“freespirit Soars High Again!” (Wk 17)

Week 16 MVP Award Winner–
freespirit (28 Points)

One of the strongest players in the club this season has been freespirit, who has consistently turned in good picks week after week.  Back in Week 6, she even won her first career MVP Award which propelled her into 1st Place for one week.  And it’s always a good feeling to be able to look at the Current Standings and see that your Peak Position has been #1 for the season.  freespirit has also always made very wise choices when it comes to selecting Triple Jeopardy on games, maintaining a perfect mark at 6-0 and avoiding the riskiest of picks.  Along with all these notable achievements, freespirit flew back into the spotlight again this past week by scoring 28 Points to win the Week 16 MVP Award, which was 4 Points higher than the next best group of players.  The key to freespirit’s success was picking both Games of the Week right with Cin & NO, picking Sea on Sunday night, and picking 3 of the 4 Point Spread games correct.  Now she sits just 4 Points out of finishing up the season with a bang by getting back into the Top Five.  The only other player in the club who correctly picked both Games of the Week with Cin & NO last week was Drummer Boy.  Two players got the Triple Crown correct with Indy-St.L-Min– Dixie Slick and The Beav.  10 players were wise enough to pick Seattle and the 12th Man on Sunday night– Papa Tuna, The Rickster, The Cat, TK-421, Iceman, C Master V, Jacuzzi Splot, The Beav, freespirit, and Captain Jack Sparrow.  It is always interesting to see a player like Captain Jack Sparrow pick against his favorite team.  In this case, it scored him 6 Points.  Speaking of Iceman, the club would like to send their congratulations along to him as he has been accepted to serve at Bethel for 3 months just as this season winds down.

We have arrived at the final week of the regular season.  We are soon going to find out who will win the categories of Most Games of the Week, Most Triple Crowns, Most Double Stakes, and Most 6 Point Games picked correctly.  We will also see who will end with the Most MVP Awards (but suffice to say that Dixie Slick’s all-time record will be safe).  As always in Week 17, we have a few extra Points available to help you finish things off.  The big addition is the upgrade from Triple Jeopardy to Quadruple Jeopardy.  QJ is worth 4 Points if you get it right, but -3 Points if you get it wrong.  It will be interesting to see how many players select the QJ option on this final week.  One player whom I will be watching very closely to see what she does is Dixie Slick.  With her risky but brilliant pick of SD TJ last week, she improved her TJ record to an incredible 10-0.  My feeling is that if a player can select TJ on at least 10 games and hold a perfect mark, that player is worthy of a new spot in The Hall of Fame.  I’m sure all of you would agree.  TJ games are notoriously difficult, sometimes even harder to pick than Games of the Week.  So holding a 10-0 mark is something that has never been done before and we will probably never see again.  However, 10-1 is not the same and probably not worthy of a spot in the Hall, so Dixie Slick may decide to hold off this week and preserve her perfect record.  It’s up to her if she wants to take a huge risk and jeopardize her opportunity to gain a spot in the Hall.  Other Hall of Fame records which will be added at the beginning of next week include The Cat’s Perfect Week, Wild Animals record-setting Highest Team Score in a Week, and Daddy & His Boys record-setting best regular season Pro Bowl Weekly record.  And, of course, we will be adding the new Club Champion, Super Bowl Champion, and Pro Bowl Team Champions.  Be sure and visit the final results and write-ups regarding the Super Bowl Tournament and Pro Bowl Tournament by visiting those pages.  And a huge congratulations to the winners– Bane and Transformers!  I’m not allowed to play favorites in the club, but I certainly do appreciate seeing new first-time winners.  At his press conference after winning his first Pro Bowl title, Transformers team member Jacuzzi Splot said: “I honestly can’t believe this is happening.”  And Bane said: “This makes my whole season.  I still can’t believe that I won it.  Finally a real achievement after being in the club for so many years.”  And that sums things up nicely.  Even if you struggle in the club and haven’t won anything yet, keep sticking with it and you never know how things will play out and what you might be able to accomplish.  Finally, all signs seem to point to Hoosier Daddy winning his second career Club Championship.  Hoosier Daddy only needs 12 Points to surpass his winning total of 377 Points from 2009.  In order for someone in the Top Five to overtake him, they are going to need to select QJ and have a near-perfect week.  And they are going to have to hope that Hoosier Daddy either does not risk QJ or that he selects it with the wrong team and drops 3 Points.  We will soon find out how this final week and the Final Standings will turn out.