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April 25, 2004
QUICK VULTURE UPDATE
Well, it's April 25. And against all odds -- not to mention my six season record of mostly futility -- the Vultures have not moved from their perch in first place, having settled there on April 8. There have been, for all intents and purposes, 20 days in this baseball season, and the Vultures have been in first for the last 16 of them. The good news is that despite a protracted hitting slump, a stolen bases drought and a complete lack of saves from my relievers, the Vultures have remained remarkably consistent in the standings. We haven't sunk below 123 points, and haven't risen above 130. (Since the max is 168, and since the highest I've ever seen anyone is around the 134 mark, I felt pretty durn cool about peaking at 130 for the day we were there.)
Best of all, perhaps, the rest of the league seems to be jockeying -- for the moment -- for places two through five. No one has put together a solid or protracted enough run to dance too close to the Vultures' nest at the top. The 57'ers got within 10 points of us for a day, but generally the lead seems to hold steady between 15 and 23 points. As of this morning, the lead stands at 17 points; the Vultures have 125.5, Mister Baseball is in second with 108.5, followed by the 57'ers with 107.0. Surprisingly, those are the only three teams above 100 points right now... while it's early, it seems to be an emerging fact that the league is more balanced this year than in previous seasons, when five or six teams have been strong enough to flirt with 100 points, and three or four being bad enough to feel lucky if they clear 80. (That's been me from 2001-2003, by the way... no false claims of glory from me.) The Diamond Dogs, Tim's Hazzard County Dukes, and the Ivy Giant are locked in a fierce battle for the 4 through 6 slots, with 94.5, 94.0, and 93.0 points respectively.
I won't bore you with further deep analysis (believe me, I could... I just deleted two paragraphs' worth). But suffice it to say that it is shaping up to be a competitive, possibly very fun summer in fantasy baseball land for the Vultures... and that's one of about four things in the world that could un-mudgeon the 'Mudge. (The other three being: winning a $100 million-plus MegaMillions lottery; Kerry routing the First Disgrace by at least six points in November; and Britney & Jennifer Love Hewitt saying, "you can stay in here with us.")
