I miss baseball season

Originally posted on The Dugout Doctors

This time of year always makes me sad. Sure, we’re only midway through the summer, which for most of you is like living in an oven, but I’m in San Diego and the temperature is always ideal. In summer, we get longer ideal days. What’s so sad about that, right?

I’ll tell you why I’m sad: football season is here.

Now, perhaps a larger portion of the readers of The Dugout Doctors understand my plight better than the rest of the country because this is a baseball site. But I’m the type of guy who spends most of the winter longing for baseball season to begin. I get excited when the first tab on ESPN.com is “MLB”.

But if you look now, “MLB” has been bumped by the link to the NFL portion of the site, and the headlines are predominantly football-related. This guy is signing here, that guy signed there. Sign up for fantasy football today!

And oh-by-the-way-we’re-almost-at-the-baseball-trade-deadline.

I play fantasy football just like every other living, breathing organism on Earth, but a small part of me secretly hoped for an NFL lockout. I wanted people to care about all 162 games of the MLB season. Heck, even people in Pittsburgh are in on the action this year, but when (if?) the Pirates inevitably start to slip in the standings it will go virtually unnoticed, thanks to the NFL. And it’s not just Pittsburgh that’ll toss baseball on to the backburner like it was never around to begin with. The San Diego Padres, right here in my own back yard, may as well pack up now. Nobody cares once Phillip Rivers and friends don the Charger blue and gold.

I’ll be clicking all the fantasy football links around the internet soon enough as I scramble to come up with yet another hair-brained draft strategy that won’t work. I’ll be active on the waiver wire and with trades. I’ll lead my team to the playoffs only to choke in the post season, like always.

But right now I miss baseball season, and it’s not even over yet.

Fantasy sports; Another card giveaway!

This is the first football season that has come along since I’ve gotten back in to card collecting, which is the only explanation I can think of for my sudden interest in the sport.  The first day this season that got my football juices flowing was Madden release day.  Today is equally exciting in my limited football world…  it’s fantasy draft day!  

The truth is I was never in to football until the first year I played in a fantasy league, which kinda forced me to follow it a little.  It’s a highly competitive friends and family league with non-stop trash talking, bragging rights, cash prizes, and even a trophy.  In years past I have collaborated with the league’s commissioner on draft order selection shows, with productions ranging from mystery envelopes in the mail to the use of incredibly expensive sound editing equipment in my office.  It’s no joke.

So tonight, with pick 11 out of 14 teams, I will officially begin my NFL obsession for the 2009-10 season.  I have no clue who I’ll take first, as our league is incredibly unpredictable when it comes to draft picks.  QBs go early, favorites get taken three or four rounds earlier than they should be, and there’s always someone who picks someone by accident (Tim Hasselbeck was once taken in the second round over his more famous brother, Matt).  The true beauty of it all is that my wife is an active and competitive member of the league with her own team, so Sundays are always reserved for Chargers football.  If only I could get her in to card collecting…

With that, I present to you another giveaway, this time for a pack of cards featuring guys you’ve probably drafted (or wanted to draft) over the years.  It’s not an actual pack so much as a stack of random cards I’ve accumulated over the years, but each and every card features someone you’ve probably had on your fantasy team at some point in time.  

To enter, simply leave a comment with your best or worst draft pick of recent memory in ANY fantasy sports league.  Football, baseball, basketball, whatever.  And since I never want to exclude anyone, if you don’t play fantasy sports simply leave a comment stating the one football player you’d start a franchise with if given the choice.  

The contest will be open through the end of my work day on Monday, around 4pm Pacific time.  The winner will be selected by random “drawing” at Random.org and announced some time early in the week.  Good luck!!