Post by TJ (former White Sox) on May 11, 2021 12:54:07 GMT -6
First off I want to thank everyone I've interacted with here in the last couple years. I've enjoyed my time in this league.
I started playing fantasy baseball in 1983. I've long since lost count of the number of HOF players I drafted as rookies. And the count of "fathers and sons" who have graced my various teams over the years is higher than I would have ever guessed.
But for the second time in my life, fantasy baseball really holds no joy for me. The previous time was after the 1994 labor dispute. In 1993 I followed the sport so closely I could have told you the name of the backup second baseman on pretty much every team. But that labor dispute pushed me away from baseball entirely for a couple years. I attended a few dozen games in person every year from 1989-1994 driving 200+ miles each way to see games in Houston or Arlington. But I didn't sit in the stands again until 1999.
I had hoped I wouldn't have the same reaction to the labor nonsense last year leading up to the restart. But I did. I found myself unable to root for teams and equally unable to root for players. The sport I follow second-most is hockey, and that sport had no labor issue at all. Both sides immediately wanted to do whatever it took to give the fans something to watch and cheer for. They divvied up the slightly-less-colossal pile of money fairly and went right back to work. Baseball... not so much.
I'd told Joey in the offseason that I felt like I was stewarding a team for a friend deployed overseas. Going through the motions to do right by the franchise but finding no joy. I'd hoped that the 2021 fresh start would reignite the old fire. And I'd care as much about as I once did. But it hasn't happened. And I think the right choice for the league is to find a new owner who DOES have that joy. The current roster has some gaping holes (made worse by injuries). But it has several valuable assets (and no burdensome albatross contracts) so hopefully it will be attractive for a new candidate. There's no reason a fresh face couldn't be back in playoff contention next year.
I'm in two other baseball leagues (with folks from here in both of them). I'll be looking hard at my plans there. I may well walk away from baseball entirely or I may hang onto one league and continue waiting for the joy to return. I've been in both of those leagues for substantially longer than I was in Majors. And I had really planned to be in Majors for a decade, doing a cycle of contention then a full multi-year rebuild, then back to contention. But running three franchises that aren't providing joy is too much of a burden when I'm also running a small business and getting cursed at by maskholes pretty much every damn day.
Best wishes to all of you. Good luck to those of you in the playoff hunt. And be kind to each other. If the last year has taught us anything it's that kindness and compassion are in shorter supply than we could have ever imagined.
TJ