June 21, 2007

History Lesson: Why am I The Loser?

I have been asked a few times since renaming this blog (from whatever it used to be...) why I call myself a loser. First off let's be clear, I call myself The Loser. As for why...

I take you back to the fall of 2003, it was my first year in the RRFFL (a.k.a. Round Rock Fantasy Football League). Coming out of the draft I was very happy with my team and really liked my chances to win the league. Well things went about as poorly as possible and were only compounded by a stupid desperation trade that I made at mid-season. I only ended up winning two games and tied for the worst record in the league. Fast-forward a year and I found myself in a similar situation a couple weeks into the 2004 season. Resorting to the ever popular weapon of a fantasy team name change The Madden Curse quickly became Born to Lose. My team immediately got hot and I only missed winning the title thanks to a Shaun Alexander goal line fumble on the first week of our playoffs (yes, it's scary that I remember these things). Somewhere along the way during all the message board battles Born to Lose was affectionately shortened to B2L. And the rest as they say is history.

Ever since that season almost all of my fantasy teams have had some form of lose or loser in their name. Some of these teams include Lose Big or Go Home!, Lucky in Lose, Mighty Red Losers, Lone Star Losers, el Losero, and Losers for Life. This pattern/superstition has led to an amazing run in my fantasy fortunes. Since the B2L revolution began, my fantasy baseball team Loveable Losers in 2005 is the only team to not finish in the top 3. As for the RRFFL, I took the title in dominating fashion in 2005 with B2L 2k5 and then pulled off the repeat in 2006 with e=B2L (best name ever!). The 2006 triumph was especially sweet since I regularly blew away my opponents despite wearing the defending champ bullseye and having the whole league out to get me. I have also won back-to-back titles in my other fantasy football league as well. Another moment of Loser bliss was in 2005 when I pulled off the fantasy treble. I won my football, baseball, and hockey leagues that year.

So the reality is that I wear the Loser label as a badge of pride. The name has done me well and I don't plan on hanging it up. As we speak Lose on First has a relatively comfortable lead in my fantasy baseball league. And the best part of this whole story for other fantasy players is I've gone into retirement from fantasy football. I don't think it will be permanent, but I definitely won't be playing this year. I have to admit, it's kind of nice going out on top.

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