A Two-Time Champion

I didn't get a chance to write about it earlier, but my fantasy baseball teams completed their seasons on Sunday. I was in three leagues, two with ESPN and one with Yahoo.

I made the playoffs in my Yahoo league, and I just missed getting a first-round bye, as I finished in third, instead of first or second. I had a bad week in the first round playoff, as three key players went down, and I got knocked out. Crap happens.

But I fared far better in my ESPN leagues. I was in a 12-team league and for most of the year, I was languishing in eighth or ninth place. By August, it didn't look like I had any shot at a playoff berth, as I had to finish at least in fourth. But my team, the Hoboken Zephyrs, got hot, courtesy of great stretches by David Ortiz, Ichiro Suzuki, Dustin Pedroia and Brandon Webb. On the last week of the regular season, I got into the fourth place and a spot in the playoffs.

On my other team, the Liverpool Red Sox, it was a ten-team league with a smaller roster (20 players instead of 25 on my other). This team I dominated almost the entire season. I got into first overall by the All-Star break and stayed there.

I breezed through the first round of playoffs, which was the next-to-last week of the regular season. That meant I was in the championship round in both leagues. And lo and behold, I had another easy time in both rounds. In my ten-team league, I went 8-0-2, and in my twelve-team league, I went 7-4-1 to capture both crowns.

I've been in ESPN fantasy baseball since 2001, and this is the first time I've won a league title since that first year. Yep, the drought is over. I captured not one, but two crowns this year.

It'll be tough to top that in 2008.