Pollack is 2009 Mr. Fantasy Baseball

Kenosha, Wis., November 18, 2009 - The 2009 Baseball Season has come to a close and that means that we have a new winner of the much coveted title of Mr. Fantasy Baseball. The 2009 version of Mr. Fantasy Baseball is a father and son team out of Charlotte, NC who made their initial trip to Las Vegas last year for the 2008 finals. Jon and James Pollack are long-time Buffsters, with Jon originally starting his long relationship with Sports Buff through the Charlotte Observer from back in the day of newspaper-based fantasy sports contests. Now their first trip to Vegas on JT’s dime resulted in a third place draft position and a fourth place finish. Well James Pollack was in Vegas again this year and sat in the familiar No. 3 draft position again…but the results would be much different this time around.

The Final Four in Sports Buff Fantasy Baseball were flown to Vegas and put up at The Flamingo. The participants were former champion Billy Tew (billygoats) holding down the No. 1 seed, with three-time finalist and former winner Chad Balz (wardogs) in the No. 2 position, the Pollack’s (club47) were in the No. 3 slot and rounding out the field was 2008 football finalist Rick Adelstein (toothdoc) in the No. 4 hole. The draft took place in a quaint cabana located just off the pool at The Flamingo, and somehow our honored guests were able to remain focused on baseball enough to complete the draft.

Billy Tew was all over the Yankee hitters and Chad Balz opted for the Yankee pitchers which left the door open for James Pollack to draft Chase Utley with the third pick of the first round and help secure his place in Sports Buff history as a $15,000 Grand Prize Winner who rode the coattails of the Phillies to the pot of gold at the end of the Vegas Strip. Last year’s winner, Steve Krenek (Off Sunday) was also Phillie-heavy in his quest to become Mr. Fantasy Baseball 2008. Rick Adelstein went with a few Yankees to start off his picks so James Pollack simply needed the Phillies to make it to the World Series and his team had the inside track on the $15,000….and the Phillies did not disappoint.

Amidst the beer and the bikinis, a draft was completed and the only thing left to do was wait for the games to begin….and party in the meantime, of course. The entire entourage was treated to an excellent lunch and more drinks while semi-wasting away in Margaritaville. Optimism was high, the food was excellent and the conversation was wall-to-wall Sports Buff Fantasy Baseball. The excellent thing about having a group of veteran Sports Buffsters was not only the stimulating conversation and the quality of the personalities involved, but also the amazingly high level of fantasy sports intelligence that was sitting at that table, tossing around ideas and stories and enjoying the benefits of a hard summer’s work.

As it played out, the Pollack’s and “club47” had made the right call and rode Chase Utley and Cliff Lee to the $15,000 Grand Prize. Our congratulations go out to Jon and James Pollack for their fabulous season and for their dedicated longevity to Sports Buff. Our thanks and congratulations also go out to Billy, Chad and Rick…the four of you made this a very memorable Final Four trip to Vegas. We also would like to thank everyone that has made Sports Buff the premier Salary Cap style fantasy baseball game in the country. Your loyalty to our games will never go unnoticed and we expect to bring you a quality game for years to come.