Fantasy Time

Yesterday I had a conversation on Twitter regarding fantasy football. It spawned a blog entry that I follow pretty closely (dsmsportsfreaks.com). Today's entry was how men have become obsessed with fantasy football.

It's true that men are obsessive creatures. Most of us love our sports. We love sports so much that we fantasize that we can still play them. One of the intriguing aspects of sports is also running the team and getting the best players on your team. That is the basis for fantasy football. As a teenager I liked basketball more than football (which has since changed). I would spend hours playing NBA Live 96 on my SNES. It was during this time that I realized I could make some trades and end up with a roster full of the best players. A few years later I started playing Madden NFL on my computer and did the same thing. Then I found out that you could create your own team of real-life players and get points based on how well they do.

I started out my fantasy sports career by playing in an NBA league on ESPN.com. I then ventured into fantasy baseball and NASCAR, but I sucked horribly at both (I still do NASCAR and still suck). Once there was an opening in the fantasy football league at work I jumped all over it. The difference between my NFL league and all of the others was that the NFL league was a group of co-workers who saw each other every day, where the others were online and I didn't know who I was competing with. The best part was the trash-talking that was going on. It wasn't mean-spirited at all. We had a lot of fun with it until the league got too big (24 teams total, 3-8 team leagues) and people started to bicker. At that point I had left that particular Hy-Vee and was working at a different store. I decided to start my own league, based on the same rules and points system, at the new store and had tons of fun with it.

At the height of my career I was in 3 leagues. One season (I believe it was 2006) I brought home the championship in 2 of the 3 leagues. That was a great feeling. A few years later I decided that I wasn't having any fun with it and was going to give it up. By then I still had 3 teams but all of them were in online leagues where I only knew a few of the other guys and none of us worked together anymore so the fun was gone. I called it quits and wasn't going to look back. That's when my former favorite players took over my body; I pulled a Favre.

About a year ago a co-worker decided to set up a 12-team league with other co-workers. I had only done 8 and 10 team leagues so I was up for the challenge. I decided to start up again and enjoyed it. My team started out terrible and finished fairly strong. It was a good first got at a 12-team league. We have the league again this year and I know better what to do. I was content with only having 1 team until the talk on Twitter yesterday got me revved up even more. One of the people I follow threw out an open invitation to join a league and I jumped at it. I think 2 is a good number of leagues right now, much better than the 7 (maybe more his year) that a friend of mine is in.

I'm back in the game at full-strength. Some of the strategy has changed over the past few years and I was afraid that the game had passed me by. I have been able to make the necessary adjustments this year and am ready to get The Corporation back to the top. After all, The Corporation has been building fantasy sports dynasties since 2000.

Some Odds-n-ends

The end of summer vacation is coming up very quickly. My oldest daughter will be starting kindergarten while my youngest is still a year away from pre-school. The beginning of the school year also signals cooler temps (in theory of course) and football season (we know how much I enjoy that). This summer has flown by for us as we have had something going on pretty much every weekend. Let's tie up some loose ends before getting down to business in a few weeks.

I've seen enough precipitation in the last 12 months to last me a lifetime. Here's hoping we dry out so that I don't have to mow the yard as often.

I can't believe that football season is only a few weeks away.

Even though Iowa struggled with UNI last year you had to know something special was going to happen when there are 2 blocked field goals to win the game.

It was nice to have our first family vacation to Colorado and spend some time at Rocky Mountain National Park, and to visit my sister-in-law and niece in Kansas City and go to Oceans of Fun while there (though a thunderstorm cut our time at the park short). I don't think we've done that much traveling in one year.

I really wish I could play golf more often. On second thought it may also give me a heart attack with the way I play sometimes.

The state fair started this week. I don't have any desire to go other that to get the new Hawkeye football poster, which I have people get for me anyway. Maybe we'll take the kids in a few years.

A few years ago I was in 3 fantasy football leagues. I then decided not to play any more. This year marks the 2nd year in a league at work. Tonight is our draft and I have no strategy in place, again.

Today is also my mom's birthday. Happy 5#th birthday Mom!

I don't get too excited about the NBA anymore and the whole LeBron fiasco lowered that excitement even more.

I am getting more excited about Iowa's men's basketball team that will take the floor in 2011-2012.

We are doing a garden for the first time. So far we have 5 developed pumpkins and some cucumbers. Not bad for only having those two vegetables sprout.

The plan for next year is to have a pumpkin patch, strawberry patch, and swimming pool in the back yard.

My sister is getting married in less than 2 weeks and I'm doing the ceremony. Time to get cracking!

I will have another (3rd) niece or a first nephew near the end of January.

My daughters are acting 10 years older than they are (and they are 5 and 3).