The Sandlot

Well sports fans, its past official. My fantasy football team will not be winning me any money this year. While I did make the playoffs, I lost in the first round. Now the best I can finish is 5th. Though 3 top five finishes in three years is pretty good considering that includes a first and third place finish over that span.

This year the championship will either go to Tos or Sommers. One is the guy who took all year to pay, the other is the new guy in the league. Tos will probably win since Brady will play all game and Chris Johnson is chasing the 2000 yard mark but anything can happen. Be proud Sommers, either way you're making some cash your first year in the league. Some guys have been in it for five years and haven't made a cent.

My team faced a lot of adversity this year and all things considered, I'm not too disappointed about my finish. In hind-sight, I took too many chances during the draft. I broke one of my draft day rules and took a Bills player (Marshawn Lynch) knowing that he was suspended for the first 4 games. I didn't make a reach to draft him (4th round) but at the same time he never preformed to the level I needed him too. I took a chance on too many rookie RB's, banking on the fact they would oust the starters on their respective teams but it never happened. Both Donal Brown (Colts) and Shonne Green (Jets) struggled with injuries and ended up being more backups than starters or even in a committee scenario. Running Back is where I failed on draft day. I waited too long to take a back (round 3) and after that the talent was so sparse I had to gamble with Marshawn and the rookies. If I had a do-over I would not have taken a WR in round 1 but went RB instead. Only the first back I took, Ryan Grant in round 3(Packers), consistently put up points and stayed healthy.

Which brings me to the other thing that doomed my team, injuries. Early in the season, week 2, my WR crew got decimated by injuries to the point I had to waste 2 of my 5 free agents pick ups on middle of the road receivers just to field a lineup. Welker missed 2 games, Anthony Gonzalez got hurt in week 1 and missed the whole season. Kevin Walter, in addition to having a down year, missed some time and Earl Bennett(Bears) was an outright bust.

Peyton Manning and Larry Fitzgerald saved my season. Welker, once healthy was also a force. My free agent pick up of Vernon Davis was my best move as I executed no trades this year. So I will take this season as a learning experience. I will also admit that I did not prepare as thoroughly this year as I have in years past. Rest assured that will not happen again.

So good luck to Tos and Sommers. I really could care less which of you two wins since I can't win. There's gonna be some changes on the horizon for next year. I know some people want the season to be a week shorter and there's a small push to making it a keeper league so stay tuned. There's also probably gonna be some owner changes and maybe a possible expansion to 12 teams but these discussions will take place in the spring most likely.

Talk shows have been around for decades. Morning, day time, and late night, they come in all varieties. I've never really been a big fan of them. My buddy Pete tried getting me into Letterman back in late middle school but I never really took to them. Back then you had Letterman and Leno for late night talk shows on channels 2 and 4. That was it, and that was enough. Then they started with the late late night talk shows, Conan and Kilbourn, who aired after Letterman and Leno but still on the same 2 stations. I actually like Conan and Kilbourn better than Leno or Letterman. Bluntly put, I hate Leno, always have always will. Then something magical happened.

Channel 7 got in the late night talk show mix with the Jimmy Kimmel show. I love Jimmy. Since the first time I watched the Man Show, he became one of my favorite TV personalities. Sadly enough, despite my love for Kimmel, I never really watched his talk show after the initial opening week. Maybe its because I have little interest in the lives of celebs or that I despise the majority of people who comprise the musical landscape in the US. And as far as athletes go, most of them really shouldn't be allowed to talk on camera.

The talk show landscape is vastly different today. For whatever reason, the number of talk shows has exponentially increased while the quality of the people hosting these shows and exponentially decreased. I point no further than the following examples: Carson Daily, Jimmy Fallon, Wanda Sykes and my personal favorite after Wanda, George Lopez on TBS.

The real disturbing thing about this though, is that TBS, a non-network station, has begun to copy-cat the networks. TBS is a good station. They play Seinfeld re-runs, air sports and movies as well as a few other good shows. They don't need to sully themselves by copying network TV, which are above and beyond the worst channels on TV (save for MTV and a couple other cable channels)

So do me a favor America. Don't tune into talk shows. If the ratings are bad enough they might just go away. Then again Survivor is still on the air so who knows.