Time is flying, we're two weeks from the all-important divisional games that close out our regular season. The chaff is beginning to separate from the wheat, or something. These two weeks are crucial to the teams on the cusp of elimination obviously. It looks like it'll take 8 wins for a playoff berth this year but I'm willing to be surprised. 7-7 just might squeak someone in.

At the moment the seeding reads like this:

1) SMenn, 2) Nats, 3) Flyers, 4) Bliz, 5) Giants, 6) Legends

The current odds it will end up that way? 100,000/1 Against.

Good Luck/Bad Luck/random tales of woe

You don't need to have been doing this for 47 seasons to understand that only so much of the outcome in fantasy is in your hands. I mean, sure, you have to avoid crappy draft choices (Hi, Justin Herbert!), you have to make reasonably correct lineup choices, and you need to make smart roster decisions (Hi CJ Stroud, I miss you!) but you need a healthy dose of luck.

For instance... the Rbacks are 4-5 and in 3rd in their division but they are fifth in points scored. So, what's up? They've had 978 points scored against them, That's by far the most in the league.

Another example..I'm in a 16 team dynasty league* and I'm two games up in my division despite being third from the bottom (of 16 teams!) in points scored. I've had the second fewest points scored against me.

In the one dynasty league I enjoyed (for six seasons) I had the best team I've ever had in all these years of fantasy. I worked my ass off and went 14-0 in my fifth season. had the highest PPG easily. In the semifinal Dalvin Cook went down for me in the 1st quarter of his game. He got me four points instead of his average 16. I lost and then in the third place game easily outscored the teams playing for the title. Ugh.

I'm not sure there is a moral to these stories other than not to take it personally. Good luck everyone, unless I'm playing you.

*=I'm one and done in that league. The commish is clueless, the league is a mess. I had to tally up my division record and points against because he doesn't have that stuff in the standings columns. That, and about two dozen other reasons have me counting the days.

EDIT...After typing this the commish has let me know he's got a replacement for me. Thank you!!

Short Takes...

So Puka Nacua is hurt, again. He's made of paper, then again a LOT of guys this year seem to be made of paper... I've noticed that on Monday night, once the game ends, our scoreboard shows all zeros for all players and teams... I'm not sure what causes it but it seems to correct itself after a while. I'm looking into the cause... the Playoff tab doesn't seem to update until a day or so after the games are final. No idea on that either. But it does catch up by Tuesday evening... Here's a look at the results by lineup configuration (rb/wr/te) through nine weeks...

Make of it what you will... 2/3/1, the traditional lineup, remains the most 'popular' while the 3/2/1 brings home the most points...scoring overall was down just a bit from last week but over the last three weeks it's been fairly steady. we have another 4-team bye week before we run up against the 6-team bye valley in Wkk 11. Every man for himself.

Bill McCormick passed away last week at the age of 73. He was a friend to many here. Bill was a UH alum and a native of Raymondville in the Rio Grande Valley where he was an attorney for many years. He was a regular golfer during the heyday of the annual OB Open, partnering with Mike Padilla, Jim O'Conner and Sam Kelner. That's them in the photo below. In one of the final Opens, Bill played in a sixsome with me, James and Brooks, Jim Nichols and Mike. The photo is of Bill at one of the after-Open cookouts, circa 1979. He was always fun to be around with his droll humour and easy-going ways. RIP, Chilly Willie.

And you can click here to read Bill's obituary . Thanks, Mike, for sending this along.

5-->1 British Stuff

OK, so I lied. I should have made this a Top 100. Once I had decided on 50 I knew I had a bunch more faves so I'm gonna do a Top Five in several different, loosely defines categories. This is the first one.