For Jeff Klein

of Peachtree City, it is a small world after all. Smallworld.com, that

is.

Klein, a baseball

and fantasy sports aficionado, has entered the smallworld.com fantasy

baseball league for the past three years. Over 550,000 people played in

the league worldwide. Two years ago he finished in the 20,000 range and

last year he finished around 1,200. This year, he finished on top to qualify

for the grand prize an all-expense-paid trip to the first two games of

the World Series with three friends.

There was a

slight snag with the award. Klein received a call on Tuesday from smallworld.com,

telling him that they were unable to broker tickets to the World Series

and that they could not legally award them as the grand prize for the

contest. They are sending him a check for the cash equivalent of $10,000.

Klein was obviously

disappointed and though his father is a federal judge who wanted some

additional information, the family won't press the matter after they receive

the check.

The game is

played by picking a team of major league players that perform well. Each

player in the contest starts with $50 million and is allowed three hitter

and three pitcher trades a week, within their salary limitations. By the

end of the season, Klein had amassed $150 million, which enabled him to

pick many all-star caliber players.

"I didn't

hang on to many players for more than a month," Klein explained.

"But I never missed a start from Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson or

Kevin Brown." Those three pitchers performed exceptionally well during

the major league baseball season and therefore gave Klein a lot of points

in the fantasy league.

Klein is a

general business major at Georgia State University. He attended high school

at Campbell High School, where he played baseball all four years. He then

played for the College of Charleston for one year. His family moved to

Peachtree City in 1997 and he has lived there ever since.

Klein was hoping

that the Yankees win the ALCS because he has never been to Yankee Stadium,

but a subway series was never on his mind. "I don't really care for

the Mets," Klein stated. "I'm a big Braves fan."

Klein was ranked

first in the game May 24. "I printed it out and thought about framing

it," Klein said. "I never thought I'd be that close to the top

again." Going into the month of September though, Klein was ranked

as high as third and he realized, if he caught a few breaks, he could

win the whole ball of wax. Thanks to the help of his Dad, who plays also

(Dad finished 320th) Klein made some key choices and learned how to play

the game better.

Some of his

key pick ups included Seattle's Alex Rodriguez, Cleveland's Manny Ramirez

and St. Louis's Darryl Kile, who won seven games in a row at the end of

the season. Klein's advice to people who might want to try their hand

at fantasy baseball games is to stick with it.

" A lot

of people get discouraged and quit when they fall to 80,000th. You can

move up quickly and the more you play the more you learn."

Next up for

Klein is playing in the fantasy football, basketball and golf seasons.

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