Over the past couple of weeks it seems like some of my heroes have fallen from grace like Floyd Landis or just faded away like Jaques Villenuve. There is some good news though, and a big hat-tip to DG at BCC for breaking the news that 2005 USCL MVP and current Canadian Champion, Pascal Charbonneau will be playing for the New York Knights in the upcoming USCL season [play starts on August 28th].

This is going to make my loyalty [and betting] that much tougher. While Pascal was out of the picture I was intending to root for my regional team, The Seattle Sluggers. The Sluggers are managed by Clint Ballard of Slugfest Chess hence, the familar logo shown above. Clint is a member of the Chess Bloggers Team that I captain on Chessworld.net.  The team also features IM Georgie Orlov, a well known face in Pacific Northwest Chess.

So as you can see, with the return of Charbonneau and a regional team to root for, I'm torn. Maybe it's time to start a USCL fantasy league?

Since New York and Seattle are in different divisons, you should be able to root for both -- except in week 5 when they face-off or if both make the championship match.