2005: Year of the Catheter?

I have been participating in fantasy sports, Superbowl, and NCAA pools since high school. For all of my sports knowledge and prediction abilities, I have never really had much success (save for winning a few non-money fantasy baseball leagues and finishing second in football twice). This year could be different.

It started out, as most years do, with the annual Superbowl boxes game. Usually, I spend anywhere from 10-25 dollars just to make the game more exciting (since the Redskins will not be in the Superbowl until the uncapped year in '07). I always expect that I am just throwing my money away because this game is based purely on luck (of which I have very little). Well, this year I actually won one of the quarters and recouped my $15 dollar investment. It wasn't a huge win, but at least I got my money back (I also ate my weight in crab dip, pigs in a blanket, and fried chicken, but thats neither here nor there).

I am also in a random no money NBA head to head fantasy league on Yahoo. I finished the regular season in first place and have the number one seed (and a bye) going into the playoffs. I'm feeling pretty good about my chances in that league, especially if Tim Duncan and Antawn Jamison come back from their injuries in the next week or so. By the way, Primoz Brezec and Joel Pryzbilla are blowing up right now!

Next is the NCAA Tournament Pool. Normally, I finish 1 spot out of the money every year. But despite what I may have thought before, the scenario generator says that I have a chance to be in the money if any team wins besides Illinois. If UNC beats Illinois in the Finals I could finish as high as second place. If I can get 2nd place in this, it would be huge. I'm not sure how much I would win, but it would be at least the $15 I put into it.

So is this it? Is 2005 the year of the Catheter? Only time will tell. I have a non-money fantasy baseball team that I am pretty happy with. I have 2 football leagues I usually do (with awful luck). We shall see if the roll continues throughout the whole year.

Of course, by talking about the current status of my NBA and NCAA things, I'm sure I just jinxed myself and will spend the rest of the year cursing myself for picking Syracuse in the Final Four instead of Michigan State (my second choice in that bracket).