Fantasy sports proliferates on campus

By Aaron Juarez

Working the phones, combing the waiver wire, and poring over endless numbers and statistics, the general manager agonizes over the options. Trade an expendable third baseman and a reserve outfielder for a needed starting pitcher? Release the pitcher whose shaky 1-4 start is weighing down the rotation? Or, put him on the trading block and hope to swing a deal?

Hearing conversations centered about such extraneous statistics as the ability of Alex Rodriguez to hit ninth-inning doubles during night games in the month of August, or Barry Zito's record and earned run average in games beginning before 1:05 p.m. can mean only one thing: fantasy baseball season is upon us.

With the Major League Baseball season just over a month old, fantasy baseball owners here at Santa Clara have already gotten into the full swing of drafting, dealing, and putting their baseball management skills to the test. Pitting their skills against friends and strangers alike in fantasy leagues over the Internet, many Santa Clara students enjoy the challenges of evaluating talent and running a team much like a major league general manager.

"It's more of a competition amongst friends," says junior Josh Peters. "I want to beat them and show them that I have more baseball savvy."

Peters says he checks his team's progress about 2-3 times a day and spends about 15 minutes per day updating his team and making personnel moves. He participates in a Yahoo! fantasy baseball league with nine of his friends. Peters says the competition can get somewhat heated at times, mentioning the amount of trash-talking by the group which goes on in posts on the league's bulletin board.

Recently, that very savvy allowed him to get the upper hand in his league. "[My friends] gave me a hard time for dumping [Diamondbacks pitcher] Randy Johnson when he went on the 15-day disabled list," he remembers. "They ripped me hard for that, but since then I've climbed from 10th place to 2nd place in the league."

Junior Tommy Paine agrees that the friendly competition and testing of one's baseball acumen is a motivating factor for participating in fantasy leagues.

"I guess the allure of it is that you get to run your own team," says Paine.

This general manager simulation inspires participants to put their knowledge of baseball players, trends, and statistics to the test. With Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling off to a rough start this year, some owners are faced with a tough choice: bench him, release him or try and trade him? Other owners may comb the waiver wire for potential sleepers, or look up the stat sheets and find an available player who has a penchant for getting on base and scoring runs.

"It's like keeping score at a baseball game," says senior Michael Moul. "Participating keeps people on top of what's going on throughout the season."

Since its inception in the mid-90s combined with the drastic increase in accessibility to the Internet, the concept of fantasy sports has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity among sports fans.

With round-the-clock updates on scores, statistics and player personnel moves all over television and the Internet, even the casual sports fan can gain a rudimentary knowledge of what it takes to run a winning team.

Still, there are some who see participation in a fantasy league as unnecessary. Considering the number of actual baseball games during a full season (162 per team) and the seemingly endless statistics to keep track of every day, some just don't see the plus side of participating.

"I think that it's for people who don't play real sports and live vicariously through the activities of analyzing and dealing players," comments law student Fritz Schick. "They play it in the same manner as they would play a role-playing video game, with control over teams and players."

It looks as though that sentiment is in the minority, on a general scale. Organizations such as ESPN and Yahoo! use their websites to offer anyone the opportunity to own, create, and manage an all-star team of their making. The amount of teams in a created league can vary, while the amount of leagues and teams each organization can host reaches a nearly unlimited total, though neither Yahoo! nor ESPN have released the exact number of participants.

The process for joining a fantasy baseball league involves a few simple steps. First, friends must be gathered to participate. Once a group member has registered a league through the host organization's website, each individual creates his or her team profile. Next, a draft date is set for the distribution of major league ballplayers, and once the draft is finished, all that is left is for the season to begin.

Though the popularity of fantasy sports here at Santa Clara can be attributed mainly to participants' eagerness to test their expertise in their respective sports, it appears that there still exists that desire to beat the competition and claim superior knowledge of baseball management.

"I don't really think of myself as [San Francisco Giants general manager] Brian Sabean when I'm doing this," says sophomore Chris Shepherd. "I just want to beat my friends."