Sunday, October 01, 2006

Banging my head against a wall...

Well, I finished in second place in the fantasy baseball league. Which isn’t bad at all, of course. Especially for someone who’d never done this before, and, apparently, is lacking in some necessary fantasy baseball skill bestowed only to the male of the species. However, the detail that threatens to drive me toward insanity is this: I missed out on first place by TEN POINTS. Ten points. Ten itty bitty tiny little points. Over the last few hours I have, many times, gone over the various missteps I’ve made this last week… each one a decision that, had it been made differently, could have resulted in a first place finish. Not to mention the fact that half my roster was benched today, because it was the last game of the season. I guess that's kind of like the last day of school -- no one really wants to do anything, because they all know vacation is right around the corner. So while those ten points could have easily been accrued with a complete roster, it wasn't an option today.

My only consolation is that the guy who finished in first place has been graciously silent on my standing within the league, seemingly unfazed (unlike many of the others) that a girl managed to do quite well. (Of course, he HAS been in first place for a while… so he probably didn't care as much...) He’s also a Yankee fan, which is definitely a great quality. So I can’t be too dejected by the ten point loss.

And I certainly can’t keep dwelling on, “if only I’d played so-and-so” or “if only I’d benched somebody else.” I mean, that’s pretty much the way life works – you make choices, and some of them work out great and some of them don’t. And there never seems to be much you can do about the outcome. You can only TRY to do what’s best, and hopefully things fall into place in a way that makes sense. Although more often than not, you wind up about ten points short of where you think you SHOULD be…

This whole concept is much less profound in the fantasy baseball world, of course. Sure, I barely missed out on first place. But I CAN still say that I managed to totally kick eight guy’s butts. And THAT, as those Mastercard commercials say, is priceless. :)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good work lease! 2nd is nothing to be ashamed of...now 3rd-10th on the other hand should be very, very, very ashamed...

Anonymous said...

Thanks E... appreciate that. 4th isn't that bad.. I at least excised a demon this year in that I finally beat Mr. Moran in our league and did it by a hefty margin to boot...

2nd is fantastic!!! Welcome to the madness that is fantasy baseball Lisa!! It is a wonderful 6 month distraction.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Lisa! I agree with Eric. Second place is great -especially since this was your first year. Way to go!!

Love ya'

Anonymous said...

Oh Lisa...and just so you know. ED (the guy who finished 1st) made it crystal clear that if a girl beats him he would never play again. You were just not on any of the e-mails. :-)

Lisa said...

Reeeaaaally? Hmmmm... good to know... I'll be sure to keep that in mind next year as extra motivation... :)

Evydense said...

Whew! Starting to wax a tad philosophical at the end there....glad you ended up putting it in perspective.

So, does this lucky person who arbitrarily happened to gather a few more points than you did get to walk off with the whole enchilada, or are there some crumbs left for you too to savour and gloat with. (i.e. was it a money league?!!)

Lisa said...

Yes, it was a money league -- first, second and third place ended up with a little extra pocket change. So I'm not finishing empty-handed... :)