The sixth year of the FSWA awards again drew a record number of submissions.

Fantasy Sports Writers Association president Mike Beacom said that the group’s board of directors had nearly 1,000 articles to pore over in recent weeks to pare down to the list of finalists announced today that were passed along to the two independent judges.

We’ll get into some of the specific points about this year’s group of contenders, but for now, here’s the full list of finalists. Winners will be announced at the Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference Jan. 26-27 in Las Vegas.

Best Fantasy Football Publication
Fantasy Football Index
Pro Football Weekly/Yahoo!
RotoWire

Best Online Football Article
Dalton Del Don, RotoWire
Jeff Stotts, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Football Print Article
Michael Blunda, Pro Football Weekly
Ted Carlson, Fanball
Ben Ice, Fantasy Football Pro Forecast

Best Football Series
Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN
Adam Levitan, RotoWorld
Jeff Stotts, RotoWire

Football Writer of the Year
Ryan Bonini, KFFL
Brad Evans, Yahoo!
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Fantasy Baseball Publication
Fanball
Fantasy Baseball Index
RotoWire

Best Online Baseball Article
John Rakowski, Sports Grumblings
David Regan, RotoWire
Scott White, CBS Sports

Best Baseball Print Article
James Benard, RotoWire
Will Carroll, RotoWire
Brent Hershey, USA Today Sports Weekly

Best Baseball Series
Jason Grey, ESPN
David Regan, RotoWire
Mark Strausberg, RotoExperts

Baseball Writer of the Year
David Regan, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire
Scott White, CBS Sports

Basketball Writer of the Year
Cory Elfrink, Fanball
Tom Lorenzo, RotoExperts
Andre Snellings, RotoWire

College Sports Writer of the Year
John Baker, RapidDraft
Brad Evans, Yahoo!
Michael Hurcomb, CBS Sports

Golf Writer of the Year
Rob Bolton, RotoWorld
John McNamara, RotoWire
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo!

Hockey Writer of the Year
Sean Allen, ESPN
Rocky Bonanno, NHL.com
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo!

Racing Writer of the Year
Scott Engel, RotoExperts
Brian Polking, Fanball
Mark Taylor, RotoWire

Best Humor Article
Ladd Biro, Sporting News
Paul Bourdett, RotoExperts
Mike Gilbert, RotoExperts

Christmas isn’t the only deadline sneaking up on us.

For any fantasy sports writers out there, the Fantasy Sports Writers Association is taking nominations for 2009 awards up until the end of this month (via this online form).

According to FSWA president Mike Beacom, all submissions will be screened by the FSWA’s board of directors, with finalists passing on to an “independent panel of judges.”

Nominees must be members of the FSWA, which you can join before the end of the year to become eligible. The awards presentation — in its sixth year — will take place at next month’s Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference in Las Vegas.

The categories include …

Football Writer of the Year
Football Article of the Year, Web
Football Article of the Year, Print
Football On-Going Series

Baseball Writer of the Year
Baseball Article of the Year, Web
Baseball Article of the Year, Print
Baseball On-Going Series

Basketball Writer of the Year
Hockey Writer of the Year
Golf Writer of the Year
Racing Writer of the Year
College Sports Writer of the Year
Fantasy Humor Article of the Year, Print or Web

Check out FSB.com coverage of last year’s winners:

• Rotowire Dominates FSWA Awards
• The Rest of the FSWA Winners

In case you were too busy practicing your standing ovations in anticipation of President Obama’s first real address, Tiger Woods is returning to the links this week for the first time since his U.S. Open victory last June.

FSB.com asked each of the three 2008 Fantasy Sports Writers Association finalists for golf writer of the year how Woods’ status affects their job. Here’s what they had to say.

John McNamara, RotoWire (FSWA winner): I am lucky because I base my weekly article on trying to pinpoint players who are playing really well on tour and guys who seem to be struggling over the recent weeks. This allows me to find guys who fly under the radar and give their recent success and hopefully provide enough information that you can catch a flier lie with one of my picks.

Tiger could continually stay in my “Upgrade” section every week, but that would get boring and it would be too obvious. We all know the guys who we would play every time if they were on our team, but we all struggle with who the right player is after you go past the top 30 in the world.

So, Tiger being in the field or out of the field does not effect my article too much. I am always looking for the diamond in the rough every week who sets up great for a particular course and has been playing great over the recent weeks. Not having Tiger in the field just adds pressure for me to be right more than I am wrong, because people are more likely to pay closer attention when Tiger is not in the field and a certain pick is not so obvious.

Ross Devonport, CBS Sports: My job really hasn’t been that different with Tiger being out, because I always assume 99.9 percent of people are going to pick him when he’s in a field anyway. You almost just have to have him in your lineup because so many other people will jump over you in the standings if he brings home the title, and there’s just too good a chance of that happening for you to risk leaving him out. In my columns, I usually don’t even suggest picking Woods because anyone could write a column advising you to do that.

Greg Vara, RotoWire: My job gets more difficult in some ways and easier in others. I produce a top-five list each week and with the return of Tiger, the list becomes a top-four when Tiger is in the field.

With that said, when you select the same player each week it’s difficult to come up with fresh ways to describe why you are selecting him.

Name: Jay Clemons
Nickname: The only ones suitable for publishing are “Sherman” and “Mystifying” — monikers I’ve owned since my hoop-playing days in high school. “Sherman” as in Sherman Douglas (the Syracuse days), which tells you how old I am; and “Mystifying,” a tongue-in-cheek alias conceived by famed Detroit Free Press writer, Mick McCabe. Little known nugget: I likely hold the Michigan high school record for consecutive three-pointers missed (237) … HA!
Job title(s): Producer/Lead Fantasy Writer, SI.com
Full-time in fantasy? On an average week during the fall, I’ll work about 60 hours for SI.com; and roughly 10-12 hours are singularly devoted to writing Fantasy Clicks/Revelations (three columns per week).
Age: 35
Education: BA in Journalism from Michigan State University; MA in Sports Administration from Wayne State University in Detroit
Family status: Engaged … to be married Oct. 3 in Atlanta
Favorite fantasy sport to play: 1. Football 1a. Baseball 3. Basketball
Favorite sport to watch: 1. Basketball 2. Football 3. Baseball
Favorite team (any sport): Detroit Pistons/Detroit Tigers (tie)
All-time favorite athlete: Isiah Thomas (Pistons playing days only)
Years playing fantasy: 7

I got my start in the fantasy industry when: The SI powers-that-be asked if I had any interest in writing Fantasy Clicks early in 2008. Until then, I had never coveted the Clicks opening (previously held by James Quintong, now of ESPN) — even though fantasy sports has been my all-consuming passion for the last 4-5 years.

Since then, my fantasy résumé includes: In addition to writing Fantasy Clicks/Revelations, I’ll be penning SI.com’s expansive fantasy baseball preview (running in March); and I’m slated to co-host a radio show (or podcast) on the Fantasy Sports Channel sometime in February (with SI cohort Jeff Ritter). I also won the FSWA’s Fantasy Football Writer of the Year award in January (SI’s first-ever honor in the fantasy genre).

Three questions

1) You used to be the lead writer for DetroitLions.com. Can you describe the environment of covering the team that employed you? How much latitude did you get, and how much oversight did you have to deal with? Did 0-16 happen because you left? My boss with the Lions, Bryan Bender, is one of the greatest managers of people I have ever known — and I’m including the (rare) occasions he’d read you the riot act behind closed doors. Bender gave me the freedom to pursue out-of-the box features and write brutally frank in-game stories — without fearing reprisal from the PR staff — and I will always appreciate the impact he’s had on my writing career.

Regarding the atmosphere at the Lions’ training facility … I loved jogging every night, barefooted, on the team’s Flubber-like FieldTurf at the indoor practice field, I loved sampling world-class dishes from our in-house chefs, I loved staying in four-star hotels on the road and I loved talking shop with the scouting department (especially come draft time). I even admired Matt Millen for the way he handled people on a daily basis (his record as an NFL exec, though, is indefensible). That aside, I could never work for a professional sports team again. The amount of proverbial red tape one has to endure, to effectively do their job, is staggering; and now that I know what it’s like to work at Sports Illustrated … I would never return to the dark side.

2) Sports Illustrated seems to be concentrating more on fantasy these days after not jumping in quite as quickly or strongly as some of its major-media competitors. Have you noticed a change in philosophy in your time there? How much do you think your FSWA award means to the SI.com fantasy operation? I’ve always believed that SI had the resources to compete with the fantasyland big boys (including the four-letter network — we‘re gunning for ya!). We just needed a bold plan to get the ball rolling, and in this fabulous Web age, we now have the world-renowned assistance of Facebook to help carry out our fantasy mission — especially when targeting that crucial 16-24 age demo. The FSWA award simply validates our commitment to the process, while establishing credibility for future projects and promotions.

3) It’s pretty impressive to have won the award in your first year as a fantasy writer. How did the fantasy gig come to join your other SI.com duties? On a normal NFL Sunday, I will be in the office until 5-6 a.m., putting the final touches on the award-winning Fantasy Revelations. But I would be there even longer if it wasn’t for the gracious efforts of my immediate bosses/mentors, Dan George and Lonny Krasnow. From day one, they have moved mountains for me to write Clicks in relative serenity … without it hindering my regular work duties (like running the NFL page); and I certainly owe them a debt of gratitude for that. As for winning the prestigious honor on my first try … it was a humbling experience, for sure. But at the same time, my long-term goals involve winning at least three more individual awards. That way, I could join the Mount Rushmore of fantasy writers: Christopher Harris, Matthew Berry and Will Carroll. By my count, they have taken home the hardware on 15 different occasions, with each acclaimed writer winning at least four times. Perhaps then, I’ll be satisfied with my work.

Bonus: Has it been a help or a hindrance so far to look like Brian Baldinger’s younger brother? Do you have a boomerang-shaped pinky as well? Are you referring to Gary Baldinger? I couldn’t find any pictures of him … or his mangled pinkie. Nevertheless (in my best PR director’s voice) … “this interview is over!”