I love my |STAR|jobs|STAR|. Notice there is a plural there. Not only do I work for Rotowire but I also use my Master's Degree in Occupational Therapy to work with developmentally disabled preschoolers here in Buffalo.
About 5-6 years ago one of my colleagues (H/T, Pianow) helped me get a phone interview with a certain person with the last name Liss. After convincing him to hire me, I've sprouted out from my basketball column called "Under the Radar" to doing baseball and football content for the site.
This year I was asked to do a column for Fanduel.com about daily fantasy baseball leagues. Not only did I have some success with participation last year but it carried over to football. Since then I've dabbled in the games while writing a weekly column for Rotowire.com.
This week I was notified that we would be doing a "Can You Beat Kevin Payne?" contest where participants would have the opportunity to compete against me and not only could they finish in the money, they'd get an extra $5 (the entry fee) if they finished higher than me. Not only did I win, I was over 17 points higher than the second place finish as seen here:
https://www.fanduel.com/entry/XPHGFS
I decided to enter that lineup into this week's Fanduel's DFBC (a weekly contest where the top prize is an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas to compete for $100,000, entry is $10), using the same lineup as I entered in the "Beat Kevin Payne" contest.
I actually had a laid back night where I cooked dinner for the wife (she's four months pregnant, we find out the sex Tuesday) and my two-year-old daughter. When the first round of games started, I started wishing I had Curtis Granderson, Jason Kipnis and David Ortiz. Still, my team was still doing ok and there was the opportunity that I would cash given that I had Madison Bumgarner waiting to strike.
After my wife retired off to bed, I checked out the Netflix arsenal to see what they had to offer. I started watching a bad Steve Austin ("Stone Cold") movie where he was a SWAT team guy for five minutes before watching my pitcher – Madison Bumgarner – strike out the side in the first inning. At this point, I had no idea what my teams were doing in the DFBC.
I ended up watching a couple episodes of "Weeds" (third season) on Netflix before checking my teams. It was then I realized that I had a chance to not only cash, but win the DFBC and get the trip to Vegas for a chance to win $100,000. While the games winded down, it was not only apparent I wouldn't win; I'd likely be the first loser, better known as second place.
That's where I finished, second place. Don't cry for me Argentina, $600 is nothing to scoff at. Check it out here:
https://www.fanduel.com/entry/ZKCKEM
I could have gone Curtis Granderson at OF instead of Melky Cabrera or Alex Rodriguez instead of Edwin Encarnacion and be on my way to Vegas. Who knows. But still, it's a gut punch nonetheless. Perhaps a five-figure gut punch.
Tomorrow, I'll get up and go to my son's lacrosse game. Then it's off to my nephew's birthday party. My wife will give birth to our third child in late October; my son and daughter currently are the joys in my life (as is the wife… sometimes).
Life is still good, in fact, very good. Still, I hope you find this an interesting story. And again, don't cry for me Argentina.