What does it take to win?

For today's discussion, let's have a history lesson and take a quick trip down memory lane and the way-back machine and ask the question: what does it take to win the Wankdorf League? Can we glean anything from past results? Let's start with a look at the summary final standings for the last 4 years. Sadly, stats are unavailable from the 2002 season, aka, the only time that Chad & I both finished in the money. I'm sure Jake agrees with us that this is an atrocity.

2006

1.	Le Dupont Torkies						91.5
2.	Evil Empire						90
3.	Sack Flashers						88.5
4.	The Spam Avengers						82
5.	Mike						71
6.	Mr. Eko						62.5
7.	Gowanus Coxswains						60.5
8.	Vandelay Industries						57.5
9.	The Flapjacks						55.5
10.	rabid scientologists						52
11.	The Sex Offenders						46

12. Long-Term Disability 23


2005

1.	Discovery Channel	98.5
2.	The Duck Snorts	96.5
3.	Le Dupont Torkies	89
4.	The Spam Avengers	85
5.	King Hippo	72.5
6.	Winter of Discontent	72
7.	Jake in Progress	67.5
8.	i am esix snead	52
9.	Beach Bums	40.5
10.	The Burning	39
11.	Mike	37.5
12.	Evil Empire	30

2004

1.	Le Dupont Torkies	106
2.	The Spam Avengers	88.5
3.	Summer of Jake	88
4.	ghost of mark eaton	78
5.	Varitek is a pussy!	63.5
6.	Vandelay Industries	55.5
6.	Roses In May	55.5
8.	Kevin Brown's Hand	54.5
9.	Congenital Harpies	52
10.	Wu Tang Financial	49.5
11.	Evil Empire	47
12.	The Freedom Haters	42

2003

1.	The Spam Avengers	84
2.	Bad Andy	81.5
3.	Atoms For Peace	79.5
4.	Toilet Phace	79
5.	Wu Tang Financial	77
6.	Anabolic Surprise!	69.5
7.	The 73 Pintos	67.5
7.	Vandelay Industries	67.5
9.	dead midget storage	60.5
10.	Takeo	46.5
11.	Glee Club Studs	38.5
12.	Gibson Reincarnates	29

Where does this leave us, besides nostalgic? Well, let's take a few cursory observations from the summary statistics:

(1) The names may change, but the e.e. cummings style still remains the same. Seeing Ironhead's team names with some classic old ones (dead midget storage?) is just fantastmic all around. In fact, some of our owners, both active and retired, deserve rounds of applause for their well-done squad names, with personal faves being the Glee Club Studs, i am esix snead, and the always great Wu Tang Financial. It almost makes me want to ask Mike what the hell is wrong with him.

(2) Did Corey know what he was doing at any time in this league? Speaking of ghosts of owners, the WATN series will begin post-Memorial Day. If someone has found the dungeon in where Dave lies, you are my hero.

(3) 2003 appears to be the "fluke" season, in that Alex needed a mere 84 points to win, the fact that I actually finished in the money, and the difference between 3rd and 9th was under 20 points. (Hell, the difference between 3rd and 5th was under 3 points.) All the other years, including 2002, required a 90+ point effort to take the top spot.

(4) On that subject, let's note that the 3rd best finish was Teddy's runner-up showing in '05, where his squad just lost to newcomer Scot by about 0.05 ERA. Yowks.

(5) Similarly, it takes an 85+ point effort to hit the board, the fluky 2003 season aside. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like this was the case in '02 as well.)

Which season do we appear to be echoing in '07? Well, we have an uber-sucky team that happens to be mine, which we see every year but 2004 (where our beloved Commish's 42 took the cellar). While Tucker had a huge edge about 3 weeks ago, that's start to dissipate slightly, much like we've seen in prior years (in 2003, I had about 106 points on Memorial Day). And there appear to be 5 times in prime contention with no fewer than 5 other squads in position to make a belated run at it in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. So the best analog? Probably....last year.

Next post we'll go beyond the cursory review and see what a category-by-category breakdown shows us about the winners. I'd like to see I could use regression analysis, standard deviations, and ball bearings, but I'm a fricking litigator.