The Morning Offering - Feb. 15, 2005

Written by TiVo on February 15, 2005

With fantasy football in the bag, hockey nowhere to be found and the basketball trade deadline still a few weeks away, it’s time to start thinking about how many baseball leagues you want to devote yourself to this summer.

Sure, pitchers and catchers are just beginning to report, but you already have at least one or two leagues in mind, don’t you? And your addiction to fantasy sports always allows room for a couple more.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a couple of ways you could spice up your summer, should you decide to deviate from the standard 12-team 4x4 or 5x5 rotisserie formats.

The first thing that comes to mind is what we like to call the “train wreck.” It is one, simply put, but can also be lots of fun.

In the days long before Rotogods.com, The Fool, Father Time and I came up in Yahoo! Leagues where the format was 20 owners competing head-to-head in every category available. So if you were auto-drafted a team devoid of mashers or base-stealers, you scoured the waiver wire looking for holds, innings-eaters and guys that got hit by a lot of pitches. Sure, it isn’t the purest form of roto baseball, but it made for some wild head-to-head matchups. I definitely remember blowing an 18-3 Wednesday lead to my friend Brian, in the playoffs, only to watch him lose to the following week to The Fool on a tiebreaker - ERA - after Randy Johnson threw a Sunday gem.

With 20 teams (and sometimes as many as 29 train wreck categories) apparently not being enough, I found my way into the 24-team World Baseball Federation on CBS Sportsline.

Set up by my former landlord, the WBF is comprised of owners from Beantown to Hawaii. Don’t ask how we all got hooked up. Last year, when we polled the crew to find out what people do for a living, we ranged from Miami lawyer to Kentucky prison guard, which is damn cool, if you think about it.

The problem with the WBF is with 24 teams, you’d better know your stuff. Even if the waiver wire isn’t slim pickings, there’s bound to be at least one owner quicker on the draw than you for the latest hot pickup. So you’ve got to think ahead and snatch dudes before they’re hot. And even if you don’t, paying attention to who’s doing what in a 24-team league should give you solid knowledge of the player pool in a 12-team league.

Die-hards from the WBF spawned my newest challenge, the 30-team Virtual MLB. This league is brand-new, but is already generating interest. I don’t know how I’ll adjust to the size of the league or the format, but since we’re set up in four divisions resembling the old AL East, West, etc., we’ve already started jockeying for position. Instead of going by “Joe’s Jackers” or “Double-play Dave,” each team carries a real-life team name.

Since they scrounged up some Canadian and gave him the Blue Jays before I could claim them, I’ve already bounced from the Devil Rays to the Orioles, and I’m trying to get my hands on the Nationals.

Other than names, though, we’ll be drafting our own teams, so our rosters won’t resemble those of Major League teams, unless you consider the fact that we too will have room for Matt Stairs and Aaron Harang.

Proving that bigger isn’t always better, last season I participated in a 2x2 league. The categories were home runs, RBI, wins and saves.

And while this was genius in theory, as soon as a couple league mates figured out that with daily moves, they could trade their starting pitchers for hitters and make do by picking up anyone set to throw that day, the league was skewed. Most of us got tired of the daily dash to get Chad Durbin and Wes Obermueller, and the league fizzled.

But it was a good idea. And that’s all we’re talking about here, keeping you interested all summer. So if you’re into the salary cap games, player auctions, keeper leagues or whatever, now’s the time to get creative and recruit other die-hard owners. Maybe you’ll have more fun than ever, or perhaps it will all leave you longing for the simpler days of RBIs, stolen bases and WHIP.

On pause
If you’re wondering why your baseball league hasn’t opened up yet, it’s because MLB.com is holding the world hostage until their “fantasy baseball opening day” on Thursday the 17th. Whether you think this is a great concept or not, we know you just want your league to open up already.

There are good articles in the Washington Times and in USA Today Sports Weekly about MLB.com’s deal with the players association, and their attempt to regulate fantasy baseball.

Thanks for playing
That Romeo Crennel isn’t bullshitting, is he? He just gave Jeff Garcia, last year’s Browns starting QB, extra time to hang out with his playmate girlfriend.

I like Crennel though. After he was hired last week, I actually struggled to name the other five black coaches in the NFL. Dennis Green, Tony Dungy and Herm Edwards came to mind right away. Marvin Lewis showed up a little later. I had to go through the entire league in my head a few times to remember that Lovie Smith was the sixth.

I tested this on Ape and some of the ‘Gods at the bar over the weekend, and they followed a similar path.

I guess it’s a good sign that there are enough black coaches in the league to forget a few, depending on how you feel about race and coaching. I’m just impressed at the overall credentials of the league’s coaches these days. If Mike Tice and Jim Haslett can will the Vikings and Saints into the playoffs next season, we might have our first year with no NFL coach fired.

Think about their credentials.

There’s the absolutely un-fireable old guard: Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells and Dick Vermeil.

There’s the genius, Bill Belichick, and the other coaches who can point at a Lombardi Trophy and say “Fire me? Fire deez nuts!”: Brian Billick, Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden and Mike Holmgren.

There’s the earned-their-respect bunch: Bill Cowher, Andy Reid, Jeff Fisher, Green, Dungy, Marty Schottenheimer, Tom Coughlin, Dom Capers, Steve Mariucci, Norv Turner and Edwards.

There are the young guns: John Fox, Jack Del Rio, Lewis and Jim Mora.

And there is the “I ain’t been here long enough to get fired yet” crew: Smith, Mike Mularkey, Nick Saban, Mike Nolan and Crennell.

Oh. So there’s still Mike Sherman and Mike Martz.

The sendoff
Anyway, it’s late morning. Go ahead and get to it. I’ll leave you with one question. Assuming you agree that NASCAR and golf have surpassed hockey in terms of popularity in the USA, do you think the loss of the NHL season is doing irreparable damage to a beloved sport, or proving how much no one misses it?

Don’t be afraid to holler back on our message boards.

Berate, belittle or big-up TiVo at Tivo@rotogods.com. Or find him lurking the message boards 24-7.

-- Written by TiVo on February 15, 2005