Some have asked me to put it here.
I will.
But I don't think it'll do much good
..........The first few months after joining the NFBC, I did not write on these Boards. For me, the Boards was a place for the guys who knew more than I did about fantasy baseball. My team won the first week prize (remember those?) and stayed mostly in first place till September...no brag, just fact.
In September, I could see my team fading before my eyes. My heart said I could finish first. My head said I'd be lucky to hang onto second.
The Message Boards were going full tilt by then.
Gekko was the loudest voice and he was friends with the guy who managed the team that was steaming towards mine.
He ws writing that I must be looking at that team to see who was in his lineup. He was wrong. I didn't care who was on his team, I had enough problems with mine.
I told him so.
Of course, Gekko was always right back then, and didn't believe me.
I ended up finishing second overall. Gekko's buddy thrashed me in September and my team only finished second by half a point.
But, I discovered I really liked these Message Boards. I liked the Gekko character (alot of folks did not) and really liked some of the others. So I contributed more and more.
Folks have come and gone on these Boards since, but a core of us remain.
There always seems to be a personal spat of one kind or another going on.
Most are silly.
The real culprit for these personal insults is the internet itself.
Some folks have a problem writing how they realy feel. It is misinterpreted by others. And insults fly.
I have a buddy. A real nice guy. He hardly contributes at all because he feels he cannot portray his thoughts accurately.
And doesn't want any of his thoughts to be misconstrued by others.
And I'm betting a lot of people feel the same way.
The internet is the worst of all vehicles to meet another person. One sentence can turn us against somebody. It's not that way in real life. If disagreeing with somebody in person, we will either avoid that person or put across our points of view.
On the internet, insults are part of the debate, for some reason.
In real life, words are said, and disappear into air. On the internet, they stay.
They stay as if inviting a retort.
We are writing to a faceless person. Somehow, it is easier to insult a fellow like this.
And I'm no better than anybody else, I have fallen into the same trap.
And make myself feel like crap in the process.
I had to laugh when somebody called Stan Kaye "Dude" during draft chat.
Stan is 76.
And recently asked what 'lmao' meant.
Or KJ Duke 'stupid'.
He's one of the brightest guys on the planet.
I've seen Gekko called every name in the book. He uses the internet and Boards to his advantage. Before ever writing on these Boards, I admired the guy. I didn't know him, but I could see that almost every post was an attempt to further his own teams.
Half of what he said was true. The other 90 per cent was bullshit.
And 100 per cent was aimed towards helping his own teams to victory.
Man, there were some folks that just plain hated him.
I loved the persona.
And I really admired Greg for 'putting up with him'.
When a fellow would want Gekko kicked off the Boards, a stock reply was 'Yes, he's an ass. But, he's OUR ass!'
Our Boards have evolved. We used to have a lot of different writers with baseball information. That, is now a trickle.
Baseball information is everywhere. There seems to be nothing new.
All that remains is opinions. A resource we will never run out of.
Unfortunately, those opinions are not about baseball as much as those one or two cutting sentences that a faceless writer typed.
And that, is too bad.
