Ok. This just in. A few days have gone by and I have survived the weekend. Of course, there is good new and bad news. Bad news first. Always. The bad news is the Super Bowl has been over for 2 weeks now and we are approaching the peak of that two-month window of potential confusion and mass hysteria. The Winter Olympics is hardly satisfying my thirst for a large abundance for sports. Bode Miller does not care if he wins a medal, NBC does not care if we know the results prior to on-air time and the so-called sport of curling is simply not doing it for me. Thankfully, the on-line fantasy baseball marketers continue to dish out relentless reminders about the improvements of their websites and that the baseball season will be here before we know it. But that is not the good news.

The real good news is that I managed to stay Internet free for at least 60 straight hours. No need to check emails. No on-line purchases to consider. No fantasy baseball or football teams to manage. I suppose that now I can scratch “internet addiction” off of the list of possible issues that may plague me. Two plus days is not a very long time, but I think I may have answered my earlier question. It is not the need to be connected that I miss. It is the enjoyment that I get from managing a baseball team. Even if it is not real. Forget Theo. The Sox could have hired me for much, much less. I should be general manager. I know, me and twenty thousand other baseball fans. Anyhow, now that I am cleansed of any on-line related viruses, am I cleared to dive into the pre-season analyses? I think so. 34 days until the fantasy baseball draft and at least 15 websites to monitor beforehand. Don’t worry. First, I will take out the garbage; fix the leaky faucet, check the portfolio, call my mom and get caught up at work. Then it will be time to play.

Fellow league members have already been in contact with each other in an effort to solidify a draft date. It is never easy finding a day that works for 12+ people. A friend of mine, who participates every year as a consultant has already started his pre-season research. He prefers not to get involved with the draft day antics and the season long trade negotiations. However, he keeps a close eye on key free agents, injuries and especially, draft day preparation. The key issue that we are wrestling with lately is whether or not to focus on starting pitching early on in the draft or to utilize our first few picks with heavy hitters. We get buried with so much on-line marketing material that the suggestions often offset one another. One site provides solid evidence on how many of the top starting pitchers manage to breakdown and spend an ample amount of time of the disables list each season. Therefore, they say to go after players who are less likely to get injured. Focus on power and speed early on in the draft. There are plenty of arms out there that you can land in the middle rounds. Another site will suggest just the opposite. Grab the top pitchers early. A solid core of pitchers will help you in mid-season trade negotiations. So on and so on. Apparently, my consultant pal is leaning toward the latter approach. Here is an excerpt from an email that he recently sent to me:

“Okay, so I think I will do the league this year. I need a hobby to keep the season going. I'll just have to decide what my level of participation will be. As for drafting, you have to take the best player available, regardless of position. Plus you need to invest in solid Starting Pitchers (SPs). There is always a shortage of SPs and teams are willing to offer their best hitters to get one at midseason. The teams with the top SPs control the trading (at least that is how it has been in years past). I did a quick analysis and I think our first pick should be an SP. There are only a couple studs available, since many of the top pitchers are being “protected” from last year’s rosters. After that there is a big drop-off. I say you come right out and snag a Prior, Halladay, Schmidt, Oswalt, or Colon. As soon as we do that there should be a run on the rest of the SPs, therefore leaving a ton of solid hitters for us.”

So, the question that I have for anyone who really cares – in a league where the weight of the statistics are generally the same between hitters and pitchers, do I place more emphasis on selecting SPs in the early rounds or try to load up on power and speed from my hitters? I know. It’s not rocket science and we are not exactly trying to decide between funding a war or saving an economy. The bottom line is that we are having fun.

Where was I? Ah, yes. No fantasy sports teams to manage until April. Certainly there are priorities. My family. My job. My health. My finances. After these things are in order, I attend to my hobbies. Besides I can’t seem to escape this fantasy sports thing anyways. Everywhere I look I am being flooded with marketing and advertisements for sites such as cbsportsline, yahoo and cnnsi.com. Over the past few years, fantasy sports has taken off, thanks to the unforeseen amount of attention paid to this hobby within the Internet.

Something just crossed my mind. Is it my enjoyment of fantasy sports that I miss during these two months? Or does it have something to do with the need to maximize my connection to the on-line world? I have been participating in fantasy sports leagues for about 10 years now. 1996 just also happens to be the timeframe that the Internet was picking up speed and the birth of fantasy sports websites were on the horizon. Do I have a problem or an addiction of sort to the Internet? I wonder. I do not own a palm pilot. I do not own an iPod. I do not “google” random things for fun. At first glance, evidence does not fully suggest that I feel a need to be “connected” at all times.
Managing a fantasy team allows me to spend some of my “extra” time searching various websites for critical statistics, trends, professional opinions, non-professional opinions, weather forecasts, and injury updates. This is just the beginning. Trade proposals and transactions need to be made through a cbssportsline website to fellow league members. Of course, these trade offers only come to surface after exchanging a half a dozen emails to gain an idea of what areas my competition is looking to improve upon. Is there really a need for me to be “connected” even more? I spend hours every day at work communicating with associates and clients via email and web-conferences. At home, I monitor my finances, pay bills and adjust my portfolio on a consistent basis. The holiday season just passed where I spent countless hours searching for that perfect gift. I would spend numerous hours perusing various offerings on craigslist and eBay for things that I may or may not have needed. Don’t I spend enough time on-line? Do I really need to spend additional time managing an on-line fantasy baseball team? The short-term answer, I suppose, is yes. Apparently, cbssportline thinks I need to spend more time on their website. Everywhere I look, there are email reminders, pop-up ads, tickers on the television and announcements on various radio stations. The folks at cbssportsline have taken the marketing of fantasy sports to a whole new level. Is their marketing plan working? It must be. Every few days, I wonder if is it too early to purchase my first on-line fantasy cheat-sheet to get a jump on the off-season player rankings. It may be. Heck, the Sox do not even have a final shortstop or first baseman yet. The rankings would be skewed anyhow. Maybe I will wait a few more days and give the gurus a chance to further update their rankings and stat forecasts. I would not want to be misled on draft day.

I just finished reading over 16 emails that I received from various on-line sports related websites. How exactly did they get my address again? I probably gave it to them, considering that I have been an active on-line fantasy sports participant for about 10 years now. Somehow, some way, they will continue to get to me. Should I change my email address? Won’t matter. The fantasy sports on-line marketing mafia will find me, no matter what. That’s their job. To keep people like me informed of their new and approved product, their industry-best price points and their unbelievable ability to forecast the statistics of every player that has the slightest chance of cracking a big league roster in 2006. How else would I know that Derek Jeter was going to hit 22 Home Runs, steal 27 bases, chew 278 packs of gum and date 7 women during the 2006 162-game baseball season? It’s all in the on-line marketing tools of these various websites. Someone who has absolutely no time on their hands should go back the past few years and compare some of these forecasts to the actual player results. It would be interesting to see just how good these self-proclaimed gurus really are at predicting a player’s statistical expectations. More on this topic later. First, I need to vent a bit….

Two days have passed since the conclusion of Super Bowl XL. The parade in Pittsburgh has not even occurred yet and I am already dreading the hollow days that follow. Every year, between the Super Bowl and opening day of the Major League Baseball season, a gray cloud hovers over the sports world. At least, it does in my opinion. In my house, during the months of February and March is usually the time when the minor home improvement projects get completed. Clean out the basement, paint the hallway trim, clean out the slow-running drains. Would not want every light bulb in the house to be out at the same time. Could make it difficult to see at night. Probably best to change them as I go. Anyhow, this two month time period can be rather uneventful for any avid sports fan.

So, what is there to pass the time between February 1st and April 1st ? I can no longer be bothered with the NBA and the NHL regular seasons. I may watch a bit of the NBA playoffs. If a game is tight in the 4th quarter and I can name at least 3 players in the game, then maybe it will be worth a look. Otherwise, I am not interested in watching one player on each team try and score all of the points for their team. Kobe Bryant’s 81 points does impress me. None of his teammates touched the ball in the second half. Nobody cares about Shaq and Kobe, unless they are a fan of the Heat or the Lakers. I do not need to receive daily updates on their personal relationship and how much they despise each other. Danny Ainge continues to rebuild the Celtics, but it may be another 2 or 10 years before they can come close to being considered a title contender. Oh, and it was great to see the Celtics go up against the T’Wolves the other night, just a few days after the teams completed a 7-player trade. It if almost funny how Marcus Banks put up 20 points and 6 assists and Mark Blount added 16 points and 10 rebounds against their old mates. Why can’t the Celtics get players like that? I know. It was only one game and Wally Szcerbiak did put up 22 for the Green. You still have to laugh at how that played out. As for the NHL, the league plays 80 games, just to eliminate 12 teams from playoff contention. Seems like a waste of time to me. Fifteen years ago, I could name at least 10 players on every team. Today, I may barely be able to name 10 players in the entire league. Fourteen days until pitchers and catchers report. I suppose I should not forget about March Madness, which gives even non-sports fans something to follow during the month of March. Can’t wait to fill out my brackets. This year my goal is to get every game correct. 63-0. Oh, and there is also the mostly annual trip to Marco Island in March to see family. The trip usually entails breakfast at 6AM, a little beach, a little bingo, a little golf, maybe some bocce or shuffleboard, dinners at 4:15 PM sharp, bedtime after Jeopardy; but the real bonus is the 45-minute drive up the coast to Fort Myers. Did I mention that I sat next to Manny once on a puddle jumper as we flew from Fort Myers to Miami? Good guy. Quiet. He had his faced buried in the spring training box scores within the sports page of the USA Today. Good to see he keeps an interest in the entire league by conducting off-the-field research as he preps for the season. Either that or maybe he was preparing for his upcoming fantasy baseball draft? There will be more on that topic later. In the few brief conversations that we did have, I managed to ask Manny what he thought about the squad as they prepared for the 2004 season. He sort of grinned, shrugged his shoulders and said,”ah, we’ll be all right. Asi, asi.” Just so, so. Little did he know then, was that this “so-so” squad would make it to Game 7 of the ALCS that year and then follow it up with a World Series title in 2005. Anyway, it is always fun to watch the boys of summer rollout of hibernation and shake off the cobwebs during spring training. This year should be interesting with all of the new faces. Not sure it matters, as long as Manny and Ortiz are in the middle of the lineup. As of today, however, the Sox front office still has some holes to fill. Let’s see. Zero shortstops, 9 second baseman, zero experienced bench players and 14 general managers. There are a lot of chefs in the kitchen, but they have nothing to cook with. I have faith. What else is going on during these 2 months? It’s tax season. Boring. Easter egg hunts? Only good for an hour or so. Spring break. No more trips for me. Yard work? Not yet. Too muddy and we are always good one for one more nor’easter in late March.

Here’s the truth. Maybe this 2-month timeframe is not as bad as it first seemed. The fact of the matter is that my favorite hobby gets put to rest. Drum roll please……..fantasy sports. Baseball and football to be specific. Most women in America are rolling their eyes right now. Maybe I am too old for this nonsense, but it is still fun to draft and manage your own team. It allows me to fill in the gaps during my busy week. 8 hours of sleep per night is too much. That would mean that one-third of my life would be spent dozing while visions of grand slams and 80-yard touchdowns danced in my head. 7 hours is enough. Sometimes 6. Anyway, as far as I am concerned, the fun ends after the Super Bowl and does not start up again until the boys of summer are ready to kickoff the regular season in early April.