2006 NFBC Champion Profile - David DiDonato

[Tom Kessenich]

When there’s $100,000 on the line in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship, the final few days before the prize is awarded can be quite anxious.



Think Albert Brooks in “Broadcast News” was a bit panic-stricken? Think Jeff Goldblum had a little trouble sleeping in “Into the Night?” That’s nothing.



The countdown to the $100,000 grand prize in the NFBC can be worse. Much worse. There’s seemingly no end to the worry or to the constant checking of the standings to see if your team is still on top and how many strikeouts you need or RBIs have to be had to ensure the first-place finish. And there’s definitely not a happy ending with Michelle Pfeiffer.



More often than not, it’s anxiety. Pure anxiety.



For David DiDonato, however, the final few steps on his way to the top of the 2006 NFBC had a rather relaxing feel. And he couldn’t have been happier about it.



DiDonato’s hard work during the season paid off with an easy stretch run. The end result was the $100,000 grand prize and the national prestige of being the third champion in the NFBC’s three-year history.



“The last week of the season was very anti-climactic,” said the 45-year-old DiDonato, who runs a waterfront restaurant and bar in Smithfield, Rhode Island. “I had a 300-point lead going into the final week and was never seriously threatened although my lead shrunk to about 220 points. If the season was a couple of weeks longer I’m sure there would have been some anxious moments as (Rick Thomas’ team was) gaining daily.”



The season ended on schedule, however, and that meant DiDonato had some additional time to celebrate his championship.



To say DiDonato’s championship was hard earned would be an understatement. He not only emerged as the grand champion but did so after winning Las Vegas League 9, which featured several former NFBC champions and was ranked the third-toughest league in the NFBC in 2006.



“It’s really an incredible feeling to win the 2006 NFBC,” he said. “Honestly, I never thought it was possible. I felt you would not only have to have the knowledge and skill, but also luck in the way of injuries.



“I always believed the overall winner of this league would have to come from a weak individual league whereby he would benefit from some weak owners at the draft. This was not the case in Las Vegas League 9, as there were nine former champions drafting in this league.”



Looking back on his championship season, DiDonato said it was early on in the 2006 campaign when he first began to believe he had an opportunity to best the toughest field of fantasy baseball players in the country.



“I felt I had a realistic chance to win as early as mid-May,” he said. “My team had just put together two excellent weeks and I had cracked the Top 10. I felt at that point my team was just starting to play well and I had as good a chance as anyone.



“Las Vegas 9 was very competitive. Everyone played extremely hard. The Bales team, ‘Ballfour,’ held the early lead and actually went ahead of me in early August even though I still held the overall lead.”



DiDonato is no stranger to fantasy baseball. He’s been playing since 1986 so he knows as well as anyone that there are a multitude of aspects that go into a championship season. For his team, though, he listed one key above all others and that one that was near and dear to his heart:



His co-manager, Vinnie Lostocco.



“I feel to win this league you definitely need everything working together – knowledge, luck and whatever else you can use to your advantage,” DiDonato said. “A very good friend of mine once said I knew as much about baseball as anyone but I was also lucky so if anyone could win this thing I could.



“His name was Vin Lostocco and I talked him into getting in the league himself in 2005. He loved it and finished third in his league.



“Vinnie entered for 2006 (in November of 2005) and made his travel arrangements. He died suddenly about one month later. In honor of Vinnie, I named my team after him. Even though I am not the most religious person around I believe Vinnie had something to do with my success. Aside from Vinnie’s help, my team was virtually injury free early in the season.”



That proved critical because DiDonato had what he described as a “good draft” but not a great one.



“My first three picks were Carl Crawford, Alfonso Soriano and Lance Berkman, three players that all contributed like first-round picks,” he said. “I gambled on several draft picks later that paid off. Frank Thomas, Francisco Liriano, Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina were all drafted relatively late and performed like top picks.



“I took Randy Johnson in the fourth and Barry Bonds in the sixth round and they were two of my more disappointing picks who still performed adequately. All in all, I felt I had a good but not great draft. I actually felt my Ultimate League 2 draft (where DiDonato eventually finished third) was much better.”



DiDonato knew he would have to bolster his team through free agency and two FAAB pickups were critical to his title run.



“The first was Brandon Phillips, who I had planned on bidding on in the upcoming week,” he said. “He had a monster week and I had to bid much more than I originally planned but I still got him. I got him and he never missed a beat.



“The second free agent who helped incredibly was Francisco Cordero. He was my second choice that week as a free agent closer as (Ambiorix) Burgos was once again the closer in Kansas City. Cordero had just been traded to Milwaukee but was supposed to be the set-up guy.



“I changed my bids at the last minute before I left for a Red Sox game that afternoon and reduced my bid on Burgos while increasing the bid for Cordero. As luck would have it, I was outbid for Burgos and ended up with Cordero. He went on to be the closer and contributed 15 saves.”



With an extra $100,000 in his bank account, DiDonato, the father of two young children, marvels at how far the fantasy industry has come since he first began playing and has nothing but plaudits for the industry’s only multi-city, high-stakes fantasy baseball event.



“My first league was for a modest fee of $20-$30 each and the stats were kept from the box scores in the daily newspaper,” he said. “It is amazing how the industry has evolved with the advent of the NFBC.



“The NFBC has proved to be in a league of its own. It is the best game in town and continues to get better each and every year. From the draft to the end of the year everything runs smoothly.”