During the course of these games, I personally, cuss if something goes amiss. Cussing is my release. Last night, David Phelps had a middle name from my lips that I know his Mama didn't give him. Some folks around me don't understand it. My wife, even after all these years, shakes her head in wonderment of the words coming out of my mouth as players like David Fu**ing Phelps looked like a Little Leaguer vs. the light...make that ULTRA light hitting Mets.
My cussing is not limited to fantasy sports. It comes out in any game I play. Growing up, my kids asked why they couldn't use the words I used when playing games. I told them, the first 18 years of your life, you must listen to words like this without saying them, THEN, you'll know how to use them more wisely.
We had twin daughters, one is now a teacher and abhors cussing.
The other is a registered dietician, married a Marine, and cusses, well, cusses like a Marine. She probably does it even more effectively than I do.
As expected, the school teachers kids are fairly straight laced, by the book kids. They enjoy spending the night with Grandma and Grandpa because we hardly ever tell them 'no' and they'll want to play games. I'm convinced they want to play games to hear me swear. They are very competitive and know if they're making me swear that it doubles the enjoyment for them in knowing they are winning or on the right track to winning. And they know if they make me say 'the magic 'f' word, that they have the game won.
We play fantasy games for the same reason we play other games. There is a level of skill combined with the right amount of chance that keeps us intrigued. My wife enjoys reading books. I tell her that the six months of baseball season is a long book. Each day another page is read. Each week is another chapter in the books. And it isn't till October that we find out, 'whodunnit'.
Why am I writing all this crap?
And by that, I mean this post, not all the crap I've written before.
I write this because of a post by somebody yesterday that said they were quitting.
Now, I don't know if this guy is really quitting or if this was his release, like cussing is mine.
He might quit everyday. I don't know.
We all need a release. And we're all different. He may think less of me for cussing.
Some do.
And I'll think to myself, well, 'F*** you'.
Not because I'm mad or upset, but because they don't understand.
Anyway, as much as somebody may hate hearing my cuss words, to me, quitting the game, even if done every day, is worse.
The game is an object and our goal is to beat it. Wait, not only beat it, but beat the shit out of it.
Annihilate the game. And any living soul in our way.
It is only then that we're happy. Quitting is failing. The game has beaten us. The game can't laugh at us like competitors can, but we'll carry it for the rest of our lives. It's why we're not afraid to play Monopoly. Or golf. Or video games.
We know they are games for our enjoyment. Quitting or giving up is more about ourselves, then the game.
Tonight will be a new night. There may be another player who takes the place of David 'Fu**ing' Phelps. Or maybe, my teams won't have me cussing at all. By the way, after holding Fujikawa all year on the teams I care most about and seeing the news that he was done for the year had me saying. "Fu**ing Fuji". That utterance even had my wife laughing.
To me, we are only on page 61 of this 185 page book. Chapter 9 of 26.
And I can't put it down. To quit reading it now would be cheating myself. Even if I'm not possibly the one 'whodunnit', I still want to know who did.
And then?
And then, I'll probably cuss him.
Because it wasn't me.
