The Ickey Shuffle

When I was 7 years old, there were not many things that I loved more than the Ickey Shuffle.  Ickey seemed larger than life (he's listed at having been 6'2" 231 pounds, which, to a 7 year old might as well be Paul Bunyon), wore the most spectacular helmet this 7 year old had ever seen (the Bengal stripes...most people either love them or hate them.  I think that the helmet is classy, but all the stripes and uniform combinations that the Bungles are completely unnecessary) and danced in the end zone after every touchdown.  In 1988, this was a rather new concept that had not yet caught on amongst Woods' football playing brethern.  To be fair to Ickey, he only celebrated TDs, not simple things like tackling a WR after he has gained 16 yards like todays DBs often do (I saw someone in the Bills-Bears game do this this weekend...wait...that was Chris Conte getting stiff armed back to his high school prom by Fred Jackson).  Anyways, if you havent seen the Ickey Shuffle, here is a link. (The music makes me think that hampsters are going to jump into the fray and dance with Ickey.  I cannot decide whether or not this makes the video better.)  Enjoy the Ickey.  Unfortunately, after running for over 1000 yards and 15 TDs as a rookie, Ickey tore up his knee in the second game of his second season, and was really never the same.  He hung around for only 2 more years before fading into obscurity...until Thursday night.  The embedded Geico commercial brought Ickey back for an entire new generation to love and enjoy, and made those of us who appreicated him the first time remember how much we loved his antics.  Its not the first time I have enjoyed a Geico commercial, but it is the first time one has made me stop, watch and say "thats fucking genius" loud enough for my wife to hear and to think that I am losing it (or that my pain meds are talking again).  In this week's potentially league altering matchip between John and Kyler, the long dormant KIODL team took the Superstars out behind the shed and made them beg for the whoopin before delivering it to them.  It was only because Tom's LesMoles put together a solid Sunday slate and kept Tyler from hanging on to the 8-3 lead that he had entering Sunday, that Kyler is limping into the playoffs.

 

 

Heres a quick look at the upcoming playoff matchups before we get to the recaps:

 

BYES: Bob's ATers, The Zach Attack - Congrats to the division winners...enjoy the week off/

 

#3 UCCMA vs #6 BySs - Jimmy storms into the matchup, having won outright in 7 of the last 8 weeks, including an 11-1 stomping of BySs in week 19.  Kyler, on the other hand is 3-6-1 in his last 10 weeks.  The season series is at 13-11 in favor of Jim.  With Kyler's team at less than 100% (both Melky Cabrera and Brett Garnder are out, Cabrera for the year, Gardner for an undetermined amount of time and the pitching staff has been struggling), Jim looks like the favorite to move on in this matchup.

 

#4 MBHB vs #5 Les Moles - The Bastards are struggling, having gone 2-7-1 in the last 10 weeks, including several lopsided matchups.  But MBHB did manage to pull out a win when they needed to, dispatching Dusty with the season on the line.  Since opening the season 4-8, Tom's team has been en fuego, finishing 8-1-1 over the last 10 weeks (the loss was a 6-5-1 tightly fought contest), and rising from the bottom of the league to briefly flirting with the Harmony division title.  On the year, the Bastards hold a 14-10 series lead, but the most recent of those was the 6-6 tie in week 15.  With his plethora of starting pitchers, and the Bastards' ability to forget how to hit for weeks on end, Tom is the favorite to move on to face one of the division winners next week.