Our Hobby
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:07 am
I continue to be very passionate about the NFBC, baseball, and the hobby that is fantasy baseball.
'Hobby'.
I guess that is the word for it.
Although I don't see hobby defined in the dictionary as a nightly struggle over decisions made about baseball players and those same players making our lives easier or harder on a daily basis.
Stamp collectors and coin collectors have a neat and tidy hobby.
They buy a stamp or coin and smile as they put it in their collection.
We 'buy' a player and watch.
Some will bring a smile to our face.
Like those collectors with their stamps or coins.
It's the players that do not bring a smile to our face that make our hobby different.
Imagine being a stamp collector. You've just bought the 'Wright Brothers Upside down plane' stamp.
He gets to put that stamp in a special place and admire it.
If he were in our hobby, that plane could be right side up after the first night.
Worse, after the second night, that stamp would start eroding.
After the third night, it would start effecting all the other stamps around it.
One bad player pickup in our 'hobby' has that effect.
Stamp and coin collectors are lucky.
Each coin or stamp has a value attached to it.
We try to give players a 'value', but we know it is only opinion.
Look what happened on the 'Dark Side' of Fantasy Camp this year.
The only thing known to early drafters was that David Johnson should be the number one pick. And that he should be followed by Leveon Bell and Ezekial Elliot.
Of course, Johnson got hurt.
Bell held out so he wouldn't have to practice, and since returning has looked like he needs.....PRACTICE!
Elliot has woman problems. He hits them harder than he has hit holes so far....
Those are three everybody HAD to have....two weeks later, their 'value' not near the same.
In our 'hobby', players have 'value', uh, until they don't.
Chalk one up for the stamp and coin enthusiasts.
They know what they're getting.
Stamps and coin collectors also know who has the greatest collection of stamps and coins.
Each year, we have to start a new process to see who has the best collection in our hobby.
To me, it is the most fickle part of our hobby.
I am amazed at how smart and stupid we can all be.
And at the same time too!
One year, we can see one of our hobbyist selected for the Hall of Fame.
Then, year after year, watch that Hall of Famer finish near the bottom of leagues.
In our hobby, we look and strive for sustained success.
In this way, our hobby veers from stamp or coin collecting to golf.
Golfers also look for sustained success.
It is a 'pie in the sky' dream of course.
Like golf, we can't hope to take the same swings and expect great results every time.
We fail.
And like golfers, we're wrong in our reckoning as much or more than we are right about taking a shot.
Look at our Main Event Standings today.
We have the person who finished first, last year, in the greatest event of all, the Main Event, in 414th place this year.
We have a Hall of Fame player in 406th place.
We have a player who wrote a book on how to win fantasy baseball in 367th place.
But describing our hobby the best is this one....
We have a player who is 21st Overall.
And a player who is 353rd Overall.
It is the same fella!
It describes our hobby perfectly. We can be stupid or smart one year, then reverse the trend the next year.
Or, we can be smart and stupid the same year!
Stamp and coin collectors have it easy.
Their hobby cannot humble them.
It doesn't leave them curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor sobbing as the wife comes through the door saying,
"Bad fantasy baseball day again, Darling?"
It doesn't have them staring, disbelieving, at a monitor showing a score going from 1-0, to 3-0, to 6-0, to 8-0, knowing that the pitcher serving up those runs, is ours.
Stamp and coin collectors have never had one person on those stamps or coins flip them the bird.
We experience that every night.
And we flip them the bird in response.
Or find a kitchen floor and cry.
Our highs and lows are like that of a fiddler's elbow.
I've thought about quitting. I really have.
What do I need with a 'hobby' that gives me an emotional roller coaster ride each day?
One day, Kyle Hendricks is like a best buddy, five days later, my worst enemy.
One year, I finish in the top 10 Overall feeling smart, only to follow it up with a 400ish place the next year.
We're smart and stupid almost on a daily basis during the season.
I'll go to bed, not thinking about screwing a favorite movie starlet like some stamp or coin collectors will.
My thoughts are on ME being screwed by a pitcher that I started.
Who needs that?
....I guess I do.
Unlike a stamp or coin collector, our hobby provides mind play 24 hours a day.
Without a doubt, we have something to think about while we're at work, with the family, or simply on the john.
It's a perpetual inner struggle that you can't get with any other hobby.
Sometimes our minds want to burst.
Sometimes, we'll say "Huh?", way too much to our wives or friends who catch us in thoughts about our teams.
And most of the time, even after a bad year, we can't wait for the next to begin.
'Hobby'.
I guess that is the word for it.
Although I don't see hobby defined in the dictionary as a nightly struggle over decisions made about baseball players and those same players making our lives easier or harder on a daily basis.
Stamp collectors and coin collectors have a neat and tidy hobby.
They buy a stamp or coin and smile as they put it in their collection.
We 'buy' a player and watch.
Some will bring a smile to our face.
Like those collectors with their stamps or coins.
It's the players that do not bring a smile to our face that make our hobby different.
Imagine being a stamp collector. You've just bought the 'Wright Brothers Upside down plane' stamp.
He gets to put that stamp in a special place and admire it.
If he were in our hobby, that plane could be right side up after the first night.
Worse, after the second night, that stamp would start eroding.
After the third night, it would start effecting all the other stamps around it.
One bad player pickup in our 'hobby' has that effect.
Stamp and coin collectors are lucky.
Each coin or stamp has a value attached to it.
We try to give players a 'value', but we know it is only opinion.
Look what happened on the 'Dark Side' of Fantasy Camp this year.
The only thing known to early drafters was that David Johnson should be the number one pick. And that he should be followed by Leveon Bell and Ezekial Elliot.
Of course, Johnson got hurt.
Bell held out so he wouldn't have to practice, and since returning has looked like he needs.....PRACTICE!
Elliot has woman problems. He hits them harder than he has hit holes so far....
Those are three everybody HAD to have....two weeks later, their 'value' not near the same.
In our 'hobby', players have 'value', uh, until they don't.
Chalk one up for the stamp and coin enthusiasts.
They know what they're getting.
Stamps and coin collectors also know who has the greatest collection of stamps and coins.
Each year, we have to start a new process to see who has the best collection in our hobby.
To me, it is the most fickle part of our hobby.
I am amazed at how smart and stupid we can all be.
And at the same time too!
One year, we can see one of our hobbyist selected for the Hall of Fame.
Then, year after year, watch that Hall of Famer finish near the bottom of leagues.
In our hobby, we look and strive for sustained success.
In this way, our hobby veers from stamp or coin collecting to golf.
Golfers also look for sustained success.
It is a 'pie in the sky' dream of course.
Like golf, we can't hope to take the same swings and expect great results every time.
We fail.
And like golfers, we're wrong in our reckoning as much or more than we are right about taking a shot.
Look at our Main Event Standings today.
We have the person who finished first, last year, in the greatest event of all, the Main Event, in 414th place this year.
We have a Hall of Fame player in 406th place.
We have a player who wrote a book on how to win fantasy baseball in 367th place.
But describing our hobby the best is this one....
We have a player who is 21st Overall.
And a player who is 353rd Overall.
It is the same fella!
It describes our hobby perfectly. We can be stupid or smart one year, then reverse the trend the next year.
Or, we can be smart and stupid the same year!
Stamp and coin collectors have it easy.
Their hobby cannot humble them.
It doesn't leave them curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor sobbing as the wife comes through the door saying,
"Bad fantasy baseball day again, Darling?"
It doesn't have them staring, disbelieving, at a monitor showing a score going from 1-0, to 3-0, to 6-0, to 8-0, knowing that the pitcher serving up those runs, is ours.
Stamp and coin collectors have never had one person on those stamps or coins flip them the bird.
We experience that every night.
And we flip them the bird in response.
Or find a kitchen floor and cry.
Our highs and lows are like that of a fiddler's elbow.
I've thought about quitting. I really have.
What do I need with a 'hobby' that gives me an emotional roller coaster ride each day?
One day, Kyle Hendricks is like a best buddy, five days later, my worst enemy.
One year, I finish in the top 10 Overall feeling smart, only to follow it up with a 400ish place the next year.
We're smart and stupid almost on a daily basis during the season.
I'll go to bed, not thinking about screwing a favorite movie starlet like some stamp or coin collectors will.
My thoughts are on ME being screwed by a pitcher that I started.
Who needs that?
....I guess I do.
Unlike a stamp or coin collector, our hobby provides mind play 24 hours a day.
Without a doubt, we have something to think about while we're at work, with the family, or simply on the john.
It's a perpetual inner struggle that you can't get with any other hobby.
Sometimes our minds want to burst.
Sometimes, we'll say "Huh?", way too much to our wives or friends who catch us in thoughts about our teams.
And most of the time, even after a bad year, we can't wait for the next to begin.
But they are "flippers" more than they are players. They don't endure that day-by-day grind that we endure here, that's for sure.