Fantasy sports an extremely fun reality

By Padraic Duffy, Journal staff | Saturday, September 06, 2008

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RAPID CITY — Like 99.9 percent of the population, the chances aren’t good that Marcel Wahlstrom will ever own, or run, an NFL franchise. So Wahlstrom and millions of other Americans do the next best thing — they pretend.

Fantasy football, which seems to be moving in on apple pie and bald eagles on the American institution scale, is the way that Wahlstrom and an estimated 18 million other American adults enhance their enjoyment of their favorite games. While fantasy baseball, hockey, basketball, golf, hockey — and even auto racing — are all part of that 18 million figure, it’s widely accepted that the majority of those “players” follow the United States’ most popular sports league — the National Football League — in the fantasy realm the closest.

“Sundays are the most entertaining day of the week,” Wahlstrom said, “followed closely by Mondays.”

That’s a big part of why fantasy football is estimated to hold as many as 12 million of those 18 million fantasy “geeks” — as they affectionately call each other. Fantasy football players get ready for one game a week, opposed to a 162-game baseball season or an 82-game basketball season.

Fantasy sports aren’t hard to understand — teams draft players and accrue those players’ statistics. Some leagues are set up in a “rotisserie” format — the statistics are a running total from the entire season and the winner is determined that way. Other fantasy leagues use a “head-to-head” scoring system where two teams square off “against” each other in whatever statistical categories that particular league uses. The winner is decided by overall win-loss record and/or an end-of-the-season playoff.

When fantasy sports first began — the earliest leagues are thought to have been drafted in the 1960s — the game was much more difficult. Statistics had to be tracked down and tabulated the old-fashioned way. Only the most avid sports junkies would take the time. Fantasy sports really took off with the introduction of the Internet. Now, anyone can log on, go to Yahoo!, ESPN.com or any other number of fantasy sports providers, and be up and running with a team in minutes. A league commissioner doesn’t need to spend all day Tuesday tabulating stats because the Web sites do it all for them. Still, many leagues, such as Wahlstrom’s, use a fantasy draft as a reason to get together, eat, drink and be merry. One of Wahlstrom’s leagues uses a conference room at the Holiday Inn, where he is a banquet manager, to conduct its draft. Wahsltrom’s leagues use the Yahoo! Sports version of fantasy football to keep track of scoring and standings for them, drastically cutting down on the time that early fantasy sports managers would have spent on keeping score.

But that doesn’t mean time — sometimes lots of it — isn’t spent in pursuit of a fantasy football league win. Whether it’s a strictly-for-fun league, or there’s money involved, everybody wants to show that they understand the game a little better than their friends, and that’s why their fantasy team is so successful.

“Football season never ends,” Wahlstrom said. “I’m always thinking about how I’m going to set up my team. It’s beautiful.”

Wahlstrom plays in two leagues every football season — each with 14 teams that pay a $150 entry fee. The pot is then spread out amongst the top teams at the end of the season. The Brasilian Reptilians, as Wahlstrom names his team at the beginning of every year, have won two league titles and finished last once. That kind of uncertainty and fluctuation in fantasy league finishes is one of the things Wahlstrom, who also plays fantasy baseball, likes the most.

“Baseball is easier because the law of averages takes over,” Wahlstrom said. “Football is tough because it’s one game a week and things like injuries and weather can have a huge impact on it.”

That element of chance is a big part of the excitement of fantasy football — it gives the average fan one more thing to watch and cheer for on the weekend.

“There’s probably a little less skill involved in football than baseball,” Wahlstrom said. “There’s more chance involved, but its chance, not luck. Luck doesn’t exist.”