Fantasy or Reality?

As most of you know now, I am a bit of a sports nut. This has been a common factor in my life since I was a kid. It was hard not to be that way in this family seeing that everyone was either a Yankee fan (Dads side of the family) or a Sox fan (Moms side of the family) so it was interesting growing up. Factor that in with our obsession with the Dallas Cowboys and it was never a dull moment. Oh, did I mention my fascination of Michael Jordan and his Bulls and a dose of UConn basketball (which kind of came with the zip code here in Connecticut) and it was a sports buffet!!

With all of these teams to follow came dreams and nights of taking that fade away jumper over and over at the local basketball court until you made it and "WON THE NBA TITLE AT THE BUZZER!!" Or catching that long bomb from your brother in the big back yard of the library to "WIN THE SUPERBOWL WITH A STUPENDOUS 80 YARD GRAB AS TIME EXPIRES...I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!"

All right, as my wife often tells me "settle down!"

Although, it is only natural for a real sports fan that loves the thrill of victory! Then, eventually things give way to reality. We don't grow any younger and eventually the reality of shin splints, pulled muscles and not being able to lift your arm after throwing the football for 20 minutes wakes you up to one of life's biggest road blocks....age. That's right, no more pick up games at the park, now it's bring the kids to the park and thank the good Lord that the town paid extra for park benches to rest those aching knees.

Wow, this is hard to accept...I'm no longer able to be Troy Aikman, Michael Jordan or even Don Mattingly! Whatever will I do to keep those competitive juices flowing?

Enter fantasy sports...aka...grown up pick up games.

I remember at Iron Sharpens Iron recently one of the speakers saying "If you have to hide while you are doing it, it is a sin!"  Well, when I started playing fantasy sports with my Uncles I hid it from my Dad. I did not want to deal with the ridicule of being a nerd or whatever else he could come up with to throw in my face. Well, it is 8 years later now and he has 3 teams of his own. That's right, the man who used to hiss at a computer like it was a lost puppy wandering around the corner and he was the 14 year old stray tabby with ticks. (I have no idea...just roll with it.)  

It really has been an interesting 8 years with many a trophy on the shelf (what....fantasy trophies..yeah, really! Oh... your being sarcastic....sigh) and many a season of studying stats and following players that I wouldn't even give a second glance, simply because he is suddenly hitting .323 in July!

It is not sad!! 

Now, I bet you are wondering when I am going to put that ever so subtle Christian spin on this already enticing post? Well, buckle up...here it comes!

I was always good at fantasy baseball. It really isn't because I am smarter than anyone in the league, I just had a sickness of obsessing over the stats and constantly updating myself with tons of research and tons of numbers. That and scouring the waiver wire and reading up on players non stop gave me a step up on the competition.

Football was another story. I'm not sure if it was because the schedule is smaller and the fact that players are injured so often. That or maybe with the game of football, stats tend to be much less meaningful than in baseball. I have no idea what it is, but it was driving me nuts. I spent one season trying to figure out what I was doing wrong it it created a monster that read any fantasy article I could get my hands on and really started to eat into my time with my family and...cue the guilt...my time with God.

I would sit in Church wondering if i put the right receiver in and when the service was over I was checking my smart phone to see if it was to late! It really was sad.

Then something happened, after a 3 game losing streak during that season...I gave up. I realized that it was not worth the time I was investing into it and I started to spend more free time with family and less time trying to figure out the mystery within the fantasy football world. So, of course, what do you think happened?

Win, win, win, win, win....playoff spot.

Unbelievable, but you know what? I didn't care. For some strange reason this was a breakthrough in my life. Something just snapped and it didn't really matter anymore. I enjoy our Church much more and our friends through the Church as well. I look forward to time with my family and spending time reading the Bible in the morning rather that fantasy post after fantasy post. As a matter of fact, when I stop with this post I am going to go catch up with my Dad....and tell him about the latest trade proposal I came up with for his wide receiver!

All right, this ain't Disney folks....I'm still a highly regarded general manager for my teams...but, my home team, as well as the good Lord still comes first.