Hi everyone—My name is Daniel Gordon and I am a sophomore in the Hotel School. As Mike Mussina currently blows the Yankee’s season by gift-wrapping tonight’s game for the Detroit Tigers, (diminishing any chance of the Yankees winning the division even with the Red Sox coming to town tomorrow evening), I have decided to switch gears to homework.
Usually I am quite an optimistic sports fan, and still do believe the Yankees can grab a playoff spot via the wild-card. The other teams that I root for, being a Long Island native, are the Knicks, Rangers and NY football Giants. Sports in general are my biggest interest and play a clear role in the Internet phenomenon I am most interested in: fantasy sports.
Fantasy sports have gained mainstream popularity in the last 5 or 6 years and have become part of the lifestyle of hardcore fans across the world. Espn.com, yahoo.com, and cbs.sportsline.com are some of the more popular websites that host fantasy sports games on the Internet. Basically, the concept is a bunch of friends (in a private league) or friendly strangers (in a public league), in an NFL fantasy league for example, each get to select professional football players from the NFL for his or her own personal team based that will be ranked solely on players’ statistical performance. You become a general manager- draft the team, make the trades, pick up free-agents etc. Fans interact with each other; Fans interact on a fantasy level with real professional athletes. Participants often pay an entry fee for a cash payout at the end of the season that becomes a reward for the top few teams.
Overall, fantasy games online are changing the way we watch and pay attention to sports. Fantasy sports have seemingly made it OK to root for players on other teams, even when they are playing your hometown team. While I enjoy tracking players’ stats and showing off an overall knowledge of sports, it truly bothers me when fans root for players that in real life are playing against the fan’s favorite team, just because the fan wants their fantasy team to do well. The online-world of fantasy sports has also changed the way many fans analyze particular players. Fantasy team owners know exactly how many assists Kobe Bryant had in his last game and since they have such an astute knowledge of the statistics, are unafraid to make brash judgments about his play, such as deeming him a ball-hog, without watching a single minute of the game. In sports, a lot of the action does not always appear on the stat-sheets.
Online fantasy sports games have also given my high-school friends a forum to stay in touch and compete with each other. Fantasy sports leagues have become a yearly competitive tradition and have helped kept many of my old friends close. Even professionals such as office workers and teachers, etc. compete in fantasy sports leagues, especially the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament, for the camaraderie and social-interaction aspect as well.
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2 comments:
Daniel,
First off, I'd just like to say that I feel your pain. I too, am a die-hard Yankees fan. Don't give up on them, there is still hope.
Getting back on task; being a sports fanatic, fantasy sports are of big interest to me as well. Although, I've never taken part in a fantasy league, I've watched many of my friends become addicted to them, checking them just as often as a high school girl checks her MySpace page.
I definitely see how fantasy leagues can easily become addictive. For the most part, I believe it's and ego thing, where people believe they know the most about sports and are out to prove it. On top of that, most leagues offer quality prizes, which always keeps people focused.
One thing though Daniel. You didn't specify which internet evironment/space in which fantasy leagues are a part of. As you mentioned, fantasy leagues act somewhat like a forum for friends to stay in touch. On that note, I'd say fantasy leagues could be classified under what Wallace calls the "Asynchronous Discussion Forum." I also believe that they could be classified as a type of MUD because they are basically an virtual reality environment allowing people to create and manage their own sports team.
~Will
Its funny that you bring this up because I ponder this question all the time since I play fantasy football as well and I am a HUGE Arizona Cardinals fan. Unfortunately I do draft players from the same teams that my favorite team is competing against from week to week and I ask my self why am I cheering him on when my team is getting beat. In a sense I am winning since I am gaining fantasy points but in another sense I am losing since my favorite team is loosing. You are correct though in the sense that because of fantasy sports we pay more attention to stats then we normally would so our devotion towards the team and player is a lot stronger.
Here is the thing that we never think of though which is always under looked until the end of the season when the wild card races get tighter but why is it ok then to root for a different team or player when your team needs their help. I can remember countless weeks when I was praying that a rival of ours would loose but then I realized that this team beat us maybe the week before, so why would I cheer them on to victory? It is really a win-lose situation, but that’s the reason why we watch and play the game.
-JADD
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