NFBC Message Boards

Probably a little too rushed on my part, but thought I'd give this a try before a day of celebrating Christmas with the family...


THE FACTS OF THE PAST....

Greg Ambrosius grew up in a fine family. He was close to his family. Especially his Mother, who he dearly loved.
As he grew, he began his life-long love affair with sports.
He became a Brewers fan and Packers fan. Loyalty bred.
It wouldn't do to root for other teams.

Progressing through school, Greg realized he had a knack for writing.
And it that writing concerned sports, all the better.
That writing progressed after school to jobs writing for newspapers and magazines.
Keeping his love for sports, he did more than root for the Packers and Brewers.
He started to play fantasy sports.
His love for writing and fantasy sports would soon bring him to write for Fantasy Sports Magazine.
A product of Krause Publications.

While there, he met and became members of several fantasy leagues and fantasy associations.
Young Greg knew that fantasy sports is where he wanted to spend his life.
While writing for the magazine, he brainstormed 'a league of his own'.
A high stakes league with no trades and 15 teams instead of the usual 8-12.
He pitched the idea to the magazine and got the go-ahead to launch.

That first year was a year of lost money for everybody except for the winners.
But, the next year was better.
And the next better....
Soon, the National Fantasy Baseball Championship was THE place to be if anybody wanted to claim to be an 'Expert' in the hobby.

Names like Gekko, Doughboys, King of Queens, Mike the Mouth, and Edwards Kings became known handles and well-known names on the Message Boards.
Thousands of folks, looking to be one of the 'big boys' would enter into auctions, Draft Champions, and even the Main Events.
It was an honor to win any NFBC league.

The Championship changed hands through time.
Some for the better, some for the worse.
Greg wanted to keep the Championships afloat for his followers and the industry.
Along as the NFBC was around, the season-long fantasy game would be around.

With each changing of hands to every company, Greg would tell his customers that things were going to be even better than before.
In time and in most cases, things were better.
The problem being that with instant technology, today's customers want instant results.
And in the latest transition to SportsHub, the results have come slower than anticipated.
Greg was despondent.
SportsHub was very, very slow in delivering to NFBC customers.
There was no auto1.
His customers were impatient to put it kindly.

THE FICTION OF THE FUTURE.....

Greg knew the news was going to be bad.
SportsHub had called Greg on the carpet.
They were unlike other venues that Greg had gotten into bed with.
They were sensitive about public scrutiny.
They had taken shots from Message Board writers of how mediocre early SportsHub results had been.

He thought about the 15 years of the NFBC.
All the trials and tribulations that he had had while forming and building the brand.
Why, if the NFBC were a kid, that kid would be in high school!
15 years.
A long time.
Now, sitting in front of the CEO, Greg was listening to the sudden demise of the NFBC.
SportsHub no longer wanted to take on the task.
The bad publicity from such a little 'arm' of their companies was too much.
Greg was beside himself.

What would he tell his family?
What would he tell his friends.
His workmates?
His NFBC customers?
No NFBC?

Desperate, he ran to the STATS offices.
His last hope if the NFBC were to survive.
"Greg, what could you give us for taking the NFBC back"?
"420 of the most loyal customers and a thousand more who love the game", he replied.
"Those 'loyal' customers were mud in the eye of SportsHub."
"They were the same to us".
Snickering, STATS said, their ADP is worth more than their loyalty!"

Greg did not want to face all the folks loved during his life.
He had poured his life into the NFBC.
Leaving STATS offices, he was both suicidal and hallucinating.
He felt the accelerator beneath his foot and pushed it to the floor.
Looking beside him, he was astonished to see Mike Trout sitting in the passenger seat.
"How are you, Greg?", he asked.
"Not good, not good at all. I'm going 110 miles an hour down a country road and thinking that Mike Trout is in my car!"
"Not good at all!"

"Pull over, Greg. I want to talk", Mike Trout said.
"No Mike Trout, you can help fantasy teams, but you can't help me."
Mike Trout waves his hand and the car magically stops.
"You've had a wonderful life, Greg, this is a mere bump in the road."
"I wish I were never born", responded Greg.
Mike Trout waves his hand....
"Ok, Greg, you were never born. Here is a computer, have a look at your favorite sites."

"Wait, where did the NFBC go?"
"Niagara Falls Bike Club?" What the Hell is that for an NFBC?"
"You were never born Greg, so there is no National Fantasy Baseball Championship."
"Don't bother looking up Message Board members either."
Gekko is a lizard, not a person. King of Queens, a tv show only."

"I can't even find the season-long game, what happened to it?"
"The Government lumped it with the daily game. Without the NFBC and NFFC, interest was soon lost in the season-long game first in football, then baseball."
"It died."
There is no season-long game in fantasy sports any longer."

"Who are you calling, Greg?"
"My wife and kids."
"You don't have a wife or kids, Greg. You were never born."
"NOW CUT THAT OUT, MIKE TROUT!"
"You rhymed, Greg."
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT RHYMING, MIKE TROUT! I WANT MY LIFE BACK! I WANNA LIVE, MIKE TROUT, I WANNA LIVE!"

Mike Trout disappeared.
Greg looked down at his computer.
Folks on the Message Board were squawking about auto1.
"HELLO GOOD OL MESSAGE BOARDS!"
An Email from SportsHub, with a change of heart...
"YES! HELLO ANOTHER NFBC YEAR!
He looked at his phone and saw a text from the wife, 'Pick up milk'.
"HELLO GOOD OL WIFE!"
"I'M BACK AND CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEW YEAR!"

(Remember while we complain about little stuff in the long run like auto1, to be thankful for the bigger things like the NFBC and fantasy baseball. Without it, we would all be total strangers, a hole in our lives)
And thanks Greg for bringing it to us.
You've really have had a Wonderful Real and Fantasy Life.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Dan, you have no idea how close to home this story hit me. Very well done and very accurate as well.

My four favorite movies are The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life and Godfather 1 and Godfather 2!! I know it's a strange mix, but I have a love of family mixed into all four of those movies, whether good or bad.

Tom and I have tried to grow thick skin during our 15 years of running not only the NFBC, but the NFFC and NFBKC as well. Darik is from Duluth, Minnesota, so he was born with thicker skin, but he will need to grow it even deeper as he takes the bullets from our crews.

I hope everyone knows that this has been a labor of love for 15 years and something we are all very proud of. We can take any criticism that comes our way, but we try to deflect it from the IT departments we work with because on the one hand they do a job that we all depend on and on the other hand they do a job that we're never totally satisfied with. Show me any industry commissioner or stat product that is perfect and I'll show you something that could be improved. It's just the way it is in this technology driven industry where everything is so much better than it was 15 years ago but not as good as we want it 15 MINUTES from now. We get it and we'll keep pushing forward.

I just watched It's A Wonderful Life last Saturday with my oldest daughter. It was the first time she ever saw the film. I have the DVD that is colorized and black-and-white. Thankfully, she chose the b&w version (I haven't seen the colorized version, even though I bought both). We both were crying like babies at the end when the entire town came together to raise money for George Bailey. It shows that a close community is always there for each other, in good times and in bad.

The NFBC is no different. I came from a publishing company that didn't have one single division online in 2003 when I wrote the rules for the NFBC. Without STATS LLC, there is no NFBC. Without SportsHub Technologies, there would be no NFBC because no other season-long games company is paying for licensing in every state at this time. The reason we are making an acquisition next week of another season-long games product is because that company would have to exempt players from 14 states due to the state licensing fees. It was either sell or have contest allowing fewer state participants each coming month. It's a tidal wave that is going to kill out the small business operator. SportsHub not only recognized that but is coming to the rescue while trying to innovate technologically with every product. That innovation will never come soon enough for NFBC owners, but trust me it's coming. And it wouldn't be coming under the old ownership. In fact, we'd be out of Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee and several other states under any other ownership group.

But enough of that. As you said, we've had A Wonderful Life in this industry. My original baby after years in the newspaper industry was Fantasy Baseball Magazine. It was the industry's first fantasy baseball magazine and I treated it like my first born because it was before any children. Heck, it was before meeting my wife, who I met at Krause Publications through working on that magazine. During the strike of 1994 as it carried into the off-season, my first born arrived six weeks earlier than expected and I spent 9 days shuttling between the hospital and the final deadline of Fantasy Baseball Magazine during one of the coldest spells in our state history. I worked around deadlines during the births of my other two children.

But the NFBC changed my life. Without everyone keeping this dream alive in 2004, I wouldn't have the job I have now. I wouldn't have met all the great friends I have now. As you said, season-long fantasy games may have changed. Who knows what would have become of the high-stakes space. Maybe it all would have been fulfilled by someone else just like me, but I think the way we did things here set the table for others to follow. You have to be hands on and realize this is a special community that needs your attention on Draft Day and even on Christmas Day. Our doors have to be open every day and we have to be around to help every day of the year. It's part of the territory.

We've given out over $40 million in prizes since 2004, but the best part of this job is seeing all of the friendships that have been made through this fantastic community. Some of you guys are closer with fellow NFBC members than you were with high school, college or community friends. That makes us all feel good here. And the fact that our season-long games are so important to the industry makes us just as proud.

Sure, we'll let you down from time to time, just like Uncle Billy did to George when he lost $8,000 at Mr. Potter's bank (did he ever give that money back to George??). But I trust in my heart that our IT group will come through this year and the finish will be even better than the one in It's a Wonderful Life. People can doubt that, but I don't. The best is yet to come for the NFBC and for season-long fantasy sports. There's just no question in my mind about that. So keep reminding us of what we don't have and we'll get it done. But at the end of the day, the NFBC is still available in 44 states, we're still the best game in town, we still have the greatest collection of fantasy players around, and we're still going to deliver in every way. Nobody here is jumping off the bridge because we are totally committed to this space. Thanks for sticking with us and let's all make 2018 the best year ever.

Posted this many years ago, but worth repeating:

TO GREG, THE RICHEST MAN IN TOWN



Merry Christmas to the entire NFBC family.

As I regain consciousness from my meat-sweat induced coma, I read this GREAT post.

1) Peace on Earth
2) Goodwill to mankind
3) More Baseball

God bless us every one!



oops...wrong Tiny Tim!