Thursday Pickin’ Season V, Week 3 (Jake’s Edition)

Quote of the Week:

“I have to flip every now and again to remind myself not to flop.”     –Sweet

TB digresses from the usual this week to tell you a little about one of our own’s own. Jake is 4 and a half years old. When he was 2 he was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, one of approximately 300,000 children who suffer from this painful disease. He gets a shot once a week from a cancer drug to suppress the pain. There is no cure. Yet.

That’s where we come in. On November 17, 2012, the annual Jingle Bell Run/Walk will take place in Savannah, Georgia. Most of us can’t be there, but we can support Jake by making a donation, if you are able, to the foundation searching for his cure. I know times are tough. I know that very soon I am going to announce this year’s Be Excellent to a Stranger campaign. We are also going to give you every chance to buy Mac’s skin shoot calendar. Not everyone can participate in every cause. But if you are like me and are looking for something that makes you feel like your dollar is well spent, this is a good opportunity to help a kid. Maybe even 300,000 kids.

On November 17, I plan to run the race privately at home with Jake in mind. If anybody wants to run it with me, virtually, from your own home, we’ll all get together here and plan when to start. We could even post our times, just like a real race. Might be fun. If you donate, there is a place to leave a message to Jake. I encourage you to post that as “MTGU” or “Missing the Ground” so we can flex our collective muscle. Donations are tax deductible. They accept credit cards and it takes only a minute to process. Skip one beer this weekend and put up five bucks for the home team.

Here’s the link to Jake’s fundraising page.

On to regular business. TB won my Pick of the Week to even up my record for the year at 1-1. I went 2-3 on bonus picks, moving to 3-7 on the young year. The MTGU went 14-14 on POTW’s and 26-47-1. Ouch. That moves our collective record to 27-28-1 on POTW’s and 55-88-1 on bonus picks. This humiliating record is largely the fault of newcomer Dry who I was gleefully preparing to haze for going 0-5 and losing his POTW last week. But then I scored Buzz. Buzz, famous for being even-steven every week. Not this year.  He lost his POTW last week and topped that by going 0-4 on bonus picks. He is now 0-2 on POTW’s for the year and an astounding 0-9 on the season.

If you are playing the side game, this is your last chance to send in the money. I will post everyone who has paid and is in the money game in the comments later today, and I’ll post the standings on that game either this weekend or next week.Here are last week’s results, remember, only bonus picks are in parentheses, and the top 14 won their POTW. Shout out to Mac for winning the biggest Dog of the Week–Maryland, and to Sweet, Fish and Face for also nailing their DOTW. Congrats to Rock Star Rambler for winning the week. RSR got Song List of the Week and Nelson won Song of the Week. Hard luck to Pitalo who went 5-0 on bonus picks but lost his POTW. He busted the curve and gave a bunch of free points to the POTW winners above him.

Week 2 Results

1. RSR  (all in plus LOTW)  61
2. Krebs (1-0)                           56
3. Face  (2-1)                            56
4. MD                                         56
5. Fig                                          56
6. BR                                           56
7. Smily                                      56
8. Harmony                              56
9. CoachTeaJay (2-2)            51
10. TB  (2-3)                               51
11. TKH (1-2)                            51
12. Ash  (1-3)                             51
13. Flyin’ J (1-4)                       51
14. Big Ed (1-4)                         51
15. Pitalo  (5-0)                        50
16. Folly J  (3-1-1)                   26
17. Sweet  (2-2)                        20
18. Nelson (1-2 plus sotw)    19
19. TDW  (2-3)                         14
20. S Dog                                    10
21. Irv                                          10
22. Mac                                       10
23. JLou                                      10
24. Larry  (1-3)                          8
25. Tiny D  (1-3)                       8
26. Fish  (0-5)                           0
27. Dry  (0-5)                             0
28. BW Buzz (0-fer 2012)       0

Here are the Season Standings after 2 Weeks:

1. RSR          129
2. Face          124
3. Smily        124
4. BR             124
5. Fig E         124
6. Krebs        122
7. Ash           100
8. Flyin’ J     100
9. Harmony  94
10. Folly J       90
11. CoachTJ   89
12. Pitalo         82
13. JLou           78
14. Mac            78
15. Big Ed        77
16. Larry          76
17. MD             66
18. TKH           61
19. TB               53
20. Sweet         46
21. Dry             39
22. SDog         30
23. Tiny D      27
24. Nelson      27
25. Irv              20
26. TDW          16
27. Fish           14
28. BW Buzz   LUV

Here are my Picks of the Week and Here’s your Handy-Dandy Link to the Odds:

• Kentucky  -7
• MTSU   -3′
• Florida  +3′
• Wake Forest  +28
• Stanford  +9′