We were thought of as total geeks. Most of us getting involved over a game that was not yet part of our culture. We played in home leagues and a few free sites online. I remember my first online league was when we still had dial up service. And in checking in on those leagues, I was both tieing up the phone line (before cells were in vogue) and paying more for using dial up service. My teenage daughters hated fantasy baseball for hogging their time on the phone. My wife, knowing she had an already lost cause on her hands due to baseball felt that fantasy baseball was another tug away from normal marriedom (shuddup spellchecker!).
As the years moved on and fantasy baseball started to see a small growth, I was still disappointed in the coverage received on tv or radio.
There was not one radio/tv show devoted to fantasy baseball. Fantasy football was starting to see drips and drabs of coverage and I think even had a couple of radio/tv shows that were not all about fantasy football, but would talk about it, instead of ignoring it like most of the media.
There were magazines devoted to fantasy sports. In fact, the magazine that Greg and Tom were working on is what gave me a heads up to the NFBC. Fantasy coverage through broadcasters started picking up about three years after the NFBC began in 2004.
Broadcast channels were actually acknowledging the existence of fantasy baseball. ESPN made it part of their news and the MLB Channel was being hatched. But even after the first few months of MLB'S life, hardly a mention of fantasy baseball. They seem to be more than happy at showing taped old games and getting talking heads that are over eager to laugh at one another's jokes or even their own.....and sadly that has not changed.
Eventually, as MLB evolved, the realization of just how many folks play fantasy baseball seemed to finally hit them. They started a show about fantasy baseball. They started featuring fantasy in their news. They had bottom lines of where players should go in drafts. Finally realizing that fantasy baseball had become an integral part of baseball viewing.
Radio did the same thing and now we have radio shows and even radio channels that talk about fantasy baseball, non-stop.
You'd think a guy like me would be in heaven, right?
Wrong.
Now that we have won out and our game is not looked down on by the media, I want more.
Not more of what we got. A new more.
I don't care how Harold Reynolds or anybody on MLB feels about this player or that. I just don't.
They are still in the business of promoting BASEBALL. They never say anything harsh about a player, even when warranted.
Here is a made up quote one of us may say, 'I hate Halladay this year. His best years are behind him, he's lost velocity, and a guy who seems to be close to being washed up is pitching in the wrong park.
Here is what that statement sounds like on MLB-
'Halladay is still a wily veteran. He won't be among the Aces of staffs, but you can never discount anybody with his track record.'
These fellas know that friends of Halladay or teammates, or coaches, or Halladay himself, is watching.
They speak political correctness, not fantasy.
I do enjoy Brian Kenney. He is not obligated to not hurt players feelings, like his ex-jocks compatriots. He is the sole talking head I will listen to on the network.
If the MLB Channel really wants to help and influence our industry, they have to separate real baseball from fantasy. Let the ex-jocks go on in putting players on pedestals and never defaming them. That's fine.
But in fantasy baseball, we WANT to hear the truth.
We don't want to hear that Ryan Vogelsong has 'some bulldog in him'. We want to hear that he'll probably get ripped in a bad matchup on the road vs. the Rangers.
Ironic, in that fantasy players want to hear reality. And that reality baseball fans enjoy hearing fantasy.
I find fantasy radio unlistenable (oh, shuddup spellchecker, that should be a word!).
It seems like endless calls from yahoo kids all over America asking questions that are pertinent to them, but not to every other listener.
PLEASE ALL FANTASY RADIO SHOWS, GET RID OF THE CALLER FORMAT!
If these callers rally wanted a chance at winning their league, they'd join Mastersball, thus giving them the right to bug Zola at all hours of the day instead of calling a radio guy who knows nothing of his team or league.
Sorry Todd, more Yahoo Kids coming your way
These shows also seem to have hosts that fall all over themselves agreeing with each other.
We don't want that!
In fact, we want the opposite. We want to hear the pro's and con's on every player. Hearing two hosts agreeing on a player is as dull as listening to a 'Progressive Insurance' commercial.
I don't like using myself as an example in these posts, but I'll do it here because it's the first that comes to mind.
I respect Shawn Childs as a fantasy player. I know I'm not alone in that assessment. Shawn and I have played in many leagues together. Each of us beating the other.
At the same time, I'm one of the few folks in Fantasyland that relishes having Shawn in my league.
Shawn is a totally different drafter than I am. He's a lot more of a risk taker than I. He has an agenda that does not mesh with mine. His style is far different from mine.
In other words, even though I feel Shawn is an excellent fantasy player, during drafts, we hardly ever step on each others toes.
What I am getting at is I would love to hear player evaluations from a guy like Shawn and a drafter like myself. Each may come to the same conclusion about certain players, but the directions taken could be totally opposed to each other.
Today's hosts say, 'I really like that guy', give one reason why, then move on to the next chatter.
Maddening.
Before asking, yes, I have heard Greg and Tom's show. I like that it is NFBC based. I love that it is NFBC based.
But they fall into the same traps as other shows. They take callers. They agree on most everything. The best thing about their show is the interviews with NFBC based people and that's probably just because of my NFBC bias.
And like most fantasy shows, if I played a drinking game with every time the word 'value' was mentioned, I'd be sloshed by the end of the show.
Now, with daily games, radio fantasy shows are taking fantasy one day at a time and giving their thoughts of who will be the best player that day.
It's understandable.
It gives them something new to talk about each day. But for us who have the year long teams and would really want more info about faab and minor league players who are up and coming....zilch.
So, we've come full circle in the media. From nary a mention to almost saturation. And that is a good thing.
But the saturation is almost intolerable. And that, is a bad thing.
New shows need to be added that reflect what the fantasy audience REALLY wants to hear, not what the media thinks we need to hear.
Take a look at what Funston, and Zola, and others are doing in the print media. THAT is what we want!
Information is a beautiful thing. And right now, print media is kicking broadcast media's ass in providing the information we crave.
If learning through broadcast media, Yahoo Kids have little chance of enhancing their own fantasy game.
And sometimes when I do tune into one of these shows, I could swear that I'm listening to the Yahoo Kid himself.
