Even though I don’t have a job, I still love Fridays. I’m like one of Pavlov’s dogs, salivating at the sound of “TGIF.” And now look at me. All covered with slimy drool. Gross.
I woke up to the news that Novak Djokovic has been kicked out of Australia. I can’t pretend to be sad about that. Not only does it remove a major hurdle for Rafa to win his second Australian Open (although I still think that’s unlikely), but it clarifies the men’s draw for fantasy tennis!
Want to play? You have only a few more hours to pick your fantasy team, so put down your dust mop and get busy!
Go to FanSlam.us. After you log in, you’ll see a long list of contests, most of which are marked “private.” Scroll down past all that, and you’ll come to a second grid marked “Fanslam Calendar: Upcoming Tournaments.” The contests you want are the first two listed, marked “Enter Free.”
You can find the rules on the FanSlam site or in last year’s blog post, Fantasy Tennis Is Here.
In the past, I’ve tried to set up a contest within a contest, with limited (actually, zero) success. I’ll keep trying, though, because one of these days someone will surprise me. If you want to compete within the LittleYellowBall community, set up your fantasy team(s) on FanSlam. Then return here and post your team roster(s) in the comment section. (Yes, there is a comment section. Keep scrolling.)
It’s no use coming to me after the tournament ends, claiming you were player “FedererFan1” on FanSlam and, hey look at that, you just happened to finish in first place. If your picks aren’t posted on LittleYellowBall before the first serve is struck (tonight at 7, EST), you’re out of luck.
In the event of more than one person entering this contest with me (as if), the person with the best result wins. There will be only one winner for each draw.
Here are my picks for the men:
My picks for the men
Nadal
Auger-Aliassime
Bautista Agut
Taylor Fritz
Alcaraz Garcia
De Minaur
James Duckworth
Andy Murray (a bargain at $5,000!)
And for the women:
My picks for the women
Kontaveit
Badosa
Halep
Gauff
Anisimova
Cornet
Keys
Kvitova
Winner gets a can of tennis balls—which, of course, will be Triniti balls.
Yup, I know. It’s Sunday, not Friday. Not only that, but this Best-Dressed Man post should have run nine days ago, not two. What can I say? Disorganization is part of my overall charm.
Can I rant for a minute? (Of course I can. It’s my blog.) I have a bill due on the 22nd. That’s Tuesday. Today is Friday, so four days away.
If I send my payment through my bank’s bill pay service, it won’t arrive until Wednesday. Five days for something that’s fully automated. If I sent it via snail mail, the post office would deliver my original handwritten check to its destination on Monday, Tuesday at the latest. Human beings can carry my piece of paper from Massachusetts to Delaware–for a mere 49 cents–faster than computers can electronically move the money.
Unless, of course, I want to pay extra. Then my bank can just about manage to keep up with the post office.
Meanwhile, in completely unrelated news this week, Bank of America posted record earnings for 4Q 2018. It’s enough to make me very cranky.