MONDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS - PLAY BALL, FINALLY

BY STEVE DUNN

 

It was 36 degrees in Pittsburgh when the 2016 MLB season officially began Sunday afternoon.  If I had been closer, I would have welcomed the opportunity to be a semi-popsicle in the sunshine at Three Rivers.  As it was, I watched it from the warm comfort of my living room on my computer screen. Like millions of Americans, joy had returned to Mudville.  The baseball season was underway.

I have LOVED baseball since a child, a love that was multiplied when my Great Uncle Ernie Watkins would take us to the nosebleed seats of old Crosley Field to watch the Cincinnati Reds in play.  Playing it as a kid and coaching added to my love of the game.  And when living in northwest Ohio I discovered WJR in Detroit and Ernie Harwell, I was hooked on the Detroit Tigers  for life.  In high school, I still remember teachers who "cancelled" classes to allow us to watch the World Series.  

And I remember the joy of watching my Tigers take down the vaunted Bob Gibson and the St. Louis for the World Series.  That joy was repeated in 1983 when The Tigers led their division wire-to-wire, from opening day and every day thereafter, culminating in the World Series championship against San Diego. This had not been done in the major leagues since the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.  With that win Sparky Anderson became the first manager to win the World Series in both leagues.

I started playing Fantasy Baseball in 2007 and have had a few winners along the way.  In 2012, the house I was renting was connected  with Direct TV and MLB Baseball, a service I have kept since as my daily thirst for baseball is fed by a plethora of baseball shows and games--and the sleepless nights redeemed by  Quick Pitch. Heidi Whatney and her crew.

My Tigers collapsed last year, a collapse hastened when the general manager sold or traded the heart of the pitching staff and the explosive Yolando Cespedes.

But already MLB is predicting that my Tigers have a chance to reclaim the AL Central and some have suggested that will represent the AL in the World Series against the San Francisco Giants.  

I am ready,  Play Ball Already!

MONDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS: BASEBALL FANTASY AND OTHERWISE

BY STEVE DUNN

As I begin writing this post, the 2015 Major League Baseball season is about to begin.  The St. Louis Cardinals are squaring off against the Chicago Cubs within the confines of storied Wrigley Field. The Cards are perennial participants in the National League playoffs and have won 11 World Series, most recently in 2011.  The Cubs by contrast last appeared in the Series in 1945 losing to the Detroit Tigers. They last won in 1908 again against the Tigers.

The addition of a new manager with a solid World Series pedigree, Joe Maddon and one of baseball's superstar pitchers, John Lester; hopes are high for the Cubs and should be.  They have the weight of Back the Future 2 already engraving a place in baseball history for the Cubbies.

Frankly, I suspect that what was fantasy in the BTTF2 will be reality.  My friends Jeff Boylan and Jim Stanley will be among the happiest of campers on the planet.

The baseball fan within me--regular and fantasy (my DR STEVE'S SLUGGERS are poised to win the Bases Loaded Fantasy League--is just happy that the season is finally here.

MONDAY MORNING REFLECTIONS - PLAY BALL, FINALLY !!!

BY STEVE DUNN

The sun came out in central Pennsylvania (as it did across much of the US).  It was a good thing, for it was Opening Day for baseball. Finally !!! My day was helped immeasurably by Alex Gonzales' 

walk-off single in the bottom 9th to give the Tigers a 4-3 victory over Kansas City.  It was tough to lose the ALCS to the Red Sox last year and I for one, have been waiting less and less patiently for this season to begin.

I think the NCAA is reaching its Final Four (but my brackets there were busted the first week) and the NBA is heading to its play offs (to which I say, "Ho hum!:)  Football is trying to gear things up with the college draft--but that will meaning nothing until after baseball passes its All Star Break.   

I understand that this year the highest ticket and beer prices are in Fenway Park.  I don't drink beer and I'm not planning any pilgrimage to Boston, so I'll live.  Feeling for the Texas Rangers whose pitching staff seem to have made a mass exit onto the DL,  but not too much since they now own one of my favorite ex-Tigers, Prince Fielder.

I managed to trade a twelve year old in my fantasy league to get the Tigers pitching staff, but I suspect Elijah will bounce back. He is still aggressively trading and mines that free agent waiver wire daily.  My really loaded team in another league barely got a hit on opening day.  That would make for a long season.

Today I am going to make my preseason picks:  AL EAST-Red Sox  AL CENTRAL-Tigers AL WEST-Angels  WILD CARDS - Royals, Rays  NL EAST - Nationals  NL CENTRAL -Cardinals NL WEST - Dodgers WILD CARDS - Reds, Pirates  AL - Tigers NL -Pirates WORLD CHAMPS-Tigers

TOP POSTS OF ALL TIME - FANTASY BASEBALL

Christmas Eve 2011

More of the top LIFE MATTERS original posts of all time.  Sports, especially baseball, have been good to me.  Proves that for my readers, baseball is America's past time - that, or fantasy is.

FANTASY BASEBALL

Yesterday was the draft for one of the teams in my Fantasy Baseball Leagues. (My wife Dianne now knows that I have more than one team. Don't worry, dear. I'll manage them on the computer before you get going in the day.) I don't participate in live drafts. That's far too much work. I let the computer draft for me and then I enjoy the challenge of trades, identifying free agents, and setting a roster each week to see if I can produce a winner. I had one team last year, the Landisville Sluggers, who finished third in their division and became one of the two wild card teams (my team was also third out of the league's 12 teams). Hanley Ramirez, Andre Ethier, Evan Longoria were the stars. And my beloved Detroit Tigers pitching staff.

Now for a little honest confession:

Sometimes I think I spend too much time on the computer. I know my wife thinks so, especially when it’s her computer I seem to be hogging. I blog and FACEBOOK. I email, I web surf for great sites about religion and life.

But in the summer this all ramps up as the Major League Baseball season begins because it also signals the beginning of the Fantasy Baseball season. Last summer I ventured in to it a small way, entering the Landisville Sluggers into one of MLB.Coms thousands of leagues. Trading, seeking free agents, setting weekly lineups were a new rush. Then there was watching my game in progress (and watching the real games in progress via computer that added points to “my game”) could consume an entire evening.

I am out of market for my own beloved Detroit Tigers, so I watch their games on computer, too. So caught up was I by my Sluggers that sometimes I only gave a few moments to my Tigers. Am I just a little bit out of touch with reality or what?

Well this summer I have added Leyland’s Powerhouse to my MLB holdings. And I have opened a new front in the CBS Fantasy Game with the Dunn Tiger Cats in the King Jesus League. So far, I have promised myself (and by extension, my wife) to check results in the early hours when I first arise and remind myself that watching the game live (if it can be called that when you’re talking about a computer simulation of a fantasy game) may put too great a stranglehold on my life.

Nonetheless, Opening Day is less than a week away.

CATCHERS AND PITCHERS REPORT IN 25 DAYS

BY STEVE DUNN 

A friend of mine, Jim Wilder, posted this on Facebook today and announced "I'm ready for Spring!"

Well, Jim, I couldn't agree more.

 "Catchers and Pitchers report to camp in Lakeland FL in 25 Days."
Jim and I are devout Tiger fans.  My long-suffering Dianne noted when I made this announcement, "Didn't the season just end?"  When I noted (with joy I might add) the baseball had the longest season off any sport, Dianne just shrugged.

I haven't grabbed my first Fantasy Baseball Preview yet, but soon I'll be visiting MLB.com to plan my entries in the 2013 Fantasy Baseball Season.  (Five teams last year--two made the playoffs-one made the final).  Because I will be starting a new job in the next month as as Intentional Interim Pastor, I probably can't invest a lot of time planning and strategizing for this season, my heart is already beginning to race with anticipation.  I have many roster changes in the year because I am not afraid to take a chance on emerging talent (watching the "who's hot" sections).  Last year a young man named Bryce Harper was one of my greatest "finds" last season.

We Tigers fans had a close call with destiny last season - overtaking the White Sox at the wire and wiping out the Yankees in the AL Championship.  If we hadn't started channeling the Yankees against the red hot Giants, we might be sporting World Series rings.  But we can celebrate the runaway MVP, Miguel Cabrera, our second MVP in a row.  With the return of  Victor Martinez and the acquisition of Tori Hunter and at season's end one of the lowest ERA starting staffs in all baseball,  it is not too much to anticipate glory in 2013.

I can hardly wait until they shout, "Play ball!"

FANTASY BASEBALL-MY SEDENTARY PLEASURE

Like many men over the age 50, I need to get a whole more exercise. I am easily 40 pounds too heavy. I have diabetes which tends to create a rounded stomach. I get winded all too easily and my joints are generally tight. And I am working on it. Walking each day, watching my diet, learning to exert myself physically strategic ways. Yet one of my greatest pleasures is quite sedentary--exercising my mind instead of my calves. I can do it standing, but not for too long. The one thing that contributes to my weight control is that I can get sufficiently immersed in it that I forget to eat. The mental exercises it requires is scientifically proven to help arrest the onset Alzheimer's. It is a sedentary pleasure, but it is a pleasure.

It's fantasy baseball. I am about to begin my fourth year doing something I have come to love deeply. I play the fairly straightforward edition sponsored by Major League Baseball (mlb.com). I have the maximum of five teams. I had ten teams last year in four different groups, but that over-expansion took away some of the joy. If my good friend Jeff Boylan reinstitutes his league in Yahoo, I may make it six.

My first year my only team, the Landisville Sluggers finished third in their division but was one of the two wild card teams in my MLB league, but fell in the playoffs to the champs. Year two I had two teams, both of which finished in third. Last year, one of my teams, Dunn's Tigers Cats lead from opening week until the end of the season and won it all. Year four the Sluggers and the Tiger Cats are back along with the Church Street Giants, the Mendon Pirates and Leylands Allstars. In the MLB.Com a powerful pitching staff makes much of the difference, as did the Braves and the Tigers for me in 2011. This year my five teams have the Phillies, Tigers, Braves, Nationals, Brewers--making four of my teams look very good on paper.

I know some of you are thinking, so what? Remember, it's MY sedentary pleasure.

BASEBALL'S HOME STRETCH - MY PREDICTIONS

The AL's All Star Catcher, Tiger's Alex Avila blasts a 2-run homer

Major League Baseball heads into its home stretch this week.  Most teams have 27-28 games left to capture their spot in post-season play.  My beloved Tigers made a surge in the last two weeks (including a sweep of the Indians) and hold a 5 game lead in the American League's Central Division.  It will be a close race becasue both White Sox and Indians have double-digit elimination numbers (13 and 13.5).  Texas has a slimmer lead against the Angels - 3 1/2 games and an elimination number of 24.  The Red Sox and Yankees go neck and neck (and brushback pitch vs. brushback) very much down to the wire.  They will both likely make the playoffs because on the Tampa Bay Rays in their division still has a wild card chance, and that is almost gone.

In the National League, the Phillies have the best record in baseball and a 7 1/2 game lead over Atlanta.  Only a collapse of that awesome Phillies pitching staff give the Braves a prayer, but they appear to have the wild card wrapped up.  The Brewers are putting the Cardinals in their rear view mirror.  My childhood favorite Reds are pretty much gone from the race.  Arizona is surprisingly in front of the Giants after going 8-2 in their last ten starts.

So here's my prediction one month from the end of the regular season: AL East - Red Sox AL Central - Tigers AL West - Rangers Wold Card - Yankees; NL East - Phillies NL Central - Brewers NL West - Diamondbacks Wild Card - Braves.

The Phillie's Cy Young Pitcher Roy Halladay

I confess, I am holding my breath on the Tigers.  Verlander cannot win it alone and the team with the most .300 plus hitters - Cabrera, Martinez, Peralta, Avila - need to hit when the other starters are in action.  If they don't, the White Sox could slide past them.  The Giants could still pull past Arizona but the D-Backs have an awesome defense and Kirk Gibson is an inspired manager (ex-Tiger, by the way).  I don't think it will happen.

So let's have a little fun - what are your predictions?  I will have a prize for the one who first posts the correct six.

While we're at it - my 18-4 Landisville Sluggers in Fantasy Baseball are one game away from clinching their division title, which will be the second year in a row one of my teams ran away with their division). My other teams won't finish above 3rd.

FANTASY BASEBALL - LESSONS I AM LEARNING

In checking the statistics of this blog, I have found that the most viewed post I have written (911 times in 16 months to be exact) has been FANTASY BASEBALL.  I wrote this post as my second season of pursuing this pastime was about to begin. I had rapidly expanded my previous one team in a MLB.Com league to six teams (the MLB maximum of five and one is CBS Sports). Then earlier this year I wrote of my joy that had arisen as I began season three.  (By the way, I had a second season champion - DUNNS TIGER CATS).  In that post I shared this reflection:

"Over the years I have coached many real teams in baseball and softball (as well as basketball and soccer).  I think there’s a sports managerial gene in my DNA that compels to do so.  Fantasy baseball, however, doesn’t require me to match schedules with a roster of real players with real jobs, or to endure the elements, or to endure parents of players who think their little darling deserves more playing time."

As season three has progressed, I have learned some tricks of the trade.

(1) Pay careful attention to INJURY REPORTS so that you don't get surprised by an assignment to the Disabled List that costs you production in a particular line-up spot,  (That has happened to me with Hanley Ramirez, Shane Victorino, and Rickie Weeks so far this year.  Weeks removal and my inattention cost my league leading Landisville Sluggers an unexpected second loss in a row.)

(2) Check the scheduled opponents for your pitching staffs and know how they usually match up against that team.  Your preferred starting team may have a great ERA and record, but against that particular team they may be abysmal.

(3) Big-names may be a bust - Ichiro comes to mind.  I haven't dropped him but he has been on the bench all season.

(4) Watch the emerging rookies.  Not all managers note them and if you get them early, even if you put them on the bench, they're on your roster when they hit their stride.

(5) Don't be afraid to add and drop players, but especially with pitching staffs - don't be in a hurry.

FANTASY BASEBALL IS BACK - FINALLY

I gladly confess it. I am a “fan” of fantasy baseball.  I am not enough a “fanatic” to participate in live drafts.  I choose auto-draft and then enjoy the process of trading players or watching the add/drop lists of free agents to snatch up someone for my roster.  Over the years I have coached many real teams in baseball and softball (as well as basketball and soccer).  I think there’s a sports managerial gene in my DNA that compels to do so.  Fantasy baseball, however, doesn’t require me to match schedules with a roster of real players with real jobs, or to endure the elements, or to endure parents of players who think their little darling deserves more playing time.

Fantasy baseball is really quite uncomplicated (once you master the system of managing by computer).  I make it complicated because after season one when I had one team–now in season three I have eight. MLB Fantasy Baseball is my provider of choice but I have a Yahoo Team in a league created by a friend at church. I am experimenting with an ESPN Fantasy Team in a league created by Detroit Tiger devotees and am trying out Facebook’s Salary Cap Baseball. (My foray into CBS Sports Fantasy Baseball last year was a confusing disappointment. Far too complicated.) The latter two teams won’t get a lot of management. The Yahoo team will get a little more.  My old stand-bye MLB Teams will get regular visits.

By the way, two days into the season 3 of my MLB Teams are winning, my Yahoo team has a slight edge, ESPN is winning, and Salary Cap is still calculating points.

The first year I endangered my marriage by spending hours watching the developing minutia of each game and then switching over the computer feed of the actual games to watch my players when at bat.  Last year I made sure I asked before going into my Fantasy Baseball cubbyhole.  This year I have a laptop so I don’t have to leave the family room (but I am still doing most of my “managing” in the early hours of the morning while my wife is still sleeping.)  A fanatic has been know to trash their marriage.  A fan remembers that their spouse is far more important than what happens on the field between men who will soon be on the disabled list or traded to another team. Evan Longoria is not going to cook my dinner. I have no interest in a hug from David Ortiz. And no one will ever pray for me like my beloved Dianne.

For now .. I am glad fantasy baseball is back and along the way this season I will try and wax more or less eloquently about America’s digital past time.

(C) 2011 by Stephen L Dunn