|
five hour draft.
Details out of the way it is time to begin.
The last place team of last year gets first pick.
With the mentioning of Mike Mussina, pitcher, the mind games begin. This is where managers begin to reveal strategies by the amount of money being bid on this star player. Sometimes it's bid out of sight because two or three owners absolutely must have him on their team or Mussina may go relatively cheap, signaling other strategies from owners. Of course, if that's the case, you wonder to yourself if you might be the only one there who hadn't heard Mussina broke a bone in his pitching hand last night.
And so it goes, team after team, player after player, until revised strategies are thrown away in a desperate attempt just to find a second baseman who can hit above .220 to fill out your 32 man roster and reserves among the 700 or so players you've spent weeks analyzing. It's at this point where mere journeymen to the game can command as much or more as five-star players did four hours earlier.
At the end of the five hours, worn, frustrated, worried and angry, the draft is complete and all the managers give off a confident appearance to mask their inner fears of drafting mistakes of Richter Scale magnitude. Bleary eyed we stride off to our cars and as soon as we're out of sight start dialing other managers on cell phones in hopes of making a trade to strengthen the team.
Yeah, it's fantasy. It's silly to some and even addictive. I'm glad I've not fallen into that last category of addiction. I've only four more leagues to draft in this weekend before the season starts.
|
|
