Assuming that you watch and enjoy sports, do you play fantasy or would that interfere with your enjoyment of the games?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Well I fail the assumption, but I can go on my landlord’s circumstances: for him it makes him enjoy them a lot more. Or at least, he watches every game he can because of it.
The commodification thing is a little unsettling, but I suppose that’s sports in general…
I watch sports very casually these days–haven’t been an intense fan since my daughter hung up her cleats.
I just can’t take commercial sports (which includes NCAA D1)seriously.
I’m a big football fan (game is on right now) who does not play fantasy and I don’t see the appeal at all. For me sports is entertainment; I’m just not willing to work any harder at it than checking which channel I want.
Fantasy sports has very much changed how fans look at games and how media reports sports. I’ve watched games next to guys who were saying “i hate Dallas but I have xx on my fantasy team”. ESPN.com is filled with fantasy football analysis. Even the teams play on it; I was at a game last week, the scoreboard occasionally ran the scores of other games, but frequently ran fantasy stat lists. Which are the most warped things of all because they measure individual stats and ignore whose team scored the most points. You would have done better picking Baltimore’s Joe Flacco as your fantasy QB than Oakland’s Derek Carr, but Oakland won the game.
I watch sports but the whole fantasy thing is beyond me. In fact I find the commercials for fantasy sports rather annoying — the commercial fantasy ventures seem to be a form of sports gambling that should probably be more strongly regulated.
I used to play the APBA Baseball board game, a fine representation of the talents of MLB players and teams. I eventually became involved in a league where we drafted/traded/released players, made lineups and pitching rotations, and played games against each other.
This both increased and undermined my enjoyment of the games. On the fun side, I became a consumer of baseball publications which were informed by the sabermetric revolution, so I developed a keen understanding of what mix of skills were most and least valuable. It was great to be in the know, and I built some very good teams. On the down side, I became a fanatical observer of my players, and their bad or good results controlled my experiences of real MLB games. It became harder to be in the context of the moment.
A few years after I stopped participating in the APBA league, it became apparent to me how thoroughly my work and marriage had exited me from my baseball fandom. I was watching an A’s game in September, and a player with the Orioles hit a home run. “That’s Nick Markakis’ 21’st dinger; that’s one of the best numbers for a rookie in team history.”
When I had been deep in my hobby, I would have known Markakis’ minor league performances and his age, I would have known when he hit his 20th homer that season, and I would have known if Markakis’ performance was a fluke or within his established performance level at the professional level.
As it was that day, I had never even heard of Markakis before he hit that homer.
So, yeah, things have changed.
I play the free versions. Generally it makes things more fun and affords me the opportunity to show up the overpaid idiots who run My Team, and confirms I can do better! 😀
No interest in that whatsoever. My gambling is buying a Powerball ticket to maintain the illusion that I won’t die a pauper.
What really bugs me is that I’m a Niner fan living in Portland, which is considered Seahawks territory, so I mostly get Niners games from Red Zone. I’m getting a little tired of that too. Too much continuous action, bouncing from game to game. Until the Powerball thing comes through I’ll avoid investing in a satellite dish to follow SF.
I follow F1 – good eurotrash racing series. No interest in fantasy anything, seems like another revenue stream and time waster that I should avoid.
Blame Marv Levy’s Bills for ruining my interest in the game of American football for eva.
I used to watch college basketball, professional baseball and football, but now I mostly just keep up with the standings. I’ll turn on a football game and keep it on mute while I do other things. I’ll definitely go to any professional game if the tickets aren’t extremely expensive, which is why I barely go.
I’ve only done fantasy football once, and I didn’t actually select any players, as I believe they were auto-selected because I didn’t really care. Not doing anything, such as putting in or taking out players, I ended up about halfway in the pack compared to people who were trying. I think that aspect of it made me not really care about it too much.
Plus, there’s the whole thing that someone else mentioned: there’s almost a level of cognitive dissonance you have to subject yourself to if you’re team is made up of players on teams you don’t like, or that your team is playing. For instance, I’m a Cincinnati Bengals “fan”, and holy hell would I be annoyed if I had a good player on any of the other AFC north teams. Never mind if I had players from Dallas or Washington, two teams I despise almost as much as the Steelers and Ravens.
Ahhh yes…a fellow Bengal fan who hates Dallas, Washington, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
We are kindred spirits!
The 90s were terrible to be a Bungles fan.
I just hope they can win a playoff game soon. They have the players, I just wonder about the coaching. As always…
The 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, teens and so far tonight have been terrible for Lions fans. So there!!
Touche.
The “Why Your Team Sucks” series on the Deadspin website is absolutely great. I remember this year’s entry on the Lions as being particularly hilarious.
I play fantasy sports, but mostly to keep in touch with friends.
After quitting the fantasy sports league my oldest brother and I shared for many years, my relationship with him went in the toilet quickly. I discovered that, outside our baseball obsession, he actively disliked me. I grew to dislike him as well. I wish we hadn’t grown apart like that, but my life had much less drama when I accepted that I needed to let go of my brother. Our old relationship wasn’t going to come back, and I was hurting myself by clinging onto the possibility of resuscitating it.
I follow football, and do not play fantasy.
I hate the idea that personal loss/gain (emotional, egotistical, monetary) might come about as a result of factors that I have absolutely no influence over.
I’d rather play the megabucks than play fantasy football… and it does interfere with my enjoyment, even though I don’t play, because I hate the commercials and all the “fantasy stats” analysis.