NFBC Message Boards

What a great time in Vegas this weekend with a cast of colorful and talented characters.

Where do I begin? Lets start with the 1 PM NFBC XII. This draft was half live and half over the phone. I arrive early enough and make sure I'm not sitting to close to Chad Schroeder (who is drafting next to me) so that I'm not intimidated. Wrong, the guy is a master and a great guy who throughout the draft tells me I grabbed his guy. The first few times I believed him, then I caught on. All is fair in Fantasy and War!! I end up drafting 2 1B an SP and 2 SS to start the draft. In my wildest dreams I'd never do that. I talked myself into it. I end up being ok with a team that is a tad short on starting pitching. After the start I thought I was toast and probably am. I get to meet Mark Bender and had a great time.

On to the 12 team Super. I couldn't sit still and roamed the room drinking bud light on Greg. For all the experience in the room they seemed a bit uptight. No late night cocktails. The boys seemed to take pitching early, except MtM. I think he was more concerned with making sure he didn't have a hair out of place and his perfectly dry cleaned ensemble didn't get wrinkled. Good Luck Mikey I enjoyed meeting and talking with you!!

Chad and Glen Lowey sat directly across the table from me and I saw them chuckle more than once after one of my picks, I loved it. Then this Jupinka fellow calls out a name that I had drafted 12 rounds earlier. The games these people will play.

Matthew Shepherd, his wife and Bob Particelli had to sit on both sides of me. They probably couldn't stand my constant up and down but were gracious enough not to say anything. What a great all around group, should be a fun league. During the break I run into the Sack man. We say hello and good luck, the only thing he really wants to say is that my NCAA tournament bracket is in last place!! Chip was with him, but they were in a hurry and I regret not engaging him and congratulating him on carrying his father all these years. Shawn Childs is in the room and we talked fantasy strategy. Anyone who is new should check out sportsdraftdaily.com. This is Shawns baby and I believe the best place to get strategic information for this fantasy game we play. Great guy who is willing to share his knowledge.

On Saturday I go over just to meet a few folks as I'm not drafting any teams. I run into Lowey again who is still crying about his poor teams. He says he's being honest, which means he probably pulls off the Lindy this year!!

I get to meat KJ Duke simply by chance as he had "Duke" on his shirt. He has his lovely wife (it appears you way over achieved KJ) with him. What a nice fellow. I make sure to run into Nick Cassavetes who did me a very nice thing a couple of years ago. I introduced myself and thanked him, he was very gracious. I then get into the main event room and meet up with the doughboy himself Dan Kenyon. I fully expected him to be signing autographs. We only get a few minutes and I also get to meet Roger Martin. We all don't have much time to talk, I regret not mentioning Mia and the great slow drafts we enjoyed this year. Everyone is so busy, but also very engaging. It's a bit strange meeting people for the first time that you've had communication with over the years.

Greg, Tom and their entire crew should be congratulated for putting on the "Premier event in fantasy sports". I can't think of one thing that I could come close to criticizing. This is a first rate organization that cultivates first class citizens to it's competition. Congratulations on a huge success!!

I could go on forever, but I won't. Thanks again to the NFBC. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE THIS SEASON!!

Let me add my recollections to Joe's.

First, great event Greg, Tom, and team. You guys had to be just exhausted by the end. Great facilitators and we certainly did not go hungry or thirsty. The NCAA Viewing party was a blast just moving around the room and catching up with everyone. Nice meeting your boss, Greg. Seems like a real gentleman. And I love my new NFBC Charter 10 jersey. Of course, it looks better on me than anyone else and black is so slimming!

It would make this post too long and too boring to even list all of the folks I got to see again and talk with. But for those who think maybe attending a live event might not be worth it, let me say again being in attendance is like the icing on the cake and this is why. I was by one of the three Main Event "oracle" boards (many of us graze around the room looking at the each leagues boards, checking out what friends and past competitors have done, but EVERYONE who does this seems to stop by and review Lindy's and Jupinka's and Child's drafts so we can say "I think I had a better draft" and then wonder why in the hell these guys seem to kick our behinds on such a regular basis) with Dave Clum. The crowd was thinning out when Gates and Glenn came up. Now, until last year, I had never officially met either and we ended up drafting next to one another. We had a blast last year during and after the draft talking baseball just as if we had known each other since elementary school. I have "spoken" to each via the boards, but had not seen them in a year. So they just walked up and once again we were talking and discussing baseball just as easy as if we lived next door to one another and could walk in each others house at any time and grab the last beer from the fridge. That is what makes the live events worth it if you make it one of them. You end us just looking forward to seeing friends each year who have become like family (truth be told, there are a lot of NFBCers that I like better than most of my family!).

And then there was this-like seven foot tall dude in a grey sweatshirt and size 30 or something high-top Chucks who walked up with a big, ear splitting grin and just gave me a hug! I had never officially met this man before and the bag of Dorito's that he clutched like a life-preserver should have been my first clue, but instead he gives me a minute to try and guess before he introduced himself as Dan "Doughboys" Kenyon. This was before the draft and we ended up only having a few minutes to talk (EVERYONE wants to talk to Doughboys) because we were into the pre-draft awards presentation, but now I have a friendly face to put with the all of the excellent blogging that Dan does. A real treat.

One last thing. We have taken these boards far. First, it was the "I know more than you and that makes you a boogerhead" posts. Then we morphed into on of the most informed fantasy baseball discussion forums anywhere. Along the way, we have gotten into sharing important events in our lives, supporting one another in bad times (like when I lost my job last year) and good. I found out last weekend that one of our NFBC family members is in a transition. This friend of ours has had a career in the Air Force where he has risen to the high rank of full-bird Colonel and has had something like five tours in the sand-boxes that most of us only hear about on television. Now, after twenty-five years of service to the United States, Colonel Dan Semsel and his family are transitioning to civilian life in the next few weeks. Let me take this opportunity to first and foremost thank you for your service to the nation and then to wish you and your family the best in this next big adventure!

THANK YOU LAS VEGAS DRAFTERS!!!

What more can I say? Everyone here in Las Vegas was as great as could be. Everyone was on time for the drafts and auctions. Everyone was ready, happy, courteous and enthusiastic. Our facilitators and Rex's crew was FANTASTIC!! The Bellagio food, drink and accomodations were FANTASTIC!! But the NFBC people here were just FANTASTIC!!

Seriously, this was easily our smoothest, most enjoyable NFBC live event ever. From the Thursday NCAA Viewing Party with 40 great folks to last night's Ultimate Auction League, it was just a lot of fun. And the arrival of our East Coasters just made it FANTASTIC!! I mean really, having Mikey, Dobies, Ante, Mark Bendar and so many other great East Coast drafters here in Las Vegas for the first time really added a flair (and sometimes flare) to the live drafts!! Everyone just hit it off and it was a fantastic time.

And we even looked good in our NFBC jerseys and baseball caps!! We all loved those, so thanks to Doug and Don Brady for those. We'll give you all the link to that site to order them throughout the season. You'll love 'em.

THANK YOU!! That's all I can say. You made our jobs easy out here. And even though we were busy throughout, you made my job and Tom's job much, much easier. Thanks again.

Now, let's do it again in New York, Las Vegas, Chicago and Online!! There's more than $2.2 million in prizes out there right now and every contest just continues to grow and grow each day!! Let's have a great final week and kick off the season on Sunday night in GRAND FASHION!! Thanks all.

We weren't laughing at your picks Joe. You just crack me up in general. Aside from having to play against you, drafts you are in are very enjoyable. Was great to see you again.

Dammit Chad. I didn't get to meet you. You were late for the draft, then I got distracted afterwards.
My loss.

The feeling is very much mutual Dan. Very poor execution on my part.

DOUGHBOYS wrote:Dammit Chad. I didn't get to meet you. You were late for the draft, then I got distracted afterwards.
My loss.

Still sitting in the airport and just wanted to say thank you to the nfbc and all the amazing people who make the nfbc what it is today. What a wonderful experience me and my wife had. For all the new people we got to meet there was still another 100 or so of you we didn't get too . Just another reason to come back next year. In a very simple way it was nice to shake someone's hand and put a name with a face. For that we say thank you to the largest martin family support group.

Rog wrote:Still sitting in the airport and just wanted to say thank you to the nfbc and all the amazing people who make the nfbc what it is today. What a wonderful experience me and my wife had. For all the new people we got to meet there was still another 100 or so of you we didn't get too . Just another reason to come back next year. In a very simple way it was nice to shake someone's hand and put a name with a face. For that we say thank you to the largest martin family support group.

Roger, I am glad my wife was with me for the NFBC XII and got to meet you. We were disappointed we didn't get to meet your wife.
Dan Kenyon, it was a pleasure to meet you; you're enthusiastic demeanor is just as visible in person as it shows up in your writing. A true pleasure.
Jupinka is always a class act; Vlad Sedler is a great human being; Childs is Childs; always a pleasure to see Rick Thomas; Gaetan, an old CDM guy; I really think Gaetan should have the EVERY LEAGUE moniker.
Just a great collection of human beings;

It goes without saying without Greg, Tom and all the people who help with this event (STATS), we wouldn't have the chance to get together every March.

It is always great to meet up with everyone at least once a year. Nothing, and I mean nothing beats a LIVE EVENT, period!!!

It is always a pleasure to shake hands with Lindy and Gabe, Lindy is the most humble person I have ever met; but I guess if you're a pig farmer from Idaho, humility comes easy. Just a great person.

Finally, the two individuals who truly make this enjoyable for me are Ken and Chip Magner. I have known Ken for over 12 years dating back to me first experience with this crazy hobby at CDM. Last year we got to spend some time in Arizona for some spring training games before heading to Vegas. That was a blast and some fun stories came from the experience in Arizona.
This year, although no spring training for me, topped last year. We studied and researched together and are partners in just a few leagues... they are like family to me and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Prior to meeting up with Ken and Kenny last Friday, Lorraine and I enjoyed a dinner and a breakfast with Paula and Kris Magner. Lorraine really enjoyed chatting with someone named Magner and it wasn't about fantasy sports.

I said finally, but I must now say, finally again, spending two weeks with my lovely wife Lorraine, in Las Vegas has been a blast (oh, we still have 4 full days left). She has been a trooper and never in my life did I think she would sit with me at a draft; but she did for my NFBC XII last Friday. She is going to sit with me again this Friday, so, she was there for the first and for my last Live Draft, the irony, I have the 4th pick just like the NFBC XII last Friday. I love you Lorraine (she won't read this)

My first trip to Las Vegas was a memorable one. I was able to meet some legends of the game and see what the fuss was all about regarding drafting in Vegas. Although the town is a freak show, it was worth the trip to finally meet guys like Dan, Rog, Shawn, KJ and of course Greg for the first time. It was definitely a different experience. I will still be a loyal New York drafter, but I might have to make this Vegas trip a little more often. My top 10 Highlights of the weekends: 10) Seeing the Vegas skyline for the first time 9) Hanging out with the New York crew (Ante, Mark B, etc) and not getting rushed out of the door after the draft 8) Doing the Ultimate Auction for the first time 7) Getting lost in Las Vegas after going out of the wrong exit of the MGM, then Elvis telling me where my hotel was. 6) Meeting Rog and his wife and seeing pictures of Mia and the battle she went through. . 5) Meeting Dan Doughboy Kenyon and realize that the man is what makes this game as great as it is. . 4) Realizing New York City is actually quite conservative. 3) Walking from the Bellagio, actually participated in part of a Rap video. 2) Met Michael Jackson (no, really). And the #1 highlight of my weekend in Vegas... Well I cannot share that but I promise you it doesn't involve a stripper or a midget.

Cocktails and Dreams wrote:We weren't laughing at your picks Joe. You just crack me up in general. Aside from having to play against you, drafts you are in are very enjoyable. Was great to see you again.

I know you guys weren't laughing at me, I just like giving the business. I'm used to be one of the Yahoo kids that doughy writes about all the time, those drafts were quite different. I like to inject a little bit of life into the drafts, I think they need them. I loved the running commentary we had in the XII. You're a class act Chad!

JOE- It was great to meet you and the others as well. Strange enough that between you and me, 2 Tigers hoarders, we only managed one bengal total amongst us.

Pitching did go early, but I think thats because the potential quality/upside of players available after round 15 or so is greater for hitters than it is for pitchers.

My girlfriend, (who drafts by herself as WAY-D in the online/satellite leagues) also had fun but somehow managed to let her love of Pablo Sandoval and Tim Lincecum sneak them onto the team.

Hopefully this FRI night super league becomes "a tradition unlike any other" as Jim Nantz puts it.

Have fun guys.

Shep (MORONS)

Money wrote:

Cocktails and Dreams wrote:We weren't laughing at your picks Joe. You just crack me up in general. Aside from having to play against you, drafts you are in are very enjoyable. Was great to see you again.

I know you guys weren't laughing at me, I just like giving the business. I'm used to be one of the Yahoo kids that doughy writes about all the time, those drafts were quite different. I like to inject a little bit of life into the drafts, I think they need them. I loved the running commentary we had in the XII. You're a class act Chad!

You are a guy that I wish was in Omaha. I think our senses of humor(or lack thereof) mesh well. Truly a pleasure every time I draft with you.

morons wrote:JOE- It was great to meet you and the others as well. Strange enough that between you and me, 2 Tigers hoarders, we only managed one bengal total amongst us.

Pitching did go early, but I think thats because the potential quality/upside of players available after round 15 or so is greater for hitters than it is for pitchers.

My girlfriend, (who drafts by herself as WAY-D in the online/satellite leagues) also had fun but somehow managed to let her love of Pablo Sandoval and Tim Lincecum sneak them onto the team.

Hopefully this FRI night super league becomes "a tradition unlike any other" as Jim Nantz puts it.

Have fun guys.

Shep (MORONS)

Matt, Great meeting you as well. Sometimes when other players know your affinity for a certain team it can play in your favor as they will tend to go earlier than normal as others push them up to unreasonable spots. I'm not saying that happened here but the Tigers I wanted were not available where I was willing to draft them.

My next XII draft is Thursday and I'll be getting the "Big Cat". I also drew number one (how did this happen?) in my final (of three) XII's on friday night. I know I should mix it up, just not sure I'll be able to do it come draft time.

Good Luck this year, I'll be in Detroit for Opening Day. Go Tigers!!!

Hey Joe, it was great seeing you out in Vegas again this year.

As Chad wrote, we were not laughing at your picks. You're just fun to watch draft. For anyone who has yet to draft with Joe in a live setting, he comes with full entourage, barely sits down during the entire draft and if he does he's back up and pacing within seconds, and uses the entire minute to make his pick giving a monologue on why he's making that pick. Just a great guy who wears every bit of the love he has for this hobby on his sleeve and a blast to draft with.

Next year, we have that beer Joe. Good luck in all your leagues this year, except this one of course.