Archive for Ask NotGraphs

My fiancee is a Dodgers fan, I am an Angels fan. You immediately see the problems that lie ahead. Baseball is my life, it is not hers, but her whole side of the family bleeds Dodger blue and she genuinely enjoys going to and watching games. A discussion regarding kids came up and I said I’m really looking forward to raising our kids as Angels fans. She scoffed.

After arguing back and forth, she asserted that if I got to raise our future children as Angels fans, then she should get to influence our future children in some way or get to make some sort of decision or get something in return. My question to you, NotGraphs, is what should that influence/decision/item be.

Diehard Chicago White Sox fan here. I met this hottie at a college party last semester – we’ll call her Amanda. Amanda seemed like a nice enough girl at first. We hooked up, went on a few dates and before long, we officially became a couple. Everything seemed to be going well, that is, until I found out Amanda had a dirty little secret. She was a Cubs fan.

Not only was she a Cubs fan – she was the kind of Cubs fan who didn’t know anything about the team (other than they had a “hot” second baseman). I know my family and friends would never approve of our inter-franchise relationship. I’ve managed to hide her problem from the guys for now, but baseball season is about to start and I can’t keep dancing around the issue. What should I do?

I struggle every year with the competing demands of my religions (Judaism and baseball) when I try to go to ballgames during Passover– during which I’m divinely prohibited from eating hot dog buns, drinking beer, and buying either peanuts OR Cracker Jack. Obviously this is a struggle that’s been faced by generations of Jewish baseball fans before me, but I feel like no one’s come up with a good answer yet. This year, I have a choice between going to my home team’s home opener in a state of privation, or waiting 2 days and going to the third home game once Passover ends. Which is the true fan to do? And if I do go to a game during Passover, what on earth am I supposed to eat?

Roses are red, violets are blue,
I’m stuck with Justin Morneau, what do I do?

For the past half decade or so, I have been entrenched in a fantasy baseball league comprised of my brothers, my father, and many of my cousins. Naturally, the league message board has become the main forum for all matters important to my extended family–marriages, childbirth, and of course the woes of the Kansas City Royals. Unfortunately, the message board can only be accessed by league members. This left many sad* wives, aunts and grandmothers out of the loop.

To fashion a remedy, last year the league commissioner (my brother) created a blog** for our family’s fantasy baseball league. Though it was lauded by all league members as a brilliant idea, the blog is prone to go long stretches without new posts. I do my best to post regularly, but I seem to be the only league member with any such dedication. Over nearly a year on this series of tubes, 72.6% of the blog’s posts have been authored by yours truly. Is there any way I can encourage the other league members to post more often?

When it comes to my own posts, I often have difficulty coming up with content that will be enjoyable for the blog’s handful of readers***. Now that my daily countdown to pitchers and catchers reporting is over, I’m not certain what I might use for blog fodder. Do you have any advice about how to keep coming up with fresh, entertaining blog content?

Many thanks,
Aspiring Baseball Blogger Suffering From Writer’s Block

I’m tired of reading about how wonderful all the players have been in the offseason. I am also a little bit tired of reading how everybody has turned a corner and is ready to have a career year. Could you give me a list of all the players who will suck for 2012? Not due to injury or anything awful, just a few guys who everybody has pencilled into their lineup who will absolutely suck. Preferably guys who will continue to get pencilled into the lineup over and over again.

I mostly want to watch for these folks around the league this year, to lift my spirits, because I spend most of my time thinking my team is the only one with sucking players. You know, players who are like a black hole in the lineup or rotation. Therefore you can omit any Blue Jay players who will suck. I know all their names already.

I play the overlapping fantasy sports of hockey and baseball. I have also recently acquired a girlfriend. I am happy with my girlfriend, but I am not happy when I forget to set my lineups in hockey and miss out on stats. I am also slow drafting in multiple leagues for baseball, and girlfriend time is heavily affecting my ability to participate effectively in these drafts. Once the baseball season actually starts, this girlfriend will be a monumental problem for my fantasy sports teams’ performance.

Have you any solutions, or even suggestions?

I am an Orioles fan, by birth, by inclination, by grooming, by necessity; I was born in Baltimore, grew up there, and was five when the Orioles won their last World Series. I don’t think I can take another season of the grim march of probability. I have often said that being a baseball fan is the truest test of the human capacity to love. I feel as though I am perilously close to failing that test. At what point does it become acceptable to break up with the Orioles? How long do I have to wait before picking another team to root for? Or will it all be worthwhile if I grin and bear it for another summer, another five or fifteen or fifty summers?

I’m a father to an 11-year-old baseball fan. Ryan Braun is on my keeper league fantasy team. I want to make the point that breaking the rules isn’t okay. I also want to win my fantasy league. What should I do?