Week 10 MVP Award Winner –
The Sad Salmon (24 Points)
Last week, The Sad Salmon truly had a week to remember. It all started on Thursday night when he took a huge risk and went against The Autopicker. The Autopicker had picked Baltimore to beat Miami, which seemed like one of the most obvious easy picks of the week. But The Sad Salmon (and The Cat) disagreed and e-mailed in to switch that pick to Miami. Granted, The Sad Salmon is a huge Miami Dolphins fan. And we haven’t had a Miami Dolphins fan in the club since Captain Crunch (Jim Lunsford) finished in 2nd Place during the Playoff Picks contest of 2012 (behind Playoff Picks Champion The Rickster). So when Miami def. Baltimore 22-10, The Sad Salmon was off to a great start. During the Sunday games, he correctly picked both Point Spread games, both Games of the Week, and the Sunday night game. That brought him to 20 total Points heading into Monday. That’s when something surprising happened. At the last second, The Sad Salmon & The Icelandic Cod got tickets to attend the SF 49ers game on Monday night. That being the case, they both decided to switch their picks from LA Rams to SF 49ers so that they could cheer on the home team. They ended up being 2 of only 4 players who got that game right (along with Captain Insano and Nighthawk). And that win gave The Sad Salmon just enough Points to squeak by Stinkerbell and win the Week 10 MVP Award. It’s not that easy to win back-to-back MVP Awards in the club because that means you picked better than 18 other players for two weeks straight. But The Sad Salmon did it and he continues to swim upstream toward the top of the standings, now being a mere 5 Points out of the Top Five. The Week 10 MVP Award Runner-Up was Stinkerbell, who ended with 23 Points. I did not realize this (or perhaps forgot), but Stinkerbell and Bob Swerski moved out of Sonoma County back in 2015 and now live in San Clemente where they can be closer to Nighthawk and Baby Hazel (as well as other family). But Stinkerbell has really impressed this season as she continues flying up the standings. At a press conference last weekend, she lamented: “What a crazy week. If only I had been loyal to my 49ers”. She stated this realizing that picking against her team had cost her the MVP Award. But she can hold her wings high, as she is now in 2nd Place only 6 Points away from #1. On the other hand, her husband Bob Swerski had a week to forget. I usually try to stay away from mentioning players who score low, not wanting them to feel bad. But Bob Swerksi stated at his press conference: “Well in spite of all the possible points for each game I managed to get 2 points last week. I feel like that is a really hard accomplishment and so should be worth some kind of a prize or something. I think I will use a dart board next week to get a better score!”. So rather than give out a prize, I thought I should at least give him a shout-out in the Main Page Column and tell him to hang in there, things can only get better. And the dart board idea is not bad. I may need to try that myself this week since I am also making such terrible picks as of late. Or I might try freespirit’s idea. She stated on Club Chat: “I was thinking maybe I should pick every team OPPOSITE of my choice and maybe that would help.” In closing, let’s take a quick look at the current Top Five. We have #1 Drummer Boy (now with 7 Weeks at #1), #2 Stinkerbell (6 Points back), #3 Captain Insano (8 Points back), #4 The Rickster (12 Points back), and #5 Hoosier Daddy (14 Points back). Welcome to the Top Five, Hoosier Daddy. It is good to see you here. As a side note, Head to Head Weekly has 2 weeks left and Pro Bowl Team Weekly has 4 weeks left. We added an extra week on for both since the football season is now one week longer (instead of doing the multi-week final matches). In a shocker last week, Wild Animals were declawed as they took their first loss of the season when Daddy & His Boys beat them 54-43. And in a (friendly) grudge match, freespirit narrowly squeaked by Slick Chick 11-10.