Coming down the homestretch in my high stakes league, it all came down to Friday’s games.

Though the baseball regular season ends tonight (Monday, and how about those Rockies!) for me in my high stakes league it all came down to Friday night. My closest challenger, who is a good pal a tough owner and even posted a guest post here on the blog, had four starters going Friday night.

Our website had live updated standings that are updated every two minutes. I had two windows open, one for each league, and had my MLBTV subscription working overtime. Only fantasy players can understand how a grown man can sit in front of a computer for hours like this, hanging on every pitch.

His four starters: Oliver Perez, Greg Maddux, Brandon Webb, Jeff Francis. I had demoted all of my starters except Billingsley and Peavy, hoping to hunker down and hold my position in these two categories. As I pointed out earlier, often times a totally defensive position is far better than an attacking position and this is one of those times. When you are in front it is usually better to play defense. So I knew that I couldn’t gain points in NL pitching but was hoping that I wouldn’t lose points.

The points were very close, I had a 7 point lead. ERA and WHIP are two point categories, and to complicate things one team ahead of us in both categories is likely to miss the minimum IP requirement. If this happens, the team that missed the requirement gets a 6.00 ERA and 1.8 WHIP for each inning that he fell short. Given the closeness of the categories it was conceivable that this could be a swing of 2-4 points.

So, if the second place challenger could get a great night of pitching he might gain four points, plus whatever points could swing in offense. I had a three RBI deficit and a one HR deficit in HR and RBI in the AL, so my hope was to have a big night, gain those two precious points and pray for some bad starts by the challenger in the NL.

So naturally I was watching all of the games I could. First up was Colorado and Arizona, with Webb facing Francis. Watching the game I was definitely concerned. Brandon Webb was getting ground balls like he was pitching against minor leaguers. It is instructive to see that even MVP candidates like Braun and Fielder were simply unable to do anything but ground out or strike out. I hated him at that point.

Aside from a Conor Jackson HR Francis was looking good. The nightmare scenario was one where both pitch well, Webb or Francis gets a win and the other takes a no-decision. After five innings it was clear that this was almost exactly what was going to happen, though Francis might take a meaningless loss. Well, not meaningless for the Rockies, but that pales in comparison to my Fantasy fate!

But then Francis loaded the bases and was facing Craig Counsell, who was batting close to .400 with bases loaded. I was hoping for a big hit. Then, I was hoping for a huge comeback against Webb (ha ha that was as likely as me having a bedroos pillowfight with the ladies of Lost). Francis fanned Counsell, damn!

Thankfully Francis took another ding and was pulled in the sixth so it didn’t end up being the nightmare I feared. Meanwhile, I got some good news in the Padres game, when the score flashed and Maddux had let up three early runs. Since he was pulled after the fifth, I now felt confident of victory. The Miracle Night of Great Pitching my opponent needed would not come to pass.

AT the time I didn’t even realize that Perez was pitching. I was texting the challenger, who was also understandably awake and watching the games, and he told me that once Perez got knocked around he felt it was over. This was a great surprise! I turned on the Met game and saw that Perez had let up 6 ER in three innings. It was most likely over.

What was astounding in watching the Mets was the fear and hurt evident in the fans and the players. They looked like a team that was done. Of course, the TV producers gave us no shortage of desperate shots of the fans. In particular there was a shot of Jose Reyes that said it all. The once ebullient heart of the Mets and their sparkplug was beaten. When I saw his face I wished I was in Vegas to make a big bet on the Phils.

Their whole season came down to Moises Alou in the seventh inning against Matt Lindstrom. Alou’s resurgence and long hitting streak were symbolic here. Once Lindstrom struck him out it was all over but the crying.

My AL offense also came though. David Ortiz, for whom I had traded Tim Lincecum among others, really paid off with a big night. Additionally, as I was watching the live standings update, in one flash I gained the two points I needed, as someone hit a three run homer, getting me the three RBI and one HR I needed.

I survived the night and when it was all done even gained a point. Though it is not yet official because of the wild card playoff, I still have a nine point lead.IN the first week in April I had 300 points. There was joking at the time about maintaining that lead etc. And after it was all done, I ended the year losing only ten points from that position.

Amazingly, the second place team made an almost 90 point surge from the first half, coming in a very close second, and his team was clearly good enough to win in almost any other season. It was a tremendous season for him and one he executed flawlessly.
So after a day or two of rest, it will be time for me to examine my roster and figure out what my plan will be for next year. For now though, I won’t be having a Yoo-Hoo shower, but will be drinking my fill of Yoo-Hoo today.

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