Rich Calderon goes 81 straight games without a weekly low score | Week Nine, 2009
2003 was an amazing time in Robioland football. Four new league members came on board (the last great expansion). Of course, one of the newbies was Richard Calderon. However, five weeks into the season, amazing was not the word anyone would use to describe his season. Rich was struggling, falling to 1-4 after five weeks, two weeks removed from a 832-point game. His only win was way back in week two against 1-4 Jeff. Times were not good.
Things would not get better the following week either. Rich fell to Molly, 1410 – 1010. Sure Rich broke 1,000, but his point total was the week’s lowest score (his career first). The defeat dropped Rich to 1-5 and it looked like his season was over before he even reached the halfway point. However, the defeat would be significant as it would be the last before he turend his season around. Rich would win five of his final seven, becoming the first team to start 1-5 and make the playoffs. He would end up becoming the first 8-seed to win a playoff game, following in the semis to eventual champ, Burrier.
STREAK: 7 straight
The following year, Rich would score just 983 in a week two defeat, but Eric scored 200 points less, so Rich avoided the weekly low score. That was the closest he would get, as he rolled off nine wins that year, never again dipping below 1,000 points in a game.
STREAK: 21 straight
The next two years though, Rich’s productivity would collapse. He would miss the playoffs two straight years, thanks to back-t0-back 6-7 seasons. He ended up finishing 7th and 8th in scoring in those seasons, but outside of a couple of close calls, he again never reached bottom.
STREAK: 47 straight.
Heading into the 2007 season, Calderon was within striking distance of the record. Griff, like Calderon, began his streak during his first season in the league (1999). He would go 56 weeks without a weekly low score. Anyhow, the season started off easy enough for Rich. He got off to a 2-1 start, never coming close to the bottom. His streak was at 50 (becoming just the second person to reach 50). However, in week four, Calderon’s squad produced his career low score, 652 points. Luckily though, he was facing Colby, who score just 617. So, not only did Rich not get the weekly low score, he won the game (the third lowest winning total in league history).
Two weeks later, Rich again would struggle to score (880 in a loss to Bob). However, that was just the second worst score of the week, after Molly failed to hit 800. The streak continued.
In week nine, Calderon was just one week from tying Griff, two from passing him…of course, this being Calderon, he had to make it interesting. In losing to Eric in week nine, Rich scored just 1,002 points. Low, but not the lowest, as Burrier scored just 932 points.
The following week, Calderon struggled even more, scoring just 865 points in a loss to Matt. Yet, it was Burrier who again came through with the weekly low score (Calderon was 10th, Don also scored less). Despite his struggles, the record was his. Rich would tie and pass Griff by scoring the 11th and 10th most points in back-to-back weeks.
The new streak almost ended the following week, when yet again Rich falled to break 900 points, but Colby barely hit 500. Rich would no problem avoiding the low score for the remainder of the season.
STREAK: 60 straight
In 2008, Rich was one of the best teams, winning nine, finishing 4th in scoring. The closest he came to getting a weekly low score was week two, when he finished 11th, while Colby had the worst score that week. With another season with no low scores, Griff’s old record seemed so far away.
STREAK: 73 straight.
Rich had now gone five plus seasons without a weekly low score. The closest active person to him was Bob and he sat 33 games back (two and a half seasons behind). Rich got off to a tough start in 2009, losing his first three, but he never challenged the weekly low score. Things started to pick up for Calderon, as he won three of his next four, scoring well, never sniffing the bottom.
Then week eight happened. Calderon had his second worst game ever, scoring just 797 points. However, this time there was no Colby or Burrier or Vozzola to save him. Eric came closest, scoring just 859 points, but it wasn’t enough. Just like that, Rich’s “week’s without a low score” streak came to an end at 81 weeks…25 ahead of the next person.
In fact, as of his writing (after the 2012 season), the closest person to breaking Rich’s record is Griff, who has an active streak of 37. Griff couldn’t break this record until week six, 2016.
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