A bunch of idiots doing nothing constructive

This week was the 3rd Annual 老 外 (Foreigner) Fantasy Baseball Keeper League Draft. If your not familiar with fantasy baseball then you've never really lived....... in the self-realised fantasy of owning a baseball team sort of way. Everyone picks real players to be on their own team through the MLB season and the guy with the best statistics at the end is the champ. This year, since most of the guys are in town, we decided to do a real-live draft in person instead of the on-line thing we usually do.

One guy in our league has been into fantasy sports since the AOL days back in the 90's and probably even before internet. He's always wanted to do the draft with a "Big Board" where everyone selects their team by pinning up the player's names on the board. I figured that I'd throw something together and make the dream a reality! I also made cookies. Thus, the following recap:





Above is the Big Board. The draft took place in Jeff's basement and lasted just over 3 hours. Way too long! That's something we need to work on for next year. Maybe next year we can start in the morning or something.

The league has 12 teams in it. 7 people showed up and the others either sent in their lists or took part via the internet super highway. To the right is Brian. He woke up at "The butt crack of dawn" (his words) in Arkansas to partake in the draft selections. I know, I know, I've never heard of Arkansas either. Probably near Guam or something.




Some more of the highlights:


To the right we have Aaron, the one who's been waiting for at least 15 years for a fantasy sports Big Board. There are probably some tears of joy rolling down the other side of that Gordon jersey as he looks up at the Big Board. In this picture, Aaron is in deep thought, wondering how Jeff's team got so much better than his own over the course of only one full season.

side note: I drafted Alex Gordon. I'm not expecting great things, but I have hope that he'll be able to take a few more steps towards a useful career.




To the left is Kane. He is a school teacher so you'd think that he's probably marking some homework in this picture. That's what I thought too, but we're both wrong! He's actually got a pretty good spread sheet of baseball players in that folder. His commitment to the league is further verified by the fact that he had to miss/cut short an important meeting to be at the draft. "Well done good and faithful servant."








Above where you are reading right now is Jeff, defending Champion and Alex Rodriguezless. He is very proud of selecting marginal starter Adam Wainwright. He is also very proud of his moustache*.

* apparently moustache is spelled without the "o" but I am defiant in spelling it that way.

To the left is Commissioner Jamin and his moustache. He is new to the job this year but he is up to the challenge. Jamin is a statistical genius and will do well to keep us all updated on all the latest numbers.

No one knows how these moustaches will affect the play of their respective teams, but Jeff and Jamin seem to be seeking advice from some sort of alternative "insiders" site. In this keeper league Jamin kept Jhonny Peralta, and missed out on his crush Mike Aviles in the first round. Lets hope this moustache has a few tricks up it's sleeve, for Jamin's sake.


To the right is my can of PBR. PBR is the only beer in this town that I can stomach these days. The Chinese beer just doesn't seem to have any flavor anymore.

Apparently I didn't get the memo that nobody else was going to drink beer at the draft. I only had 2 cans so, luckily for me, it didn't affect my drafting ability. All of my idiot moves I can blame fully on stupidity.





In the end I am pretty happy with my team. I have a lot of proven guys (Pujols, Sizemore, Magglio) and some young guys that could raise a few eyebrows (Gordon, Joba, Zimmermann). The season starts in a week!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I knew it would come to this.

As the cold air continues to choke the life out of another summer, I can’t help but get excited for the upcoming hockey season. Actually, the truth is, I’ve been taking looks at my favorite hockey websites (look to the left) every couple of days ever since the Red Wings hoisted the cup back in June. What was I looking for? What news did I expect to find? Not much, I guess. But every once in a while I found a tiny morsel or a small scrap of something lying on the floor of the hockey dining room. These sources of nutrients kept me alive all summer long, just barely, and now I can finally nurse myself back to health as the season is only a few weeks from dropping the puck on itself.

So, what to say? I live in China. Not much hockey going on over here. When I bring it up with the locals it usually takes a little bit of explaining for them to understand what I’m talking about. Hockey, in Chinese, is “Bing Qiu – 冰求”. The translation for that is “Ice Ball” so you know that, from the name, there is not much interest in the sport.

Yet every fall I actually set up a little bit of a schedule that allows me to listen to the Oiler games on the internet via 630 CHED radio station. I am very thankful for that. Live Oilers action at 7am with a cup of coffee and a few slices of toast is something one must get used to while living life over here.

Rumor has it that I might even be able to watch a few games this year. After openly criticizing TSN for quite a while (I wrote them a letter) I am actually quite thankful for them now. They have a Video on Demand section that enables people, like me, to watch entire CFL football games on the Internet. Though they aren’t live, it is often loaded only a few hours after the game ends. That is nice. I noticed an NHL section on there as well. I’m hoping that it will soon be full up with all kinds of hockey goodness.

Whenever I am needing to actually watch a hockey game and nothing is available on the internet, I always have my stash of Oiler games from “The Cup Run” on DVD. Thank you to my friend Phil for the DVDs!

Thus is my situation. Being one of the only Canadian men living in this city (there is another guy from Ontario, but he lets his son wear a Leafs jersey) I am usually left alone in a lot in my hockey conversations. The bulk of this void usually falls on my poor, yet understanding wife. The only other guys that can maintain a hockey conversation for more than 2 minutes are both from Texas and… well, you get the idea.

So, that is the background. Now I want to look into the future. What does it hold and how much of whatever it holds does it hold?

One of the answers to that is something called “fantasy sports”. Kind of sounds like a questionable activity, but I swear that it is actually quite respectable in some circles. The city in which I live, Xining, has a very large circle. To learn more about fantasy sports go here.

We stick to the basic food groups of fantasy sports: baseball and football. I follow along with the Americans. At first (3 years ago), I didn’t care much for either, but as the time went by baseball has actually turned out to be my favorite. Football is growing on me too.

But what about hockey?

Trying to find people for my fantasy hockey league is like trying to find some sort of ancient treasure. It’s a desert, nothing but sand and empty water canteens. One of the Texans signed up but that’s it.

Plan B? To search the free agent waters of facebook. So far, so good. It’s actually turning into quite a diverse league. People from Xining to California to Calgary to Edmonton to Montreal and all the way around to Eastern Europe. This league should be a lot of fun. 3 spots left. Let me know if you are interested.

On top of this league I am also apart of the Kateri Super League. This league is going into it’s 2nd season and things are looking really exciting there. Most of the teams in this league are either related to me or are related to or friends with the people that I’m related to.

So, if you were worried that Brett might be loosing interest in sports, fear not! Even though they may not be real sports, they are still real fantasy sports.

Stay tuned for the next hockey blog where I count down the top 10 things to look forward to and the bottom 10 things to avoid regarding the 08-09 NHL season.