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I blog @ FRIENDLY FIRE read my LATEST COLUMN FRIENDS' BLOGS CATHOLIC LINKS  mater dei, ora pro nobis contact: @ weinkopf.com (C) 2001, - 2007. All rights are reserved. 
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Saturday, January 04, 2003
ARRIVAL! 
We are thrilled and blessed to announce the arrival of Monica Jean Weinkopf, born at 2:15 pm, January 3, 2003, at St. John's Medical Center in Oxnard, Ca. Our little one weighed in at 6 lbs., 12 oz, and was 19 inches long. (See additional pictures, below!) Mother is an inspiration; child is a miracle; father is speechless. All are well. Best wishes for the New Year and God bless, Mary Kate & Chris Weinkopf 
 Tuesday, December 31, 2002
WEINKOPF.COM FOOTBALL POOL WEEK 17 UPDATE: WILD WILD FINISH!  WildStyle75 Stacey Pressman is all smiles upon winning the 2002 Weinkopf.com Football Pool Championship.
WELL, it turns out that confidence points weren't so bad for WildStyle75 Stacey after all, were they? For all her griping about the complex scoring system at season's start, the Columbia School of Journalism's most esteemed alumna ended up making the best of things by winning not only Week 17 of the 2002 Weinkopf.com Football Pool, but also the pool itself. Hail to our new champion! WildStyle dethroned last year's champ, Jersey Girl Cris by the narrowest of margins -- a mere 1 point on the week, and 11 on the season. but it will be a win forever marred by controversy, namely last week's ruling that the Garden State warrior would not be able to turn her picks in late. That setback knocked the champ out of the first-place spot, which she wasn't able to reclaim, despite picking her five top-ranked games correctly this week. For WildStyle's critics, her victory will long carry an asterisk beside it. The only way she can silence them is to stage a repeat victory next year, and triumph over her NJ rival without the help of computer malfunctions, human error, or fortuitous calls. But then, why does she need to silence them at all? Her triumph speaks for itself. There will be a victory parade down the streets of Hartford on New Year's Day, and the ring ceremony will take place next year on opening night. Congratulations to WildStyle75 Stacey Pressman, champion of the 2002 Weinkopf.com Football Pool! Hex-proof Clearly being tagged the week's One to Watch did nothing to slow Stacey down, as it had earlier in the season. The One Not To Watch lucky charm, however, continued to work its magic, more than tripling my last week's score, and delivering yours turly, the Mighty Mighty Pats Fan an impressive 74-point season finale -- sixth place on the week behind WildStyle75, Jersey Girl, Grogan's Heroes Kenny (81), Padawan Ebin (77), and Hoboken Orphans Chris (75). The Team Not To Watch honor gave one last miracle to the Mighty Mighty Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots (gotta say it while I still can), who pulled a stunning come-from-behind victory over Flipper Lynne's beloved Miami Dolphins. (Be sure to read Flipper's gracious post-game reaction.) Once again, my performance matched that of my team. It was a great final burst, but too little, too late, and so I end up a a woeful fifteenth place overall. Honorable mention  Bruiser Tim Nicely (pictured, right, with wife, Kelly) scored a solid 73 points on the season, but more impressively still, landed himself in the Top Ten overall at eighth place. This, from a guy who missed the first two weeks of action and who claims to have no real interest in football whatsoever. Not too shabby.
Three and out All in all, Padawan Ebin put forth an awesome season, taking eleventh place overall and just barely missing the Top Ten. It makes one shudder to think what he'll achieve when he's four. For purposes of humiliation, below is the full list of poolers who lost to a kid who's still working out the finer details of potty training: "When's baseball season start?" Bob, NevadaNiner Jason, Spurrier Fan Cris, the Mighty Mighty Pats Fan, Steel Man Joe, At least I'm not a Zebra Elizabeth, Schizophobes Glen, Cappuccino Commando Charles and Blitzburgh Bonehead Ben Kepple. The fools among us It's worth noting that four of those listed above -- Steel Man Joe, Schizophobes Glen, CapCom Chuckie, and Blowhard Kepple -- all did themselves in by failing to consistently get their picks in on time. Despite the drop-one rule, three of these guys apparently threw in the towel altogether after messing up once or twice. This is the second year in a row Mr. Kepple has failed us and himself so miserably. If he does it a third time, he might need to be barred from future competition altogether -- for his sake and our own. What can I say? Estranged poolers, we'd love to have you back next year. But do yourselves a favor and turn in advance picks for all seventeen games up front -- it might spare you some serious embarrassment. Justice, sweet justice Yes, Brother Bob managed to beat me both in raw points and in weekly wins, but at least his early-season success came to an end, and Bob finished well outside the Top Ten -- and behind Ebin. The quiet quartet Certain names appear in this update more often than others. Jersey Girl and WildStyle75, for example, are listed almost every week because they're usually victorious. Yours truly and At Least I'm Not a Zebra Elizabeth, on the other hand, tend to get regular billing as the Ones Not To Watch. Flipper Lynne, despite never posting a week's win, has taken up more than her fair share of bandwidth due to her smack-talking, fin-loving ways. But then there are a few poolers we don't hear about often, those who go about their business quietly -- and (mostly) efficiently. There's Stinky Cheese Tara. There's Grogan's Heroes Kenny, who, other than his weekly battles with his wife, hasn't generated much attention in this pool. (Which is truly a shame. Had he won just one week I would have been able to post a graphic like this.) UVA Law student Spurrier Fan Cris went without so much as making a peep this last year, as did Steel Man Joe. They were silent, and so they didn't make many updates, but they were fierce competitors who kept things interesting. Hats off and congratulations to the Quiet Quartet. Some noteworthy year-end stats Most single-week wins: WildStyle75 Stacey, 4. Runner-up: Jersey Girl, 3 (consecutive, no less) Most single-week losses: A four-way tie between Hoboken Orphans Chris, Barrio Bravo Matthew Rubush, NevadaNiner Jason, and Padawan Ebin, at two each. Best one-week performance: Jersey Girl, Week 11, 108 points. Worst: Hoboken Orphans Chris, Week 6, 6 points. Best-ranked pooler not to win a single week: Flipper Lynne (5th) Worst-ranked pooler to win a single week: Schizophobes Glen (18th) Family finales Weinkopf-Smiley: Yours truly manages to best Brother Bob by a slim 74-72 margin. But Bob wins the season with a final score of 9-8. Hirschman: Padawan Ebin upsets Daddy NevadaNiner Jason one more time, 77-56, and takes the season 10-7. Scagel: Husband Grogan's Heroes Kenny drops wife Zebra Elizabeth yet again, 81-49, completing an 11-5 season rout. Rubush: This has been the pool's most competitive intra-familial contest all year, with the lead see-sawing back and forth, and the brothers knotted at 8 wins apiece going into Week 17. And the winner is ... "Hail to the Redskins" Scott, who took the week and the season with a 65-55 victory. Scott ended up the season 22 points ahead of little brother Barrio Bravo Matthew, with the two finishing at sixth and seventh place, respectively. Now, about those confidence points... Much as I've teased our champion about her relentless anti-confidence points grumbling, a year into our experiment, I must admit: She's right. No, I don't despise confidence points the way Stacey does, but they do distort the outcomes at least a bit. Consider this: WS75 Stacey beat JG Cris by a mere 1 point on the week, but outpicked her 12 games to 7. That ain't right. Practically doubling someone's pick total should yield more than a marginal victory. Football pools should be about who can pick games the best based on overall knowledge of the game -- not who might be able to maximize specific knowledge of a handful of teams. And no one game should be worth 16 times as much as any other. In the end, though, it didn't make much of a difference. By and large, the same people tended to win week-in, week-out, suggesting that while confidence points can distort totals on a single week, over the course of 17 weeks, it all evens out. But to say merely that confidence points didn't ruin the pool is hardly an argument in their favor. And by making it harder to see how we all were faring against each other in real time, I'd say they detracted from the overall pooling experience. So there you have it. When it comes time to vote on confidence points prior to the 2003 Weinkopf.com Football Pool, put yours truly down for a no. Q&A The title of this subsection is misleading, as there will be no new questions this week. But as for last' week's questions: Will Jersey Girl accept this week's ruling graciously or go ballistic? Very graciously, albeit gracious in defeat. Now she has something to play for next year. Will three-year-old Padawan Ebin crack the Top Ten? Close, but no cigar. He, too, has a clear goal for next year. And most importantly: Who will win it all? WildStyle it was. Now, can she repeat? Parting thoughts The playoffs should be good for our poolers: Brawler and Steel Man's Steelers took the AFC North, and New York Lancers Dave's Oakland Raiders won the West. In the NFC, NevadaNiner's namesakes are vying for a trip to the Bowl, as they are almost every year. Those of us with teams watching from home wish yours well -- except for the Raiders, of course. It was a good, fun year. Thanks to all who played. And stay tuned for next season, when things should get even better -- more poolers, more competition and interactivity. (Interactivity? What does that mean? You'll just have to come back next year to find out.) Best of all, it should be a great NFL season, with the Mighty Mighty New England Patriots fighting to take back a title that's rightfully theirs, and the lowly Dallas Cowboys giving us all one more reason to hate them. I can't wait! Happy New Years everyone, God bless, and congratulations to our new champ! Yours, Chris, the Mighty Mighty Pats Fan |
