Where you are a general manager

I started getting into fantasy sports around my first year of college. Fantasy NBA was the first thing I tried, and after winning my league, I was hooked. I also started playing fantasy baseball and fantasy football, and those games probably sucked up a lot more of my time than they should have.

Now if you're reading this, then chances are you may not need an explanation of what fantasy sports are all about, but for those that do, here is a crash course.

Websites like Yahoo, ESPN, and The Sporting News offer free or paid leagues in pretty much all the main sports, college or pro. Paid leagues also usually offer a prize to the overall winner. You also have the choice of private or public leagues. Private leagues can consist of just about any number of teams, and are generally used for a group of friends who want to play against each other. Public leagues usually consist of 10-12 and you are randomly assigned to a league with people you don't know. Whatever you choose, you can usually name your team whatever you want so long as it does not include profanity. Afew of my competitors are "Sukey One, "K.C. Blackmutts Tim," and who could forget "Ozzie Guillen for President 7." Catchy.

After choosing which type you want, you and the other people in your league hold a draft where you are randomly assigned a draft spot. It is pure chance whether or not you land the number 1 pick or the number 12 pick. But to make things more fair, the draft order alternates in even rounds. If you have the no. 1 pick in the first round, you won't get to draft again until the no. 12 spot in the second round. Or if you have the no. 12 pick in the first round, you would pick first in the second round.

Whatever sport you are in typically has a roster set up much like the team on the field would look. For example, in football your roster usually has a slot for one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, a tight end, a kicker, and a team defense like Baltimore. You get a few slots for backup players, and the rest of the players hit a free agent/waiver wire where you can later drop one of your players who is injured or not playing well, in favor of a player who is performing better. All the players in the major league sport you are in are available, meaning you can have the thrill of having Peyton Manning as your quarterback or LaDainian Tomlinson being your running back.

In football you typically play "head to head", which means your team is matched up against a different team in the league each week. The object is simple enough: for your players to score more points than your opponents' players. They do that by scoring touchdowns, tallying yardage, making field goals, or making key defensive plays.

So what is the big thrill? It's pretty much an outlet for any sports fan to get to play mock GM. For those of us that sit around playing Monday morning quarterback, we can steer a team of our own. Forget questions like: Why did they draft that guy? How could they let that free agent walk away? How could they be dumb enough to make that trade? In fantasy sports, you are in con- trol, so if you succeed you can take all the credit, and if you fail there is no one else to blame.

These days I don't really have time for anything but fantasy NFL. The NBA doesn't do much for me, and baseball requires too much attention. After all, in football you only have to really set your lineup once each week, whereas in baseball you have to log in and switch players in and out almost daily.

To me one of the funniest things about fantasy sports is just how much you find yourself caring about some pretty random stats. After all, if you are trailing your matchup against "Ozzie Guillen for President 7" by two points, you may find yourself caring whether or not T.J. Houshmandzadeh makes that 35 yard reception a whole lot more than you normally would...which might ordinarily be none whatsoever. Sometimes you even find yourself torn between rooting for your team and rooting for one of your fantasy players, who is on the team playing against them.

This year I have three teams, and while one just is not very good, the other two have been the victims of bad timing. Seems like every week I go up against a team whose players are having a career day. But I am still in good shape in one of my leagues thanks to one player: LaDainian Tomlinson. After Tomlinson got off to a slow start, his owner gave up on him early, and offered him to me in exchange for Torry Holt and Deuce McAllister. Since I had a record of 1-4 at the time, I didn't exactly have a lot to lose.

Conveniently enough, the week I got L.T. was when he decided to start being a superhuman freak, staking a claim as the best player in football. Since then Tomlinson has scored almost three times as many fantasy points as Holt and McAllister combined. After totaling only three touchdowns in the first five weeks, Tomlinson has scored 20 touchdowns in the past six. In those six games he has

scored two touchdowns in one game, three touchdowns in two games, and four touchdowns in three of those games. He became the fastest player to reach 100 touchdowns and helped the Chargers become the first team in NFLhistory to rally from being down 17 points or more in consecutive games and come back to win both those games. He's also on pace to break the single season touchdown record.

Without L.T. I went 1-4. With him I've gone 5-1. I'd say that deal worked out ok for me.

In any case, if you are unfamiliar with fantasy football, there is a quick rundown of what it is all about and the kind of fun it can bring. I highly recommend that any sports junkie give it a try. Just hope you don't get in any of my leagues, because I'm already planning to go undefeated next year. I just need that top pick so I can take Tomlinson, because after this year, no one in their right mind should consider him anything other than the best player in football.