Saturday, June 25, 2011

From First to Worst

Wow, has it been that long since I have posted to this blog? What's happened? I know what's happened -- facebook -- the blog-killer. So, obviously I must have something very important to say, something that could not be constrained within the boundaries of Facebook. What is it that I have to tell the world about, get off my mind, etc.?

The plight of my fantasy baseball team.

I've been in a couple fantasy leagues the past few years, but this year I am down to just one. It can take up a lot of time, especially when you are looking to find the best players at any one time but you're only really familiar with the teams in your hometown or which your hometown teams play.

I've done pretty well the past couple years in this league. Last year mine was one of the top four teams at the end of the season. And this year I drafted an all-star lineup: Pitchers Jake Peavy, Matt Garza; catcher Buster Posey; Home Run Hitter Adam Dunn; Base-stealer Juan Pierre; Boston Red Sox Relief pitchers Jonathan Papplebon and Bobby Jenks. Man, I had every corner covered.

Until they actually started playing. Dunn not only hasn't hit any home runs, he hasn't hit anything. The Red Sox started the season horribly and Jenks fell off the map and the Sox' roster. Peavy has gone off and on the disabled list. Pierre can't buy a hit, which means he can't steal any bases, either. Posey got hurt and is out for the season. And Garza pitches for the Cubs.

Despite it all, I actually was in first place in my five-team division for the first couple weeks this season. But I've fallen off since then and have gotten beat badly a few weeks. This week I am up against a team with as bad a record as mine and whose owner doesn't seem to be paying much attention to it since three of his starting batters are on the disabled list. And he's beating me 10-4 so far.

But it's fun, still It's fun to play with numbers, it gives me a reason to care about most baseball games, and it's something to play around with when I'm bored and in front of a computer. Otherwise, I'm counting the weeks until hockey season -- I'm the defending champ in that fantasy league.