I don't know what it is about this year. Maybe trying New Things has made me smarter.

Or just luckier.

But if this sounds familiar, it's because back in February I went on a long winning streak in one of my fantasy sports games.

And Friday night, I had another career-long streak in another game come to a screeching halt.

It looks like 17 is my new lucky number.

As you can see, Robinson Cano and Vernon Wells now enter the pantheon (I looked it up - I'm probably misusing the word, but I think you catch my drift) of players I will never select again in 'Beat the Streak' because they did not come up big for me when I needed them. They both posted 0-for-4s. Against Mark Buehrle! I think I could get a hit off Mark Buehrle. This year. Not back in his White Sox days when he was decent. (Or at least decent enough to throw two [2!] no-hitters.)

(FYI - I picked these guys because they had decent numbers against Buehrle. But now they join the likes of David Ortiz as guys I'll never pick again. I've picked Cano a lot, and he fails me often. Now we're done.)

You may (or may not) remember - I've written about Beat the Streak before. (Sorry, non-sports fans.) It's one of my favorite things about baseball season.

Coming into this year, I think my longest streak ever was about 12 games. So this 17-gamer was a big deal.

I didn't double down all that much - I just methodically built up to 17 games. I feel like I can do it again. But the amazing thing is to even challenge the million-dollar prize I'd have to do 17 games more than 3 times in a row, because you have to beat Joe DiMaggio's 56-game streak for the big money.

I think I'd be happy if I got somewhere around 30.

And I'll try again starting today. I took Daniel Murphy, who's swinging a good bat lately, and Miguel Cabrera, who often comes through for me. (An anti-Cano, if you will.)

And the next time I feel like maybe I should take Paul Goldschmidt rather than doubling down with two Yankees...you'd better believe I'm going to go with that first instinct. (Goldschmidt, who I thought long and hard about taking, was 4-for-5 on the night my streak ended. Ouch.)