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2004 Baseball King of the Jungle   The Fantasy Jungle capped off its first ever baseball contest with an exciting finish that rivaled the exciting finish of the football contest. It couldn't have been any closer as it came down to the final game of the week, the Sunday Night tilt between Anaheim and Oakland. Ryan Coffey had a 5 point lead and Scott Hatteberg while Rick Farrell had Chone Figgins. Figgins would

pull Wicked Summer Crew to within a few points, but in the end, it was not enough. Ryan Coffey, of Orlando, Florida was crowned the first ever baseball King of The Jungle. We recently got a chance to talk with the champ.

FJ: Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Ryan: My name is Ryan Coffey and I am 28 years old. I am originally from Pekin, IL and I went to school at Eastern Illinois University. I moved to Orlando, Florida last year and currently work as an account executive for Gradcity.com, where we send college kids on their spring breaks, to places like Cancun, Panama City, Acupulco, Negril, and South Beach.

FJ: You have an interesting team name. What is the story behind it?

Ryan: It started back with another fantasy baseball contest years ago...I was actually trying to think of a team name and 16 Candles was on. Right about that time "the Donger" was introduced in the movie, So, I thought,Dongers..hitting Dongs (Home Runs) it has something to do with baseball, so it has been my baseball team name ever since!

FJ: What are your favorite pro sports teams?

Ryan: I love all the lovable losers, The Cubs, The Bears, and The HorriBULLs. I lived in Indianapolis for a few years and began following the Colts pretty heavily!

FJ: What are you going to do with the prize money that you won?

 
Ryan: I'm not sure.. Right now, I just plan on putting it in the bank, maybe a couple of Roth IRA's...no intent on just blowing it, well, maybe a good trip to VEGAS...the club scene out there is calling me!

FJ: Where did you initially hear about the Fantasy Jungle?

Ryan: I actually played with Mike and Scott in another fantasy contest. They both liked to gamble and so did I. We would place some horse racing bets and talk about the football game picks of the week. They let me know they were starting a contest and i figured why not support them, and I've played in every contest since!

FJ: What has your overall experience been with the Jungle from a fantasy player's perspective who has played in almost every other fantasy game that is out there?

Ryan: This by far and away is the best run contest I have ever played in. The owners (Mike and Scott) contsantly watch the message boards, give input and insight to everyone. They are readily available if a question, problem or concern should arise! And the contests keep growing...not bad by doing most of their advertising through word of mouth! Keep up the great work guys, DONT CHANGE A THING!

FJ: What was your baseball straegy going into the contest?

Ryan: I plugged all of last years stats into the Jungle's scoring system, and then I looked at potenitial upswing of players. I thought about having a well rounded team, getting the postional players first, maybe a #1 pitcher, and a closer. But as I found out, you should go after all of the top pitchers when you can. I ended up not drafting a top one or picking up a closer. Pitchers could toss an 8 inning game with 10k's and the win, and still get the same amount of points that some starting positional players could have for the week. But where I caught a break was by getting some quality pitchers who had good performances in their two starts in a week, I felt that ended up helping me the most.

FJ: What was your biggest challenge throughout the season, any bad breaks, good breaks, etc...?

 
Ryan: I had a lot of good breaks. I only suffered a couple of injuries and was able to have good depth to back those up. My steal of the draft and I made sure he was on everyone of my baseball teams was Melvin Mora. That guy was huge and having Tejada bat right behind him, I was hoping for a 1-2 punch with hits/runs/rbi's. My best drafted player turned out to be Moises Alou. The guy has a career year and if we wasn't such a wuss with all of his routine days off, I would have won by more points!lol

FJ: What was the key to your success in the finals?

Ryan: I looked at pitching match-ups with my hitters, what teams had to win and who was looking to knock others out of the wild card race. I also kept with the two pitcher strategy.

FJ: That last weekend was biazrre. Give us the play by play for how you experienced it?

Ryan: Do i have to? Many talk about bad flash backs, I think i sat in front of my computer and watched MLB. com's webcast of every single game, especially that final day. Going in, I figured I had a chance, so I took a gamble with Loaiza who said he might get two starts taht week and I benched Pedro! It was a risky call but it paid off!. After Friday I was down pretty big and was playing for third with Fantasy Winner on my tail, then somehow I was in second with Fantasy Winner still on my tail. The poor Binney's ran out of gas and my tank was full. Wicked Summer Crew had a good lineup gong the next day with I think a 50 point lead. Then Loaiza comes in after the 1st inning because Kevin Brown got rocked..there was a chance!! As the night dragged on, it came down to Scott Hatterberg and Chone Figgins, Scott on my team who did nothing, and Figgins on WSC's, did ok, but not enough. I didn't call anyone to tell them I won. I was waiting for the final scores to come in on the next day to make sure that there were no scoring errors! I didn't want to jinx myself!

FJ: What is your favorite thing about FJ Baseball and what would make you recommend it to your friends?

Ryan: I recommended it to all of my friends. In fact, another Pekin boy is in the top ten in fantasy football right now (Barry Neal)...I like the personal relationship it seems Scott and Mike have with everyone. We are all friends on the message boards,and it feels like it's a big community, not just here's my money. I like the team manager in fantasy baseball too..it adds a little something extra to the game!

FJ: Any final words?

Ryan: I am not a holy man, but like every athlete, movie star, and rapper, I would like to thank the Lord Jesus Christ who I cursed at day in and day out then turned around and thanked for final turn of events!(laughs)...Thanks to all who made the final week exciting. Wicked Summer Crew, thanks for not starting Rodrigo Lopez, Binney's thanks for keeping the message boards fun! Fantasy Winner we battled it out to the end again! Way to go League 4! Thanks Mike and Scott for running a great game!

Look out everyone, i am coming back next year to defend my title. The Long Duck Dongers shall repeat...
 

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