In Defense of a Beautiful Fantasy

LGM Baseball Challenge 2006 is over, and it appears that, in spite of a strong effort, Dave Noon lacked the will, resolve, and moral certitude necessary to defeat the Kentucky Bearded Ducks. Of Loomis’ late season collapse the less said the better.

Second Half Final Standings:

1 Kentucky Bearded Ducks , R. Farley 3566
2 Axis of Evel Knievel , D. Noon 3422
3 Bolts from the Blue , R. Payne 3204
4 I Love Technology , E. Loomis 3198
5 The Stugotz , B. Petti 2974
6 Shangri-La Coelacanths , J. Daw 2934
7 green weinies , W. Bell 2909
8 GeorgeWCarpetbagger , P. McLeod 2901
9 titleixbaby , P. Smith 2894
10 Sector 7G Carbon Blobs , S. Meredith 2573
11 St. Louis Cardinals , D. Solzman 2539

Overall Final Standings:

1 Kentucky Bearded Ducks , R. Farley 7704
2 Axis of Evel Knievel , D. Noon 7433
3 I Love Technology , E. Loomis 7278
4 Bolts from the Blue , R. Payne 6989
5 titleixbaby , P. Smith 6816
6 The Stugotz , B. Petti 6499
7 green weinies , W. Bell 6460
8 Shangri-La Coelacanths , J. Daw 6429
9 Sector 7G Carbon Blobs , S. Meredith 5881
10 St. Louis Cardinals , D. Solzman 5672
11 GeorgeWCarpetbagger , P. McLeod 5180
12 Eephus, J. Schroeder 3457
13 Seattle Hemicats, M. Bruneau 3362
14 Moscow Rats, I. Gray 3315
15 deez nuts, m s 3153

It had slipped my mind, but I’ve wanted for a while to bring some attention to Patrick Jackson’s wonderful defense of fantasy baseball. Thought by many to represent a gruesome intersection of various forms of “geek” and “nerd”, fantasy baseball should be thought of as just as real as field baseball:

I first want to debunk the notion that fantasy baseball is somehow less “real” than on-the-field, Major League Baseball. This kind of opposition is ordinarily signaled by the use of the term “real baseball” to designate the endeavor in which guys like Mike Mussina and Albert Pujols and hundreds of other players, coaches, managers, and front office staffs are engaged in. Yes, that endeavor is manifestly “real” — there are stadiums, contracts, telecasts, a specialized portion of the media, and live bodies trying to accomplish difficult tasks in a relatively constrained environment of rules and resources. Oh, yes, and win-loss records — everyone involved is trying to improve theirs. So sure, this is all “real” in the sense that if I personally were to close my eyes and ignore it, it would still be there, a manifest social fact, an experienced reality for millions of other observers. But exactly the same thing can be said about fantasy baseball, too. While it may not be physically as difficult to perform well in a fantasy competition, it’s still a competitive, rule-governed environment — just as much of a game as that thing that the Yankees and the 29 other Major League clubs do 162 times a year in the regular season is a game. No more and no less “real.”

Right. Indeed, I would suggest that the fantasy baseball enthusiast has a more concrete relationship to the game than a traditional baseball fan. Whereas the typical Reds fan can whine about the stupidity of trading Austin Kearns for a bunch of middle relievers, the fantasy baseball owner has substantial control over the destiny of his or her squad. That is, unless he put in a waiver claim on Josh Beckett with the assumption that Beckett would manage an ERA under five, and then finds that he can neither trade Beckett at substantial discount nor assemble the fortitude necessary to waive the bastard. But that’s a story for another day. Read the post.