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7/5/00
Email Commish
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This
week it's time to talk about living the fantasy. This site is dedicated
to football but there is a whole world of fantasy sports out there
to take part in. Not to many years ago I would have completely ignored
an article on a football site that bothered to even mention another
fantasy sport.
What is your favorite fantasy sport-Baseball, Basketball, NASCAR,
Golf, Hockey or Football? Have you ever tried one of the sports?
I got my start playing fantasy basketball before moving on to football
and then adding NASCAR and baseball to my repertoire. I don't know
if I have a favorite but I am partial to football, probably because
I have had more success at it.
When I compare the various sports I have likes and dislikes about
each one… like for baseball I really like the many different formats
and the 16 scoring categories. I like drafting a lot of players
and I like the week to week changes that make a tiny difference
but can't wreck a season because of one bad game. I like playing
every team each week and I like trading a quality catcher for a
decent 2nd baseman. You can't really do that in football. It's not
the same thing in football... trying to trade Tony Banks for San
Francisco's Defense. However, in baseball you can trade Bobby Estella
for Mike Lansing and it can really help your team. I don't like
the length of the season for baseball. I have a relatively short
attention span… a season that lasts from April to October is way
too long for me. Baseball does fill a very important void in my
fantasy schedule though. That dead football period between February
and the spring draft is very comfortable filled by the research
and baseball drafts.
Fantasy basketball is pretty cool. Again I like drafting guards,
forwards, and centers and it's pretty cool to check the scoring
each day to see which players had assists, points and rebounds.
It's simple enough to keep up with and most leagues give bonuses
for leading the league in rebounds, scoring or blocked shots each
week which gives a little added fun too. But unfortunately the season
is pretty long for basketball too. I mean you draft during the heart
of the football season in October and the leagues don't end until
the start of the play-offs in the spring. Basketball also fills
a nice opening in the fantasy schedule. The time between the end
of the football play-offs and the start of the baseball season.
Fantasy NASCAR is fun for some guys but the time I ran the league
it just was plain mind-numbing. You can only draft so many Kenny's,
Dale's, and Dick's. The season is unbelievably long and at the time
that I was running the league it was very difficult to even keep
the stats and the standings. Now there are stat services that will
help you out but still some things don't deserve a fantasy version.
Now we get to football. Oh sure there are some things that I don't
like about football, like how luck seems to be involved in the outcome
more than any other sport or how a bad spot or official's call can
wreck your entire season. There are a lot of things that need to
be fixed but there are a lot of things that are right already. It
is easy to find information and it is easy keep up with year round.
Very little slips under the cracks during the season and during
the off-season it's sometimes easier to get information than during
the season. Football is fun… anyone can participate and with a little
research and most can compete immediately. Try that in baseball,
it's possible but not probable.
At this point you are probably wondering what the point of this
article is? It's simple... fantasy sports are not just a fall activity
and they can be enjoyed year round. I live the fantasy life and
you can too. Here is my fantasy schedule starting in January.
In January I start putting the plans
together for the Super Bowl party including ordering the traveling
plaque and trophy for the winner and start planning for my baseball
draft.
In February I am completely baseball
oriented. I am completely immersed in baseball research. It takes
several weeks for me to prepare for the baseball drafts so those
take up pretty much up all of February. I am also now in the play-off
hunt in my dynasty basketball league.
In March I turn my attention to those
semi-legal NCAA basketball pools. I run and/or participate in 5
or 6 each spring. Besides pro football, college basketball is my
all-time favorite sport. While I am a University of Kentucky fan
I can watch just about any college basketball game.
In April the baseball drafts
take place and all of my attention goes to the three leagues I participate
in. I don't run any of the baseball leagues but I have in the past
and it is single-handedly the most difficult task in all of fantasy
sports. It's also time for me to start doing my research on the
NFL draft. I don't spend a ton of time working on the pre-draft,
I prefer to wait until after the draft and then go back and look
at the players that I might be interested in. It's one thing to
say you like Gino Carmazzi of Hofstra before the draft and then
another to say that you will draft him after you found out that
the 49ers took him and Tim Rattay. Who has the upper-hand? It's
hard to say just yet so why waste a ton of time researching the
players when you've got summer training camps for that.
May, it's golf, fishing, and softball
time in the Ohio Valley. My baseball teams are still in hunt…hopefully
and I am starting to talk to the football guys to check and see
if there are any questions, trades, or any guys who want to drop
out.
In June the temperature begins to
rise and fishing stops for a while and now baseball is serious.
You can really hurt your team during this period because this is
when guys start going on vacation and if your not careful you can
drop a lot categories quickly. Also, the hamstrings start popping.
If you are in a dynasty football league then June 1st might be the
most important non-season day of the year. It's drop/waive/save
some space under the cap to sign the newest great white hope.
July brings humidity and boredom.
Baseball continues but only a couple of teams are realistically
still in the hunt and as long as Pedro doesn't go on the DL you
can just about put your team on auto-pilot. I am currently in first
but Pedro just went on the DL so I suppose that I have to wait for
autopilot to be engaged. The planning starts to begin for the football
drafts. Everyone is getting jumpy and they want to start the draft
so they enter mock drafts and push the commish (me) to start the
draft before mini-camps even begin.
August well the baseball season is
all but over for everyone but two or three teams and the football
season is just around the corner. Mini-camps are over and the pre-season
has begun. Everybody is pushing their drafts back as far as possible
now as to avoid being the one who drafts this years Trent Green.
The leagues are full and the draft party is over and everyone thinks
they have the super bowl champion.
In September despite my wedding anniversary
the month belongs to football. Every game that is on I watch and
dissect and try to find the role player that is getting more playing
time than he should letting other owners pick up suckers like Leshon
Johnson after two great games. The baseball season continues but
no one is interested except the top two teams at this point and
even those two teams have long since put the season on ice except
for big time injury news.
In October I am putting 90% of my
time into the football season but 7% has to be channeled to the
NBA draft. The season starts in November but luckily there are only
rookies to draft in my dynasty league. The football season is won
or lost by the acquisitions made during this month. If you did at
all a decent job back in August then you will only need to fill
in for some injuries and back-ups. It may be a good job to add players
just to keep someone else from having him.
November, both the football and basketball
season are in full swing. I am spending more time getting my football
team in play-off shape but I can't abandon my basketball team altogether.
The play-offs start and I can either be in the Super Bowl or Toliet
Bowl. I guess I should mention that I am now playing in four or
five football leagues and hopefully in the running in each league.
December, it's purely basketball this
month and watching the NFL play-offs. This is the month that I use
to re-energize my fantasy batteries because I do less in this month
than any other. Finally, I can catch up with what's going on with
my wife… hey baby what's happening?
As you can tell I live the fantasy. I can tell you as much about
the back-up center for the Milwaukee Bucks as I can about the light
hitting base stealing second baseman of the Florida Marlins or the
number five receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals is. I think it makes
me a well-rounded sports fan. My wife thinks I am an idiot and my
friends ask how I can ever get any work done. That's why I am living
the fantasy!
Next week we discuss my favorite NFL players…and the ones I could
care less about. .
:: comments to the
commish
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