It's possible that I'm taking this baseball thing a bit too seriously. Last night, we had our fantasy baseball draft (for a league which includes such blogging peers and luminaries as Wabi-Sabi and Donutbuzz), and it was fun - as it's been every year I've played with those guys. (Hoyt, thanks for inviting me into your league and letting me tap into an addiction I didn't even know I had.) And this year, I had the #1 overall pick, which is a luxury I've never enjoyed in my three-plus years of playing.
Anyway, there was a moment during the draft which struck me as funny, but also let me know that my ego is probably a shade out of control. At one point, someone drafted the Detroit Tigers' Dontrelle Willis - a pitcher who is utterly likable and infectiously enthusiastic, but didn't perform very well last season, and could have a tough time transitioning from the National League to the far more imposing American League. So a few of us in the chat room remarked that we hoped Willis had a good season, and I mentioned that Tigers fans were a little nervous about him, but as the fourth or fifth man in their starting pitching rotation. (Not like I know anything more than anyone else about the Tigers, but I kind of write about them every day.)
Then one of the other managers in the chat room said something like, "He's a third starter." And that's when I knew I took this stuff too seriously. Maybe he was saying that Willis is good enough to be the third starter on the Tigers. Or maybe he was just talking. But since I follow the team so closely, I felt kind of like Jimmy Fallon's portrayal of a hyper-tense, over-serious Barry Gibb on Saturday Night Live.
DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? DON'T YOU EVER TALK TO ME LIKE THAT AGAIN! I'M BARRY GIBB!!
YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?! I'LL PUT YOU IN THE GROUND! I'M BARRY EFFING GIBB!!
Here's what I'm talking about:
Thankfully, I didn't behave so childishly. It's just fantasy baseball (or baseball, as it were). And it's just blogging. I don't take myself that seriously. And if Hoyt or Jim are reading this, I'm just kidding. I just thought the whole exchange was kind of funny. And it reminded me that sometimes my ego is a little more inflated than it should be.
Of course, if I win that fantasy baseball league, then that ego will swell proudly.
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