Tipping Pitches: Sports: Turn Back the Clock, Fantasy Style

Pages

Friday, February 5, 2010

Sports: Turn Back the Clock, Fantasy Style



email to friend edit
What a random, Turn Back the Clock type of day.

In a previous life, I worked in fantasy sports. Made some great memories, but I'm happy where I'm headed now. That life popped its head up several times throughout the day.

I'm not involved in fantasy sports in any way right now. Well, that's a partial lie. I barely play fantasy, outside of a league with my family every season. I work an amazing job at the American Cancer Society. The partial lie is that I'm currently helping a friend find writers for a new website that has yet to launch.

Just out of the goodness of my heart because I have connections in the industry. Put some feelers out in a status on Facebook. Then I get this:

Jeremy Cohen Return of Mojo?

A little background. I started my fantasy sports life in 1999 writing for Rotoworld.com. By... I don't know... 2002-ish (really, not sure at this point), I started my own site called Rotomojo.com (don't look it up, some other dude owns the domain now). It was a freaking rad site. And I never say "freaking rad." It was just me and some buds, laying down some knowledge. (The photo to the right is what I used on all of my articles.)

Chuck Lanzdorf wrote the most ridiculous sports related (but not fantasy sports) editorials I have ever read in my life. Insanely crafted. It was art. Pure beauty.

Jeremy Cohen also contributed some of his own childhood sports fiction and fantasy advice. Reading both of these guys made me miss being a kid.

And then we rounded out the fantasy advice with Buster H. (hell, no idea his real name) and some other dudes.

The original site lasted for like six months. It was an awesome six months. Got some attention. Not huge, but niche. It was fun. But I just couldn't manage it anymore.

Later on (not long after), the site was revived temporarily for the greatest idea ever invented: Beer reviews (cut me some slack here, I was still young). I sent probably 1,000 e-mails to breweries across the country, telling them I'd like to review their beers. In return, all I asked for was a sample.

Jackpot.

Beer started rolling in. I couldn't review it all, so had some sent to Chuck and Jeremy. Had to recruit Chuck's brothers. It was an absolute blast.

So when Jeremy mentioned that, it brought back memories. And now we're talking about collaborating on a blog. Maybe this blog. We'll see if Chuck is man enough to make the reunion complete.

Of course, even mentioning looking for writers brought some old fantasy buddies out of the woodwork. Dave Hunter and Ken Daube insinuated I was returning to Fantasy (ain't happening, people). Alberto Bruno, of Premier Fantasy Championship fame at the NBA, also chimed in.

So memories are flowing.

Then I got into a brief Tweet-versation (yes, you can't make Twitter sound cool) with my old buddy Matthew Berry at ESPN. And when he responded, a couple of his 200,000+ followers noticed my name.

tommyshih @MatthewBerryTMR holy crap, loved @jonloomer's writing. did not know he got back in the game after he left rotoworld. just made my day!

Talk about making someone's day. That made my day. Good to know that eight years post-Rotoworld, I'm remembered.

Matthew Greber, also of the fantasy world, then chimed in about one of my many silly creations called Suckball. The object of the game, of course, was to create the worst fantasy team possible. And you couldn't just pick bad players. You had to pick bad players who played often. It was a challenge. And it was, if I may say so myself, brilliant. It truly sucked if you sucked at Suckball.

By the end of the day, I had reconnected with several others from "back then." It brought a smile to my face.

You should never live in the past. The minute you reflect on your past more admirably than you enjoy the present, you are dead (or something less dramatic). But it's always good to know that the past you created is still remembered by others.

I won't be getting back into "the game," but I'll willingly reminisce with you. Those were great days. Today is even better, but I won't forget yesterday.

[Queue Boys II Men]

2 comments:

rachel said...

I love sports, but getting free beer samples? That's awesome!

Anonymous said...

Nice, Loomer, nice. Wish I knew back in the beer sample days!

Post a Comment

Followers