All I want for Christmas is fake sports

Thanks to graduate school life changes and guilt over FOX Sports acquiring the mom-and-pop company, I have spent very little of my own money on WhatIfSports (WIS) for the past few years. My early success and participation in an owner’s council for the basketball sim (the game I played the most) allowed me to coast for quite a while on stores of credits and already-paid-for teams.

I’ve consolidated along the way, giving up a college football dynasty team and a second team in the college hoops dynasty game. I gave up managing control of a recurring league, where the winner chooses the sport and the rules, when time became too precious … thus losing out on some opportunities to pick up some credits for starting theme leagues. My only visits to baseball or football are because of that league (LOCO). Now, I am down to my final seasons of two other progressive leagues, one in hoops and the other in hockey.

There’s an impending sense of loss. I joined this community just before the airline attacks on the U.S., before leaving my job for grad school, before my first son talked in sentences or had a brother. In the sim world, everything is accelerated about 5 times faster than real life, so there is a lifetime of wins and losses embedded in these past few years of playing games. I’ve devolved from an expert and respected organizer with some name recognition to just another (hopefully still respected) owner filling a league opening. Earlier this year, I gave up my subscription to The Sporting News because of financial considerations, after having kept almost every issue since 1991. Throw in three straight years of only half paying attention to most of my fantasy leagues (one of which closed up shop completely), and this WhatIfSports situation seems a little more dire for me.

A few years ago, when Bloomington native Rex Grossman was a rookie with my favorite pro team, I worked hard to engineer a trade that involved 1/3 of our 20-franchise fantasy sports league. One of my trade goals was to maximize the number of Chicago Bears I had on my roster, but the larger purpose was to re-invest myself in the game and the community. I cut Rex in a the preseason last year when he went down with another injury (and then saw him drafted by someone else before I could get him back), and the havoc that is grad school / family life has negated a lot of that sense of reconnection. On the other hand, I care a great deal about my team again and look forward to the weekly distraction fantasy football brings. There is very little academic research (at the moment) about the fantasy sports industry, but as someone whose first draft came in 1985, one of the conclusions I am certain will be drawn is that this is ultimately less about winning or pretending and more about community.

I’ve had relatives ask me about what I want for Christmas. There are a hundred things this family needs, from a new lawn mower to insurance for Amy. We found out this week we will need to get new brakes for our lone car in the “near future.” Our television broke last summer, and our backyard needs more grass and fewer dogs in order to regain the appeal it had when we moved in seven years ago. Food and heat are sure nice to have, too. But … I think the thing that might have the most impact on me is just a gift certificate that would allow me to keep playing these fake sports games with real friends for another year.