Sport of Kings

I thought ESPN couldn't come up with anything more tedious than the NFL draft. Then came the draft lottery selection show. While the NFL took nearly 30 minutes just to start the Raiders' 15-minute clock, the NBA made viewers wait almost 20 minutes to spin a few ping pong balls. Of course, if the NFL did the draft lottery, it would be a three-hour special, guaranteed.

The Atlanta Hawks had the most ironic result. In one of their endless boneheaded moves, they traded a number one draft pick to the Phoenix Suns. Only if the Hawks earned a top-three pick in the lottery would they get to keep it. In this year's draft, the drop-off in talent from the number two to number three pick is vast. I compare the difference to that between the number two and number three rookie running back. Marshawn Lynch to Brandon Jackson (not even a starter in college) is vast. Kevin Durant to some guy in China is bigger. Naturally, the Hawks got the number three pick. They've already screwed it up before it was made. I don't know much about basketball, but I do know that the point-guard-starved Hawks have passed on about 12 of them in the past two drafts.

I've stated many times that fantasy baseball is a better game than fantasy football. Another reason is that the so-called minor league, NFL Europa, is actually a bad place to end up if you want to play in the NFL. In baseball's minor leagues, you're already playing in your team's system, and most likely with other players who will be on the major league squad if you ever make it that far. NFL Europa is a hodge-podge of many teams' bottom-of-the-barrel prospects. While they toil and learn about the four-point field goal, other prospects are actually learning the playbook at home.

I've all but punted my two dynasty baseball teams. It's hard enough to make sure that you have enough players to play. Setting up a batting and pitching order is more of an ordeal than it's worth. I only know one of the other owners, a curse of the Internet, and the message board's dead. Part of that issue is when you sign onto the league message board, you have sign back into the league to make moves. Whatever. On the other hand, the AUBL, my bare-bones Yahoo league, thrives due to a great message board and team names that almost exclusively include "bastards" or "blows." I changed my team name to Cubs Rule for this week, and this week only. One reason I did that is so we can see the Cubs in first place, a rarity.

I'm losing focus in the sixth week of the season, whereas I have to check my fantasy football auctions in which 12 teams already have about 50 players each (talk about bottom of the barrel) every couple of hours. I'm getting nervous about winning guys like Ryan Longwell and John Madsen. I'm personally insulted that someone upped my bid on Quentin Moses in the last eight hours of the auction. That's just rude.