POLITICAL FANTASY LEAGUE ... WEEK ONE SCORES

Getty Images

You're smiling now.

A week of press coverage has come and gone since we started The Mag.com's Presidential Fantasy League. Now it's time to see where Teams Clinton, Obama and McCain stand in their race to the White House—at least according to us. For a reminder of our methodology and scoring system, click here. Otherwise, on to the scoring.

This week Team Obama crushed it in the media. They were everywhere. But Teams Clinton and McCain both had some all-stars who were hitting for power.

TEAM CLINTON
Quote of the Week:
"50 Cent, he don't know, so don't asky Fiddy."
       —ex-Team Clinton player 50 Cent

The Good News:
+30 Billie King was on the cover of USA Weekend promoting Hillary as a role model for young women. Bonus points for making the cover and the direct attributions.
+5, King's article referenced again in "Gender Blurs Real Issues for Women", The Columbian (WA), 4/10/08.
+ 5, also in Los Angeles Daily News celebrity blog on 4/7/08.
+25, Mario Lemieux's Penguins made the playoffs (currently one victory away from a first-round playoff sweep)
+15, Magic Johnson Enterprises enters into partnership with Best Buy.
+15, Larry Lucchino's Red Sox are 8-6 in April so far, but more importantly they took two of three from the Yanks and snuck a cursed jersey into the concrete of the new Yankee Stadium.
+10 Magic and Hillary mentioned together in "Elton John Raises $2.6M for Hillary",
The Herald Sun (Aus), 4/10/08.
+10 Alonzo thinks he can come back: "In my heart and my mind I still feel like I can get out there and play at a high level." You gotta give it to him for being a fighter and for believing the the seemingly unbelievable. Hillary needs that kind of moxie from her team.
The Not-So-Good News:
-20 Fiddy told MTV that he was retracting his endorsement for Hillary, because 1) he thinks he likes Obama better; and 2) he probably won't vote anyway ("50 Cent, he don't know, so don't asky Fiddy."). He has been removed from the lineup and replaced with Utah Jazz forward Jarron Collins, who is not only in the playoffs, but a Stanford graduate.
-5, Magic was linked to Los Angeles investor Bill Burkle who makes suspicious Clinton family donations in "What Did Bill Clinton Do to Get $15M from Ron Burkle?", Huffington Post, 4/4/08.
-5, David Stern, long an investor in and proponent of strengthening economic ties to China, literally carries the Olympic torch amid the protests in San Francisco. This turns off voters who support Hillary's quasi-boycott of the Games (if the sight of Stern in shorts hadn't already).

Team Hillary's total: 85

TEAM OBAMA
Quote of the Week:
"And he's rolling around the state with ex-Pittsburgh Steelers like Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris, who are far more popular among key constituencies than any politician could dream of being."
              —Salon.com

The Good News:
+20, There's a new Hope Slinger. Steelers owner and chairman Dan Rooney hops on the Obama campaign. (Thanks, no doubt, to Bettis.)
+10, Obama and Michael Jordan were mentioned together in a Chicago Tribune article as a duo that could help Chicago court the 2016 Olympics. The two were referred to as the "secret sauce" that could bring the Games to Chi-town.
+10, Elsewhere, Barack continued to garner support with hoops fans when he told an Indiana radio station that if elected he would install a basketball court at the White House. Obama did not hesitate to bring campaign contributor Michael Jordan into the dialogue. Referring to his own high school basketball days he went on to say, "I was No. 23 before Jordan was 23." Right.
+10, Our quote of the week (see above) mentions Obama with Jerome Bettis. Salon.com, "Barack Obama, working class hero?", 3/31/08.
+10, mentioned with Jerome Bettis on the Political Intelligence blog of the Boston Globe, 4/13/08
+10, MSNBC correspondent Howard Fineman on Hardball (while criticizing Barack for bowling) said having the Bus on the bus was a good idea in PA., 3/31/08.
+10, An open memo to Barack entitled "How to win the Pennsylvania Primary" by Bill Steigerwald, columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, stated that both Jerome Bettis and John Franco were No. 1 draft picks by the campaign staff, 3/31/08.
+10, Obama to start a 3-on-3 tourney in Indiana with supporters, mentions Jordan, The Caucus, New York Times political blog, 4/2/08.
    +5, another reference of the Jordan quote from "Obama: Poor man's Prince", Detroit Free Press, 4/4/08.
    + 5, Sports Business Journal also mentions it in "Names in the News", 4/3/08.
+10, On the Trailblazers blog blazersedge.com, Chris Bowles, director of player programs for Portland said in an interview that having players be politically active (like Oden) is changing the Jail Blazers reputation, 4/10/08.
+10, In an interview on the hoopsworld.com blog agent Bill Duffy said that he pitches players he represents to support Obama—including Oden,4/6/08.
+10, Obama and Oden mentioned in an Oregonian article about how Oregon State has just hired Brown coach (and Michelle Obama's brother) to coach the basketball team, 4/7/08. *Oregon primary is coming up May 20th.
+10, Jordan wins a lawsuit against a lady who has been claiming that he fathered her illegitimate child since 1995.
+10, Barkely donates $100,000 to fire victims.
+ 10, Derek Lee is batting .346 through 12 games with 4 homers (2 points a home run, +2 bonus for finding his stroke early).
The Not-So-Good News:
-15, Floyd Mayweather Jr. KO'd 7-foot, 400 lb. Big Show at Wrestlemania XXIV using brass knuckles. That's + 15. On second thought, -15.

Team Barack Total: 155

TEAM McCAIN
Quote of the Week:

"Senator McCain is the only person with the makeup to get this country out of the place it's in right now."
              —Curt Schilling

The Good News:
+100 Arnold Schwarzenegger and McCain were mentioned together in over 100 articles in the past week through both endorsements and their normal political dealings with each other. Since certain PFL players like Arnold are in the paper for career related activities (like Arnold standing in for McCain at the convention of Log Cabin Republicans) as well as blatant endorsements, whenever a weekly article count exceeds 100 points, the player will be given the max points in the category: 100. Still a big chunk of points.
+15, Curt Schilling earned big points when several direct attributions (see above) defending McCain from his conservative detractors on the right-leaning news site Newsmax.com.
+10, The Grand Rapids Press mentioned that Schilling is endorsing McCain, 4/12/08.
+10, An article in the AFP mentions that Roger Goodell pressed back the Giants home opener so McCain's speech wouldn't be missed: "the game's start time will be 90 minutes earlier than usual to avoid a television coverage conflict with the Republican National Convention, where US Presidential hopeful John McCain is expected to speak the same night," 3/31/08.    
+20, 4 (x5 pts. Each) other articles mention the schedule change.
+10, During the 40th Anniversary season of Jerry Colangelo's Suns, they make the playoffs again.
+5, On radio station WEEI Schilling endorsed McCain, but also defended Obama against criticisms made by his former Pastor Jeremiah Wright Jr., 4/1/08.

The Not-So-Good News:
-30, Even though Sylvester Stallone has endorsed McCain, Hillary tried to steal Sly's thunder this week by using the Rocky theme song while stumping in Philadelphia. So many articles were written about it in the last two weeks, and Stallone failed to respond so we decided to levy a 50 point penalty against Team McCain.
-20, A recent AP article suggests Cindy McCain's wealthy family may have bailed John out of campaign debt in the past. They story connects Mrs. McCain's minority stake in the Diamondbacks, and McCain's political backing from PFL members Jerry Colangelo and Curt Schilling.
-5, Lute Olsen gives a mysterious press conference, cites personal issues and health-problems for having missed last year and disses current coach.
-5, Schilling may be saying great things about McCain but he still hasn't thrown a baseball this year.

Team McCain Total Points: 90 points

SCORES AFTER WEEK ONE
1. Team Barack: 155
2. Team McCain: 90
3. Team Hillary: 85

Got an issue with the way we're sizing up the candidates? Something we missed? Got an idea for the rules? Send us your thoughts: editor.espnmag@gmail.com

Print Article . Email Article. Subscribe to The Magazine