Fantasy is for everyone

There are 29 days, 11 hours, and two minutes until the 2004 Major League Baseball season begins. Does this mean that you're going to wait around until April 1 to start filling your brain with the general necessities of insane fandom? No, dude! Now is the time to be doing your research, equipping your freezer with game-ready snacks, and drafting your fantasy team.

So last week my Fantasy Baseball article debuted and since then I've had several sports fans come up to me and tell me that they have never done fantasy sports. And my question for them is, what are you waiting for?

Not even the Daily's Sports Department has a league organized, which I assumed would be a main part of being on the staff here. Some kids have told me that fantasy is just not for them, even though they've never tried it. Others just complain that they don't know enough about baseball. So to all of you I say: get in the game, you lamo.

Fantasy baseball has pretty much been an entirely pleasureful experience for me and everyone I've played with, sports fanatic or otherwise. If you consider yourself even remotely a fan, and you enjoy gambling, negotiating, finagling, managing, bargaining, trading, analyzing or being creative, fantasy is right for you.

You want to be a stock broker or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company? Try working out a three-way trade that gets you a closer and an upgrade at shortstop, while only parting with your third best outfielder and satisfying everyone else

You think that you might be interested in marketing? Consider figuring out when the demand for starting pitchers is high, so you can trade yours for big rewards and then get them back cheap when the market is down (like at the end of the season when everyone has maxed out their innings allowed, and you can get Mark Mulder for Raul Mondesi because Mulder has become worthless to his owner).

What about sales? Ever try to convince someone that Ray Durham is the answer to all his or her second base woes? Store manager? Well, let's just say that there was one time that I set my alarm for 2:59 a.m. so that I could make room in my line-up for a pending free agent acquisition by putting Phil Nevin on the Injured Reserve just before the West Coast deadline. Yes, my girlfriend thought I was crazy. No, I'm not.

I just love fantasy. It's like the best game I could imagine, where I get to joke with my buddies, stay ridiculously on top of baseball news, and taste minor victories or failures with every time I read the ESPN bottom line. Honestly, I have put more energy, thought, and enthusiasm into a fantasy baseball season -- and I've learned more -- than any class I've ever had, and I am not a unique case.

At almost any given point in the season, if you asked me, I could give you the top five home run leaders for third basemen and the exact totals. Really, you think this sounds absurd, but it's all for fun.

And it is fun.

You have something to think about all the time, and every morning you have a reason to watch Sports Center. Every time you see someone else who you know does fantasy, you instantly have interesting news to talk about instead of just saying "what's up" or "sweet party, man."

Every time you see someone from your own league, you have a trade to pitch, a collaboration to discuss, fantasy gossip about another league member to laugh about. "I can't believe Cooter traded Renteria for Piniero! What was he thinking?"

Every little ebb and flow in baseball -- an injury, a hitting streak, a position change -- is something that you experience directly and effects you in an exciting and opportunity-creating way.

If you still don't think fantasy is right for you, all I would say is give it a try. If you've turned to this section of the newspaper, you're obviously interested in sports. Find some friends, go to Yahoo!, and start a league for free. You can even get ambitious and go to ESPN.com or the The Sporting News and pay a few bucks to get all the extras.

It's easy. You'll learn just by clicking around, and you can turn back to this column every Monday for tips. If you're already in a league, try doing two and expand your knowledge of players. Fantasy will change you. It will develop your skills. It will improve your life. It will make you a better person. Fantasy for everyone! GET IN THE GAME.