John - ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?
vs.
Avery - MAYBE HE WAS TALKING TO ME
Tief - CHIEF BENDERS
vs.
Bill - MR. WARMTH STRIKES
Classic.
A couple of notes on the playoff schedule. There is a doubleheader of sorts on Labor Day weekend. It's not a true doubleheader but the games are back-to-back. One game will span Friday and Saturday and the other will span Sunday and Monday.
When I drew up the original schedule, I had said that the World Series would start as soon as possible after the playoffs ended so as to avoid playing right up to the last weekend. I've scraped that. If you take a look at the schedule you'll understand why. If both playoff series ended in either 3 or 4 games, the World Series would need to start the next day after playoffs ended. I think that's just too quick of a turnaround, so I have the World Series to start on a set date - Friday 9/10. Besides, the FNFT World Series should start on a Friday anyway.
I should add the disclaimer that I made the above schedule change without any knowledge of how it may affect the pitching rotations for my own team. I'm not going to do that, because it's not true. For two weeks already, I've had the pitching rotations of every team in the Major Leagues mapped out to the end of the season so that I know if/when I might need to pick up a starter and who the available choices might be. This change actually screws me a bit.
John and Tief return to the FNFT postseason for the first time since meeting in the 2004 World Series. That year was Tief's lone FNFT championship. John took the FNFT title the year before that (2003) defeating Dale for his only FNFT title.
Bill is back in the playoffs for the second time. His lone FNFT championship came in 2006 when he defeated Jake for the title.
Then there's The King. Eight FNFT championships in the first 15 years of the league - none since. Of the four FNFT playoff teams this year, Avery is the one with the longest championship drought, currently at 8 years.
Same rules apply to the playoffs as do in the regular season. One pickup per game. Lineups due in at noon. The lineup system will function as it normally does. The rest of you can still go in there and look. Just don't make any roster moves.
Finally, a few quick notes about the end of the regular season.
If Brett had played Lyle Overbay at 1B in Game 30 instead of Carlos Pena, he would be playing Avery on Tuesday in a 1-game playoff for the division title.
By finishing the season 6-0, Connor avoids the dubious distinction of finishing below the Smith Line.
No team finished with 100 wins. The only other time that has happened was in 2008, but that's now twice in three years.
Seven teams finished within 10 games of the lead in their division. That's the most ever.
Now, I'm off to study. See you back on Friday...
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