Setting The Record Straight

With so many people criticizing me lately for my handling of fantasy sports I just wanted to take the time to set the record straight. So, Hernandez, Chen, Darren, and Roll brothers pull up a chair, open up a nice cold one, and pay close attention because this is for you.

First off, I'm not obsessed with fantasy sports. I don't know why you would make such allegations. It's not like I go around calling myself a fantasy god. Or spend several hours a day checking my lineups in over 20 leagues.

Okay, I'll admit it. Perhaps I am a little bit too involved. But you have to understand where I'm coming from. I'm not good at real sports like some of you are and since MLB teams won't hire me this is the closest that I can get to the game that I love. I really enjoy participating in fantasy leagues, mixing it up with my friends, and trying to prove that I know enough to be a real life GM.

Maybe I take things a little bit too seriously but that's only because I want it to mimic the intensity of real life. It bothers me when there are dead teams and people don't take the leagues they are in seriously. I understand that it's only a hobby for most people and that they probably have more important things going on in their life than checking their teams. But I don't. Fantasy sports are my one hobby and since I'm at a time in my life when I'm in a new place without a girlfriend, job, or many friends the leagues that I'm in take that much more precedent in my life.

However, I'm not as obsessed as everyone thinks that I am in that it's not life or death for me. I don't get up to the minute stats sent to me via my mobile phone. I don't check my team every hour. I don't scour the waiver wire or check other team's roster more than anyone else does. I just care about my teams and since yahoo has a feature where you can win trophies for finishing in the top three I want them to do well so that I can add to my trophy case. Other than that my level of involvement or obsession level is just the same as yours. The only difference is that the perception around me is that I'm obsessed since I get on people for not caring about their teams.

And for that I apologize. From now on I'm only going to care about my own involvement and not worry about what other people are doing. Ideally I will one day be in a competitive league where every owner is active but then again I also hope to one day wake up next to Keira Knightley. Since neither is likely to ever happen I want to move on to my next point.

Which is defining what is a fair way to run a league. The way I see it is that you have to be consistent. In baseball, there should be the same number of hitting and pitching categories. Conversly, you should either have innings pitched and games played limits or don't have them at all. You can't have limits for pitchers but not for hitters and vice versa. So just be consistent there. Personally, I feel that you should have limits for both since that's the only way to ensure that every owner has the same opportunity to amass points.

Some of you have argued that as long as everyone can start whoever they want then it's fair. But to me equal access to players is not what dictates fairness. To me you have to level the playing field and the only way to do that is to make sure each position is limited to 162 games of eligibility. That way the best team wins not necessarily the team that starts the most players.

I don't see how that point can be counterargued and yet it has by several people that I used to believe were smart. How they can argue that it's fair to start whoever they want is beyond me. It's just not fair. There's nothing they can say against that. It's just not fair. If they wanted to they could say that they prefer to do it a different way and I would buy that. I would even buy the arguement that it's more fun to have a limitless league so that you can actually use all of your bench players. But I can't buy the fact that it's fair because it's simply not. So, just keep that in mind when arguing with me. You'll never convince me that it's fair because logically it's not. You can only try to convince me that it's more fun which is a debate I'd be willing to take up with you.

And on that note I'm going to head out and take a dump before my 16th and final fantasy draft of the year kicks off. But before I do I just want to say one last thing. I may be overzealous and over bearing at times but I do it for the love of the game. Say what you will about me but always remember that if nothing else I have finally found something that I'm good at. And I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.