It's been interesting to see the "big three" pro sports finally begin to acknowledge fantasy sports in the last year or two.  Note that I didn't say "good" or "bad" -- just interesting.  At first they seemed to be hesitant, looking at fantasy sports as a fad at best, and at worst a distraction to the real game.  But as cyber-world took a true foothold in America, they (most importantly) realized the sheer number of fans that participate in fantasy sports, and hence spend more money on everything from gambling to gear.  Personally, I have about three fantasy teams per sport going at any given time, which is a heckuva head spinner in the fall.  Yes, I'm a big ol' nerd.  And my home start page looks like the line wall at Pimlico.

And yes, I live on Fantasy Isthmus, surrounded on three sides by those "big 3" sports.  Right now, pretty much every Sunday at my house starts the same way, with the same neurotic conversation (teams & players are interchangeable): "OK, we need to root for the Cowboys to beat the Seahawks, of course, but we need it to be a low-scoring game because we have Seattle's D.  But we have Terry Glenn, so we need Seattle to go ahead early, so Dallas will have to come back and beat them with long, downfield bombs.  Which, however, can only result in field goals (and maybe 1 Terry Glenn TD, with a missed extra point so they don't get over 10) since we can't have too many points scored on Seattle's D.  OK, so... we need Dallas to win 9-7, with their 9 points coming off five different 85-yard drives in the last 2 minutes of the game-- one ending in the Terry Glenn touchdown and missed extra point, one ending in a field goal, and the other three ending in interceptions (more points for me!).  I mean, that's not so much to ask, is it?

It sure would be nice sometimes just to be able to say, "Go Cowboys."

Which begs the question, 'Are fantasy sports good for sports?'  On one hand, it brings more fans into the games and the players, and adds dimensions to each sport that were never there before.  How else would I have known that Darren Sproles gets 25.2 yds per kick return?  Why would I have cared that Neil Rackers kicked 5 field goals over 50 yards last year, and already has 6 this year?  Without fantasy sports, I would be stuck in the old I-know-my-favorite-team-and-star-players-and-everybody-else-sucks mode, which a lot of fans get mired in.  The casual fan is able to see the entire league more clearly, and the X's-and-O's make more sense than him/her than ever before.  On the other hand, we also get drawn into the never-ending vortex of stats, stats, and more stats, and the intangibles get lost.  'Quick, I only have 5 minutes before games start today!!  I have to know what Jeremy Affeldt's WHIP percentage is when he plays an away game at night, in a dome, on his mother's birthday, in a leap year, on a day that starts with "T"!!!  And I have to know right now!!'  A prime example where stats are overrated is Michael Vick.  I hear analysts yammering on about how he's the worst QB in the NFL because he has a career QB rating of 76.7, a career completion percentage of 54.2, and has never thrown for more than 16 TD's.  The next moment, another analyst calls him one of the premier QB's in the league, a perennial MVP candidate, and one of the most amazing players he's ever seen.  How can there be such a disparity in opinions over one player?  Because analysts and fans get bogged down by stats, and can't/won't look at the overall picture of what a player does for his team, and where they would be without him.  Guys like Michael Vick and Tom Brady are mediocre fantasy players, but are absolutely invaluable to their teams and are potential hall-of famers. 

The stats can hurt the game if we're not careful, and fantasy sports are a big culprit there.  But because of fantasy sports, more people are there to know and care about those stats than any time in sports history.

Gotta run now -- I have to go see what Peja Stojakovic's free-throw percentage is during home games in December, against teams with green uniforms that have an assistant coach with a moustache.  

RCW