Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): This past weekend, or week #11 of this year's Bookie Challenge competition, two handicappers stepped up their respective handicapping games and became relevant in this year's competition, meaning both are now serious contenders to win their respective divisional crowns this season, with one being a Challenge veteran and the other a rookie participant. The veteran handicapper in question is TCU, who is an eight-year veteran of the Bookie Challenge and who is trying to resuscitate his handicapping career in the competition after he lost his way over the span of the last-two handicapping seasons (Challenge years' #12 and #13). The other handicapper who is now a relevant handicapper of the competition is Kr@tos after he christened his rookie season in the Challenge by knocking down 6-point parlay hits twice over the last three outings. Don't look now but Kr@tos arose from 4th place of the Red Zone division and ended his weekend in second place, just three points behind divisional leader TCU. Elsewhere throughout the league, Blitzkrieg maintained his 12-point lead over second-place Vikings17 in the Hail Mary divisional race, a stubborn Driveline regained his 6-point lead over the Biased Nihilist for the Corozal divisional lead, and lastly, rookie Jets69 finished his weekend barely clinging on to the Run-&-Shoot divisional lead by just one skimpy point over 7mick7. But through and through, this past weekend's marquee handicapping action took place in the Red Zone division, of which the fourth-seeded division is almost always a tight race for the entire duration of its divsional race. However, this past weekend, without a shadow of a doubt, the suspenseful handicapping in the league primarily took place in the Red Zone division, with TCU and Kr@tos unleashing the handicapping off-the-chart thrills.

In order to fully grasp TCU's handicapping frustrations over the past two seasons, one has to take into account his handicapping within his first five seasons he had handicapped before Challenge year #12 (TCU's 6th season overall). For one to truly understand TCU's handicapping track record in the Bookie Challenge competition, the story would start out as follows: Once upon a time, a die-hard Dallas Cowboy fan entered the Bookie Challenge competition, and right away a Bookie Challenge "star" was born. His rookie season was so good, that he easily won that season's Rookie of the Year award. What's more, early on in his rookie debut, he earned the endearing moniker of Too Tall Tommy. Over the span of those first-five season, TCU sandwiched a playoff qualification of a divisional titlist in between two different sets of divisional wild-card qualifications, and the divisional title he did win in only his third season in the Challenge was quite powerful, for he upended the Biased Nihilist in a fantastic upset that put some serious credence into Too Tall Tommy's handicapping career. He not only maintained a very solid best-bet record in his first-five seasons but he also averaged 2.4 parlay hits per competition during that same time frame. But then came Too Tall Tommy's 6th overall season, or Challenge year #12. That season felt as if he had headed into a handicapping purgatory, as if his handicapping game went there to die. In Challenge year #12, TCU produced the league's worst handicapping numbers, accruing a career-low of just 15 overall amount of points. Additionally, he didn't register a 6-point parlay hit that season for the first time in his career, and he also finished in dead-last place of a divisional race and qualified for the competition's playoffs as a lowly and embarrassingly "at-large-participant". And so it was that Too Tall Tommy entered last year's competition, Challenge year #13, with the hope that his 13th year would be a lucky number of sorts, but nope, no sucn change of handicapping luck took place--none, nada, zilch!

Now, that's not to say that Too Tall Tommy didn't make a little bit of noise in last year's competition. Quite the contrary, unlike his disastrous handicapping campaign in Challenge year #12, TCU's worst ever season, Too tall Tommy came out of the gates with "guns a blazing" after he landed a week #2 6-point parlay hit that turned out to be a 7-point outing for the beleaguered handicapper. But, it just wasn't meant to be, meaning that Too Tall Tommy was finally coming out of his handicapping drought. The parlay winner he scored early in Challenge year #13 turned out to be a heartbreaking false alarm, as the 6-point parlay winner would be his only one for that season (or last year). With the exception of his divisional counterparts in last year's Run-&-shoot divisional race--namely Vikings17, DawgPound, and moemonie--everybody else within the Challenge field seemed to want to see TCU regain his magical handicapping from years gone by. Instead, Too Tall Tommy had a concurrent season that saw him lay down next to dirt mounds, fatigued and tired, at a proverbial Cowboy dead zone called "Boot Hill". He once again, for a second consecutive season, finished in dead-last place of his division and qualified for the postseason with a back-to-back "at-large participant" status. Despite compiling a point total of 30 points for last year's regular season, of which the point total doubled the previous year's total of just 15 points, TCU once again had the worst handicapping numbers on the season. This season, however? Forget about it! After the first 11 weeks of this year's competition, Too Tall Tommy is almost assuredly working on his comeback handicapping season, and he's piling up points in the most uniquely odd way--with exact-score hits, as in bunches and bunches of them.

In the case of Kr@tos' quest to be honored with this season's Rookie-of-the-Year award, he's still not out of the woods just yet because rookie Jets69 is also having a good rookie season. In fact, please read in the below weekly review segment entitled "WEEKLY ODDS AND ENDS: THE HANDICAPPING HODGEPODGE" about the two rookies and their intense race to better succeed in this year's Bookie Challenge season and ultimately capture this season's Rookie of the Year award (Specifically read the article entitled "JETS69 VS KRT@TOS: WHO REALLY HAS A LEG UP FOR THIS YEAR'S ROOKIE OF THE YEAR HONOR?"). Additionally, also read more about Too Tall Tommy's rare point total in his bid to perhaps seize this year's Comeback Handicapper of the Year award in this week's WHO'S-HOT-HANDICAPPER segment of the weekly review.

• JETS69 VS KR@TOS: WHO REALLY HAS A LEG UP FOR THIS YEAR'S ROOKIE OF THE YEAR HONOR?: Hold the freaking presses, pray tell! I said HOLD THE FREAKING PRESSES! We have among us a mythological Greek God of War who hails by the frightening name of Kr@tos. If you see this comic-book hero turned Bookie Challenge hero, stay the fuck out of his way or else he'll come down from a hiding place and wreak havoc on your weak asses, the Nihilist notwithstanding because he has an LVAD pump connected to the left ventricle of his heart--and so he don't scare easy anymore, or at least not like a normal person would. If anybody hasn't noticed this yet, be aware that Vikings17's son, who goes by the username of Kr@tos in the Bookie Challenge competition, and whose his real name is James, seems to have turned a corner in his rookie season and is now challenging Jets69 for this year's Rookie of the Year award. The season started out all lovey-dovey for Jets69, oh so lovey-dovey after he hit two 6-point parlay combinations before any other of the four rookies who entered this year's competition hit parlay paydirt. Okay, that's not all true because when Jets69 hit his second parlay of his rookie season this year, it was back in week #9. Interestingly, it was the same weekend in which the comic-book Kr@tos hit his first 6-point parlay of the season. And while Kr@tos went on his handicapping warpath, hitting a second parlay winner last weekend, Jets69 was looking for a smooth landing, somewhere that was grassy, open-spaced, and level. But no, his handicapping game crashed and burned over the last two weeks, so much so, that his one-time lead over 7mick7 in the Run-&-Shoot division slid to just a one point lead over this year's defending Bookie Challenge championship. But that's enough about Jets69's slow and heartbreaking decline, besides, anybody who cares to learn more about it can just go read this week's segment entitled WHO'S-NOT-HOT-HANDICAPPER of the week. Simply put, Jets69 is old rookie news, but the present time is ripe for some up-to-date rookie news, of which only three of the five original rookies who entered the 14th annual competiton are still left in this year's handicapping campaign. They are Jets69, Kr@tos, and Realtalkrob.
  
  Of course, we have already wrote about how Jets69 is in dire straits for the time being, despite that he's still clinging on to a one-point divisional lead in the Run-&-Shoot division over 7mick7, and then there's Realtalkrob. One thing is for certain as it concern's Realtalkrob's rookie season is that he's too nondescript, and is hardly noticeable in the competition because of his ho-hum handicapping. Or to put in better words, he just seems to be going through the motions, as evident that he has the lowest point total in the league (9pts) and also has the lowest parlay wins within his combined parlay combinations on the season (just 11 parlay wins!). There's one thing about the Bookie Challenge weekly reviews, if you stink up the joint there's no place to hide, for eventually you'll be found out by the weekly review. Of course, the same is true if you have a great season, the weekly reviews will sing your praises, and quite naturally, its a good feeling to be singled out as one of the league's top handicappers of a competition that's inundated with handicapping shooting stars. A case can be made that Jets69 should still maintain an edge over Kr@tos to be presently coined as the front-runner for this year's Rookie of the Year award, especially when considering that Joe Willie still leads a division and that the mythological Greek God of War, or the comic-book hero turned recently into a Bookie Challenge hero, is three points behind a divisional lead. All in all, it's a tough call to make because both rookie handicappers have each hit a pair of 6-point parlay winners and have total points that mirror each other's total.
  
  But if push comes to shove the handicapper with the hot hand should be given top billing, and when seeing that Kr@tos has hit parlay winners two out of the the last three weekends, he probably deserves the nod. If anything, that James is a spitting image of the comic-book Kr@tos is...well...coooooooooooool. All that's left for Kr@tos to do now is for him to keep winning and topple a tough and resurgent handicapper in TCU, of whom when he's on top of his game...he's a dangerous handicapper too.


• WEEKLY TICKER .........................The second-longest tenured veteran handicapper in the Bookie Challenge competition is moemonie, who is actually tied with Driveline who also has registered 11 previous Challenge competitions. In moemonie's case, he entered this year's competition second on the all-time list for knocking down the most regular-season 6-point parlay hits and is also one of the two handicappers in the league with eight or more years handicapped in the competition who at least has recorded a 6-point parlay hit every previous season (11 yrs in all). The only other participant who can make that Bookie Challenge claim is the presently hot Blitzkrieg, who has not only connected on at least one 6-point parlay winner in all of his previous handicapping seasons but who also has connected on PERFECTA outings at least one time in all of his previous years. But herein lies the problem when comparing both of the big-time handicappers: So far this season, Blitzkrieg has kept alive his "at-least-one-6-point-parlay-hit-per-year" after already nailing down four parlay winners this season (note: the Snowman has yet to connect on a PERFECTA outing this season). But by all accounts, the Moola Hawker (aka moemonie) has yet to register a 6-point parlay hit this season, but it's not because of a lack for trying. For the record, moemonie has the most near-misses of 6-point parlay hits this season after the first 11 outings of this year's competition, of which he has won two of three parlay picks within eight overall parlay combinations. Just to show his handicappers pattern of near misses, the Moola Hawker took a "live" PERFECTA outing as he headed into this past weekend's Monday night game. He needed Dallas (+7) over Houston to collect his third parlay winner and hit a more glamorous PERFECTA outing. Unfortunately for moemonie, the Cowboys collectively got their asses kicked to the sad tune of 34-10--OUCH!......................Every season the Bookie Challenge competition has its fair share of veteran handicappers that seemingly lose their respective handicapping mojo, despite excelling in other areas of their respective handicapping game. For instance, jcvike28 just needs one parlay winner in a desparate way so he can genuinely become a sure-fire contender in this year's competition. Amazingly, however, jcvike (aka "El Duque") presently leads the league with most best-bet winners on the season, of which he has compiled a red-hot 16-6-0 best-bet record that factors out to an unreal .727 winning percentage. But without any 6-point parlay hits accrued this season to complement his fantastic best-bet tally, its going to be super tough to get his hands on one of the remaining Latinum jackpot prizes ($450 for winning the Bookie Challenge championship, $150 for being the runner-up to this year's overall champ, and $100 for winning this year's regular-season championship).