Around the Diamond

My Moment of Zen

by Howard Bender

With the date for pitchers and catchers to report nearing, I'm sure that most of you out there reading this column are eager for things like position tiers and player projections.  But with so many free agents remaining unsigned, I feel that I would be hasty in doing so and would rather wait a little further into Spring Training before compiling my lists.  So what are we doing here?  I just wanted to take this opportunity to share a personal experience from one fantasy geek to another.  While I usually reserve articles like this for RotoBuzz.com, I feel that Addict audience would appreciate the anecdote as well.

We've all had one of those days from hell, haven't we?  Nothing seems to be going your way and the more you try to fight through it and try to stand tall, the worse it all seems to be.  You've got this enormous pile of sh*t dumped on you and the more you wipe it away, the thicker it gets.  Well, I had one of those yesterday and damn, was it ugly.

I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately.  Maybe it's the over-excitement about the upcoming baseball season.  Who knows?  But I try to get to bed as early as possible regardless of the fact that I work nights.  A good night's sleep yesterday was even more important as I was to report for the dreaded jury duty at 9 AM.  Well, I got home from work the previous night at 11:30 and was in bed by midnight.  I stared at the clock for about an hour before finally drifting off and was primed for atleast a good 6 hours of rest. 

When I opened my eyes, to my dismay, the clock read 4 AM.  Seriously.  4 AM.  I was wide awake and in complete disbelief.  I layed there for another hour or so before the frustration forced me out of bed and into an early shower.  I wasted some time checking some email, walking the dog, and paying some bills and eventually headed to the courthouse, exhausted and bitter.

Now I'm sure we all have our jury duty stories, and let's face facts...no one likes it.  No one.  I don't even think the judges and the lawyers like having to do the whole voir dire process and if they could change it, they would.  So I'm not going to bore you with all of the details, but to highlight a few, how about the gum cracking girl with an OCD for text messaging?  How about the loud talking braggart who claims to know exactly how to get out of the selection process?  How about the waiting room filled with 300 people and a thermostat set at a delicious 112 degrees?  Or how about the fact that you can smell the guy sitting 2 rows in front of you?  Just brutal. 

I tried to read.  I tried the iPod.  But with as many ridiculous announcements and moves in and out of rooms that I was forced to endure, it was futile to even attempt to settle in.  My frustration grew.  I was a pot of water boiling over and I'm sure if you looked close enough, you could have seen the steam shooting from my ears.

But wait.  It gets worse.  As I sat there in my 5th different room, listening to the judge explain the process and the length of the potential trial, a buzzer sounded.  By the look on the faces of the judge, the clerk and the bailiffs, this was not good news for me.  Turns out, a deliberating jury in the next room reached a verdict and that took precedent over the jury process.  The judge was needed elsewhere. 

So what happened?  Did the judge thank us and send us on our merry way with a get out of jail free card, so to speak?  Nope.  Rather than thank us for our time and excuse us from further civic nightmares, he signed off on a stack of deferrments and mandated a return to the courthouse for additional time.  I was beside myself.  Most of my day wasted, anger and frustration, and now I had to venture off to work.

You'd think that was enough for one day, right?  Wrong!  Having changed jobs almost 10 months ago, I was paying my health insurance premiums to Cobra and was awaiting my eligibility to kick in at my new place.  It finally did and I submitted the completed paperwork to my direct superior.  Well, when I got to work yesterday, that superior (although I have quite a different number of names for him now) told me that the paperwork wasn't filed in time and I was not covered.  After further investigation, I found that the paperwork was actually given to me late and the deadline had passed even before I had a chance to fill it out.  He told me he could get it corrected but that I would have to pay the premiums for the last 2 months.  Pay for coverage I never received?  After I already paid my Cobra premiums?  What kind of a scam is this?  He looked at me with that same blank stare your 6 year old gives you when he lies about breaking the lamp and said I could take it up with Human Resources in the morning.

You're feeling me, right?  You've had this day, I know. 

I sit for a few moments to collect myself and I try to cool off.  I do a quick check of my email and BAM!!!  There's sh*t pile #3....or is it #4?  #5?  Anyway,  my next 20 minutes are spent disputing charges and APR increases with one of my credit card companies.  Still beside myself, still steaming from the ears.

I then start my shift at work...I'm a bartender...atleast until someone pays me for this full time.  I can't even think straight as my mind is being pulled in a thousand different directions and the whole night just goes to pot.  Customers are aggravating me, co-workers are aggravating me, hell....I'm aggravating me.  I just wanted to go home.

Well, the night finally ends...late, and I leave to go catch my train.  It couldn'y have been scripted any better as i miss my train by about 2 minutes and am forced to wait for the next one which is 38 minutes away.  Did I mention my train ride is also about 45 minutes long?  The perfect ending to the perfect day.

So what does all of this have to do with fantasy baseball?  Not much yet, but I'll tell you...

When the train finally arrived, when I was finally away from the masses, when I was finally on my way home, it happened.  I reached into my bag, pulled out the 2009 Fantasy Baseball Guide, and was soothed by the calm lulls of prospect reports;  the leafing through pages and pages of player profiles.  The mock drafts, the projected stats, the sleepers, the busts, the recounting of battles won the previous season.  It was all there in my hands and it made me feel good.  I was calm again.  I was relaxed.  It was my moment of zen.

It doesn't matter how crappy a day I have; rifling through all of that information just makes the bad stuff go away.  I get excited about the upcoming season.  I get pumped up for putting draft sheets together.  I'm anxious for the fantasy season.  I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.  It's my escape, and I'm sure for a lot of you out there, it's yours too.  So the next time the wife/girlfriend starts giving you a hard time about it, remind her of the crap you sometimes have to go through.  Give her this article to read...to understand.  She's got her Oprah, you've got your HanRam!

I can't wait for baseball to start!!!

The second part of the fantasy baseball magazines review is here!  Check it out on RotoBuzz.com.

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Howard Bender is a freelance fantasy sports writer and former champion in both rotisserie and head to head leagues.  For questions, thought and comments, you can email him at Howard.Rotobuzz@yahoo.com .