The Main Event...Fantasy Baseball

Unless you're Australian, baseball begins tonight...March 30th, 2014.  For some stupid reason the Dodgers played two games against the Diamondbacks in Australia last week.  Baseball and Australia just don't mix.  Even the dirt was a problem.  The dirt in Australia isn't up to the standard dirt required for baseball in America, so they had to ship tons of dirt from California to Australia just to get the pitcher's mound to meet specifications.

And what happened?  Clayton Kershaw went on the disabled list for the first time in his career; and the other Los Angeles Dodger pitcher who was exposed to the Australian dirt..Hyun-Jin Ryu, broke the nail on his big toe.  You could see him have a problem if you watched the game.  It looked like Ryu turned his ankle.  But he only broke his toe-nail.  Had to have it surgically removed when he got back to the States, and he's pitching tonight.

Well, tonight things get back to normal.  I think the Padres will beat the Dodgers just because the trip to and from Australia probably has the Dodger's players body-time clocks all screwed up

Last season my son introduced me to Fantasy Baseball.  Fantasy Baseball??  Give me a break.  I'm a grown-up.  A retired guy.  Too late for fantasies for me.

Well, I've got news for ya.  Fantasy Baseball is the greatest thing since...well...ice-cream.  At least.

I finished 4th in my first Fantasy Baseball league.  I figure that gave me enough experience to take on the top baseball experts in the country.  So I plunked down $1,600 and I went to Vegas (a short trip for me) and I got into this baseball draft  called "The Main Event" held at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino.  That's the place with the "dancing fountains."  You've probably seen it on TV or advertised somewhere.

The contest is limited to 240 players.  Top prize is $125,000.  Each "league" consists of 15 teams, and the 15 team-owners draft 30 players each...a total of 450 ballplayers.  This is what is called a deep league.  It's difficult to get more than 2 or 3 stars on each team.

I drafted 11th in my league.  I think I had a pretty good draft.  One of the guys I drafted against won the overall prize ($125,000) last year; and several others in the draft had won major prizes in previous years.  So I am playing against some top-flight guys.

And it begins tonight.  I am technically in next-to-last place in the standings right now.  That's because I don't have any players on the Dodgers or Diamondbacks on my Fantasy team, so I have earned 0 points so far.  Even tonight, I only have one player...Will Venable...playing.  So unless Venable hits 4 home runs and steals 4 bases or something, I expect I'll still be in next-to-last place after tonight's game.  Maybe even lower.

But I shall survive.