Anyone interested in joining me in this year's ESPN Baseball Challenge ? If there are a few, I would like to start a group we all could join together.

I've been playing BBC since 1997 and it's great. All you gotta do is pick a player for each position, plus a pitching staff. You accumulate points if your chosen players do well. The first "season" ends at the All-Star Break, and then you start again.

I'd like those who'd be willing to play throughout. There's nothing worse than people who sign up, then never play.

It's free, by the way. You just have to create an account if you don't already have one.

Please let me know if you're seriously interested, and please try to sign up as soon as you can. If a few of us do play, we'll decide on a group name.

I'm in Don JG! I've been playing all of the fantasy sports except hockey since 1998. I have a few teams on Yahoo right now for baseball and basketball.

Can a girl be in your group JG? I LOVE baseball. It is my passion.

Well, of course! I'm hoping sports fanatic LDV will be in, too!

Interested people should signup at the link above and create their teams. I assume the game will start on Sunday, but you can start any time (the longer you wait, the less points you'll accumulate).

After I get an idea of how many people we'll have, I'll start a new private or public group at ESPN for us...

I'm in brother.

Hey JGeoff...do I need to tell you my member name? I will if you need it, I just didn't know if you would need it for our 'group' or not. Do I need to start playing or just make an account. I've got the account part done.

Cake - You need to create your team as soon as you can, even before our group is started, if you want to accumulate as many points as you can There is one game tomorrow night, and I think you have until like 3AM ET (the night before) to do it in time. (Otherwise, tomorrow you can put your roster together for Monday, etc).

I don't need to know your entry name. When the time comes, I'll tell y'all the name of the group to join. Dassit.

My name is "HH_from_the_BB".

Some jerkoff already has "Hollywood Hagan". The friggin name is spelled wrong and somebody has it! Jeez!

ha Ha,HH, mine is kinda dirty.
It is 'Get Off The Hoe Train'.
Does it cost anything to make a team? I could have swore that it said we had to pay $50 bucks for a team or something.

Wow, that's a nice team name! Man do I love hoes! Wait, did I just type that?!

No, you don't have to pay anything. The $50 is if you want a subscription to ESPN the magazine I think. Something useless like that anyways.

I tried to get the name 'Yankee Doodle' but some dumbass already had it...URG. So I was thinking of this quiz I once took to see what 'Dysfunctional Care Bear' I was. I ended up being Tramp Bear. Go figure?! Well,that was taken, so I thought back to my FAVORITE episode of Real World:Back To New York when Coral tells Jisela to "get off the hoe train because you're the only one on it"....HA HA HA. I laughed forever.

I'll play. is there a league name yet for us to click on our did you not set it up yet.

As im doing this im watching the Yankees beat the Braves in the 96 series on ESPN Classic. God that was a great moment

Okay, I'll set up the room now so we know it's working, and can see who's joined successfully...

First, go here . If you're already a registered ESPN user, log in. If not, click on "register for a free account" and follow the instructions. Then go back to the Baseball Challenge (BBC) home page and log in.

If it's your first time logging in, it'll ask you to pick your roster. Do this, following the instructions, and keeping your budget at or below 50.

When that's done, you're playing. To join the group, click on "Group Directory" -- you want the Private group called "GangsterBBC" -- the password is "puzoparty" ...

Please, only people willing to actually play (novice or expert, doesn't matter) -- I don't want to fill the room up with non-players...

Grazie,

JG

PS Where's LDV?!

OK.....I'm in the group.

My team is the "Consigliere Red Sox".

I just joined the group. My team name is Douche Bigalow. I just set my lineup today JG- didn't get a chance to last night. Does that mean I don't get points for today?

I would, but I already have a fantasy team to focus on. Sorry, but good luck.

I believe she is in Vegas at the Billy Joel concert. Have patience....you know she'll be here..

I believe she is in Vegas at the Billy Joel concert. Have patience....you know she'll be here.. [/b][/quote]Duh! Oh yeah! Thanks, Beth

Don S - You may have missed Sunday's game lineup. You can tell if you click on Box Score "Today" what today's lineup is (dashes next to players aren't playing).

Since there was only one game Sunday, for max points, you would've had to choose all Ana and Tex players. Now, Sunday, you'd pick your team for Monday.

Once you have your "dream team", within budget, you can just leave it like that and not make any changes until the end of the game. That's the easy way, and there are many players I leave all season unless they get hurt.

There's a caveat: Every Monday (probaby not tomorrow though), the players values change. If they did well the past week, their price goes up, and if they didn't poorly, it goes down. It can also stay the same.

If you choose players every single day, after a week you'll likely lose money on the best players. I tend to pick a "great" player and leave him there until he gets hurt, even if he's not playing on a particular day. That way, you can keep him at the cheapest price.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well enough, so read the "how to play" section there if you're not familiar w/ the game.

Basically, you can spend as much or as little time as you want playing...

JG

I'm afraid to ask.....

I'm afraid to ask.....[/b][/quote]Ha ha. I'm just making fun of the Rob Schneider movie! I like your team name SC. Being from NY, isn't it sacrilege to call your team the Red Sox??

When the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn (and the Giants left, too) the only team left in town was the Yankees. They were always the enemy, so I was "teamless" for a few years. I TRIED rooting for the Mets, but they were pitifully poor in the first few years and in 1964 my brother's friend, Rico Petrocelli, was drafted by Boston. I've been a fan since.

Don S - You may have missed Sunday's game lineup. You can tell if you click on Box Score "Today" what today's lineup is (dashes next to players aren't playing).

Since there was only one game Sunday, for max points, you would've had to choose all Ana and Tex players. Now, Sunday, you'd pick your team for Monday.

Once you have your "dream team", within budget, you can just leave it like that and not make any changes until the end of the game. That's the easy way, and there are many players I leave all season unless they get hurt.

There's a caveat: Every Monday (probaby not tomorrow though), the players values change. If they did well the past week, their price goes up, and if they didn't poorly, it goes down. It can also stay the same.

If you choose players every single day, after a week you'll likely lose money on the best players. I tend to pick a "great" player and leave him there until he gets hurt, even if he's not playing on a particular day. That way, you can keep him at the cheapest price.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well enough, so read the "how to play" section there if you're not familiar w/ the game.

Basically, you can spend as much or as little time as you want playing...

JG[/b][/quote]Thanks JG! I've played this type of fantasy game for basketball. I guess my confusion was that I didn't know the season started today. In any case, good luck to you and everyone playing.

I'm in. What an ordeal. :rolleyes: Picking the friggin' team and getting under the cap took almost an hour! And I certainly could have used some more study time. I haven't even bought a baseball magazine yet.

Two Questions:
How do you view the rosters that the other group members have selected? and
If I have a player whose value goes up $200,000, let's say, I get to keep him automatically, even if that puts me over the cap, right? But suppose one guy goes up $200,000 and another goes down $200,000. Can I trade the one who lost value for a player worth $200,000 more?

In homage to my favorite wrestler and the first lines of our favorite movie my team shall be called the Upstate Undertakers.

Plawrence, I don't know the answer to your first question- I'll look at the league later and come back with an answer.

As for the second one, you are correct that you get to keep him. By "buying" a player at certain price, you lock him at that price. Say you were right at $50 million and you have Sosa at $6 million. Even if he goes up to $8 million, you are still locked in at $6 even though, theoretically, your roster is value at $52. That's why it's imperative that you keep some players on your roster even though they are not playing on a particular day because you want them at those bargain values.

On the other hand, say a players value goes down... For example, say you were at $50 million and Sosa at $6 million, but then his value goes down to $5 million. There should be a button there that says "Renegotiate" or something to that effect such that the value applied to you for Sosa is $5 million, meaning your roster is worth $49 million. That means you have $1 million wiggle room to upgrade in any of your roster spots.

Well that's it. I hope that I made some sense!

Don S is absolutely right, that's how it works.

PL - You can see another player's team for the current day (and previous days) only -- but apparently that hasn't been turned on yet. And I know what you mean, these starting prices are brutal this time - I got a lot of shit players cuz last year's superstars are so damn expensive!

Starting on Day 1 is tough, too, cuz you really don't know who's good or not this year. Eventually values will migrate towards true values for 2003.

Last year I got lucky - I had Soriano on my team from Day 1 cuz he was cheap. He ended up being one of the best rookies in the game! Now, he's the most expensive 2B'er

I've been trying to view the other rosters, too. I can't figure out how to do so.

I, too, could have used some extra research time. I really didn't follow any boxscores in spring training, so my picks were based mainly on last year's performance. I TRIED to pick guys that played every day (ie. a lot of 'at bats') figuring they'd still be more active this year.

I came in at exactly 50.0, after about an hour's finagling. I'm not too thrilled with some of my picks, but they fit the budget, and I'll make changes as the season goes on.

Looks like its gonna be fun.

You're right about the expensiveness of the superstar's JG. It's brutal. Some players that should be cheaper just from last year's performance (e.g. Griffey Jr.) is so expensive. Must be based on his spring training performance. I was wondering... is it just one page of players per position to choose from. There are some names that I was looking for that I couldn't find? I'll keep looking.

DS - Sometimes, for some reason, they put players in the 'wrong' area - look under DH (even some NL players end up there!)