Thoreauing A Line

[DOUGHBOYS]

I don't like sounding smart. Their are enough folks in the world doing that. And, a small percentage of them, ARE smart.
The roots of fantasy baseball, for me, started in the mid 1850's when the game of baseball itself was taking shape.
Back then there were philosophers. These guys were thought of as super smart. I take that back, they were thought of as VERY smart. Putting the word 'Super' in front of things for description did not come till much later.
Anyway, the masses would hang onto their every word. They were the Beatles of their times.
One such philosopher was Henry David Thoreau.
You know how Nostradamus is credited with stuff that he 'foresaw' even when those things didn't exist back in his day.
I credit Thoreau in the same way, only with a fantasy baseball twist. And no, he probably never even saw a baseball.

He summed up the angst of being a fantasy manager by saying (and I paraphrase, thus leaving out his past day english gobbledygook), 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation'.
That's us, right?
We study during the off season, flipping notebooks, looking at different sites and spreadsheets, poring through stats.
Then we draft, giving ourselves little fist pumps for the players we want, while agonizing as a player is taken right before we were going to take him.
It is here that Thoreau had a message for the drafters.
'A fool makes his own rules.'
And, it's true. For some reason, we as drafters set rules for ourselves while drafting. Whether it be certain category numbers after three picks, or two aces after the first seven picks, or certain positions.
And to finish Thoreau's thought...'And it takes that same fool to follow them'
Limiting or stifling ourselves in drafts leads to the first Thoreau quote, only times 10.
Quiet desperation becomes an ulcer.

Every night of the season is quiet desperation.
Especially when married.
The fact that our pitcher just got torched for seven runs in an inning and a third, can have no effect on kissing the wife and smiling at the kids that same night.
Inside, the quiet desperation rages.
Why would he pitch to Fielder with first base open?
Why didn't the Manager come get him sooner?
Why did they bring THAT guy in to relieve him and let him score those runners on base?

...Meanwhile, on the outside, we pretend to care how an American Idol vocalist will be voted on.

The questions in your mind of the events on the field have turned to earlier in the week.
Why did I even start that guy?!
I could have started Pavano, now he'll probably pitch a great game!
Man, stupid,stupid, stupid!

..."Yeah honey, she sings great!"

We wake up the next morning, hoping it'll be a better day.
Maybe my pitcher today, can help make up for the disaster.
We've faced facts and resigned ourselves that blow-ups are going to happen.
Thoreau said that 'resignation is confirmed desperation.'
Thoreau knew more about the emotions that fantasy baseballers have, than most writers of our time.

So, as we enter draft season, know that that knot in the pit of your stomach is shared by most other drafters.
Tums or Rolaids will not make it go away.
In fact, it won't go away for the next seven months.
That knot is quiet desperation.

[OaktownSteve]

Soren Kierkegaard said: "anxiety is the dizziness of freedom." Before the draft, when your sheet is blank there are limitless possibilities. And I mean limitless. I tried to back of the envelope how many different combinations there are for 15 teams holding 23 players each. It errored my calculator and google calculator. The number is: A LOT factorial(!)

Once you know who is on your team, then you can relax because you can get down to work.