Well, let’s take these points one by one, shall we?

The first time you took Chacin, I said

DC’s Chacin pick today is at least questionable

And then I said

Chacin wasn't a bad pick, it was just -as I said - "questionable", given the pitchers who were going yesterday who are clearly much better than he is.

To which you replied

Your opinion, that's all.

Then I said

the fact is, it was a questionable pick, unless you knew something that probably 99% of the people playing this game didn't know.

To which you replied

Could be!

Then I said

There's always the possibility that your Chacin pick was the result of what in these games we call "going unpredicatable", a situation in which someone is so far behind that they feel the only way to make up ground is by making picks that they [i]know no one else will be making (like Chacin), and hoping that they get lucky and have a good day (which Chacin did), while everyone else's "better" picks have a bad day (like Schilling, Peavy, and Willis did). [/i]

To which you replied

Possibly! But then again we still haven't even gotten out of April yet

Now….

What I gather from that exchange – particularly your last comment – “we still haven't even gotten out of April yet” - is that the first time you picked Chacin you were not attempting to be unpredictable, as it was too early (“we still haven’t even gotten out of April yet”) for such a strategy to be necessary.

Yet here we are, in Chacin’s very next start, with you now saying that

this is not for money, it's for fun. And being that I figured everyone else and their uncle would pick the best pitcher out there, I decided, based on where I was in the standings, that I would take a shot with another pitcher that everyone else was less likely to pick, in hopes that I would pick up some ground.

Sort of like the strategy that you just said you use in your football pool.[i]

So your strategy changed in one week, now that we’re out of April?

Now, as far as the money vs. fun thing is concerned:

This is basically the same discussion that we had during the hockey season, and I still fail to understand why anyone would play the game any differently for “fun” than for money.

If you sit down with your kids to play Monopoly, do you play the game any differently because you are playing for “fun”?

Don’t you employ the same strategies that you would if you were playing someone else for money?

Don’t you play to win, whether you’re playing for money or not?

Isn’t it the same with [i]any game you might play?

I mean, it seems to me that the strategies for winning a game are dictated by the game itself and not by whether you are playing the game for fun or for money.

The strategy I employ in my football pool is different than the strategy I employ in trying to pick individual winners ia different because the game itelf is different.

In one case, all I have to do to win the game is come out with an overall winning percentage of .524 or better at the end of the season.

In the pool, a .524 winning percentage won’t win me a thing at the end of the season because against 100 people I need a winning percentage of somewhere around 60% or better at season’s end to “win” the game.

Different game, different strategies.

But in this game, with only ten people playing, I can’t imagine why your strategy would be any different regardless of if you were playing for money or not.

Unless, as I suggested the first time you picked Chacin, that because you were behind you were going “unpredictable” in an attempt to gain ground.

But you rejected that suggestion, saying it was too early to employ such a strategy, yet a week later you were saying that perhaps you were doing so.

That’s what has me confused.

Now, as far as your suggestion that “Apple has also taught me a thing or two about dealing with you”, I would only say that that’s about as ridiculous an idea as it sounds.

If you are using her help in learning how deal with me, well, you have my sympathies.

When I compare you to FS, it’s different.

I’m only saying that he employed the same arguments as you do.

Finally, please don't be insulted with me kidding you about not wanting to play this game for money against me.

I know exactly why you won't:

For exactly the same reason why I wouldn't bet on hockey against you.

(Excuse any typos here; I didn't proof this little essay)

"Difficult....not impossible"