VOLUME FOUR, WEEK SIX
The Friday Pick Six is an original SCSD! game where six people make six sports predictions for six weeks. Along with their picks, they're allowed and encouraged to submit a 'sound-off' on any topic, sports or otherwise. When it's all done, the winner earns great honor among the people, while the two losers are exiled in shame and the three middle finishers go to purgatory, with the chance rescue their good name up to three times. To learn more about the rules, and about the current contestants, read below:
VOLUME FOUR
Here's how it looks:
The Last Chance Gals (3rd attempt, win or bust): Swetha & Sabreena
Purgatory Part 1: Marc, Monty
Newcomers: Craig & Tim, Tim B., John
-Volume Four Intros
-Week One
-Week Two
-Week Three
-Week Four
-Week Five
THE HALL OF ANGELS: OLD CHAMPIONS
1. Tom.
2. Mike
3. Patrick and Dylan
Current Standings
1. John - 26
2. Tim B. - 23
3. Marc - 20
4. S&S - 19
5. C&T - 17
6. Monty - 9
John came out guns ablaze in Week 5, vaulting to the top of the leaderboard. However, history doesn't favor him; the leader after Week 5 has never won a pick six. In fact, 4th-place seems to be the charmed position, and that's where S&S sit at the moment. It all comes down to week six, and that is as it should be.
Time for this week's docket:
1. Pick the finalists of the College World Series. By Friday, when picks are due, it'll be down to a final 4. 1 point each.
2. Mets - Rangers - weird interleague series. Who wins it?
3. Who wins the Gold Cup? US-Mexico.
4. Yankees against Rockies, Boston against Pirates...which team scores the most runs of all 4? The least? 1 point each.
5. Pick any other baseball series that you think will be a sweep. If it's a sweep, you get a point. No sweep, no points. No need to tell me the winner.
6. THE PICK SIX WEEK SIX SPECTACULAR!
Monday is the greatest day in tennis, with every round-of-16 match being played on both the men's and women's side of the draw. You may pick as many or as few Wimbledon quarterfinalists (Round of 8) as you wish. This is for men's and women's, so the maximum you can guess is 16.
Here's the scoring:
For every quarterfinalist you correctly pick, you get 3 points. For each quarterfinalist you incorrectly pick, you lose 5 points.
Exceptions: 1 point only for the following players - Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray. Sorry, but that's too easy. You can certainly pick against them if you so desire for full points.
Let's get it started with John the Destroyer. This is for every marble in the bag.
Here it is...moment of truth. I’m up a break and serving for the match. I have many years of knowing that tense feeling that comes with knowing that a tough match will not be handed to you...that you still have to go out there and serve and hit hard and win yourself this damn match! I’ve gotten better at this by learning a this: you play a lot better by realizing that a tennis match really isn’t that important. This of course is a false realization, because every loss stings for days. I don’t lose much, but I’m down 4-6, 0-3 right now in a match rain delayed yesterday for top place in a local ladder...I’ve been stewing for a day about it. I digress...if you can fool yourself a little, you can close the deal...that is my goal. Obviously all the marbles are on #6 this week since the others are small fries...tennis too...bittersweet since I know if I play conservative I can coast into at least a purgatory finish, while if I go all out, I risk it all...time to relax and tell myself(the false notion) that it really isn’t important...I mean I’m about to have a new daughter any hour now and you would think that that would be what I’m worried about, right?...this is just a game, right? Loosen up and pick’em! OK, if I win, I’m dedicating my Indian trophy to my as yet unborn girl...and naming it after her as well!
1. How can I pick against the winner’s bracket? I’m rooting for UVA and Vandy, but I have to pick UF and the Cocks...I’m pretty much guaranteed at least one of those.
2 I’ll go for the Rangers in Texas
3. I don’t really know much ‘bout dis. I recall some Mexicans getting kicked out for doping so maybe they are weakened…I see the final is in Pasadena so I’m expecting good ol’ USA to get drowned out by the bunch from East LA. I would be mildly ok with being wrong, but I’m going with El Tricolor (thanks Wikipedia)
4. I’ll go with the Yanks for most since they have the stupid DH this weekend. Least? Pirates.
5. Philly/Oakland
6. THE PICK SIX WEEK SIX SPECTACULAR!
Men: - Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Roddick, soderling, berdych
This is tough, I can’t even keep all Russians straight, and the women’s game has no order right now. I’m tempted to leave this section blank...seriously...but the women are for all the points...
Women: Sharapova, the Woz(niaki), Ivanovic, Serena, schiavone
1. It’s probably smarter to pick the two teams who only need to win once, but I’ll split the vote: South Carolina and Vanderbilt. The Commodores deserve my faith after beating UNC twice.
2. Are there any non-weird interleague series? Even though Arlington is, as all Mets fans know, where Jose Reyes made his big-league debut, it’s also where teams with power hit a lot of home runs. The Mets do not have power. Rangers.
3. It’s on U.S. land, but last I heard, Freddy Adu was actively involved in a slim win over Panama. Plus, and I don’t know if he still plays for them, but Cuahtemoc Blanco always had one of the best names in soccer. Cuahtemoc Blanco. Like an Aztec emperor. Mexico.
4. While the Red Sox have the best offense of the four, the Pirates have actually pitched pretty well, and Boston will be without Ortiz (unless they hilariously play Gonzalez in RF). The Yankees, meanwhile, will probably be better off without the albatross of Jorge Posada in the lineup, and they don’t face Colorado’s best starter (this year) in Jhoulys Chacin. New York.
5. I hate being bland, but the Phillies are so easy to take against the lackluster A’s, who won’t even toss Gio Gonzalez against them. Of course, if Oakland sweeps, I still win, right?
6. Has anyone ever considered multi-surface tennis? Not one court that contains all three, but like a match that takes place on all three. You could do a best-of-three-sets with each set occurring on a different surface, or (my preferred idea) a first-to-win-on-all-three-surfaces marathon in which you cycle through surfaces. Only then can we really settle Federer-Nadal. (Federer, I think, would win a best-of-three by taking grass and hardcourt; Nadal would win in the latter idea because it’s so tough to take even a set from him on clay.)
Nadal (what happened to Del Potro?)
Berdych
Murray
Federer
Soderling
Djokovic
Wozniacki
Ivanovic (a pick with my heart over my head)
Serena
Zvonareva
Well shit. The Bobcats once again prove to be the most inept organization in the NBA. Kemba Walker won't amount to shit in the pros and Bismack Biyombo is reincarnated Casey Sanders, but shorter. Hey Michael Jordan, you were supposedly good at basketball at some point in your career. I guess you spend too much time jacking yourself off with Air Jordan's to understand how to create a successful basketball team. Enjoy another year of apathetic fan support. How fast can we get a different NBA franchise in Charlotte?
1. Virginia and Vanderbilt going with the V's!
2. Rangers. These teams are singlehandedly responsible for the financial collapse. I wish they'd both collapse into a lava pit.
3. Mexico! We suck at soccer.
4. Yanks most, Pirates least.
5. Phillies and Athletics.
6. Nadal, Federer, Murray, Djokivic, Berdych, Soderling and the Williams sisters.
Alright readers and fans (aka Jill and Carrie), this is our final Pick Six post ever. Ever! So if we don’t emerge victorious, this is goodbye.
1. Virginia’s mascot kind of looks like Antonio Banderas with a pirate hat. And Vanderbilt is good. UVA,VANDY
2. Texas forever. RANGERS
3. I wanted to make some sort of “tree falling in the woods with no one around, does it make a sound” joke regarding soccer and whether Americans would care. But I don’t know how to phrase it so it makes sense. MEXICO.
4. Most - BOSTON. Least - PIRATES.
5. Well, it doesn’t say we lose any points for picking incorrectly (we are holding you to the original email, Shane). So we are picking them all! BRAVES/PADRES, REDS/ORIOLES, ATHLETICS/PHILLIES, DIAMONDBACKS/TIGERS, RAYS/ASTROS, TWINS/BREWERS, NATIONALS/WHITE SOX, BLUE JAYS/CARDINALS, CUBS/ROYALS, ANGELS/DODGERS, MARINERS/MARLINS, INDIANS/GIANTS
6. The boring ones. NADAL, MURRAY, FEDERER, DJOKOBITCH, SODERLING.
The Americans. RODDICK, S. WILLIAMS, V. WILLIAMS.
The ones with names that sound like spies. IVANOVIC, SCHIAVONE, TSONGA, KUZNETSOVA, WOZNIACKI, PETROVA.
1- Florida and South Carolina. I have a dream that one day a team from the north of the Mason-Dixon line will compete for a CWS title. Alas, it is not this year.
2- Rangers over Mets. Mets are hovering near .500, I eagerly await their inevitable collapse in the second half of the season. No way they take two of three from the Rangers in Arlington. Jose Reyes may be in pinstripes come July. And with the Mets' financial situation and attending drama, I wouldn't be surprised if Fred Wilpon loses custody of the Mets to Kevin Federline in the near future.
3- Hey! Its another U.S.-Mexico Gold Cup match! The U.S. is coming off a gritty victory over Panama which featured the return of Freddy Adu to the international soccer scene. Apparently this is a good thing, since he was touted as the Next Great Hope in American soccer when he was 13. Even though the game is going to be played at the Rose Bowl, I think Mexico takes it. The US can't stop Chicharito even if he isnt flanked by dos Santos and Guardado.
4. The Red Sox
5. Nationals vs. White Sox. Will the sudden and surprising resignation of Nationals manager Jim Riggleman backhand slap the Nationals into a shock-induced losing streak? Will it result in a spite fueled winning streak? Either one would be fine with us.
6. It's time.
Gentlemen
Federer
Djokovic
Murray
Nadal
Soderling
Roddick
Ladies
Caroline Wozniacki
Maria Sharapova
Serena Williams
Petra Kvitova
Vera Zvonareva
1. The College World Series is all about the letter V, So I'm quite certain that Vanderbilt and Virginia will face each other in the finals. On the other hand, it's entirely possible that no one will reach the final, given the wild party nightlife in Omaha.
2. No one wins when the Mets play the Rangers. But if you mean which team will wind up having scored more points than the other in more games, I'm pretty sure that won't be the Mets.
3. It's not possible to win the Gold Cup. Winning is only a description of a way to achieve possession of the cup, and possession of material goods is an illusion, as are the material good themselves. That being said, the Mexicans have much more skill at soccer than the Americans.
4. The most likely outcome of both baseball series is that the stadiums are infiltrated by Thetans who perform weird group-therapy on everyone. In the off chance that Mr. L. Ron was wrong though, I'd have to pick Boston for the most points and the Rockies for the least number of points.
5. LA Angels at LA Dodgers. I have nothing odd or unwitty to say about this.
6. Nadal, Haase, Murray, Lopez, Ferrer, Federer, Soderling, Djkovic, Wozniacki, Sharapova, Lisicki, Williams, Schiavone, Petrova, Wickmayer, Williams
Everyone should prepare to feel supremely humbled when I come from this far behind to win everything at the last moment.
Wait. Monty made picks??!!??
ReplyDeleteManhattan Man
Man, that tennis pick was a trap! I should have known better, but you sucked me in with my own sport! -J
ReplyDelete