Fantasy Baseball

1. Begin season

Ah. "Begin Season". That's what Daddy likes.

I have never understood it. Yahoo only allows you to "see" a fantasy league if you're a part of it. I don't understand why this public/private decision isn't left up to the league itself. I mean, Yahoo makes its dough off people seeing ads. Why not let people who aren't in the league see those ads?

I do keep an auxiliary site for our league with some extra stats and what not... those pages are here: LetsPlay3 Fantasy Baseball.  I am hoping (against hope) to be running LetsPlay3 from my bed in the old folks home in between changes of my drool cup. It would be grand. Ha!

Oh well, blah blah blah. Fantasy baseball starts today and ends in the middle of September. It's a marathon, but it mimics reality in a lot of ways. Sometimes you pay close attention, sometimes you wander. Sometimes it's incredibly interesting and exciting, and sometimes you're on cruise control. All in all, it's a wonderful experience.

On opening day, I've got Yovanni Gallardo pitching @ the Cincy Reds.
Play ball!

2. Fantasy, reality

This is a fun idea form the WSJ. Just about 5% of all players taken in fantasy baseball teams are New York Yankees. This happens to be the top percentage of any team in baseball. The WSJ ranks teams based on this ownership percentage, and it's a pretty good ranking:

What Fantasy Baseball Tells Us About Actual Baseball

There are a couple of outliers there, like the Cub being ranked ahead of the Cardinal (he he), but we'll see.

3. Competitive Anger

Here's an interesting radio interview with Coach K from Duke. When asked about people hating Duke basketball, he, rightly, differentiates between competitive anger and irrational hate. Anger based on competition is fine. You want to beat the other guy. The other guy is often times more successful than you are. But when emotions rise past that competition and get into irrational hatred or personal attacks, then you're off the mark.

QOTD

"Competitive anger, I'm good with. Look, I hate the St. Louis Cardinals. Ya know, I'm a Chicago Cub fan... I still can't get over Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio... I love the Cubs. I love Chicago."
- Mike Krzyzewski, Duke basketball coach and Chicago native (espn radio interview, about 9 mins in)

I dislike the Cardinal.
play ball... yow, bill