Tout Wars Mixed: Missing the mark, not the mission

A Hardy well done

A hearty and heartfelt congratulations to MLB.com's and FantasyBaseball.com's Fred Zinkie, the winner of the 15-team mixed league in Tout Wars 2011. The Tout rookie's efforts to conquer KFFL's Tim Heaney and me on the season's final day were valiant.

Shan't forget kudos for the AL winner, Larry Schecter (Sandlot Shrink), and the NL victor (and good KFFL friend) Steve Gardner (USA Today). The champ of AL LABR was RotoWire's Chris Liss, and Doug Dennis (another friend of the program from Baseball HQ) captured the NL LABR title. Clap yo hands.

The triumphant aren't the only fantasy baseball players who deserve acknowledgment. Praise is in order for Fred's fellow Tout freshman, Tim, for his showing and the fine work that he's done, too.

Bummed, but bouncing back

Tim and I have been sharing our roto angst with each other since probably, oh, the All-Star break. I don't think I'm off the mark when I say that our levels of disappointment weren't much different as Wednesday night wore on. It was a bit overwhelming at first.

In one day - on the last day, after I'd been the leader for the majority of the last quarter of the season or so - I went from 2.0 points ahead of Fred Zinkie to 3.5 behind him. I'm unable to recall the last time I trailed anyone by the margin of defeat that Fred handed me on Sept. 28.

Dat's the breaks. But how does dat happen? Well, I know how dat happened, but how does dat happen? There's a lesson in there somewhere, I'm sure of it. I blame Josh Beckett.

Perhaps, at this point, these moments roll off the backs of the long-time veterans of this industry as smoothly as Ozzie Smith executed a backflip. To compete against some of the best in the biz is an honor; to vie for the championship of such an exalted league already was extremely exciting. A big letdown was a good possibility.

But I'm glad that we could feel that disappointment. I wallowed in it, and I hope that Tim did as well. That emotion makes it easy to forget to appreciate what one has learned and has accomplished, however. It's then time to reflect. Just in case he doesn't feel that way today: Hell of a job, dude.

Thank goodness that the losses - and the wins - don't define us.

From the get-go, few seemed to believe that I'd assembled a winner. The projected standings predicted that I was destined to be a bottom-feeder. I had my doubts at times, too. But about a month into the season, when my position was swinging in the middle of the standings, I continued to see signs that my team would erupt. I held her steady and waited for the wind to pick up. My projected gusts didn't disappointment.

At some point on Wednesday night, while Team Minnix sat between 0.5 and 1.5 points behind the Zink Man, I adjusted my point-of-view on the whole mess (as well as injected a bit of a hopeful vibe), with the help of one of my absolute best friends. And I was so over it.

I used to be obsessed with what results did (or what I feared they would) tell me instead of taking the time to expand my knowledge of the practice and contemplate failures. Although my neural pathways occasionally lead to the former destination as a reflex, I've created plenty of new passages that redirect and spill into the pool of possibility.

We came up just a bit short, buddy, and now we know a little more about what it takes to be victorious. Thank goodness that we didn't make the goal winning.

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