It is that time of the year, the time we all dread but will never admit. It is fantasy football time. Some of you absolutely love it and can’t get enough. That is why we have daily fantasy sites like Fan Duel and Draft Kings. ESPN even dedicates sections and sections of their website and air time on it. In reality, however, they do it for the rest of us who get sucked in. What does being a fantasy owner mean? First, it means doing research on a bunch of players so you don’t like silly at the draft. Second, attending a draft that takes at least four hours while having to do serious research on 5th string wide receivers that may never see the field. Third, updating a roster weekly and picking up players to try to compete with that one person that really cares of the 12 and does all that research. This ultimately brings me to the worst part of it – actually watching the games and caring about players on teams you hate (cough, cough Jets) to do well for your own fantasy team. At the end of the day, the luckiest people tend to win, so what is the point? That is why Janet in accounting somehow won the damn season last year leaving everyone shaking their head. My girlfriend Carolina asks me every year why do I do it? Well, because why not? Everyone does it so you have to as well…

We all have to do these things that we secretly hate but pretend to love. Thankfully kickball on Wednesday and Thursday nights are not one of those things. It is the reason we got into it. The distraction of spending one hour with new friends that may have never been made without KOALA Kickball. I used to secretly hate writing the Commissioners Poll. Pablo even says I tend to mail it in at times, but in reality I love it. No one will ever agree 100 percent with what I say and that is ok. If you have a different opinion and want us to know about it, email us at koalakickball@gmail.com. We love to hear your thoughts.

Now on to the poll you actually care about.

1. Life’s a Pitch (29 points; 2 first place votes): The vote at number one is no longer unanimous. One person did not vote Life’s a Pitch number one and that person was Lorenzo. I voted for The Night’s Watch as my number one. I personally feel from top to bottom that The Night’s Watch has a better team than Life’s a Pitch. The run differential is exactly the same except for the fact that Miami Lakes seems to be a tougher league than Tropical Park. I wish the two teams could play each other in the Interleague Championship but unfortunately they share players! This debate will continue at Sports Grill.
2. The Night’s Watch (28 points; 1 first place vote): Something happened at Miami Lakes last week. The Night’s Watch continued their offensive domination by scoring 23 runs in their two games and 58 runs over 4 games. That is no surprise; what was surprising was that their main competitors struggled against Grand Salami leading all commissioners to change their vote for the Night’s Watch. The tide may change next week but the debate for this spot will not end until the epic regular season matchup on September 7th.
3. PSN Slidaz (24 points): The PSN Slidaz were down 6-3 against Grand Salami in the 4th inning until they put an 8 spot in the bottom of the 4th inning to take the game 11-6. Part meltdown, part job well done. The comeback kept them in contention for the Commissioners’ Trophy even though their run differential has taken a hit. Once again, run differential really shouldn’t matter as the trophy shall be decided on the field on September 7th.
4. Big Black Kicks (20 points): They are excited. They are 4-1 and ready for their primetime matchup against Life’s a Pitch. Will they be the ones to finally dethrone the mighty power? Time will time but they have the pieces. With their veteran leadership and their ability to kick the ball really far, they are a three run home run waiting to happen. Let us see if they can pull out all the stops this upcoming Thursday. Definitely a game worth watching.
5. Leon’s Angels (19 points): This team is getting a lot of love since their runner-up finish in the prior season and not much has changed as they sit 4-1. After their tough opener against PSN Slidaz, they have taken care of business and are on a collision course with the Night’s Watch to end the season. They can conceivably finish 7-1 and take a share of the top seed for the playoffs. Let us see how the last three weeks pay off.
6. Free Balling (13 points): Fire Fire Fire is 5-0…. They are 5-0, but have only beaten the bottom five teams in the standings. If they are able to beat Our Kicks Don’t Lie, they will have beaten the bottom six teams in the standings. Seriously, weirdest schedule ever. Either way, they are still having fun in the process and defeated One Kick Wonders last Thursday under wet conditions. Will the fun continue? Water water water!!!
7. Goon Squad (13 points): The Goon Squad pulled off a squeaker against Ain’t That a Pitch with a 4-3 walk off victory as Jason single handedly scored 3 of those 4 runs. The previous week, Jason scored the only three runs in their victory against Our Kicks Don’t Lie. It is easy to see that Jason is the MVP of the team and possibly of Tropical Park but we do not vote for that… yet. Can he keep it and his team up?
8. Wolfpack (8 points): Big win over Bad Pitches on Wednesday as they dominated from start to finish 9-2. Akins and Anthony have helped lead the Wolfpack to a surprising 4-1 start and may have a say in the top of the standings this week when they play the Night’s Watch. If they can pull off the upset, they will slide up the standings and compete for the Commissioners’ Trophy. Next week is a big week to see how good the Wolfpack really are.
9. Ours Kicks Don’t Lie (7 points): Surprisingly sitting in the ninth spot on this poll, Our Kicks Don’t Lie have not played bad kickball. They simply have taken two bad losses against two good Tropical park squads. This week they defeated I’m Kick James, Pitch by a nice 7-0 margin. This week their tide can change and they can move up in the standings as they play the surprisingly undefeated Free Balling squad.
10. Bad Pitches (3 points): Tough day for Bad Pitches. First they got beat up by the Night’s Watch 12-5 and were promptly followed by a 9-2 drubbing to the Wolfpack. I witnessed both of those games and saw too many dropped balls and errors that were not happening earlier in the season. They still sport a record of 3-2 after that day and remain in contention for a great seed in the postseason. Here is hoping they can put the pieces back together.

Quick Reminder on How the Poll Works: Once both leagues have played at least 2 games each, the Commissioners each cast an anonymous ballot for the teams that they think are the top 10 in K.O.A.L.A. Kickball across our Miami Lakes and Tropical Park Leagues. The first ranked team in each ballot gets 10 points, the second ranked team in each ballot gets 9 points, and so forth all the way to the tenth ranked team in each ballot, which gets 1 point. The points that each team gets from each ballot are added up, and then the 10 teams with the highest total number of points are declared the Top 10 in the Commissioner’s Poll. Remember that this poll does not affect standings or playoff seeding in any way; it’s only for fun!