a recap of what’s been going on in my sporting worlds.

First off, I had a respectable  week in fantasy football, going 2-1.   My teams are all now 3-2 so far, and in the top half of all leagues.   I can’t ask for too much more than that, though a round of wins sure would be nice this week.   My pick in the survivor league really let me down.   I had San Diego over Oakland, which was wrong.   My other choice was Cincinnati over Tampa Bay, which was also wrong.   What the hell is wrong with the Bengals, anyway?   I remain in second in college pick’em, but fell to ninth in the pro league.

I had to miss hockey this week, but I’m told that we won a good game versus one of the better teams in the league.   We have another big game next week, that I will definitely be at.   Bowling last night was overall an alright night, and my team remains in first place.   Personally I bowled much better than last week, but not even close to two weeks ago.   My scores continued to go up as the night went on: 103, 124, 127.   My handicap was 108.   I’d expect it to go down a little bit, but probably not much.   I’d like to get that down to under 100 before the end of the season.   That would mean an average of over 120.   Currently only  three people in the league are at that level.

Tonight, be sure to tune into ESPN at 8pm EDT to watch the University of Cincinnati Bearcats take on the Louisville Cardinals.   It’s a big rivalry game, and the start of Big East play, as Cincinnati looks to threepeat the league championship.   Go Cats!

Consulting the weekly stats for our bowling league that were sent out earlier this week, I had a great week last week.

I now have the highest handicap series for the league at 766, along with the highest single game handicap score.   I also have the second highest scratch series at 406, a teammate of mine has the high at 428 from the week that I missed.   I also have third in single game scratch score, 151.   In addition, my team has moved into first place in the league!

Unfortunately, last night was not one of my best.   The floors seemed to be  better than last week, but I couldn’t get into a good rhythm.   My score in the first game was 109, which became 211 with my new 102 pin handicap.   Second game was 103, and third was 95.   I continued to get worse and worse as the night went on.   We played against our rival team, the only other team that has a member from our project.   My team is made up completely from members of our current project.   We squeezed out two wins out of the three games, and remain in first place.

I had a terrible showing in fantasy football this week, with loses in all three leagues.   I lost one 95-92, another 113-87, and finally 89-58.   I am currently  in third place of twelve in the first league, six of ten in the second, and second of four in the last, which is actually just my standing in my division.   I had a couple of key guys out on byes last week, so this week I should definitely return to some winning.   I’ve moved up to eighth in pro pick’em, and second in college pick’em.   Also, I’m still alive in the survivor game, still playing with five others.

Last night was my second night in our work bowling league.   The league played last week, but I missed it due to our vacation.   Anyway, the night started off really bad for me.   During warm-ups, I noticed that the floor wasn’t very slick and my front foot wasn’t sliding like normal.   I threw gutter ball after gutter ball.   And then to make it worse, on one throw I tried to slide my lead foot but it stopped suddenly.   To catch my balance my other foot swung forward and landed past the foul line.   Though the front of the floor isn’t waxed, the lanes are very slick, so my second foot immediately slipped on the lane, which sent my body falling out  on to  the lane.   It was pretty embarrassing, but I tried to get up and off the lane as quick as possible.

Fortunately, the rest of the night went really well for me.   My first week  average was 100, making my handicap 120 (not 130 like I had guessed earlier).   My first game last night I shattered my previous average with a scratch score of 151, including a turkey!   With my handicap that score became 271, and I think might have been the high for the night.   Another guy bowled a 172 in the last game, but I don’t think his handicap is as high as mine.   Anyway, the second game was mostly back to normal with a score of 115.   Just like my first week, the second game was my worst, which is opposite of what I thought was normal.   My third game last night ended at 140, taking my three game  total to 406, which I’m pretty sure was the highest of the night for the entire league.   I hope this progress continues into future weeks.

Another session of adult hockey started up last night.   I am back on the same team as last time, Santoro’s.   Only a handful of guys returned for this session from last, so we have a lot of newcomers.   Fortunately many of the new guys are really good hockey players.    Our opponents were a  new team in this league, Sports Authority.   They seemed to match up with us really well and definitely had some good players on their team, including one guy who appeared to have played for the club team at Ohio University at one time.

One of our new players scored the first two goals for our team, and the other team quickly added two goals of their own.   I didn’t have any points last night, but did have a penalty (questionable call) that led to another goal for our opponents.   Toward the end of the game it was looking good for Sports Authority as they were clinging  on to a 4-2 lead.   My team managed to add a goal with a couple of minutes to play.   Though we dominated play toward the end of the game, we had trouble equaling the score.   That was until 4.6 seconds left.   Our opponents were down a man, we had our goalie pulled.   So with six skaters versus four, a faceoff down in their end, our team won a quick draw back followed by a shot from the top of the circle.   The shot was tipped  by another one of our players in front of the net sending the puck between the goalies legs.   The game was tied with 1.2 seconds left!

After the exciting finish to regulation play, the momentum was all ours.   Sports Authority started off the shootout, missing their first chance.   We missed our first chance as well, and they again missed their second with a great splits save from our goalie.   Our second skater flew down the ice at full speed, and quickly buried the puck in the back of the net.   This was the same skater who scored our first two goals.   Finally our opponents had their chance to score, otherwise the game would be over, and they once again missed the opportunity.   We had won a very exciting and fun game, hopefully the first of many to come.

Since starting the season 1-2 in my fantasy football leagues, I’ve gone on to win back to back games in all three leagues!   That takes me into third place of twelve, fifth place of ten, and second of four in my one league that has divisions.   Things have definitely improved since a very rough start in week one.   I’m also happy to report that I am still alive in the survivor game, along with five others.   I’m amazed that twelve others have already lost by picking a losing team, six were actually eliminated in the first week.   I am in third place in college pick’em but doing poorly in pro pick’em sitting at twelfth of fourteen.

I’ve joined a bowling league at work and last night was our first night.   I don’t think I’ve bowled  in a couple of years, and last night it really showed.   In the first game my score was 96.   Prior to last night I thought that I nearly always scored over 100, but I guess my memory is bad.   The second game was even worse with a score of 93.   Finally in the third game I bowled a 113.   I thought that typically my second game in a night was my best, but last night it was my worst.   Fortunately no one else in the league is really good, and we have a number of players who are considerably worse than me.   It is a handicap league, though I’m still trying to figure out what exactly that means.   I think our handicap is determined  by taking our average and subtracting that from 230.   My average last night was just over 100, so my handicap should be  around 130.   I’m hoping to improve as the twelve week league goes on, so I’ll provide updates in the future.

Fantasy football has started up for yet another season.   I am participating in three money leagues, all hosted on different websites.   So far I still like Yahoo! the best, but maybe that is just becuase it is the one I am the most familiar with.   Either that or it’s the only won that provided me a win this past week.   I had the lowest total score in both of my other leagues, so I definitely have some work to do.   In addition to the regular fantasy leagues, I am also playing Survivor Football, as well as both College and Pro Pick’em.   I’m hoping to repeat my wins in these games, wishing that there was money involved in them.   I’ll be sure to keep my standings updated on my blog as the seasons progress.