This may seem like a silly question to ask, but the world of fantasy sports is growing in popularity each year, and has become a popular pastime on the internet and in people’s basements. Firstly I am a fantasy sports owner. Each season since 2006, I have played fantasy football, baseball, and soccer. People do not understand the amount of time, money, and integrity that surrounds fantasy sports. In this blog, I’d like to explore each of these areas, and see if fantasy sports are good for the sporting world.
First there is time. Sports are a 24-hour 365-days-a-year business. At any given time, something is happening with sports somewhere in the world. The same goes with fantasy sports. People are constantly checking rosters, trading players, picking favorable matchups, and keeping tabs on their fantasy players. On average, I would say people waste close to 2 hours a week on fantasy sports. Now to some, that doesn’t seem like a long time, but that’s just an average. I know when I was in high school, every morning in my first period class; I would check my fantasy sports teams. Even though it was probably unnecessary, I still checked rosters and free agency every day. I don’t do it as often now a day. But I would probably bet there are the hardcore fantasy owners that constantly check stats.
Money is another issue. Wouldn’t it be considered a form of gambling when it comes to fantasy sports? Not necessarily, This follows real life sports too, nearly every major sport game can be betted on, so there is nothing illegal when it comes to gambling though fantasy sports. I personally don’t gamble when I play fantasy sports. I usually play for free on Yahoo.com. Not every fantasy league or owner pays money to play, with a chance of winning it in the end, but a good majority of leagues are ran with a betting system. Venues like Yahoo, CBS Sports, and NFL.com offer a more user-friendly area to play fantasy sports. But there are still a large following of people that play fantasy sports offline and handle money free-hand.
Finally there is integrity. Fantasy sports are all based on numbers. In any of the fantasy sports, a victory could depend on a matter of fractional points. I can vouch that I’ve lost a few fantasy football games by .15 points at least. It’s a rough game. In case you aren’t familiar with fantasy sports, athletes are given points based on the stats that they get in their games. During week 10 of the NFL, Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew knelt down at the one yard line when he had an open opportunity to score a touchdown. To fantasy owners of Jones-Drew, this was huge. Fantasy sports players usually don’t care how the outcome of a game goes for a team, as long as the player on their team does well. I think this hurts fan-hood, because it encourages individual success in a team sport. It would be different for fantasy golf, but this is an issue in most fantasy sports. Fantasy baseball owners hate it when their players are forced to sacrifice bunt, and in fantasy basketball when players foul on purpose.
Despite some of these minor issues in the sports, I think fantasy sports are harmless. Real life teams and players are aware of fantasy sports, but still play the sport in the way they have always played it. Fantasy owners can’t do much more than gripe if their players don’t rack up the big points, but I do agree that fantasy sports offers just another venue of friendly completion between friends, co-workers, or complete strangers.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Is Elizabeth Lambert a bad soccer player? Or is she doing her job?
We all saw in class the following video on Elizabeth Lambert, the New Mexico Women’s soccer player whose highlight reel was far from glamorous. No she didn’t score a dozen goals, but she might have accumulated a dozen fouls. So does this make Lambert a bad player? Surprisingly enough I say no.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC-pF3OHY1c
All teams have these types of players on their teams; enforcers. These are players who go in and make the big hits, they aren’t afraid to get physical. We see this from the footage of Ty Cobb, and even to this day with players like Hines Ward, Ray Lewis, Ron Artest, and Gennaro Gattuso. Most of you probably aren’t familiar with Gattuso, but I’ll explain more about him later.
Soccer doesn’t get a good reputation when it comes to being a physical sport. Players are often considered “Grass fairies” by other sports fans, but soccer can be just as physical as football or hockey. Yes some of the things Lambert did were over the line, but jabbing players in the back, a little push and shove here and there is how the game is played. Lambert was probably doing her role, but just in an extreme case. The New Mexico team was playing BYU in the playoffs, so the two teams were playing with some emotions. Maybe Lambert was getting frustrated that her team was losing, but that does not constitute her actions.
Gennaro Gattuso is a world renowned soccer player from Italy. He plays for the club team, A.C. Milan. He plays in the defensive midfielder position, and has gained a reputation as being one of the most aggressive players in the entire world. Gattuso has gained a reputation for committing some pretty harsh fouls, and I remember hearing during the 2006 World Cup an announcer saying something along the lines as, “Gattuso is almost guaranteed a yellow card every time he goes for a tackle.” This isn’t to make it seem that Gattuso is always a dirty player; he plays with a passion, a passion that every game is just as important as any other, and losing is not an option. Here is a video that shows some of Gattuso’s highlights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8-G1RVz-cc&feature=fvw
I know it was brought up in class that Lambert is being treated differently because she is a female. I agree she is getting unfair media coverage. I’m not condoning her actions, but I do believe that because she is a girl, she isn’t being treated right. Yes, she should be suspended for her actions, but to be quite honest, she should have gotten a red card, or even two, for her fouls. In my eyes, that is poor refereeing. I know in most soccer games, there are only three referees on a field for a game. And I know that referees can’t see everything on the field, but from watching the highlights, how could the referees not notice her challenges and give her a red card.
To be honest I felt that Lambert was playing her position properly, yes she had some aggressive fouls, and some sloppy play, but aside from the hair pulling incident, I don’t think she should have anything more than a one game suspension. I would also like to see if this is a recurring theme of playing, or if this was a one game situation, regardless, she shouldn’t be suspended for too long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC-pF3OHY1c
All teams have these types of players on their teams; enforcers. These are players who go in and make the big hits, they aren’t afraid to get physical. We see this from the footage of Ty Cobb, and even to this day with players like Hines Ward, Ray Lewis, Ron Artest, and Gennaro Gattuso. Most of you probably aren’t familiar with Gattuso, but I’ll explain more about him later.
Soccer doesn’t get a good reputation when it comes to being a physical sport. Players are often considered “Grass fairies” by other sports fans, but soccer can be just as physical as football or hockey. Yes some of the things Lambert did were over the line, but jabbing players in the back, a little push and shove here and there is how the game is played. Lambert was probably doing her role, but just in an extreme case. The New Mexico team was playing BYU in the playoffs, so the two teams were playing with some emotions. Maybe Lambert was getting frustrated that her team was losing, but that does not constitute her actions.
Gennaro Gattuso is a world renowned soccer player from Italy. He plays for the club team, A.C. Milan. He plays in the defensive midfielder position, and has gained a reputation as being one of the most aggressive players in the entire world. Gattuso has gained a reputation for committing some pretty harsh fouls, and I remember hearing during the 2006 World Cup an announcer saying something along the lines as, “Gattuso is almost guaranteed a yellow card every time he goes for a tackle.” This isn’t to make it seem that Gattuso is always a dirty player; he plays with a passion, a passion that every game is just as important as any other, and losing is not an option. Here is a video that shows some of Gattuso’s highlights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8-G1RVz-cc&feature=fvw
I know it was brought up in class that Lambert is being treated differently because she is a female. I agree she is getting unfair media coverage. I’m not condoning her actions, but I do believe that because she is a girl, she isn’t being treated right. Yes, she should be suspended for her actions, but to be quite honest, she should have gotten a red card, or even two, for her fouls. In my eyes, that is poor refereeing. I know in most soccer games, there are only three referees on a field for a game. And I know that referees can’t see everything on the field, but from watching the highlights, how could the referees not notice her challenges and give her a red card.
To be honest I felt that Lambert was playing her position properly, yes she had some aggressive fouls, and some sloppy play, but aside from the hair pulling incident, I don’t think she should have anything more than a one game suspension. I would also like to see if this is a recurring theme of playing, or if this was a one game situation, regardless, she shouldn’t be suspended for too long.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Fan Behavior at School’s Hockey games, too far?
After attending a couple of BGSU Men’s Hockey games this fall, and watching an ethical presentation by Cody and Marcus got me thinking. Do fans take it too far at sporting events?
Now this topic could go a million different ways, but I’d like to focus on mainly BGSU Men’s Hockey. I was outraged after attending this past weekend’s hockey games versus Alaska. Yes we split the series 1-1, but the real tragedy came with how some of the fans handled themselves during the game.
To start with, why to fans boo the referees as soon as they come out on the ice? Why make them hate the fans even before a foul is called? Wouldn’t it make sense to just leisurely clap for the referees when they came onto the ice? Nope, apparently hockey fans hate all referees, which makes no sense to me, because I would rather welcome the referees to the game hoping to get a better call in our favor for the game. And with our dismal 1 - 8 - 1 record, you would think we would want every call we could get to go in our favor.
Next you have the obnoxious fan that has no regard for what they say. Obviously I was sitting in the student section cheering on the falcons every chance I could, but there was always these two hooligans who were heckling the Alaska goalie throughout the whole game. (Some of the following language may not be suitable for all ages) Every time there was a break in play, these two men would insult Scott Greenham, the goalie, calling him an orphan, a bitch, and a no body. They didn’t stop there. They even went as far as making homosexual remarks about Greenham. As a student of the university, I wanted these two kids thrown out of the arena, but no security action was taken. I felt they were an embarrassment to the school and team.
Now I also think that some of the chants used during the hockey game by the whole student section could also be thrown out. In case you aren’t a hockey fan, whenever a player on the opposing team gets a penalty and goes to the penalty box, all the student section cheers, “See ya, bye bye, jackass!” or something to that nature. It may seem all in good fun, but I really think it is in poor taste. Yelling profanity at the player doesn’t affect them as much as we would think, no one is going to take off their skate and stab somebody with it. And yes, I have heard all this wacky things said.
Hockey already has a poor reputation as being a violent crude sport. I feel that if some of the chants were taken away and the students’ sportsmanship was a little more sincere, the hockey could still be just as exciting. I don’t think that just because we are college students is a good enough excuse anymore. We are young adults, and acting like Imbecile in public doesn’t help our reputation that much. I know it would be a long shot to change the “traditions” of BGSU Hockey, but it’s worth a chance.
Now this topic could go a million different ways, but I’d like to focus on mainly BGSU Men’s Hockey. I was outraged after attending this past weekend’s hockey games versus Alaska. Yes we split the series 1-1, but the real tragedy came with how some of the fans handled themselves during the game.
To start with, why to fans boo the referees as soon as they come out on the ice? Why make them hate the fans even before a foul is called? Wouldn’t it make sense to just leisurely clap for the referees when they came onto the ice? Nope, apparently hockey fans hate all referees, which makes no sense to me, because I would rather welcome the referees to the game hoping to get a better call in our favor for the game. And with our dismal 1 - 8 - 1 record, you would think we would want every call we could get to go in our favor.
Next you have the obnoxious fan that has no regard for what they say. Obviously I was sitting in the student section cheering on the falcons every chance I could, but there was always these two hooligans who were heckling the Alaska goalie throughout the whole game. (Some of the following language may not be suitable for all ages) Every time there was a break in play, these two men would insult Scott Greenham, the goalie, calling him an orphan, a bitch, and a no body. They didn’t stop there. They even went as far as making homosexual remarks about Greenham. As a student of the university, I wanted these two kids thrown out of the arena, but no security action was taken. I felt they were an embarrassment to the school and team.
Now I also think that some of the chants used during the hockey game by the whole student section could also be thrown out. In case you aren’t a hockey fan, whenever a player on the opposing team gets a penalty and goes to the penalty box, all the student section cheers, “See ya, bye bye, jackass!” or something to that nature. It may seem all in good fun, but I really think it is in poor taste. Yelling profanity at the player doesn’t affect them as much as we would think, no one is going to take off their skate and stab somebody with it. And yes, I have heard all this wacky things said.
Hockey already has a poor reputation as being a violent crude sport. I feel that if some of the chants were taken away and the students’ sportsmanship was a little more sincere, the hockey could still be just as exciting. I don’t think that just because we are college students is a good enough excuse anymore. We are young adults, and acting like Imbecile in public doesn’t help our reputation that much. I know it would be a long shot to change the “traditions” of BGSU Hockey, but it’s worth a chance.
NCAA Football eligibility, too lenient?
This blog isn’t an attack on the Ohio State Buckeyes, but something just doesn’t feel right. In the past few years dating back to 2006, the OSU football team has had some pretty unique kickers on their teams. Starting in 2006, Ryan Pretorius began kicking field goals for the buckeyes. During the 2006-07 season, Pretorius was 26 years old. He continued to kick for the buckeyes until 2008, which had him at 30 years of age at the start of the season. The average age of a college football player during the 08-09 season was between 18-23. Pretorius was twelve to seven years older than his opponents; I feel that there is a disadvantage there. To my knowledge, Pretorius played professional rugby before he joined the buckeyes, and this is where I have my problem.
I consider college athletes as amateurs. And even if people don’t consider rugby a major sport in America, it is throughout other parts of the world. If he would have played professionally, he would have had a contract, and gotten paid to play. Even though it was a different sport, I think the NCAA merely looked the other way when it came to Pretorius playing football. It seems like a HUGE disadvantage for teams who have to face a freshman kicker that’s played professional rugby outside the USA.
Next comes another Ohio State kicker, this time Devin Barclay. Barclay, if many of you didn’t know, played professional soccer in the MLS, with the teams: Tampa Bay Mutiny, San Jose Earthquakes, D.C. United, and Columbus Crew. Barclay had been playing professional soccer since he was 18 when he signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Mutiny. Although he didn’t have a successful career in the MLS, he somehow found his way on to the football field and soon became the starting kicker for the Buckeyes.
Although not near as old as Pretorius, I have the same problem with Barclay. He was a professional athlete in a different sport, but still gets to play in the NCAA. I believe that the NCAA needs to change the rules of eligibility so that this kind of thing doesn’t keep happening. There needs to be age limits for college football athletes. It only seems fair to allow players aging from 17-26 to play football. By having players older than that, seems like an unfair recruiting method. Also, I feel the NCAA should uphold its amateur status better, if a player has ever played professionally for any sport, and then they should not be allowed to play an NCAA sport. It may seem harsh, but it’s only fair. In Barclay’s example, he “retired” from soccer, but he still held a professional position on a team. He shouldn’t be allowed to play. These players take away from the integrity of the game. Teams should have to recruit high school or junior college students, not former professional players. I would hope the NCAA does something about this before more players follow this path which I find unethical. And I believe this should go for all NCAA sports, not just football.
I consider college athletes as amateurs. And even if people don’t consider rugby a major sport in America, it is throughout other parts of the world. If he would have played professionally, he would have had a contract, and gotten paid to play. Even though it was a different sport, I think the NCAA merely looked the other way when it came to Pretorius playing football. It seems like a HUGE disadvantage for teams who have to face a freshman kicker that’s played professional rugby outside the USA.
Next comes another Ohio State kicker, this time Devin Barclay. Barclay, if many of you didn’t know, played professional soccer in the MLS, with the teams: Tampa Bay Mutiny, San Jose Earthquakes, D.C. United, and Columbus Crew. Barclay had been playing professional soccer since he was 18 when he signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Mutiny. Although he didn’t have a successful career in the MLS, he somehow found his way on to the football field and soon became the starting kicker for the Buckeyes.
Although not near as old as Pretorius, I have the same problem with Barclay. He was a professional athlete in a different sport, but still gets to play in the NCAA. I believe that the NCAA needs to change the rules of eligibility so that this kind of thing doesn’t keep happening. There needs to be age limits for college football athletes. It only seems fair to allow players aging from 17-26 to play football. By having players older than that, seems like an unfair recruiting method. Also, I feel the NCAA should uphold its amateur status better, if a player has ever played professionally for any sport, and then they should not be allowed to play an NCAA sport. It may seem harsh, but it’s only fair. In Barclay’s example, he “retired” from soccer, but he still held a professional position on a team. He shouldn’t be allowed to play. These players take away from the integrity of the game. Teams should have to recruit high school or junior college students, not former professional players. I would hope the NCAA does something about this before more players follow this path which I find unethical. And I believe this should go for all NCAA sports, not just football.
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