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Fantasy sports: 'Worst trend of the last three decades'

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Jan 14, 2011.

  1. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    Like many people have pointed out, a late-season game that may not have any interest to people suddenly has interest because you may have a wide receiver/quarterback/running back involved that's on your fantasy team. That helps TV ratings for less-important games rise and it's helped the whole NFL package go up in numbers when TV itself is going down.

    I play fantasy baseball and football and offer no apologies. It's a lot of fun, especially when you win, but it's fun regardless. The people that don't make it fun are the people that look at you like you're Charles Manson when you make a bad trade. Thankfully, there aren't many of those left around my leagues.
     
  2. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    When I'm in a group watching a game in which there is a very strong and very obvious direct rooting interest (hometown team, college alma mater) in the actual game itself, and somebody starts yammering about their fantasy team, I let them know in no uncertain terms that nobody gives a flaming flying fuck about their fantasy team.
     
  3. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Is there anyone else who lost interest in fantasy sports post-internet? I loved the social side of it, getting together for the draft, having weekly card games/trading sessions/smack talk, etc. Of course the commissioner would have a shitload of work without the 'net doing it all, but we usually cut him a small salary out of the entry fees.

    I just could never get into online drafts and all. I know, I'm 582 years old.
     
  4. blacktitleist

    blacktitleist Member

    I wrote for a fantasy site for a while, and that hardened me towards ever playing that shit again.

    The other guys on the site had multiple teams for NFL, College FB and Hoops, Baseball, Hockey, and that is all they talked about. How many teams they had in regular leagues, in keeper leagues, in IDP leagues, in rookie-only leagues. How the fuck could you possibly keep up that with much crap and still live a normal existence?

    Myself and the other NFL writer would get hundreds of weekly emails about who we though should start/sit each week. It was absolutely maddening. Make up you own damn minds, morons.

    We'd have weekly conference calls about what writers were working on and all they talked about were their various fantasy teams.

    I got to the point where I just put my phone on speaker and mute and cleaned the kitchen for the next 20 minutes.

    Since I left there, I have not, nor will I, ever play in a fantasy league again.
     
  5. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    So it was a fantasy league, after all.
     
  6. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    Worked with a guy who was in an Olympics fantasy league one year.
     
  7. Point of Order

    Point of Order Active Member

    Yes, yes, and yes!
     
  8. Guy_Incognito

    Guy_Incognito Well-Known Member

    I was in my parents attic the other day & came across a Rickey Henderson folder with all the mailings I got from "Home Sports", early rotisserie sports league. I was in 10th grade & spent lots of time on the phone with middle age men - all trade discussions & FA signings were over the phone. We had to pay $5 a trade & $3 a FA. I remember signing hot rookies Randy Myers & Roberto Kelly (& less successfully, Mike Deavereaux & Jeff Treadway). We got weekly newsletters in the mail. I named all my teams (& still do) after my uncle's company, because he's the one who paid for the initial $100 entrance fee. After about 3 years, the leagues all folded when the commissioner got divorced & his ex-wife got the computer.
     
  9. Beef03

    Beef03 Active Member

    This.

    I play a fantasy hockey league with some friends of mine back home. I was the best man for the guy who runs it. In this league it's his wife that takes it far to seriously. My first year in it I won going away and all his wife did was swear at me for a solid year because she finished second for like the third year in a row. I'm not kidding about the swearing either. This year my team is last because it has been killed by injuries. So all she does is talk smack over that then when I finally respond she gets offended. It's almost enough to make me want to quit, except the draft party is usually a lot of fun -- although this year there were far too many rugrats running around -- and its one of the few things I get to do with my brother who is 12 years younger than I am.
     
  10. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Yes.
     
  11. Pringle

    Pringle Active Member

    Just got my Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster and my Baseball America Almanac 2011 from Amazon this morning.

    It's like Christmas!
     
  12. Guy_Incognito

    Guy_Incognito Well-Known Member

    Just bought my 9 year old his first Strat-O-Matic set, which unfortunately had only 6 teams from 2002 (damn e-bay), but also in my parents attic I found boxes of cards from the mid-80s & HOFers, as well as one game each of football & "Know How" - both of which if I recall were not nearly as awesome as baseball, which I used to spend countless hours with.
     
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