We are a fantasy baseball league whose draft is scheduled for May 1. Ten men enter (or nine or eight), and one man leaves.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

I Hate the Lying

English: Bill O'Reilly at a Hudson Union Socie...
English: Bill O'Reilly at a Hudson Union Society event in September 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So many things about which we evade or deceive:

* our ratio of having had sex with a woman - or human; no foregrounding heterosex here -  vs. having had sex with our hand
* our having run run away or turned and faced the mob as Bill O'Reilly did
* our having had sex with Bill O'Reilly, who may be a pod person and thus doesn't count

But I think no deception runs deeper than exactly how much draft preparation we do. This morning I googled fantasy league dollar values and was happy to have confirmed that there is no league like our league in terms of categories and eligibility and amount we have to invest at auction. Dollar values I found don't correlate to our practice.

But that does not mean I won't print out a cheat sheet or two and then tweak them to my own uses. Indeed, knowing our little league is unique gives me a certain pride. We were an early one, starting -  I recall in 1984 - at the instigation of the late Patrick Finley who saw it (as he did all things prefaced with a dollar sign) as his cash cow. First year the buy in was $30. Second year he increased it to $40. Third year he raised it to $50 and would have continued, but we put our foot down. It is interesting to note that if we adjust the 1986 buy in for inflation it would cost $106 this year.

But (third "but" in a row - that can't be good) it's not about the money but the fame. Though I do remember the year Jon Carroll refused to pay off the winners, which may have been the beginning of the end for our friendship. I think a couple of friendships have been dented during the life of the league, but I'm not sure any others have actually ended.

Hey, wait: Koppy, Pressman, Russ and Peter's evil boss. And, of course, there was the man-wife accountant team whose names I can't remember, though I don't think they rose to the level of acquaintance. I guess the league has had its share of minor drama, though probably not enough for a sitcom.

6 comments:

Peter said...

I just got the USA Today Sports Weekly Fantasy issue. I have plenty of time to peruse it. Be afraid, be very afraid.

KB said...

Well, I'm going to Whisky Live tonight, so that should be preparation in its own way. (I ain't paying.)

corwin said...

the new phonebooks are here ! the new phonebooks are here !

oboglo said...

Phonebooks? Is that, like, a new Apple product?

....J.Michael Robertson said...

And from this I glean:

Whoa. USA Today WF Issue is out. Must have. Eat sportswriters' brains.

Whoa. Berger's journalist ethics are as shredded as a Giants reliever's elbow.

....J.Michael Robertson said...

Jesus, I just took a close look and the Whisky Live link and for the first time I am really upset with Kevin.

Why him, God? Why not me?