As a man willing to blog about sports, I think its fairly obvious that I also play fantasy sports. Indeed, fantasy sports have permeated our society over the last decade in a way almost nobody expected.
However, I'm not here to talk about how fantasy sports grew to what it is or anything so trivial. That's all been done before by places with similar credentials to my own, like Sports Illustrated. Fantasy sports has created a serious problem, especially for me, and I'd much rather discuss that today in this inaugural blog post.
This year, I've made the conscious decision to try much harder in my fantasy baseball league. As such, and thanks to Western Oregon University's decision to give students MLBtv, I've watched much more baseball so far this season than I ever had before. Despite this, I couldn't tell you just how many teams are doing, and therein lies the problem I'm having with fantasy sports: I know longer care about the outcome of many a game and rather only care about certain players.
Indeed, this problem has been much worse than I ever anticipated it would be, as I've gotten to the point that I'll root against teams I love at some times simply because I want my pitcher to rack up strikeouts. I've become the proverbial Antoine Walker of fantasy baseball; I don't give a damn how the team does, as long as I get my stats.
The only solution I see to this, other than to have a less sociopathic obsession with sports, is to avoid adding players from teams I like. For instance, I've began openly avoiding using pitchers that are matched up against the Mariners simply because I want to enjoy the game and not bother with how many times Dallas Braden can strikeout Milton Bradley (which I believe is at least seven times a game).
And so, this all leads to my plea to you, the reader (which at some point I hope grows to readers): don't let fantasy sports ruin real sports. Instead, try to avoid playing with players on "your" team. Try a NL-only league if you're a Oakland fan. Better yet, go to hell if you're an Oakland fan, but I digress. Try out a fantasy hockey league maybe; you'll gain an appreciation for a wonderful sport and won't give a damn when Steve Bernier misses another open net (seriously, that guy can't hit the net if he was inside it). If that all fails; well, you've got a lot worse problem than me, get some counseling my friend.
Very true. I know most of the time David only roots for players not teams in fantasy football. Hopes some one scores a TD or gets a set number of yards. Maybe an NL only league would be better in the future.
ReplyDeleteha, now i see why you want victor martinez.
ReplyDeletei have bounced most of my boston players for the same reason too.
(wtf it took three tries to post a comment.)