Fantasy Island

The second half of August is always one of my favorite times of the sports year.

MLB Pennant Races are starting to take shape (and there is news, tonight, of a new Commish being elected). When I was coaching youth baseball, our league was cranking back up after summer break around this time. Plans for fall ball were underway.

Meanwhile, high school, college and pro football are just around the corner.  For the last 19 years, that last fact has been of specific note because it meant it was time for everyone to get serious about the next season of fantasy football. I’m still weighing my options as to whether or not I’ll make it 20 in a row.

For the past few years, I’ve done a low impact online league but I have to admit, it doesn’t have much oomph. Participating in an activity where you don’t know anyone isn’t like being in a league with your pals. Here you have faceless names of guys – and ladies – from across the country with ubiquitous team names like Crushers, Vick’s Vikings or The 8-balls.

I mean…it’s ok. But, it’s not like our old league.

Before I participated in the online version, I was a part of a really fun league founded by a bunch of guys who wanted to play fantasy football and do it right. We started the league during the years when I worked at Maryville College.

The ‘original 8’ teams in our FFL consisted of two of my high school friends, a couple guys who graduated from high school with my sister, a guy I used to work with, another guy I did work with and the husband of a co-worker. Then, there was a last-minute addition – a guy someone knew – who we pressed into service at the last minute when someone bailed. The night of our first draft, he walked in and quipped “This won’t take more than an hour, will it?”

Needless to say, he didn’t last long.

But apart from a few changing faces on our version of fantasy island, it was a really good league for a while – at least for the first eight or nine years. We had some good and interesting team names, too: the Moonshiners, the Fighting Frogs, the Red Dogs (named for the red hair of the guy running the team), the Squirrels. My team was called the Gippers (named for ‘the Gipper’ himself).

We developed some rich tradition and a bit of history over the years. Each team had a chance to win a title (which made for some fun). We even developed a post-season awards vote. It allowed everyone to have a chance to be a winner even when only one guy could hoist the trophy.

I remember the one year my team won it all (1997). It was quite an accomplishment. I can still remember the feeling when I knew that my team was going to win.

Steve Young, then the QB from San Fran (now an ESPN analyst) was the star player on my team. My team went into the Monday night game just needing a few points to seal the title. The 49ers were playing host to Denver that Monday night. Early in the game, Young threw a touchdown pass to Jerry Rice and that put my team over the top.

I can still remember it like it was yesterday. I was so pumped up, i even invested in a Steve Young jersey!

Nothing could beat draft night. For weeks, you had the build-up. First, there were last minute trades and the submission of protected lists. And then, one by one, the owners of the teams of the FFL made their picks.

After everyone came together to pick the teams (and then went out after to celebrate the start of a new season).

Those were some glorious times.

Over the years, though, the cast of characters in our league began to change. For various reasons, guys needed to drop out as life got in the way.

We wound up replacing them with people no one really knew. Friend of a friend sort of thing. Pretty soon the chemistry and character of the league was gone and, after the 2008 season, we folded it up.

I miss those days. It’s hard to get jazzed up about ‘playing’ against some guy you’ve never met, who lives in Utah and calls his team ‘Saltz of the Earth.’

Who knows? Maybe some day I will be fortunate enough to find another league like the one we created back in the 90s. That would be really cool.

For now, I’ll give the online thing a go one just more time so I can say I made it to 20.

JG

Originally posted 8/14/2014