Share My Fantasy Football Career, Discuss Other Fantasy Sports I play, and Other Ramblings

Fantasy sports are fun... well, most of the time. It is amazing how quickly a "good" season can change. In one of my fantasy football leagues, I was leading the division and had won a series of games in a row. The past three weeks, I am on a losing skid. I dropped from leading the division to third place in my division. At this rate, I have a chance of barely getting into the playoffs with two weeks left in the regular season for fantasy football.

The Chiefs Kingdom league I have been an owner since 2016. It is a great time as we do a live draft in-person at the start of the season. I have not won this league yet, but I have had some good seasons. This year, I was progressing with a good team and suddenly the wheels fell off and I am not sure where I will end up. We have had different league owners win over the years and the past two years for the first time we had a repeat winner. This league is a lot of fun and banter is shared between owners.

The Beer Gut league, I have been a member since 2011. This league has shrunk and grown over the years from ten teams back up to twelve teams. There have been multi-owner winners in this league. I won the league in 2014 and 2017. We had our first three-time winner with the 2022 season with that league owner winning 2012, 2015, and 2022. The league has been around a while, so it is not surprising that we have multi-owner winners.

I also enjoy playing fantasy baseball, but I have really struggled through the years in fantasy baseball. I enjoy both but I have had better "luck" in fantasy football. I am hoping to get my first win in Chiefs Kingdom this year, but it does require luck to make it to the playoffs and win. The years I won in Beer Gut I did not think I had a chance those years and some how managed to the playoffs and win in the playoffs to win the league. It all takes a lot of luck no matter what and all we can do is hope we put the correct players in the game to be active to earn us points.

Football and baseball are the only fantasy sports that I play. Even when my team is not doing well, I enjoy the process. 

Have a great rest of your day and a wonderful weekend...

Rambling Along on a Weekend About Sports, Books, Camping, and Whatever Else Comes to Mind

Carrie and John from 2013

Rambling along on a Sunday is what this post is about. Not one specific thing to discuss or talk about today, but various items that may or may not connect together. That’s what happens sometimes as I go to think about what to write for my Sunday update. In this edition, I will talk sports, books, camping, and anything else that comes to mind that I feel like sharing. I hope you find these as interesting as my other weeks posts about specific events or topics.

Sports

The days are getting shorter and believe it or not, the temperature is starting to drop too. We have had some really nice weather the past week or two, so we can see fall is approaching. Granted, we had at least two days this past week that were in the upper 90s, but the evenings are so nice. The shorter days and lower temperatures mean only one thing… football is starting. 

Washburn Football

Washburn plays our first game of the season at home on Thursday, September 1. I cannot wait! We finally have a parking spot in the tailgate this year, so I am excited to have that although it is a ways from our “spot” it will be nice to have the car close for everything we pack and not having to walk a distance to get it to our “spot”. We will still be by the flag pole in the northeast corner of the field. I am doing Weight Watchers, so planning to eat a little better at this tailgate with Subway for dinner and some Michelob Ultra beers for watching the game. We only have five home games and we will miss at least one which will be the last game of the season. I might find a way to get out for part of the game, but too early to say at this point. 

We had a great season last year and I expect to see another great season this year too. Last year we had some memorable victories at home and even one where our neighbor ran on to the field after we won. Good times! I am looking forward to another fun round of games at home and on the road. I renewed my subscription for streaming Washburn sports as well as our season tickets to football in case we decide to go into the stadium. I think it is going to be a fun season and I cannot wait to get it started on Thursday. Go Bods!

Washburn Volleyball

We love going to volleyball games. I watched the whole season streaming last year and it was a wonderful season. Every year we say we are going to go to a lot of volleyball games and the season flies by with us only going to a few. I am hoping to get to a lot more games this year. I have them on my calendar and I know Carrie is interested in going to more of them this year too, so we will plan to cheer on the volleyball team at home this year in-person. I am watching an away game this morning as I write this update on Saturday morning with Washburn playing Midwestern. We started the season Thursday and we are already off to a good start… season is young, but expect great things from the team again this season. 

If you have not been out to a volleyball game, you should make it a point to get out to a match. It is so fun! Even though I do not know/recall all of the rules for volleyball, we have fun cheering on our team. I love the fact that as the final point is about to be scored the home crowd stands and claps until the point is won. Yes, I realize this is not unique to Washburn volleyball, but it makes it a fun environment and us as fans like we are helping the team along to the win.

Fantasy Football and Baseball

The baseball season is coming to an end. The Royals are in another struggling year, but still having fun watching their games and the new talent. I am in two fantasy baseball leagues and while I am not sure I have ever won a fantasy baseball league, I have fun setting my rosters each day and following the games for each of my players. Fantasy sports is a lot of making the right decision on who to play, who to draft, and when to bench a player, but it is also a lot of luck. At one point during this season, I had the majority of my roster in one league on the IR. With all of the “good” players drafted, it makes it difficult to go out to the waiver wire to pick up quality players, so sometimes it is necessary to use up spots on the roster with injured players. Again, this is what makes it fun to struggle through IR instances or survive the season without a single injured player where when I have had this occur, I am toward the top of the rankings. All part of the game and it is so fun!

Fantasy football is starting up and this week I will be drafting in the two leagues I take part. One league is a free league and the other is one where we put in money for fun. Both are a lot of fun and both I am in with friends, so it is a good time. I love baseball, but I really like fantasy football. Unlike baseball where I have to check my roster daily, make changes, etc., in fantasy football I check a few times a week to make changes. Typically prior to Thursday, when there are games, prior to Sunday, and then again on Monday. A final check to see who I can pick up on waivers to prepare for the next week of play. It is so fun!

Typically at some point during the season, usually for football, the league finds a time to meet up at a local establishment to watch a game and talk some trash. I love it when we are able to connect during the season (baseball or football) to watch a game, have a few drinks, and what some of “our” players in a game. All part of the fun of the season.

Kansas City Chiefs

Speaking of football, who is ready for the Chiefs season to begin? We came up short last year and looking to have a great season this year, I cannot wait for it to start. It all starts on Sunday, September 11 with Kansas City Chiefs playing Arizona Cardinals. Looking forward to seeing us on the field and Mahomes leading us down the field. Football happens to be one of the sports Carrie does not enjoy to watch, but it is one of my favorite things to do on a Sunday. Football all afternoon and even better when my Chiefs are playing. 

Last season I remember we started out slow losing some early season games. I recall social media saying our season was over and then we came to life and started winning. I am hoping not to start off slow this year and have game mode at the start of the season. Do not let teams back into games, but finish them early and keep the heat on throughout the game to the end. We lost the first four of seven games last year and people were saying our season was over, but yet we turned it around. Let’s not start that way this season! Let’s go Chiefs!

Books and Reading

Reading with Kindle

I continue the enjoyment of reading. I started January 2022 with the goal of reading 20 books for the year and so far I have read 14 books. I have read every day since January 1, 2022 which has been a nice change. I typically read every night before going to sleep, so sometimes I read for just a few minutes to thirty or 40 minutes before falling asleep. It is a nice way to wind down, ignore the phone, email, and social media to just relax and enjoy a book. I continue to read on my Kindle which I love and I have anywhere from two to three books downloaded at any one time to the device in airplane mode so I do not lose them when they are due back at the library. Work out nice except sometimes I miss books I have reserved because I cannot come out of airplane mode or I will lose some of my books. 

Currently I am reading “Where the Crawdads Sing” which happens to also be in theaters. I am really enjoying this book and I look forward to seeing the movie. Prior to this book, I had been reading a lot of series. An eight book series by L.T. Ryan, I only have one book left. I had to take a break from the series though, but I plan to finish up that last book in the near future. I have another series Carrie started me on by C.J. Box which as been really good and I am about three books into that series. Again, I took a little break while I read some other books that were on my list.

At the rate I am going, I think I will exceed my 20 book goal for the year. Only a few short months and the year will be changing, but I think I can finish strong and go a ways past my twenty book target. It will be the most books I have read in one year. It has been a fun process and I look forward to continuing the goal for next year.

Camping

We have only been camping once this year. It was early spring that we went. We were hoping to go again, but it was a busy summer and the fall is turning out to be busy too. I have hope we can fit in one more weekend get away to go camping. The difficult part is that there are sports happening that I want to see, blue festival in early October, and other events happening that prevent us from taking a weekend. Still, I hope we can find a weekend to take Oliver and get to be lakeside somewhere to enjoy the outdoors and some good books.

Next year, I hope we can make it to more than four camp sites. We went to three sites last summer with four total as we went to one spot twice, so I am hoping to make it to just as many next summer if not more. Start a little earlier in the spring and go later in the fall, we might be able to beat that camping number.

End of Rambling

The end of August is right around the corner and I wish the days would slow down just a little. Going by way too fast as we watch 2022 speed by. I hope to have some future posts about sports that we attend as well as books I am reading. Of course, I also hope to have a camping trip in the near future, but not sure when that will occur. For now, I am trying to slow down the days and enjoy reading a good book or enjoying a sporting event. 

I hope you have a great rest of the weekend and can enjoy some quiet time before the busy week starts again.

Fantasy Football Leagues Finish Up and Here are the Current Totals for Leagues I Belong #FantasyFootball #NFL #Results #blog

Fantasy football season comes to an end as the NFL regular season wraps up this week. Many fantasy games completed with the games last week. For everything that happened during the NFL regular season related to COVID-19, it was a fun season. Remembering back to drafts that took place back in early September to changes made to rosters or trades made with other owners, the season was fun. While some games were postponed to be played later, the majority of games went off without a problem or maybe a player or two not able to play because of COVID-19 restrictions.

I play in two different fantasy football leagues. Both are groups of friends of mine that have been playing for a number of years. One is free to play and the other is money league. The money league which is the Chiefs Kingdom Fantasy League, has been playing since 2016 and Beer Gut Fantasy Football League has been playing since 2011. The Beer Gut League has been playing long before 2011, but I was not part of the early leagues and then probably in 2006 - 2009, prior to my starting in that league, they played on another provider. I played a year or two on that other service and we have been on ESPN since 2010.

In the Beer Gut Fantasy Football League, I have won the league twice. I have also had a number of seasons where I have come in last, or almost last, in the league. For a while in Beer Gut Fantasy Football League we would have whomever lost be the commish the next year. A few years ago, we changed this process in this league though as we found that it was better to have one or two people that run the league each year which helps to keep things consistent. The new process has worked much better in the Beer Gut Fantasy Football League. 

No matter the league, fantasy football takes a bit of luck. I am by no means a fantasy beast. I recognize players names, know those that I like and want to draft, but stats or history is not something I follow like others in both leagues that I am a member. Luck plays into the process a great deal where one week I will play someone that gets 20 or 30 points and the next they only get 10 - 15 points the next week where they were expected to get 20 - 25. This is what makes the fantasy football process so much fun to try and put together a roster that gets the maximum points each week. It certainly also has me watching more games because I want to see what the players on my roster are doing each week.

The Chiefs Kingdom Fantasy League we have had five different winners in the five years of existence. Not too shabby! In this league, we do a random draft compared to Beer Gut where we reverse the draft each year where whomever finished last the season before gets the first pick the following year.

If you have not tried fantasy games with your friends, or random people, I encourage you to give it a try. It is a lot of fun and offers an increased interest in that particular sport.