Fantasy Baseball Bible

There is nothing that says summer like baseball. The summer time sport of the ages, baseball is a game people flock to during the months of June, July, and August. Sitting in the sun, eating a hot dog, drinking a beer, and watching the boys of summer is a great way to spend an afternoon.

But it isn’t just summer and baseball that go together; through innings of the past, baseball and song have always gone together as well. Not only does nearly every American know the words to “Take me out to the Ballgame,” but all sorts of other music have been as much a part of the game as a box of cracker jacks. Over the years, several songs have been written directly about baseball or using baseball as a metaphor for life. The following is our list of the best baseball songs, those that belong at the top of the order.

The Boys are Back in Town: This song may not have been written about baseball, or even be about baseball, but hearing that the boys are back in town, makes so many of us think they are back with their gloves and bat. A single from the band Thin Lizzy, this song dates all the way back to 1976. Serving in more than one sports role, “The Boys Are Back in Town” is often played after football matches in the Republic of Ireland. A song that nearly everyone seems to know, it made the list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Centerfield: This 1985 hit was among the most popular songs John Fogerty released after leaving Creedence Clearwater Revival. “Centerfield” is a song purely about a man who really wants his coach to put him in, for he is ready to play. A song that pays homage to baseball greats of yore – Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio – as well as Chuck Berry and Ernest Thayer, a writer who wrote Casey at Bat, a poem about baseball, this song talks about moments in the sun and giving the game a ride. Over two decades old, it still plays frequently in many major league ballparks.

The Greatest: Kenny Rogers probably didn’t produce this hit with the intention that it would play in stadiums, pumping up the players as they take the field. Instead of being a “we will rock you” sports song, “The Greatest” tells the tale of a little boy playing baseball by himself. It speaks to the little boy in every grown man, the little boy who once dreamed of being a baseball star. Not only is this song heartwarming and endearing, but it also has one of the best endings of any song ever written.

Glory Days: Bruce Springstein’s 1985 hit was one of the cornerstones to his Born in the USA album, an album that was ridiculously successful. A song that talks of an ex-athlete who is no longer at the top of his game, “Glory Days” doesn’t intend to make us regret past moments; it intends to make us remember them as they happen. Knowing that “Glory Days” will pass us by, makes us want to cherish them more.

I am Here: Sports and folk music might not always seem like a dynamic duo, but in this case they are. “I am Here” by John McCutcheon is a song he wrote for a concert at the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001. Written from the viewpoint of a baseball player just elected to Cooperstown, “I am Here” acknowledges all of those who aren’t here, those who never made it. Touching on everything from playing catch, to being picked last, from being a career minor leaguer to playing stickball in the street, the lyrics to this song are some of the best ever written.

By: Jennifer Jordan

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During the 2007 baseball season, Barry Bonds will hit career home run seven hundred fifty six and break Henry Aaron’s all time career home run mark. Barry Bonds will become baseball’s new home run king and sultan of swat. Barry Bonds will have achieved this record by being a great athlete , having marvelous hand/eye coordination and timing and acquiring great strength through performance enhancing steroids.

According to the book “Game of Shadows” written by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams (San Francisco Chronical reporters) : “By 2001, when Bonds broke Mark McGuire’s single season home run record of seventy, Bonds was using two designer steroids referred to as the cream and the clear, as well as insulin, human growth hormone, testosterone decanoate (a fast acting steroid known as Mexican beans) and Trenbolone, a steroid created to improve the muscle quality of cattle”. The book continues,… “Depending on the substance, Bonds used the drugs in every conceivable form: injecting himself with a syringe, or being injected by his trainer, swallowing pills (sometimes twenty at a time), placing drops of liquid under his tongue and applying topically.”

Steroid use was banned by Major League Baseball. Barry Bonds used performance enhancing steroids for at least five years according to the “Game of Shadow” authors.

The soon to be home run king and sultan of swat, Barry Bonds, is a cheater for using performance enhancing steroids and a fool for not trusting his marvelous natural talent. This is the man that will be baseball’s new home run champion and an example of strength and achievement to our children? Baseball is a game of records, history and pastime. How has the game come to this? Was it not paying attention? Or was it just looking the other way?

People now talk about placing asterisk’s next to Bonds name in the record books or about other scandals in baseball’s past to try to diminish what is about to become baseball’s biggest public relations problem. It will be interesting to watch television coverage as Bonds approaches the home run mark. The coverage of the event will indeed be problematic for the media. Does the media hang on every at bat as the media did when Henry Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record or will the media be more reserved with the knowledge of how Bonds has achieved the record?

My hope is that Bond’s achieves the record breaking home run in San Francisco in front
of his home town fans and that a fan catches the home run ball in the stands and promptly throws the baseball back on to the field. The sad fact is that the record breaking home run ball and Barry Bonds are both destined to be inducted into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Shame.

By: James W Smith

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The first four teams were founded in South Bend, Indiana; Kenosha and Racine, Wisconsin; and Rockford, Illinois. The players were recruited wherever they could be found, but the best source seemed to be the Girls Athletic Association (GAA). The first season began in the summer of 1944. The league thrived the first few seasons garnering much popularity and fan support.

But when the war ended in 1945, things began to get hard. Especially the fact that when the men returned and took up their old jobs, forcing women out of the workplace and challenging the popularity of women’s baseball. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League reached its peak in 1948, then began to fall. The teams eventually all went into debt, and between 1949 and 1951, it dwindled down to nothing. However, women’s baseball holds a special place in history, with a section of the Baseball Hall of Fame dedicated to this era.

With soccer becoming a hit among women in the United States, with their World Championships, baseball has taken a backseat. It will come to a point again in the future where baseball becomes a hit amongst the average woman. WNBA has become highly commercialized, and soccer extremely popular. Why not baseball?

By: Peter Portero

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If you’ve played rotisserie-league baseball for more than a couple of years, you’ve probably finished out of the money at least once or twice. Unless you are a lucky owner in a league full of chumps, you’ve had to endure a season where you had Kerry Wood, John Smoltz, Derek Lee and Todd Helton all end up with extended stays on the DL. In such situations, there is often no way to turn your team around. You simply have to face up to a lower-division finish. Hey, it happens in the major leagues as well as fantasy baseball.

The trick is knowing when to cut bait on a losing team to maximize your chances of winning in the coming years. For inspiration, let’s look at a couple of MLB teams who have either sprung up from the depths of futility, or have remained stuck in “loser” mode.

Detroit Tigers

Year…………Record………….Payroll

2007…………??????…………..$95 million

2006…………95-67……………$82 million

2005…………71-91…………….$69 million

2004…………72-90……………$46 million

2003…………43-119…………..$49 million

2002…………55-106…………..$55 million

2001………….66-96……………$49 million

When the Tigers won the ALCS in 2006, it had been nearly 20 years since the organization had been to the postseason. Detroit hit rock bottom in 2003, winning only 43 games (a .265 winning percentage), one of the worst seasons in the history of Major League Baseball. That season, the Tigers’ payroll ranked 24th out of 30 Major League teams. The next season, Detroit won 72 games, an amazing increase of 29 games over the previous year. Only AFTER they experienced success with their younger, inexpensive players did they begin to substantially increase the team payroll in 2005.

When team ownership saw that they needed a few more stars to contend, they added veteran pitcher Kenny Rogers, closer Todd Jones and infielder Placido Polanco, all at multi-million dollar salaries. Of course, the 2006 season was a smashing success, but despite the high payroll, the team’s foundation is still its youth. That young, inexpensive nucleus should make the Tigers competitive for years to come.

An important part of the Tigers’ success has been player evaluation. In the same way, a fantasy team owner needs to assess which players will help the team in the coming years at minimal cost. Players such as Jeremy Bonderman, Mike Maroth, Brandon Inge, Craig Monroe and Jamie Walker all made huge contributions in 2006 at very affordable salaries (under $3 million apiece). Those players had all been around for a couple of seasons, and the team decided they were worth keeping. Combining these guys with the outstanding core of young players and adding in a few well-chosen veterans at the right time has been the Tigers’ recipe for success.

Baltimore Orioles

Year…………Record………….Payroll

2007…………??????…………..$93 million

2006…………70-92……………$72 million

2005…………74-88……………$73 million

2004…………78-84……………$51 million

2003…………71-91……………$73 million

2002…………67-95……………$60 million

2001…………63-98……………$74 million

If you want to have a fantasy team stuck in mediocrity for years, emulate the Orioles. They haven’t had a winning team in years, yet team payroll is consistently in the top half of the league. They annually add players for huge sums who are at or near the end of their careers, yet don’t have the strong nucleus of young players or the roster of talented veterans to support those mid-level acquisitions.

Here’s a list of recent seasons, and some of the high-salaried players who didn’t live up to their billing:

2003

Albert Belle……..$13 million

Scott Erickson….$7 million

2004

Omar Daal……….$4.5 million

David Segui………$7 million

2005

Sammy Sosa……..$17 million

Sidney Ponson….$8.5 million

2006

Kris Benson………$8 million

Javy Lopez……….$9 million

Bruce Chen & Rodrigo Lopez…..$4 million each

This year, it’s more of the same. The names change, but the result will be similar to past years…

2007

Danys Baez……….$6 million

Kris Benson………$7 million

Jaret Wright……..$7 million

Perhaps Orioles management will get the hint after 2007. They have a developing core of young players, such as Erik Bedard, Daniel Cabrera and Corey Patterson, but they lack the superstar talent to justify spending over $90 million. They consistently bring in players like Kevin Millar, Jay Payton, Steve Trachsel and Aubrey Huff, all of whom will probably be out of baseball in three years.

This is an organization with no direction. They seemingly can’t bring themselves to admit that there’s not enough talent to win, and scrap the whole thing and start over.

Don’t do this with your fantasy team. If you aren’t going to win this year, be the first to start dealing your overpriced players to contending teams. You will get the best deals in return. Load up that roster with promising, young players and head into next year’s draft looking to pick up a couple of superstars with an eye on contending in the next year or two.

By: Scott Campanella

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June 2, 2008 will be remembered as a big day for fantasy baseball, and the results of games on the field will have no effect.

Major League Baseball has appealed a case dating back to 2006 to the Supreme Court against CBC Distribution and Marketing of St. Louis, Missouri over rights to licensing fees for statistics and player likenesses used in fantasy baseball.

CBC Distribution and Marketing of St. Louis, Missouri is the ownership group behind CDMSports.com, a St. Louis-based company that distributes fantasy sports products and services to companies like USA TODAY and The Sporting News.

MLB’s case has backing from the NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, the PGA TOUR, and the WNBA, so the ramifications of an appeal and overturn of this case will have a widespread effect on the entire fantasy sports industry, valued at 1.5-billion dollars.

What does this case mean for your fantasy baseball league provider? It depends on whether or not they currently pay licensing fees. As previously stated, ESPN and Yahoo! already pay licensing fees, and are not included in the suit. Those of you who play on these sites will continue to have a place to play.

The smaller the company you use to host your fantasy baseball league, the more importance this case holds. If the Supreme Court hears this case and overturns the ruling, then smaller fantasy sports outlets will be forced to pay licensing fees. This will dramatically change the cost of hosting your league with a smaller outlet, lead to the removal of FREE fantasy baseball games from smaller sites, or eliminate smaller sites altogether.

While Fantasy Baseball Dugout has no legal expertise, we predict that if the case is heard by the Supreme Court, the earlier rulings will be upheld. Game on, fantasy baseballers!

By: Jonathan Bentz

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