My "nerdy" hobby...

[wdm1219inpenna]

Since the NFL is only once a week, and we're into the last month of the regular season, and since there are no good college football games on, and college hoops is irrelevant, especially to me, I'm doing something that's even MORE irrelevant, but I figured I'd share on here, mainly out of curiosity to see if anybody else engages in this...

I'm "old" by many folks standards on here. I have a Nintento GameCube, with Madden 08. I just completed the 2012 regular season and playoffs, and just have the Super Bowl XLVII to be played. The San Diego Chargers at 14-4 (12-4 + 2 playoff wins) are representing the AFC. From the NFC, it's the New Orleans Saints who are 18-0, having repeated the New England Patriots' feat from 5 seasons ago.

I do "speed seasons" during the regular season, then I "watch" the post-season games, having the computer simulate the game, but able to watch the game being played by the computer teams. I watched the NFC Championship where the Saints won 30-10 over the Green Bay Packers. I will do the Super Bowl either tonight or tomorrow.

Another "hobby" I do is dice baseball. I print out scoresheets from Excel and use my handheld electronic Yahtzee game. I tweaked a bit the codes that were used from the 1991 Jose Canseco's perfect dice baseball game. For the regular season, I take into account the teams, their payrolls, etc. and I use the Yahtzee game to determine who wins the division, and who gets in as the Wild Card entries. For the AL East for example, I will allow the Yankees and Red Sox and Rays 3 rolls, with the highest roll being taken. For the Blue Jays they get the 2nd highest of their 3 roll results, and the Orioles get the lowest.

I "did" the 2013 season with 2 changes. I put the Colorado Rockies in the A.L. West, and I moved the Houston Astros to the N.L. West. I utilized the 2 wildcards per league scenario, with the 5 seed playing a 1 game playoff play-in game at the 4 seed.

The 2013 regular season results:

A.L. East

Y - Yankees - 64656 (with the 5 dice, that would read 64,656)

X - Red Sox - 61622

Blue Jays - 52362 (a somewhat surprising 3rd place finish, which will be taken into account when and if I do a 2014 "season")

Rays - 35664

Orioles - 16516

A.L. Central

Y - Twins - 61356

X - Tigers - 56466

White Sox - 33566

Indians - 21451

Royals - 14356

A.L. West

Y - Angels - 56221

Rangers - 53514

Athletics - 36551

Mariners - 33345

Rockies - 21236

The Detroit Tigers played at the Boston Red Sox for a 1 game playoff "play in" game. The winner of that game would take on the #1 seeded Yankees in the A.L.D.S.

Here was the result of that game:

Monday, September 30, 2013

Detroit Tigers 000 100 010 2 8 1

Boston Red Sox 200 000 410 7 12 1

So the Red Sox will take on the Yankees in the A.L.D.S. and the Twins & Angels will play in the other A.L.D.S.

Another change I have done is I've made the L.D.S. round a 7 game series. The Twins & Angels will play the best 4 out of 7, with the Twins hosting games 1, 2, 6 & 7 due to being the #2 seed. For the other series, and to make the wildcard teams really earn it, since there seems to have been a disproportionate number of wildcard teams to make it to the World Series & win it over the past 17 seasons, the #4 seed (Red Sox in this case), must win 5 games to advance to the A.L.C.S. while the Yankees must win only 3 games to advance (another advantage of getting the top seed). Furthermore, the Red Sox will only host 2 games at most, games #3 and #4, with the Yankees hosting games 1, 2 and if needed, 5, 6 and 7.

For the National League the Braves were the top seed. The St. Louis Cardinals were #2 (this was prior to Pujols leaving them), the Diamondbacks were the #3 seed, the Brewers were the #4 seed and the Giants the #5 seed. The Giants played at the Brewers in the National League Wild Card game, and Milwaukee won 4-1. So in the N.L.D.S. the Brewers take on the Braves while the Diamondbacks take on the Cardinals.

Game #1 NLDS Cardinals 2, Diamondbacks 1

Game #1 ALDS Angels 5, Twins 0

Game #1 ALDS Yankees 2, Red Sox 0

Game #1 NLDS Braves 6, Brewers 2

Game #2 ALDS Twins 5, Angels 1

Reasonable and realistic baseball scores seem to always work out quite nicely. It's something I'll do during NFL commercials breaks, or when I'm sitting in my car in the school parking lot while I wait to pick up my son. Just a couple of "nerdy" things I do sportswise to pass the time and to help me to miss the real deal somewhat less.

My apologies if I placed this post in the wrong section.

Happy Holidays & Seasons Greetings