Fantasy Baseball: Players I Own

I always end up have the same players on many of my teams. I try to avoid it, but my research always ends up pointing me at the same players. This year I did a little better in avoiding repetition:

• Carlos Guillen: Tampa4, Work League (WL)
• Albert Pujols: Nine Bo Jacksons (NBJ), Tampa4
• Nick Markakis: Garrett Anderson (GA), Tampa4
• Chris B. Young: GA, Tampa4
• Josh Beckett: WL, Tampa4
• Gil Meche: WL, Tampa4
• Ted Lilly: GA, Tampa4
• Brian Wilson: GA, Tampa4
• Rich Harden: GA, Tampa4

Hmm, on second thought, my GA and Tampa4 teams are pretty similar. Those are the two leagues I paid the most attention to, so I guess I didn't really succeed in spreading my risk. Oh well.

A-Rod Did Steroids

When I saw the news on the ESPNNews ticker, I wasn't so much shocked as I was just disheartened. The whole time Bonds had been pushing to break Aaron's record, I wasn't too upset (well, ok, I was, but all those articles I wrote for the now-defuct BostonNow paper are offline so I can pretend I was calm) because I knew A-Rod would break Bonds' record and we'd have a new clean home run champion. But then this news came out. 

In the immortal words of Morpheus, "I have dreamed a dream. But now that dream has gone from me."

So now my whole world of baseball, the years I spent watching and learning and loving the game, are all finally revealed to be a complete fraud. Bonds, McGuire, and Clemens, they're not isolated users now; they were just the first to fall, harbringers of the truth. I really started watching baseball in 1996, right after McGuire started crushing pitches at a rate faster than anyone had ever before. So really, my personal baseball story is now the story of cheating and steroids. 

All right all right, I'm overdoing it a little. I still love baseball. I will still root for A-Rod. Maybe I'll appreciate guys like Jeter and Rivera more now. 

Let's just say that I've shifted my hopes to Pujols now. Man can that guy crush a ball.