In
This Issue:
No
More Ties!
What the New Point Spread Approach Means to Me
You
are either painfully aware or blissfully unaware of the discussions
swirling about the LBFBHHQ regarding our point spreads. Your Commish
and AssCommish have spent some brainpower on the issue and have devised
a solution that we believe will be seamless to the group.
Knowing
what you know about my proclivity for digression and rambling, please
rest assured that I will not get into gory detail here. I simply wish
to make two points.
Historically,
we’ve used the Dallas Morning News as our source for point spreads.
In our opinion, these point spreads are accurate and reliable and
will continue to be the basis for our league. (This season, however,
I’ll be making a few tweaks, as I’ll explain in the following
paragraphs.)
What will
not change is Ralphie will continue to post preliminary lines early
in the week and the “official” line on Saturday. All you
need to do is follow the “official” FBH lines shown on
the web site. (If that’s all you plan to do, you can skip the
rest of this section.)
A couple
of weeks ago, FBH veteran, sports-game fanatic and noted StatisticsHead
Will “Jester” Wong suggested a solution
to the sometimes contentious issue of tie results in our pool. His
idea was to have game lines that always contained ½ point spreads.
His compelling argument showed that moving spreads by ½ point
either way is statistically insignificant (on average, teams that
win with the spread “cover” by 4 points). (btw, Will,
you had me at “standard deviation.”)
I agreed
to use the DMN point spreads as the basis for our league but to move
the line for some games ½ point in one direction (based on
further Internet research) to ensure all games have a ½ point
spread. This will eliminate ties while preserving accuracy.
Week
One Standings
An attic and a basement in one house
Apparently, ocean air has different effects on Mr. and Mrs. Boobie.
Ellen “Dusty” Shupp came back from the
family’s North Atlantic cruise and fired off an 11-5 opening
salvo, good enough for a first-place tie with Ken “Sammy”
Davis. Meanwhile, Boobie “went Dim”
and limped in with a last-place 4-12.
Also
turning in double digit win weeks were Brandi “You’re
a fine girl” Shiflett, John “Don’t”
Meseck “with Texas”, Miss Kimba,
Michelle “Always a strong starter” Brown
and Tom “I’ve never been up this high before”
LeDuc who, you may recall, narrowly escaped taking last place
in 2003.
A game behind
Boobie in the early race for the Dane are Matt “Neiman”
Marcus, Paul “Sarah Lee” Kessler
and Yogi “Chuck” Yeager. Here’s
to better days ahead, boys!
The divisions
are still a bit hazy as we wait to have our final contestants determined.
At this stage, it’s looking like we’ll have 4 divisions
of 11-12 each. Stay
tuned.
NFL
Happenings
The Week in Pictures
What's
better than Opening Weekend of the NFL? Nothing. Well, maybe that's
an overstatement. We all know that life begins on Opening Day of the
MLB season (I know it does for me), but the Kick-Off weekend of the
NFL is like being reborn. The grass of the field is still green (except
in Miami and Oakland where it's still a dirt infield), the beer is
still fresh, at Giants Stadium the pretzels are still warm and dry,
in Dallas the temperature is still in the 90's and you can take a
dip in the pool at halftime, and everyone still has play-off hopes,
except the Arizona Cardinals. Yes, it's all good on Opening Day 2000
and 4. Here are some photos from this past weekend...
Extra
Points
Quickest 3 minutes in Football Happenings
[ Interesting choice of musical guests
for the NFL kickoff party – Elton (the NFL isn’t exactly
pro-choice when it comes to sexuality) and Lenny (known party mate
of “Walkabout Dolphin” Ricky Williams).
[
Mary J. Blige did a very nice job on the National Anthem (which was
written on my birthday, by the way).
[
Looks like the new Jets’ slogan for 2004 is, “Don’t
take the under.” The NJ offense looks like it’s going
to post some points and it’s especially pleasing to see Curtis
Martin looking like his old self again.
[
Speaking of running backs, Cowboy Coach Bill Parcells is up to something
with his top off-season draft pick, rookie ball carrier and heir apparent
to Emmitt Smith, Julius Jones. Jones, a consistent target of Parcells
scrutiny was inactive for game 1 against Minnesota but was not on
the injury report. This worried me at first, but after seeing Rashard
Lee’s performance and the obvious game plan to give significant
touches to Eddie George and Richie Anderson, I think it’s more
a matter of Jones climbing the depth chart. Stay tuned.
[
Did Dallas make the right move Keyshawn for Joey Galloway? Here’s
all you need to know. Keyshawn gets hit and upended on pass attempt,
lands on head. Next play, he catches one over the middle, gets schmeared,
yet holds on to ball. Finishes game with 111 yards with 7 of his 9
receptions earning first downs. Galloway drops sure TD pass, tears
groin muscle and will be out 4-6 weeks.
[
Congratulations to Coach Tommy Shiflett and Carrollton
R. L. Turner football’s 2-0 start. Go Lions!
[
After an auspicious start defeating Michigan State, Rutgers stumbled
against New Hampshire. I honestly didn’t know they had a team.
What are they, the “Fighting Syrup Lickers”? Perhaps being
favored was strange and confusing to the Knights. Well, let’s
hope to regroup against Kent State this week.
[
Birthday wishes to Dick (Sept 8) and Jame
(Sept 21).
