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How I Became a Resident Sports Geek – Part One: Growing Up
I grew up in an area in Massachusetts that is located in the middle of Providence and Boston. I grew up playing youth basketball and little league baseball. I did try a season of soccer, but was more of a joke than a jock on the pitch. I enjoyed playing the games, but this was only the beginning of my madness.
My dad introduced me to the Boston Celtics when I was ten years old. By this time, they had won 16 NBA Championships, but were in the last days of the “Big 3” of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish. I emulated Larry “Legend” in my driveway, at one point even faking a back injury like the one my idol suffered from. I learned about the tradition of the Celtics with legends like Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, and of course Red Auerbach.
During those days, the Celtics were trying to transition to the changing of the guard with Reggie Lewis, who was drafted locally from Northeastern University. Unfortunately, Lewis died of a heart condition (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is a structural issue with the heart). The team in the mid to late 90’s was reliant upon “legends” (sarcastic quotes) like Dee Brown, Sherman Douglas, Dino Radja, and Dana Barros. Nonetheless, I was hooked on the Celtics for life.
In the mid 90’s, my parents ended up getting me a video game console known as…wait for it…the Sega Genesis (which I still own to this day, but don’t have the working controllers). This only helped my sports obsession grow as I played Joe Montana II (the original sports talk video game), Sports Talk Baseball, Lakers vs. Celtics, and NHL Hockey ’94.
The video games lead me to start watching more sports on TV. I was already watching Celtics games, but then I started watching Boston Red Sox games. These were the days of Wade Boggs, Jody Reed, Jack Clark, Roger Clemens, Frank Viola, John Reardon, and an up-and-coming Mo Vaughn. The teams were never any good, but I watched them anyway.
The game I played the most was NHL Hockey ’94 and I liked to be the Boston Bruins. They had Cam Neely, Ray Bourque, Adam Oates, Joe Juneau, and Andy Moog (coincidentally, I ended up going to the same college as Oates and Juneau). I ended up buying NHL ’96 and this was the first year you could create your own superstar players.
Joe Montana II was probably my next favorite game, but I was not too keen on watching or playing football just yet. The New England Patriots were the local team and in fact I only lived 15 minutes away from where they played. In 1992, the Patriots went 2-14 so I really had no interest in watching their games (boy, would I like to take that back now).
How I Became a Resident Sports Geek – Part Two: My Sports “Career”
As was stated previously, I grew up playing basketball and baseball.
For basketball, I was mainly a guard since I was usually the shortest on the court. I had a knack for rebounding though so occasionally I played the post. I developed post moves by watching the local talent in Robert Parish and Kevin McHale and I got to be pretty good with footwork.
My dream was to be Larry Bird though. I asked my parents to install a basketball hoop by the driveway. From there, I would work on free-throws and three-point shooting like my idol had specialized in.
For baseball, it was hit or miss (get it?) when it came to my hitting, but my fielding was always my strong suit. I was a utility player and could play any position on the field with my specialty being outfield. I had a knack for shagging flies and a pretty good arm for scrawny kid.
I later became a pitcher and will always remember my first start. I was nervous as can be because I had never done anything like it in the past. I immediately walked the first three batters that I had faced each on four pitches. Then suddenly something came over me. I threw my first strike, then another. With one more hurl, I struck out the batter with no outs and the bases loaded. I then retired the next two without giving up a run.
Later on, I developed a submarine-style where it looked like I was throwing the ball underhand. These pitches came from an angle most batters couldn’t understand and the pitches had so much movement that it was once described to me as drifting from one side of the plate to the other.
I started watching ESPN, in particular their #1 show Sportscenter. This show would introduce me the more and more sports. I started to follow tennis stars like Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. This got me watching the tournaments and then learned from watching how to score the game and the strategy involved with it.
Sportscenter also introduced me to golf where I would mainly follow Fred Couples and John Daly. These guys were charismatic figures in different ways but could hit the ball farther than most people.
To this day, I still watch Sportscenter (as most sports-enthused men do) when I wake up and before I go to bed. I also watch other sports shows; “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption” where sports writers debate about current sports topics. I also still play basketball, baseball, tennis, and golf as they provide good workouts and/or stress relief. While I’m probably above average at these games, I most likely won’t be a professional athlete any time soon, but it sure is nice to imagine.
How I Became a Resident Sports Geek – Part Three: Fantasy Sports
I don’t think I became incredibly obsessed with sports until I came to college and was introduced to fantasy sports. Not only could I imagine that I created my own team, but this gave me the opportunity to follow other teams and players that didn’t play for Boston.
I started with fantasy basketball since the round leather ball was my first love. I did an online draft and that took about 2 hours away from my life that I’ll never get back. This was a rotisserie league through Yahoo! so it tabulated the stats for the entire season and ranked us in different categories. I finished the league in third place, but also started obtaining knowledge of key basketball statistics.
Then I moved on to fantasy baseball. This would be the first time that I would manage multiple teams. Again, I sat in on the online draft, which for baseball takes twice as long as basketball since there are twice as many players involved. This was wear I was introduced to WHIP (average walks and hits allowed per inning pitched). This was the first league where I did head-to-head competition, meaning that stats were tabulated on a weekly basis against one opponent versus the rotisserie that tabulated stats for the whole year against all teams.
Needless to say, I was hooked. Later that year, I also participated in a NCAA Tourney pick ‘em league, a fantasy hockey team, two fantasy basketball teams, and of course two fantasy football teams. The following year was even worse as I did four NCAA Tourney leagues, two basketball teams, two football teams, and two NFL pick ‘em leagues. It got EVEN worse the next year as I did five baseball teams, four football teams, three NCAA Tourney leagues, and two basketball teams on two different websites.
The worst of it came after I graduated with my Master’s degree in 2004. That year, I participated in six baseball teams, five football teams, three NCAA Tourney leagues, two NFL pick ‘ems, two basketball teams, and finally salary cap football!!!
After that year, I started to tone the fantasy leagues down. Overall, I’ve placed 28 times including winning 5 times. I mostly play the free leagues through Yahoo!, CBSSports, and ESPN. I have played for money but with modest results.
Nowadays, my fantasy playing is down to one team each for baseball and football…although that’s most likely due to the blockades at work.
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