The man said “No, have a seat.” A few minutes later he asked the man if he knew whose seat this was and why they weren’t here at such an important event. The man said that for ten years it had been his wife’s seat but that she had passed away.

Feeling sorry for the nice man, the fan asked if he didn’t have a friend or family member that he could have offered the seat to instead of just leaving it vacant. The man said “No, they’re all at the funeral.”

Their entire adult lives, Tommy and Fred discussed baseball history in the winter, and they pored over every box score during the season.

They went to 60 games a year. They even agreed that whoever died first would try to come back and tell the other something they always wanted to know: Is there baseball in heaven?

One summer night, Tommy passed away in his sleep after watching the Yankee victory earlier in the evening. He died happy. A few nights later, his buddy Fred awoke to the sound of Tommy’s voice from Glory.

“Tommy! Tommy, is that you?” Fred asked.

“Of course it me,” Tommy replied.

“This is incredible!” Fred exclaimed. “OK. So I know why you’re here. Tell me, is there baseball in heaven?”

“Well I have some good news and some bad news for you. Which do you want to hear first?”

“Tell me the good news first.”

“Well, the good news is that yes there is baseball in heaven, Fred.”

“Oh, that is wonderful! So what could possibly be the bad news?”

“You’re pitching tomorrow night.”

I’ve set up a Fantasy Football league through NFL.com. It’s free to play and they do all the work for us. Just visit NFL Fantasy Football and sign up. Before you join the league, you’ll be presented with key information about the league, including the draft date, draft type (we’re doing a live draft), and current league members. You’ll be required to enter the following password before you can join the league:

League Password: coffee

Keep in mind that each NFL.com Fantasy Football league is limited to 12 members, so it’s possible the league could be full before you have a chance to join. If that happens, or if you’re interested in a different type of league than the one you’ve been invited to join, you can easily scan other open leagues or even create a new league yourself.

Most people in Indiana like to see the Patriots and Tom Brady lose, and also feel that, if it can’t be Peyton, it might as well be Eli Manning. Congrats to the NY Giants for their win and for taking out the Patriots!

In order to join the league, follow the link above or go to http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1, click the “Sign Up Now” or “Get Another Team” button and follow the links to “Join a Custom League”. When prompted, enter the League ID# and password below.

League ID#: 100703
Password: java

We’ve still got room for more people to join up. If you’re at least semi-interested in professional football, playing fantasy football can help keep you interested throughout the season. You don’t have to know much about specific players or anything; that kind of comes as you play. You’ll just pick players from your team each week and you get points based on how well they do (as individuals) in their games. Plus, it’s always fun to have a little healthy competition.

Sound like fun? Then click the link above and sign up. We’re having a “live draft” this Saturday at 9am. If you have questions or are new to this, ask away.

So anyway, in keeping with tradition, I’ve started a Fantasy Football league for this year. If you’d like to join, here’s the link.

In order to join the league, follow the link above or go to http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1, click the “Sign Up Now” or “Get Another Team” button and follow the links to “Join a Custom League”. When prompted, enter the League ID# and password below.

League ID#: 100703
Password: java

Why should you join my Fantasy Football league?

1. Because it’s fun!
2. Because it’s easy to sign up and to play.
3. Because you don’t have to know tons about football (but you’ll learn some if you play).
4. Because it’s FREE!
5. Because Yahoo! manages everything for you, so all you have to do is pick your players each week.
6. Because it’s a fun way to interact with some new people and have a little competition that only lasts a few months.
7. Because if you’re in one league already, it never hurts to have a backup in case you start losing.
8. Because it might get you more interested in the sport.
9. Because it will give you a chance to beat on me!
10. Oh, and did I say that it’s fun?

Current music: Deep Breakfast, by Ray Lynch

And at least I’ve still got some of my Bracket Picks in the Final Four. I ended up picking UCLA to take it, and they’re still in. We’ll see how that goes.

But mostly for me the interest level is because of the Brackets! You get a full layout of the 64 teams that made it to the playoffs and you pick who you think will win, all the way to the final game. Even if you don’t know that much about the teams, it’s fun to pick and compete with friends and coworkers. Or even to try to stump your local sports newscaster.

I’ve set up a Group in Yahoo for anyone who’d like to join me. I’ve got a few friends in, but the more people join, the more fun we have. It’s very easy to use and Yahoo even has a very user-friendly interface for doing your picks. Including an Info button for every matchup, so you can look at both teams’ stats and comments before making your picks. To be honest, I don’t know much about any of them, save the notoriety of some of the school names (Duke, Arkansas, North Carolina, Kansas, etc.). And from what I read, most of them are not nearly as “hot” as they’ve been in the past. Anything could happen!

If you’d like to join us for some March Madness fun, visit http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/men and click Join A Group. It’s a private group and you’ll need the following information:

• Group ID: 134525
• Password: spring

It’s a typical bracket scoring process, where you get more points for picking correctly farther ahead. You do all the picks at the beginning, and then you just watch things unfold. If you pick second round games correctly, you get 2 points; third round=4 points, then 9, 16, and 32 for the final game. So you can still win even if you miss a bunch early on.

Hurry and join us! The games start on Thursday March 15th, so you don’t have much time to delay. Get your picks in and then watch the fun for the next 11 days.