Why does it seem the lowest-seeded teams always do the best in fantasy sports playoffs? Every year I do well during the regular season only to lose quickly in the playoffs. It happened to me again this year — no thanks to LaDainian Tomlinson for exiting early on Monday night.

In the league where I’m commish, I had the best record, 11-2, and ran up the most points. But I finished a disappointing fourth when I lost the past two weeks in the playoffs. The winner? A sixth-seeded team that finished second to last in 2006. (Ironically, his was one of the two teams that beat me; my father was the other.) At least I managed a third-place finish, complete with a bronze trophy in another league.

I’m sure there are just as many times when the top team goes all the way. But it certainly doesn’t happen very often in my experience. In baseball, for example, the overall winner was a fifth-seeded team that knocked out the far-superior No. 1 seed this year. It just goes to show that no matter how much time and effort you put into this silly game, it’s all a matter of luck.