I started playing fantasy sports in college, I don’t think the actual year was important. PC’s weren’t common in dormitories or apartments at the time. I often used one in a computer lab between classes when I had a few minutes to check and set a lineup. It was just for fun and I recall playing exclusively on Yahoo! in the early days.
It wasn’t until I graduated and had some money that I joined my first “real” fantasy football league with a group of friends, mostly my fraternity brothers. My young bride and I were invited to a party in August, little did I know or maybe it was planned as a fantasy football draft. It was live, it took hours and it was fun. There was drinking of adult beverages, food and I would say fellowship. By the end of that night I recall trading Brett Favre who was in the peak of his career. I do not remember the haul, but I’m sure that I was snickered in the deal.
In another few years I jumped into fantasy baseball. It wasn’t like we know it currently. We only played weekend games, it was head to head and the home team was responsible for sending in a spreadsheet following the weekend with stats entered into an excel spreadsheet. How old is this guy, you might be thinking? Well I’m not that old that we didn’t have the internet at the time, this was just the way we did it for a time when I was in the league. In the end, the league was what we made of it and it became a lot of work and less fun. We graduated to an online version of the league and it still exists to this day. In fact, I won the Championship, my first in fantasy baseball in the 2018 season.
Now as we know, fantasy sports are primarlily done on-line through one of many different providers. You can use a computer, tablet or even a smartphone to access your league. The other day at the end of the day, I was editng some lineups before games started and a co-worker who isn’t familiar asked, “What it was.” I explained a litle and as a person not involved, he was impressed by what it was, the format of the site I was viewing and the knowledge that is required.
To me fantasy sports is entertainment, plain and simple. A majority of the leagues I participate in do have dollars and cents involved, but it isn’t difference making. A season goal is just to maintain enough winnings across the board to fund the following season among my portfolio of leagues. I also enjoy staying connected with friends that I’ve known for a long time, those I’ve met along the way and those yet to be introduced.
Leave a Reply
Friends don't let friends talk to themselves.
You must be logged in to post a comment.