Fantasy Becomes Reality for Some of Us

It’s summertime and when the weather gets warm it’s time for some warm weather sports. My favorite warm weather sport is fantasy baseball. You probably thought I was referring to a sport you play outdoors. That’s not how I roll, homey. I like the outdoors and I like to play sports outdoors, like softball, but that isn’t happening in Beaver Dam (again, don’t get me started on that subject).
I admit it, I am a fantasy geek, not just baseball, but basketball as well. I don’t know how I got started on this path, but I have been a fantasy geek for over 10 years. That’s a lot of wasted time my friends, time that could have been better put to use by watching TV. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, you know?
I got involved in a fantasy basketball league with a friend. This league cost money; I realized very quickly that fantasy sports are more fun when they are free, so I started playing Yahoo! Fantasy sports. I was introduced to the live draft and it was over. I am pretty good, I don’t win every league I’m in, but I won my fair share of Yahoo! League titles (toot, toot, goes my horn). No league title is more satisfying than when won in a league against friends. I don’t know what it is, but it is just much more fun to crush and humiliate your friends than to beat a bunch of strangers, but I’m sure you all feel the same way as I.
The problem began when I spent more and more time online agonizing over my teams. I would micromanage to the point that if a player on my team goes 0 for 4 in one game, I promptly cut him and look for a flash in the pan, hot player. I have learned that you need to wait at least a week before you undergo a massive overhaul.
I now manage my team with a more “laissiez faire” approach. I do spend some time during the weekdays on my four teams, but I rarely get online during the weekend to manage my teams. I also try to keep up with the hot players for the week, month, and season. You have to, to keep an edge. Sometimes you have to gamble on unproven players to succeed and 80% of the time it doesn’t work out the way you would have hoped. You have to just keep your ear to the ground, your nose to the grindstone, and whatever other body parts to whatever they need to be put to, to win a fantasy league championship. I seem to dominate and devastate and blow my competing managers away, so something seems to be working for me. Fantasy baseball is a passion that will never subside, I’m afraid.
Some of you who share my passion maybe interested in some tips I have learned over these many years in the game, while others may have quit reading after the first sentence, either way, I do have a few, use them at your own risk.

1.Draft good players.

2.Don’t trash talk the first week of the season. There is still plenty of time for me to come back and beat the brakes off you.

3.No matter the type of league you are playing in, whether you make daily changes or weekly changes, do not forget to make your changes.

4.Do not under any circumstances offer me a trade that a 2 year old knows not to take, for example: Alex Sanchez for Alex Rodriguez. Just because they have the same first name does not mean they are equal in value.

5.If you are able to make posts on a message board in your league, try to use words with more than four letters and DO NOT USE ALL CAPS WHEN POSTING MESSAGES. IT IS REALLY ANNOYING, SEE!!!!!!

6.If you are a fan of a certain team, don’t draft all your players from that team, for example. I am a Cincinnati Reds fan, if all my players were from the Reds, I would never win a fantasy championship. Think with your brain, not your heart.

7.If you can find a way to bend the rules or use the system to your advantage do it. My motto has always been, win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

Those are just a few suggestions that I guarantee will lead to you to a fantasy championship, whatever the sport.
I really shouldn’t tell you this, but I have found a brand new and exciting game to play. It is not quite a fantasy sport, but it fun, addictive, and frustrating. It is called Beat the Streak on MLB.com. The game is played like this; you pick a player from any team everyday. Your object is too beat Joe DiMaggio’s hit streak of 56. If the players you pick put together a hit streak of 57 games in a row, you win $100,000. Check out MLB.com for more details. I and my friends having been “streaking” for a few weeks with varying degrees of success. You can create your own league and play against your friends or you can join my league. My league name is, of course, The OC Streakers and the password is octimes. If you are a fan of fantasy sports, I promise you will be hooked by this game.
Well, now you know how much of a geek I am, but I don’t care. I know for a fact that there are many out there just like me. Come, join us.