The discussion I hear way to often about fantasy sports is 90% always related to fantasy football. Do people really prefer checkers to chess or go fish to rummy 500? Fantasy football is fun don’t get me wrong, but it’s also something that groups of fifty – sixty year old single mom’s get together to play. If you honestly think you are good at fantasy football you need to step into the world of fantasy baseball.
I dunno, maybe I’m just being super dorky when I tell people I literally love fantasy baseball. It is a real grind knowing the top 300 baseball players (compared to the top 100 football payers). In fantasy baseball you start anywhere from 17 – 23 players where as in football lineups have nine starting players….nine…literally a blind toucan could put together a lineup and win any given week. The Matthew Berry’s of the world and the rest of the major sports networks go on TV every week and tell the public Aaron Rodgers or Antonio Brown is a great start this week. Like really? Football is HUGE it’s the most covered sport in America, if you can’t figure out who is a good or bad start in the NFL then maybe you shouldn’t be watching.
Maybe you don’t like checking lineups everyday, analyzing park factors with different weather patters, or right handers vs left hander splits. I however love it, baseball is everything that makes sports great. Personally in my own situation I have played fantasy baseball for close to twenty years now, my first being in 1999. I remember thinking Pedro and Randy Johnson were absolutely amazing. Troy Glaus was my third basemen and he helped me finish in the top half of my league. Having to check everyday to see who was pitching against my squad gave me something to do as I sat in class. I would race home after football practice just to see if any of my guys had hit a home run. There were no cell phones back then (yeah that sounds old) so making sure my mom stayed off the phone so I could log on to AOL was the absolutely brutal. Years later I still play and love it 365 days a year. The eleven other managers in my league consist of childhood / high school friends and my brother. It’s by far the most competitive thing I still participate in today.
Fantasy baseball gives you the ability to win on any given day of the week, it gives you the ability to talk smack to your opponent any given day of the week, and at any point in the season you can discover the next Mike Trout by scurrying the waiver wire of 300+ players. Fantasy football honestly only takes tweaking your lineup Sunday before the games start. At any week a random running back could go off for 200 yards and a pair of touchdowns. You may have played it perfectly; sat this guy, started this guy. You did everything the experts told you to do, but the guy who never checks his team has left in the Browns back up wide receiver in his lineup, and he scored three touchdowns that week..you lose. Things like this never happen in baseball because the outcome can not be decided by one single day. And a championship can not be decided by one single week, its a marathon not a sprint.
This brings me back to checkers vs chess or go fish vs rummy 500. Fantasy football is dumbed down for the masses to play as is checkers and go fish. It takes time an patience to play chess or rummy 500, just as it does fantasy baseball. Playing this game has made me much more of a fan of the MLB so much so that I could sit and watch any game as I would watch any NFL game. There are many different ways to play too, you can set it up so it’s head to head matchups, just like you would have it in football. You then get a week to battle it out with whoever it is you are playing. For those who say its boring I just turn and shrug my shoulders. I’m all for fantasy football, I just like more of a challenge and playing a game that is based off skill rather than luck.
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First time reading your blog. Saw your signature on RW and thought I would check it out. Love the post. Have played FF since 2007, and this will be my first official year of fantasy baseball (helped fill out a league in 2008, forgot to draft, and actually ended up winning the league with my auto-draft team lol). So in the grand scheme of things I am a relatively newer fantasy player overall.
I do agree with you, and the many others who post on RW baseball forums, about the easier thought process associated with fantasy football. However, there are a few points I would like to make:
1) While it isn’t quite as prevalent in football, there are weather factors to be taken into account before game day (i.e. wind, temperature, rain, etc.). So you can still check weather patterns in football, and even some stadium factors as well (dome vs outdoor, the grass at Soldier Field, terrible field quality at Levi Stadium).
2) For some people it isn’t about whether or not we love to check lineups every single day, it is about having time to do so. Families, work, etc. make it so that only being able to check every so often is the only manageable choice. And just FWIW: Matthew Berry is an idiot. If you go through the football forums, no one listens to that guy haha.
3) While in baseball you have to follow a much greater number of players, football offers the opportunity to fight for a much smaller pool of useable players. When you compare roster sizes it is comparing apples to oranges. It also depends on league settings. I have played in leagues with closer to 16+ starting spots.
Just to reiterate, not here to argue, just wanting to post some (although not all) of the perspectives from someone who does enjoy playing FF. I love the post, and I am really excited to get into fantasy baseball this year and hope it will be something I can do for many years to come. I have been a baseball fan for many years, but I am perusing through every book and website I can to learn metrics, analysis on minor league players, future prospects, drafting strategies, etc. And while I am sure there are some FF players who have negative things to say about fantasy baseball, I just think that to each their own. People have their reasons for playing either, or both. It seems as though most people enjoying playing both, and have their reasons for doing so. Chess and Mastermind are great games and definitely a challenge, but sometimes playing Checkers or Go Fish is just a nice way to still get to play a game but not have to think as much. In the end, each game has luck and skill. While one might have more luck or more skill, anything can happen in any given season in any given sport.
My username on RW is Too_Bad, hopefully I can get some more posts on the baseball forum as I gain more knowledge and confidence with the game. I also look forward to browsing your blog more often, as I also love me some adult beverages 😀
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Sounds good Matt, thanks for checking the blog. Hope to keep it active as well as on the RW forums.
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