Sorry that this reply seems a bit outdated, but I've had some computer problems, hence my tardiness and disappearance from the league. Yahoo is telling me the league is full, so it's not letting me sign up again. They should have it fixed later today, they said, so I'll be back in both leagues.

As far as my poker analogy, I have no doubt that you would play exactly the same way, Plaw, but that doesn't mean everyone else would. If you've ever played a fake money table on-line, you'd know exactly what I'm talking about. If you have 8 guys playing seriously and 2 guys just fucking around, that can have a major impact on a tournament. Same thing in fantasy sports. My comparison is this: you aren't going to see people throwing around chips just for the hell of it at the WSOP like you would at a fake money table on PartyPoker, much the same as you aren't going to have NFL teams not showing up for games like some owners do by not setting their lineups each week in a fantasy league.

As far as my point about disliking how certain fantasy leagues are trying to become as much like the real thing as possible, I'll try to elaborate further. I view fantasy sports as primarily entertainment. I do it because I enjoy it, as evidenced by the fact that I play in what leagues I can on here for free. I prefer to play for money because it adds more fun to the game, making it more worthwhile. I don't participate in every league here because I simply don't have time. 4 years ago when I was still in college, I probably would have been signed up for every single league available on here, simply because I had more time. Now that I teach, coach, and enjoy the social life of a single, 24 year old, I can't devote myself to learning the details of a radically modified fantasy sports league. The reason I don't like the fact that some leagues are becoming more involved by trying to make it more realistic is the fact that it takes away from the fun of the game, in my opinion. At the very least, it makes it more like a job and less fun, and at worst, it creates a huge discrepency between teams that have a chance compared to teams that are destined to finish last not because they are an inferior fantasy sports owner, but rather because they can't dedicate as much time to it. Take your baseball league for example. There is absolutely no way I could compete in a league like that anymore because I simply don't have the time to dedicate to things such as starts in hand and average points per game at each position. I don't think people should quit playing leagues like this, I am simply stating I agree with the author of the original article that I don't prefer leagues like this. In some football leagues, they have cap penalties, practice squads, free agent signing periods, etc. in an attempt to make their fantasy league as much like real life as possible. Some of these guys spend as much time on their fantasy team as a normal GM does for an NFL team, but the GM does so because that's his career!

As I stated in an earlier post, I agree that subtle changes can make fantasy sports a better experience. The idea of a keeper league is a great format, IMO, that makes the game more fun and strategic, but doesn't require the owner to devote his life to his team. In the keeper league I'm in, all the owners are college graduates between the ages of 24-28. Some of the owners even have families already, yet we are still able to have a highly competitive league, despite the fact that we all have careers and attend an occassional NFL game in person rather than sit in front of the computer screen on Sundays so we can be the first to sign the newest 100 yard receiver or figure out our mean average under the salary cap from weeks 5-11. I'm not saying people shouldn't play in leagues like this if they want to. I believe that the standard format for most fantasy sports seems to be working just fine, so I prefer those formats compared to formats that try to make the leagues more "life-like".

So, in closing, my point was merely to post an article about fantasy sports since all the people in this thread participate in fantasy sports. Since the article I posted gave an opinion, I provided my own opinion as well. I'm not saying everyone has to agree with it, but if we never posted any thoughts we had that we feared wouldn't be met with 100% approval, then the BB would be a pretty boring place.