There are only a few things that can turn something of pure beauty into some kind of monster like Frankenstein or Jose Conseco.
America's pastime is now in full swing and while most are enjoying everything that the MLB Season has to offer, I find myself painstakingly watching Baseball Tonight every evening.
The reason for my newfound detest for the game I love: Fantasy baseball.
2008 is the third season of my involvement in this great game of statistics, where numbers are everything and 162 games are turned into a seven month stay in purgatory. Now don't get me wrong, fantasy sports are great. Fantasy football is a blast, where running backs are key to every victory and you want to play against the Oakland Raiders every week. Fantasy basketball and hockey also have their own strong following, although I have only tried to play each once and failed horribly.
But the idea of fantasy baseball seemed so promising and fun. It's over half a year of players to own, teams to cover, and friends to kill mercilessly each week. After one year - the glorious year of 2006 - I won my league; all doubts I previously had about this statistical splendor went out the window, and I was certain that fantasy baseball would never cease to be a yearly occurrence.
However, as the old saying goes: Never say never.""
Two years later, and the inner angst and anxiety that I have already felt within the first week-and-a-half have sent me into a downward spiral.
After drafting Prince Fielder in the first round, I decided to sit back and relax, waiting for the home runs to pile up. Yet seven games into the season, Fielder has yet to send one out of the park. This brings me to the first problem with fantasy baseball: The need for instant gratification.
Society today is built around getting things fast and easy. While fantasy sites such as CBSSports.com make watching baseball and your fantasy team very easy, that sentiment unfortunately doesn't translate over to your players.
There is no reason for me to be upset with Prince, and in fact, I never could and never will be upset with him. But the fantasy owner inside of me is beating to get out, wanting to race to Milwaukee and plead with the reigning National League home run king to get back into it.
With that said, the second problem is the amount of games. 162 games is fine with me, but it surely doesn't translate well to fantasy. Keeping track of 15 players over 23 weeks can be tiresome, especially if you encounter the season I had last year, where injuries piled up. Many friends over the past two seasons have stopped caring, or dropped out completely, as even checking one's lineup once a week can become a challenge.
However, with all of that said - and I want to remind everyone that these ""problems"" are based off of my own experience - I truly love the sport of baseball, both real and fantasy. I will undoubtedly continue to frantically flip through every box score, checking every player I own - both past or present.
Fantasy baseball has made me a fanatic for the game I was already a devoted follower of and no matter how many antacids I have to take to deal with the atrocious aspects that come with it, I can't imagine living without it.
If you'd like to join Nate at his weekly Fantasy Fanatics Anonymous meeting, e-mail him at ncarey@dailycardinal.com.
