Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): It's unknown at this present time of this year's competition if this season's five overall rookies have yet caught the "fever", meaning they're all trying to get their minds around the inner machinations of the Bookie Challenge competition so each can circumvent the recurring pitfalls of the most unique handicapping competition on the face of the planet to do nearly the impossible--for one of the greenhorns to somehow and someway show up the league's veteran handicappers and for one of them to possibly become the first rookie in the history of the Bookie Challenge to win an overall Bookie Challenge championship. But it's first things first when it comes to succeeding in the Bookie Challenge competition, and that first thing is to catch that "fever". The thing is, unless a rookie makes it through his rookie season and learns the ups and downs of an entire competition. meaning the newcomer goes through the eight-week rat race that leads to the divisional seeding, then goes through the 10 outings of an intense divisional race, of which includes a double-outing over the Thanksgiving holiday called the "Turkey Shoot", and lastly, the rookie has to have a good playoff qualification at the end of the regular season, which is called "Doomsday Sunday", so he can handicap four grueling playoff rounds of a Bookie Challenge postseason, of which those four rounds will take some masterful handicapping to win an overall Bookie Challenge championship. It may sound easier said then done, but for a handicapper who has never experienced a full Bookie Challenge season has to overcome a big-ass obstacle(s), because winning an overall Bookie Challenge championship is fucking hard to do, and trying to win one can be explained easily by the start of a Lynyrd Skynyrd song entitled That Smell: "Whiskey bottles, and brand new cars...Oak tree you're in my way..." And when it comes to the Bookie Challenge competition, that "Oak tree" is best defined as one of the league's top handicappers, a battle-tested handicapper, a tough son-of-bitch to crack handicapper. So, yeah, it takes that special "fever" if you want to take down a Bookie Challenge championship, to handicap better than the league's best handicappers if just for one season.

One Bookie Challenge handicapper that has been handicapping the competition since Challenge year #7 and is presently prognosticating his ninth season is Blitzkrieg, aka the Snowman and his Falcon. Oh, and he's had the "fever" ever since he almost won a Bookie Challenge championship in his rookie season of Challenge year #9. Blitzkrieg is one of those handicappers who has yet to win an overall Bookie Challenge championship, but who's come close a couple of times, who has won divisional championships, even won a regular-season championship. Oh, and after this past weekend's divisional seeding took place, Blitzkrieg won his first-ever number-one top seed, and by extension, he also won the first prize ever doled out at a divisional seeding for seizing the overall top seed, of which is $50. But the Snowman wants more, as in he wants to finally win an overall Bookie Challenge title, and without it, he knows he'll never reach that plateau of the Bookie Challenge competition that is reserved for only the Bookie Challenge champions, the likes of the Biased Nihilist, Driveline, jcvike28, 7mick7, and dbucc. But this season has been a special one for Blitzkrieg, for as a number-one overall seed from a divisional seeding, he starts the Hail Mary divisional race with the largest lead (10 pts) any divisional leader will have to begin this year's divisional races. His only competition will probably be Vikings17, who trails the snowman by 10 pts (25pts vs 15pts). Also in Blitzkrieg's division but having larger deficits than Vikings17 is third-place moemonie (9pts won--trails Blitzkrieg by 16 pts) and rookie Nelbarada (5pts won--trails Blitzkrieg by 20 big-time pts). In last year's competition, Blitzkrieg blew a shot to overcome Theopholis for the Corozal divisional title, which was eventually won by the Biased Nihilist in dramatic fashion. At the end, Blitzkrieg had finished in 3rd place and qualified for the ensuing playoffs with the worst playoff qualification, that of an "at-large participant", of which in seven previous previous seasons before last season he only qualified as a lowly "at-large participant" only one other time (Challenge yr #8). But so far this season, the Snowman is riding a handicapping avalanche and has the best numbers in the league, his best-bet record notwithstanding.

With Blitzkrieg on top of the number-one seeded division out of this year's divisional seeding (the Hail Mary division), it is Driveline who will start his divisional race at the helm of the overall second-seeded division, or the Corozal division. Whereas Bltizkrieg is projected to win the Hail Mary division over second-place Vikings17, Driveline's divisional title hopes won't be coming easy, as the Corozal division is synonymous for always having the Biased Nihilist in its division. The word "Corozal" is the name of the city in Puerto Rico where the Biased Nihilist was born, and why he is referred to as the "Corozal Kid" moniker. Unlike the Hail Mary division, the winner of the Corozal division is going to be tougher to call, especially when the veteran dbucc will also be involved in the Corozal divisional race. Rounding out the division is rookie CAP_ATTACK, who is serious trouble for being seeded with the league's only repetitive Bookie Challenge Champions (Driveline has won two overall titles while the Nihilist has won three overall titles). And if having to face the league's best handicappers in Driveline and the Biased Nihilist. things are sure to get worst for CAP_ATTACK because dbucc is also a former Bookie Challenge champion (Challenge yr #11). So to put it bluntly to CAP_ATTACK, he is in the only division in this year's divisional races that is sporting three former Bookie Challenge champions, of whom Driveline owns the all-time record for the most points ever scored in a single Bookie Challenge competition (100 pts/Challenge yr#9), and the Biased Nihilist of whom is the all-time leader of the most 6-point parlay winners in both the regulars and postseasons, and lastly, dbucc (aka The joker), who entered this competition with the top all-time best-bet record and winning percentage of best bets. So, all things considered, this year's Corozal divisional race will probably come down to a handicapping battle of attrition between Driveline and the Nihilist nd with dbucc finishing in third place over last-place CAP_ATTACK. This is not to demoralize C_ATTACK any further, but in last year's start of the divisional races both the Nihilist and Driveline started out in last place of their respective divisions, with the Nihilist having the league's top deficit at the start of last year's divisional races and Driveline having the second-worst divisional deficit, but both handicappers made scintillating comebacks within their respective divisions and won their respective divisional championships. This year's highly anticipated divisional race might turn out to be the best of the four divisional races, and presently the point standings of the Corozal division are as follows: Driveline (21 pts), the Biased Nihilist (15 pts), dbucc (9 pts) and CAP ATTACK (5 pts).

The overall third-seeded division is the Run-&-Shoot division, of which will be spearheaded by this year's defending champion 7mick7. He'll begin this year's Run-&-Shoot divisional lead with 18 total points of which afford him a two-point lead over upstart rookie Jets69 (16 pts), a five-point lead over veteran jcvike28 (13 pts), and a substantial 11-point lead over rookie Realtalkrob (7 pts). This divisional race, like the Corozal divisional race, is going to be fun to watch mainly because 7mick7 and jcvike28 have a history of shared divisional races. To begin with, both handicappers are former Bookie Challenge champions, with 7mick7 winning his championship in thrilling fashion over the Biased Nihilist in last season's playoffs. Last year's overall championship came down to last year's final Super Bowl round and was among 7mick7, Driveline, the Biased Nihilist and jcvike28. Buoyed by having predicted last year's Super Bowl winner (10 bonus pts if correct) in the preseason of last year's competition, 7mick7 suspensefully beat the Biased Nihilist to win last year's overall title after the Chiefs scored the winning touchdown of last year's Super bowl with just three seconds left on the game clock. But last year's stunning championship run by 7mick7 will also be remembered by its personal battle between the Mick and jcvike, mainly because the Irish Hustler was able to get some payback over jcvike after jcvike won the overall Bookie Challenge championship back in Challenge year #7 over the Irish Hustler. Interestingly. and very sadly, 7mick7's father passed away during the week before that year's Super Bowl game, and if one can believe it, 7mick7 entered his Super Bowl picks within a minute past that Super Bowl's posting deadline. Incredibly, the selections that 7mick7 barely missed posting them before the expiration of the posting deadline turned out to be good enough to win that year's overall championship over jcvike. But as it turned out, that particular Sunday was just one of Mick's toughest days, as he had to attend a memorial service for his father before having to post his selections for that year's Super Bowl later that day. All in all, look for the rubber match between 7mick7 and jcvike28 to be a nail-biter in this year's Run-&-Shoot divisional race. Let's just hope if their battle does go down to this year's final Super Bowl round, that they both submit their respective Super Bowl selections in time. Strangely, In Challenge year #7, jcvike28 won the overall Bookie Challenge championship and 7mick7 missed posting his selection, then in Challenge year #13, it was 7mick7 who won the overall championship and it was jcvike who missed posting his Super Bowl Selections.

The last-seeded divisional race, or the fourth-seeded divisional race, is the Red Zone divisional race, of which the race will be headed by DawgPound (17pts), followed by second-place Hall-of-Fame City Kid (16pts), of whom ironically is DawgPound's step-brother. The last-seeded division in any Bookie Challenge season is always the divisional race that starts out its divisional battle with the most tightly-knit point totals. This year's fourth-seeded division is no different as veteran TCU will start in third place in the division with a season total of 15 points, which is just two points behind divisional leader DawgPound and only one point behind second-place HOF City Kid . Rounding out this division is Vikings17's son Kr@tos, who like most of this year's rookies--with the exception of Jets69--will be starting out their respective greenhorn seasons in dead-last place within their respective divisions. This particular divisional race is going to be a virtual toss up among DawgPound, HOF City Kid, and TCU. As to Kr@tos, he's starting to finally show some life after starting his rookie season as the regular cellar-dweller during the singular point standings throughout the first-eight weeks of this year's competition. Although this division promises to have a tight race for its divisional championship, keep in mind that this is the only division that doesn't have a former Bookie Challenge champion within its ranks.

• THE BIG WINNERS AND LOSERS IN THIS YEAR'S DIVISIONAL SEEDING: Every divisional seeding weekend is always rife with handicappers either scoring difference-making points to get a better seeding at the divisional seeding or not coming through with a good weekend and making their final seeding worse. This year there mainly one loser and two lucky-ass winners. let's get the loser out of the way first. Vikings17 entered the divisional seeding round with a chance to at least score two more best-bet winners than the Biased Nihilist so he could get the better seeding than the Nihilist. As bad luck would have it, Vikings17 used up both of his best bets on the Thursday night opener between the Vikings (his favorite team) and the Rams (the Nihilist's favorite team). Last year's Rookie of the Year split both of his Thursday Night best bets and only gained one point over the weekend on the Nihilist after the Corozal Kid laid a goose egg. The two ended tied in total points for the 7th seed in the singular point standing, so it came to a tiebreaker to see who would get the better seeding and the Nihilist prevailed by having more parlay wins within his combined parlay combinations on the season (Nihilist 15 parlay wins vs Vikings17's 10 wins). As a result of the Nihilist winning the tiebreaker, Vikings17 got seeded in the number-one seeded division, the Hail Mary division, and got seeded in second place in the division behind divisional leader Blitzkrieg, whose 25 points dwarfed the Purple People Eater's 15 points by a substantial 10 points. Now for the winners of this year's divisional seedings.

  To a lesser extent, rookie Jets69 was one of the winners at this year's divisional seeding round but he wasn't the "big" winner. Regardless, "Broadway Al" won both of his best bets and because he gained two critical points he was able to jump over both Vikings17 and the Biased Nihilist in the singular point standings before everybody got seeded into four divisions. If Jets69 didn't score those two best-bet winners, he could have easily ended up being seeded in the Hail Mary division and would have faced a deficit to Blitzkrieg of nine total points. Instead, after producing those best-bet winners, Jets69 got seeded in the Run-&-Shoot division. To be more precise, with 16 points on the season, Joe Willie got seeded in second place within the division and only TWO points behind divisional leader 7mick7, who has tallied 18 points on the season. But the real Winner of this year's divisional seeding was no other than TCU, or the Dallas fan better known by his Challenge moniker as Too Tall Tommy.

  Some Bookie Challenge handicappers join the Bookie Challenge competition and it takes them years and years before they finally get the hang of the competition, but in more cases than not, those unlucky handicappers finally work out the kinks of their handicapping games then go on to have special years of success in the Bookie Challenge competitions. Two of the best examples of those types of handicappers are the early Bookie Challenge seasons of both Driveline and dbucc, of whom were two handicappers who had horrible starts to their respective Bookie Challenge careers but turned around their respective handicapping careers and have become top handicappers in the league. By contrast, there were some handicappers who started off their respective Bookie Challenge careers like gang busters, winning best bets and hitting 6-point parlays as if they were picking low-hanging crabapples from a crab apple tree. But then, through unlucky happenstances, those handicappers all of the sudden turned from being superstar handicappers into has-been handicappers. Right now, that's what is going on in Too Tall Tommy's recent years in the Bookie Challenge, He went from nailing down best-bet winners as if he were dbucc and also hit parlays as if he were Blitzkrieg, even though producing PERFECTA outings wasn't REALLY part of his handicapping game. No matter, though, as It was thought early on in his Challenge career that it was just a matter of time before Too Tall Tommy broke through and corralled a Bookie Challenge championship. But two seasons ago, in Challenge year #12, TCU went belly up and had his worst season ever, qualifying for the postseason as an "at-large participant" after having scored just 15 points in that year's regular season and not landing a single 6-point parlay winner. He then rebounded at the start of last year's competition, Challenge year #13, and he seemed to be back to normal after hitting an early 6-point parlay combination and started to also win his early best bet attempts, but then for reasons unknown, TCU lost his handicapping mojo again and recorded his second-worst handicapping season of his Bookie Challenge career.

  This past weekend, Too Tall Tommy roped in his first 6-point parlay winner and did so just in the nick of time. Granted, he lost both of his best bets this past weekend, but he chalked up a dramatic 6-point parlay combination and added a one-point exact-score winner to end his week with a 7-point outing, which was good enough to get credited with a "week-won". More importantly, the scoring outburst extremely improved his overall seeding. He was able to avoid being seeded with Blitzkrieg in this year's number-one seeded division, the Hail Mary division, and he luckily got seeded in the fourth-seeded division, the Red Zone division. After this year's divisional seeding took place, Too Tall Tommy got seeded in third place of the Red Zone division after he accrued 15 points on the season. He now only trails the divisional leader DawgPound by two points and second-place Hall-of-Fame City Kid by one point. Rounding out the division in last place is Kr@tos who has only seven points on the season and trails third-place TCU by eight points. All things considered, this year's Red Zone divisional race is being considered as a toss up, and even Kr@tos can't be ruled out from winning the Red Zone divisional title.



• WEEKLY TICKER .................jcvike28 knocked down both of his best bets this past weekend and regained the league's top best-bet numbers of 12-4-0 (.750 win%). In the process, he took back the lead to possibly capture his first-ever Swami award (doled out to participant with top best-bet record for the regular season and playoffs combined)................7mick7 has never recorded more than one golden goose egg in the nine previous seasons he has handicapped the competition. To his credit, he had two separate campaigns in which he didn't register not one golden goose egg (Challenge yrs' #3 and #11). This season, however, "Mick Balls" has already set a personal high for laying the most golden goose eggs in a single season. This past weekend, the Mick lost both of his best bets and every parlay pick within his parlay combination to record his 2nd golden goose egg this season (he laid his 1st GGE in week #2 of this season). Also unfortunate for 7mick7, his two golden goose eggs lead the league so far for the most golden goose eggs registered this season.....................Starting out this year's divisional races, there are only three handicappers who have yet to have scoreless outings this season (no goose eggs and no golden goose eggs) The three handicappers are jcvike28, dbucc, and Hall-of-Fame city Kid. With that being pointed out, all three were spared scoreless outings because of some exact-score points. In week#2, dbucc was spared a goose-egg outing after he gained one exact-score point. In week #7, both jcvike28 and HOF City Kid caught huge breaks to avoid respective scoreless outings. Jcvike dodged a goose-egg weekend after he matched a one-point exact-score on that Monday night finale, while HOF City Kid sidestepped his goose egg on that Sunday after he had missed one of his best bets but connected on a 6-point parlay winner..................