There is a segment in the new documentary film, Fantasyland, when several esteemed baseball media veterans rail against fantasy baseball. I have to shake my head.
Mike Francesa of WFAN, Phil Mushnick of the New York Post and Hall of Fame writer Murray Chass are classified as "The Naysayers." They think fantasy baseball is "foolish" and "ridiculous."
At one point, Chass says,
"It used to be that people rooted for teams. But now, with the development of fantasy baseball, people are rooting for individual players."
The real question is, what is a "team" anymore? Back when I was growing up in the 1960's, I knew all the players on my New York Mets. I developed a relationship with these players because there was continuity each year. I knew that Ron Swoboda, Tom Seaver and Tug McGraw would all be wearing the blue and orange for at least a few seasons. And while I also knew some players would get traded, the core of the team would remain mostly intact. It was easy to find a rooting interest in the players and the team because they were one and the same.
Since the free agency era, most rosters turn over every 3-4 years. This is not condemning the process, just stating the reality. It is tough to find loyalty to the players on a team when the names change so often. Frankly, if there is a reason for the shifting focus from team loyalty to player loyalty, it is baseball's own damn fault.
Maybe comedian Jerry Seinfeld said it best: "We don't root for teams anymore. We root for laundry."
Fandom is all about finding a connection to the game. Fantasy baseball provides that connection, albeit in a different way from what we were used to.
The insult to fantasy leaguers, though, is that we are not real fans. The truth is, we all still love the game, perhaps even more than ever. We remain as much a fan of the sport as Francesa, Mushnick and Chass are. In fact, a strong case can be made that we are better, more informed fans.
We are more knowledgeable about all teams, not just our home team. We watch every game to its end, even blowouts. We need to know how each team is constructed and what their organizational philosophies are. We know about minor league prospects and understand how each team's depth chart impacts their potential path to the Majors. We try to understand how managers use their bullpens, the impact of lineup construction on run scoring, and the predictive value of just about every element of the game.
We still want teams to win, because when they win, we win. It's just not always the home team we're rooting for.
Mushnick calls us "anal retentive stat-chasers" as if these types of people never existed before fantasy baseball. For any kid who traded baseball cards, it was the sea of wonderful numbers on the back that held far more interest than the color photo on the front. And for those of us who played (and still play!) Strat-O-Matic, stats were everything. So this is nothing new.
The game has changed over the decades. The designated hitter, interleague play and the wild card were all intended to keep fans connected to the game. Fantasy baseball does the same.
Of course, there is always the potential for too much of a good thing. And the obsession of Fantasyland protagonist Jed Latkin does the hobby no favors. But behind his overly ambitious behavior resides no less of a "real" baseball fan than any of us.
We still watch games. We still root. When Johan Santana faces a player on one of my fantasy teams, I deal with it. I still want the Mets to win. If they win 5-4 with my fantasy team's Albert Pujols hitting two home runs, then everyone goes home happy.
Nothing wrong with that.
I watched the movie, and I enjoyed it. I found it interesting to hear the different views of fantasy sports. This post is perfect. In my experience, fantasy baseball and fantasy sports in general, has only deepened my passion for the game.
As a woman, I was even more intrigued at the way the average woman has reacted to Fantasy Sports.
It is so selfish to pass judgement on the value of someone else's hobby. Look ladies, do you think every man sees the value in your hours of scrapbooking, or what a 200 dollar pair of shoes has over the pair you can get at K-Mart? Uh, NO.
Not only that, but come on, he is at home. He is not out at the bar or cheating on you. It seems that the solution here is so obvious! If your marriage is suffering from your husband's 6 months of fantasy baseball, or 3.5 months of fantasy football....FIND your own hobby.
Or, even better, learn the game. Compete with them. Grasp onto the opportunity to beat them, or just go shopping.
If you are single, learn enough to carry on a conversation about sports. Your cuteness value will go up at least two notches, I promise.
Thank you Ron for your continued dedication to the game of fantasy baseball, and thank you to Mrs. Shandler and Mrs. Latkin for having it all figured out !!!
Andrea
To imply that fantasy league players are "foolish" and to tell them to "get a life" as one of the writers did just smacked of hypocrisy and arrogance. As for the three men quoted, Francesa has long been known to be more interested in his own opinion than those of his listeners. He's a bully and his insight to everything outside the Metropolitan area code is dubious at best. Mr. Mushnick has made an entire career about exposing the hypocrisy and exploitation of fans, yet he misses the fact that fantasy baseball is a result of fans wanting to create a way to enjoy the game of baseball without having to get gouged at the ballpark to do it. Murray Chass is an obvious old-schooler who longs for the days before ESPN, stat-heads like Mr. Shandler and bloggers when beat reporters actually had importance. He has never been shy about his disdain for the Sabermetric movement in baseball and seems surprised that people actually can see the beauty of the game of baseball through it's numbers alone.
As for being true fans of the game - I can say without a doubt that fantasy players love the game of baseball like no other fans. Keep up the good fight Ron.
The sports media wants to be the "smart" ones and dictate to the fans what's what (especially when it comes to baseball), never the other way around.