Shandler: Condemning Fantasy

Lout Wars…as Ron Shandler takes on Francesa, Chass, and Mushnick.

The insult to fantasy leaguers, though, is that we are not real fans. The truth is, we all still love the game, perhaps even more than ever. We remain as much a fan of the sport as Francesa, Mushnick and Chass are. In fact, a strong case can be made that we are better, more informed fans.

We are more knowledgeable about all teams, not just our home team. We watch every game to its end, even blowouts. We need to know how each team is constructed and what their organizational philosophies are. We know about minor league prospects and understand how each team’s depth chart impacts their potential path to the Majors. We try to understand how managers use their bullpens, the impact of lineup construction on run scoring, and the predictive value of just about every element of the game.

We still want teams to win, because when they win, we win. It’s just not always the home team we’re rooting for.

Mushnick calls us “anal retentive stat-chasers” as if these types of people never existed before fantasy baseball. For any kid who traded baseball cards, it was the sea of wonderful numbers on the back that held far more interest than the color photo on the front. And for those of us who played (and still play!) Strat-O-Matic, stats were everything. So this is nothing new.

The game has changed over the decades. The designated hitter, interleague play and the wild card were all intended to keep fans connected to the game. Fantasy baseball does the same.