Week 3 Results

All in the Family

None of us know everyone else in the pool, but all of us have a good friend or family member participating. If we're being honest, the glory of Wallyball is not the chance to win thousands of dollars in cash and prizes... it's the chance to dish out a boatload of crap to family and friends who are sitting below you in the standings.

Especially if you happen to be married to one of those people.

Meet Andrea and Jose Otero.  Andy (as she's known to us) and her husband could always be counted on to bring energy, humor, and smart-assiness to our weekly Zoom calls.*  So I am guessing that it has not gone unnoticed that one of them is undefeated after three weeks, and one of them is... not. Congrats to Jose for being part of the lead pack.

But here's the thing- Andy's picks didn't seem so bad at the time. All three were Steve's Five Star Locks of the Week™, which is turning out to be about as reliable as the ones that the Vegas con men handicappers tried to sell you on the old 900 phone calls back in the 90s. This week's SFSLOTW™ is Philadelphia. To Andy and Al: choose wisely. Consider yourself warned.

By the way, if you want to feel really old: the first episode of All in the Family aired on January 12, 1971. At that time, Carroll O'Connor was 46 years old, and Jean Stapleton was a week away from her 48th birthday.

* we need to figure out a good time to start those back up, so that we can hear directly from Jose and Andy

Our other husband-wife duo is separated by only one game in the standings. Unfortunately, that one game is the only victory between them- a week 1 win by Baltimore. Otherwise Cheryl and Paul have managed to post five losses from five different teams. Impressive... just not the way you were hoping.

Father Knows Best 

... sometimes.  It works for the Kuos, where Jay is undefeated, and Colin is very defeated. Considering his lifetime Wallyball record heading into the season was 27-8, Colin is in some very unfamiliar territory in the Winless Lounge.

The Bonzells have identical records at 1-2, but only one of them is using the Wallyball API to run simulations of all of our picks to try to add some data science to the process. Hint- it's not the one who went to law school.

Only two of the three Browns are related, and in this case son Carter has the edge on dad Jay by a game. Both are doing extensive research on ancenstry.com to see if they have any genetic ties to Dave that could drag them down in the standings.

Wallyball is Easy 

That's what some of us thought the first couple of seasons when it didn't seem too tough to figure out which teams were trying to lose. The Jets and Jags are no longer Old Faithful, and Wallyball veterans have been punished appropriately.

 

Scott K and Ryan are new to our group and seem to be doing just fine, both having perfect lifetime Wallyball records. For both of you, please take a moment to tell us a little bit about yourselves in the comments section below.

What we know about JP is that: he's undefeated this season, he lives outside Cleveland, and he's a Browns fan. In other words, he has the keys to the factory mentioned last week. The one which just keeps on producing joy and delight for its fans.

Mr. Bold Pick of the Week

Look carefully at the teams we're picking each week, and most of us choose the same handful. Each week the Wallyball Central Committee looks for the people who latch on to a team which should win, but has just enough uncertainty to scare away all but the boldest. Carter is one of those players more often than anyone else. Taking Baltimore in Week 1 was a bandwagon pick, but nobody will use that term on the Lions or Bears. 

So congrats, Carter for taking the road less traveled to get to 3-0, and for having more wins than the other two Browns combined.

Carter shares the honors this week because the Wallyball judges didn't know how to break the tie among some strong candidates. Actually the judges didn't feel like spending any time on it once Australian Rules Football came on TV, so congrats also go out to Tim. Not that picking the Vikings at home should be a BPOW, but considering how they and the Lions did in Week 2, everyone else stayed away.

Some go high, some go low

in Wallyball, where there are a few prizes open to those who have no chance at finishing on the podium. Maybe Wally was going low when he picked Atlanta to win in Seattle or maybe he had the Boldest Pick of the Year.  Whether intentional or not, he earned our third BPOW last week, and most importantly, he got...

Off the Schneid 

This term actually has nothing to do with sports. Nonethess, seven of us are still on it, including Dave E. Sorry your Wallyball welcome didn't turn out as well as Scott K's or Ryan's. Maybe this is also the week for both of the Daves, Paul, and Colin.

Best Pick of the Week

Gregory and Jose were not scared off by the dangers of a road conference game when they took Philadelphia over Washington. Or maybe they knew the Commanders are as awful on the field as their owner is off of it. Gregory, Greg, and Jay K are not far off the lead and are still undefeated on the season.

1-1-1 

Given the 18 week schedule, there's no way for Scot to finish exactly at 50% unless he manages to find another tie. But that's no reason he can't enjoy the most balanced of records after three weeks.

That’s it for this week.  Please add your comments below or on the Week 4 discussion thread which we'll open this weekend.

Good luck!