The New Diceboy?

Britney Spears ... she's the new Paris Hilton (after Paris Hilton was the new Britney Spears).
Small ... it's the new big.
The browser ... it's the new OS.
And now ......

Lennie ... he's the new Diceboy?

Wednesday - Tiltboy game. I had 4 or 5 showdowns with Dice for big pots ... and won them all. Including pulling a 2 outer on the river to take a huge pot. By the end of the evening, Diceboy looked stunned. I felt very strange, as if I had a smug look on my face.

Thursday - LOTW. In our weekly Lock Of The Week bets, I picked the Niners +10 against Seattle and Over 37.5 points in the same game. Entering the 4th quarter, Seattle led 7-3 in a rainstorm and the offenses showing about as much skill as Perry delivering a pickup line. Diceboy seemed to be back on track and freerolling ... the under seemed a given and only a garbage time TD by Seattle from a sweep.

I called to ask him how much he wanted to let me out for, and he declined to even make an offer.

The 49ers hadn't had a drive over 80 yards all season. Without belaboring the point, in the 4th quarter they went on a 90 yard TD drive, a 73 yard TD drive and an 86 yard TD drive. On the last drive, leading 17-7 with 1:42 to play and Seattle out of timeouts, the Niners faced 3rd and 8 on Seattle's 18 - everyone in the stadium knows it's gonna be a handoff to Frank Gore to run at least 45 seconds off the clock. Except it' s not. Instead, Alex Smith fakes the handoff and waltzes into the endzone on a naked bootleg with noone within 15 yards of him for an easy score. The right play would have been for him to fall down at the 5 and then just kneel 3 times for the victory, but there's nobody within 15 yards of him, and he wants the score. Now I've got an out for the over - a Seattle garbage time TD!

Seattle returns the kickoff to midfield, drives quickly downfield and now there's 18 seconds left ... if they complete one inbounds there won't be time to stop the clock. Hasselback floats up a wounded duck into the endzone, the ball is tipped by a Niner ... and Seattle's tight end grabs the touchdown catch - I win the over!

I went to look in the mirror, and I swear if I didn't know any better, I'd say the corners of my mouth were turning up ever so slightly into an undeniably cocky smirk.

Sunday - Fantasy Football playoffs. On Sunday, Dice and I face off in the Paper Gridiron League playoffs. Dice came over to watch the morning games on Sunday Ticket. Dice had the league's best record at 11-3 and he was on a 9 game winning streak. I was a mere 8-6 and had my starting QB (McNabb), a starting RB (Ronnie Brown) and two starting WRs (Darrell Jackson and Joe Horn) were out for the game with injuries. My team had a huge day, Dice's team stunk it up, and I crushed him by 53 points.

The key point was when Joey Galloway, after having done absolutely nothing all day, caught a 30 yard pass and then a 64 yard TD pass.

I squealed with delight as Galloway waltzed in to the end zone and then I performed a Diceboy clench .... and it felt very very natural and comfortable. Like I was born to clench.


So yes, I'm tempting the Sigma Gods by even asking the question, but it's time to ask: have I become the new Diceboy? Did I somehow steal Dice's mojo? Has the world spun on its axis and put me into the lucky side? Do I have 40 or so years of incredible luck to look forward to? Is there any reason to delay printing the inevitable Len Fuego Club Cards? Or is this merely some kind of anomaly, a Mystery Spot, a Mark Fydrich, an Afternoon Delight?