Scheduled Maintenance – 10/29 8:30pm Pacific Time

Hey everyone,

Our colo (the place where we keep our servers) is doing maintenance work tonight on their facility at 8:30p PT and will be shutting off power, most likely for about 2-3 hours.

This means all of our sites (Fantasy Football 2008, PROTRADE, Phillies Phanatics, Patriot Reign, Liverpool Kop…and hundreds more apps!) will be offline until they’re done.

We’re expecting to be back up around 11pm Pacific Time.

UPDATE: It’s looking more like 11:30pm Pacific (this is ultimately PG&E at work here, not us).

We’ll post additional updates if anything changes.  Sorry for the inconvenience!

- Citizen Sports

Hoisting Number 17…

I just finished watching the Celts hoist number 17 to the rafters (not in person unfortunately)… and decided to check in on Celtics Pride

Lots of cheers for the Celts to get number 18 this season.

A healthy 44,000 people are members of Celtics Pride – 28,000 more fans than any of our other hoops communities. Clearly this dominance has a lot to do with the Celts’ success last season but it also seems like there sure are a lot of Boston area fans on Facebook.

So I’m curious to see what happens this season. Will success breed larger communities in places like Portland and New Orleans?

Or ultimately does the size of our communities indicate nothing about the interest of fans overall… only one way to find out…

One Season Ends… One Season Begins…

Most of you who read this blog and aren’t Red Sox fans were probably happy to see the Red Sox exit stage left last night. A valiant comeback fell short and the Rays (who were definitely the better team) are on to play the Phillies.

Checking in on Red Sox Nation, I was suprised to see only positive Red Sox cheers. In fact it definitely gave me solace to see how many people (622,134 strong and growing) are in the exact same position as me.

So as one season ends, I’d have to believe that living in the Bay Area, one season is now beginning. ESPN is reporting that Mike Singletary will be replacing Mike Nolan as HC of the 49ers. Great move by the Niners and checking in on 49ers Faithful confirms that there are many fans who agree with me.

Ignoring any rumors and conjecture, the fact of the matter is that Nolan was 18-37 in his three plus years with the Niners, he had lost the team and a change was very much needed.

Waking up Red Sox Nation…

The day PROTRADE and now Citizen Sports was born was in early December of 2003 in the offices of Mr. Jeff Moorad and Mr. Michael Kerns in Newport Beach, CA. I flew there with a business partner pitching an idea that we had for a sports consulting business.

Their agenda was different. They were trying to convince us to work with them on a new concept of a sports media business built around a sports stock market. Unbeknowst to me they had convinced Billy Beane to fly down and help recruit me to join their effort.

A lot changed for me personally and professionally that day but the one thing I will always remember was a prophetic statement that Beane made. He said, “Mark my words, the Red Sox will win three world championships in the next five years.”

I remember those words so vividly because we were fresh off the Grady/Pedro meltdown against the Yankees and the Aaron bleeping Boone home run. It just seemed absurd that Beane was predicting that a team that hadn’t won a World Series since 1918 was going to win three in the next five years.

Anyways, fast forward four and half years and two world championships and the Red Sox in position to potentially prove Beane equal to Nostradamus.

Of course after a host of blown opportunities on Saturday and a 9-1 massacre yesterday the Red Sox face a bit of adversity. But really this is how we like it. Remember we were down 3-0 to the Yanks in 2004 and 3-1 to the Indians in 2007. A 2-1 deficit to TB will only serve to wake up Red Sox Nation.

Kyle Orton to the Rescue

Really?

That’s what it’s come to… Two things happened to me when I was drafting my team in the Celebrity League. Billy Beane took Jay Cutler out from under me forcing me to go in another direction at QB. And Phil Gordon challenged me to a $1000 bet, on my team versus his team (best record and he wins if we tie)

A third of the way into the season I sit at 3-2 and Gordon is 1-4, but my team is really hanging on by a thread. In fact this week with injuries to Kitna, Griese and Hasselbeck, I’m pinning my hopes on Kyle Orton at QB.

It’s a sad place to be but at least I’m not 1-4.

Checking in on Red Sox Nation

After a long agonizing night of missed opportunities (at home watching the Red Sox NOT at a bar), I decided to check in on the largest Red Sox community on the web.

Looking over fan wire on Red Sox Nation, I found an interesting post. Posted by Red Sox Nation member Matt Savoie was an blog entry from boston.com.

If you’re looking for one more example that everything about the Boston Red Sox has changed since 2004, there’s this: The Red Sox, gaggers for decades, have become cold-blooded postseason finishers. They have played six games in which a victory would give them a playoff series win since 2004. They have won them all.

Of course they did not extend that streak to seven, losing to the Angels last night and now play in a nearly must win game 4. Not sure if I want to go back to Anaheim (which is nowhere near LA) for a game 5 with Dice BB on the mound.

Anyways, the more interesting thing to note is the calm that Red Sox fans exhibited in the comments on that post.

Let’s see if there is a similar calm if the Sox don’t get the job done tonight.

I am Marshall…

Scouring the Saturday games to find a game to continue my torrid (well at least tepid) two game streak calling football games for you all.

I looked at a few interesting home dogs again with Vandy +4 against Auburn, Colorado +13 against Texas and Wisconsin +1.5 against Ohio St. Only one of them fit the criteria as 73% of the people on our Head to Head NCAA Football app picked the Buckeyes over the Badgers.

The line really isn’t big enough to make that my 1 Million Star lock of the week so instead I’m going to a nationally televised Friday game and if you want to pick it you gotta be quick.

(start yelling)

MY 1 MILLION STAR LOCK OF THE WEEK IS THE MARHALL THUNDERING HERD PLUS THE THREE OVER THE BEARCATS OF CINCINNATI. THE BEARCATS WILL BE STARTING A FRESHMAN QB AND WILL PLAY A MARSHALL TEAM THAT HAS BEEN GREAT AT HOME.

TAKE THE THREE AND RUN TO THE BANK.

(stop yelling)

Also, 58% of the people on our app our picking the Bearcats, so it fits the criteria.

Scouring the Waiver Wire

So last week, I reported in who the most added players were on Fantasy Football 2008 and as you remember I said it would be interesting to see which of theses guys would be on the most dropped list this week. Well the answer is…

Chansi Stuckey

Actually to me this is interesting and fun because Chansi is emblematic of the whimsical nature of fantasy football. Last week’s darling, Chansi’s team now has a buy and he is being cast aside by many teams needing someone else to fill a bye week void.

So here’s our most added list this week:

1) Muhammad, M.
2) Fasano, A.
3) Moore, L.
4) Prater, M.
5) McClain, L.

Who’s your pick to win the Chansi Stuckey award for next week?

South Siders Unite…

So there’s still a chance for a Windy City World Series. I’d consider it a slim chance at best but as long as the White Sox and Cubs are still breathing there is a chance.

With today’s White Sox/Tigers psudeo-playoff game (well the Tigers aren’t going anywhere if the win this game except home), I thought it would be appropriate to check in on The South Siders. The South Siders are actually our tenth largest community with a little over 11,500 members. A bit lower than I would have guessed, considering there are nearly five times that in our Wrigleyville community.

So maybe you South Siders don’t deserve to make the playoffs. Although if the hapless Tigers lineup has anything to say about it you will.

Going Back to the Well…

(Read this in a very loud voice)

SO LAST NIGHT I GAVE YOU MY 1 MILLION STAR LOCK OF THE WEEK OREGON STATE PLUS THE 25 OVER USC. THIS ONE WAS NEVER IN DOUBT AS THE BEAVERS RAN ON THE TROJANS DEFENSE LIKE THE WERE THE ONES GIVING 25. NOW TONIGHT I HAVE A LIMITED RELEASE 1 TRILLION STAR LOCK FOR SATURDAY’S COLLEGE GAMES.

(You can stop yelling now)

So my very complicated handicapping came last night by looking at the spread on a marquee game and then checking our Head to Head College Football App to see who the majority was on, then going the other way. 76% of the people were picking USC yesterday, leading to my recommendation of Oregon State and all of you guys owning all your Trojan friends. Simple enough, right?

So let’s replicate that strategy today. Let’s pick an obvious road favorite. Wisconsin -6 at Michigan. Let’s check that game page on our app. 61% of the people are picking Wisconsin. Perfect. Now let’s do some additonal handicapping like we did last night.

After further review it’s clear that Michigan is probably not as bad as they looked in losing to Notre Dame. They turned the ball over six times and that spelled their doom. They have actually been reasonable on defense, allowing only 280 yards but the turnovers have killed them. On the flipside much of Wisconsin’s success in their marquee win against Fresno State was due to turnovers.

One team underrated because of their propensity to turn the ball over and one team potentially overrated? I’ll bite.

(loud voice again)

TAKE THE WOLVERINES AT HOME PLUS THE SIX AND OWN A BADGER FAN TODAY