My friend Shawn came out to Los Angeles on a business trip and while he was on the Left Coast, we got together in Malibu for lunch at Dukes.
We sat in the barefoot bar area out on the deck overlooking the ocean.
He had never been to L.A. before, so I figured a few libations and some dolphins swimming by wouldn’t be a bad way to introduce him to the laid back lifestyle Southern California seems to thrust upon its (totally willing) inhabitants.
No dolphins swam by, but there were a pack of seals. (Are they a “pack” or is it a “school?” Maybe a grouping of seals is a “gang.” After all, it is L.A.) I asked Jeeves (which is now apparently just ask.com, I guess Jeeves has retired) because I knew this was bothering you guys.
A group of seals is called a “pod” while a colony of seals is called a “herd.” For story purposes, we're going to stick with “gang.”
Bottom line is that it was a sunny day, gangs of wildlife were frolicking about, many beautiful people were all around and after a few beers our conversation invariably turned to baseball.
He is from Boston and thus a huge Red Sox fan. He was extremely elated because his name has finally made it to the top of the waiting list for season tickets.
He bought the right to be on that list over seven years ago, so his schoolgirl-like excitement is understandable.
What does all this mean to you good people that have spent the last five minutes reading about my lunch in Malibu? Absolutely nothing yet, but what it will mean in the near future is that Shawn will have season tickets to Fenway Pa(ah)k.
This will allow me to jet to Boston, attend some games and thus provide you the reader with the hands-on "I was there" type of insight in my future columns that you deserve.
For whatever reason, I’m not sensing that you guys are as excited about this as I am.
Anyway, let me wrap up this diatribe and try to beat a point out of it for you.
To recap, we ate lunch, we drank and we talked baseball. The conversation turned to fantasy baseball as I own a keeper league team and he owns about seven.
Somewhere between a bite of mahi mahi taco and a swig of Corona, Shawn blurted out that he was going to draft all Red Sox players this year because with the additions of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, the team is unstoppable.
After a contemplative sip of beer I posed this question. Ever wondered who would win if your entire fantasy league were made up of and exactly mirrored all of the teams in the AL East?
We then took it a step further and laughed that someone should put together a fantasy baseball league that is composed of the top teams in MLB right now and see how well fantasy can mock reality this upcoming season.
Every move the real teams make would have to be made by the fantasy teams.
If a guy is placed on the D.L. and someone is brought up from the minors, then the fantasy teams would make those moves as well. We would attempt to keep it as close to reality as possible.
I'm sure this concept is done somewhere by someone every year and frankly I could just compare weekly stats throughout the season and score them accordingly, but where is the fun in that?
I think this idea would provide for some interesting future column fodder. At the end of the season we will see if the teams that make the actual playoffs are the teams that ruled our fantasy league.
For this time-consuming undertaking, I would like to ask you the reader for your thoughts and input. What do you think of this idea? Would you be interested in finding out how closely fantasy mirrors reality?
Would you make sure that if I write these columns, you will frequently read and comment on them, making me the highest commented columnist on Bleacher Report?
Please provide me with any additional rules or ideas that would make this more interesting. And last but not least, I would like your input as to who you believe to be the 10-12 best teams in baseball right now, so comment away people and let's get this party started.
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