Sunshine Superman

There's no denying it, the best score he had ever gotten at trivia. He had finished first before, but not by that margin. Still, there had been greater scores. How things had changed. In younger days a victory would have meant cause for ice cream and dreams of greater glory, now it was merely a time to reflect on the circumstances of a particular time. "Oh well, no time to waste. Matches are up, let's see who is playing this week". His fingers deftly typed the letters and pressed return. As the page opened his mind had wondered, to the different fortunes and how to portray them. "Ah, here we are" he mused as the page appeared. Yes, things had changed a lot. A slight dismay whisped by him as he read the names "Queens and Carolina". One team had higher aspirations and the other was coming off unexpected success, now they were both playing out the season. The difference was that the Cobras still played a little beyond themselves. Queens by a length, it will be an upset. Another team that gives it a lot of effort is Chicago, this week they face Dallas. "The abyss" he thought, "Dallas is on the lip of elimination. Will they panic? Will they through some kind of changeup?" Checking the lineups he noticed that Dallas had an A player in the lineup. Well, they seem to be going with their 3 best horses on top. "Ok, Dallas will keep the suspense for another week, the Destiny by margin on prelined note paper". Down scrolled the screen as he watched the names in the San Francisco versus Tennessee match appear. " Holy Moly, is Tennessee banking on their 4th board having a slingshot or some such?" Shrugging he typed "SF 3-1" keeping the hope that he wasn't short changing somebody. Taking a sip of tea he became aware that the types of matches had changed. Monday was a showcase mostly for teams that weren't in a race, teams showing what they had without any thought to final standings. The first match listed for Wednesday had a team hungry for a win to advance their playoff chances against a team thumping around the league. The Inventors are an eyelash from playoff possibilities, while the Knockouts are full of unexpected status as the premier team in the league. " Don't be fooled" grinding his teeth at the possibilities, " The Inventors are looking to play even on 1, 2 and 4 then take their chances with a veteran. Good trick, if it works. No, I don't see it, but there is credit enough for all. Tie" He wrote the words and bit his lip, " the Knockouts are in the playoffs and don't face the Knights again in the regular season, yet their history in finishing the season is poor. Tie!". New York and Baltimore, these teams were closely matched. " The difference will be on the middle boards. Even if the Knights win on 4th board, the Kingfishers will surprise them. Baltimore will win by a tail". He chuckled to himself, a fish tail that is he thought. A bit of amusement was well timed as he noted the next match. Boston faces Miami in a match where only the Sharks can affect their playoff position. "What really matters is that both teams have something to prove. The Blitz may not give a fig what the rest of the league thinks, but they have to answer to themselves at some point. Miami is composed and will be prepared. So, what do I base my decision on?" He sipped more tea and glanced at the clock. "Of course! It is right in front of me. The Blitz have been beating St. Mary's Sisters of the weak pawn and teams like that. They haven't found their way past a winning team yet. I can't go against a trend like that. Miami will win by the difference of the respective teams fourth board IQ". He knew trouble was ahead, but it always had been. Nothing new there. So, we are down to the Arizona and Seattle match up. Fully aware that even a loss wouldn't drop Seattle from first or from the playoffs, he wondered what was the teams motivation? "Play them, one at a time". he knew it was a cliche. Still, no one really understood it as well as he did. "They have a match to play, so they play. Hikaru, Slava and Josh... been pretty steady so far. Almost sounds like a law firm." As much as he liked the names, the thing that was obvious was that Seattle players had been able to avoid bad streaks. That would suggest Marcel would have a fine game. Still, it wasn't easy. Suspicion, Arizona listed an A player on fourth board. "A trick?" he wondered. Well, if it was a trick it would turn out to be a real doozy. Checking Arizona's point of view he noted that getting a 2600 player on first board is pretty good, except when that player is outrated by 150 points. This seemed out of whack. "It must be some kind of kharma thing" he tried to persuade himself. "No, they have to play the matches too. That is the Scorpions motivation". Seattle was vey likely to win on the outside boards and only needed some kind of score in the middle. As if to make a note of a special ingridient in an old family recipe he pointed at the screen. " A modest victory for Seattle. The Sluggers shall prevail by the distance between 2 raindrops". There it was done. All of the matches had been verified. As always he checked again, just to be sure no one snuck in when he wasn't looking