Sports in the perfect world

In a perfect world I would watch every game of every sports team in Michigan. Yet I still watch or listen to quite a few games as time permits.

What's kind of neat is when I'm working at the hospital there's a TV in pretty much every room, and last night most of them were tuned in to the Wings game. There was quite a rush of excitement when the Wings won. I was in between patients when the wings scored that final goal, yet I still knew right away what happened by the shouts of joy from patient rooms.

I think sports are a life picker upper for all folks who appreciate them. They allow you to forget about life for a while.

It's time to form that fantasy baseball team

One of the things I do to stave off boredom when the patient load is low is by participating in fantasy sports.

I noticed about six years ago my brother was rooting for the wrong team.

"No I'm not," he said, "I have Terrell Owens on my football team."

"Well he just caused the Lions to lose," I said.

"Rick, you should join a team next year, it's fun."

"I'm not doing anything that will cause me to root for that team."

The next year he convinced me to "just try it," and now I'm hooked. In fact, not only do I play fantasy football, I play fantasy baseball as well.

Fantasy sports is neat in that it causes you to look at sports in a whole new way. And, most important, even when your team is doing poorly, you can still get enjoyment out of the game.

While I used to just watch the Lions on Sunday, I now find myself sitting on the couch with a bag of Doritos every Sunday during football season flipping through the channels and keeping up on my players. It's fun.

Fantasy baseball is different in that I hardly find myself watching any games except for the Tigers, but when I have a Yankee pitcher on my team, I now find myself cheering for the Yankees, of whom I hate.

I don't watch every baseball game like some sporting geeks do. In fact, I don't really watch any games other than the Lions. And that's the neat thing about fantasy baseball -- you don't have to watch the games.


Like I said, fantasy sports has you seeing sports in a whole new light.

With all the acquisitions my Tigers have made in the off season, I'm starting to get Tiger fever; I'm starting to get baseball fever; and fantasy baseball fever. I got the bug.

For any of you baseball fans out there who have access to the internet and the bosses don't care or aren't around, this is a great way to keep your mind busy.