Lloyd had his fantasy baseball auction at school today. For those of you who don’t know what it is, let me – the uninformed, uninterested party – explain it to you. Lloyd grows increasingly silent over the course of a couple of months, hunched over his Blue Folder in front of the computer, muttering things about ‘pitchers’ and ‘stats’. As the Big Day draws closer, he grows distracted and restless.
Yesterday he set up the band room for the Event. He’s got it down to a science – a computer with three little screens that hold The Information, three giant projectors and three giant screens to show The Information to all in attendance (programs and grids with words and numbers. I assume they are player’s names and those ‘stat’ things). He supplies pizza and pop to keep all 20-odd attendees quiet and sated, for they have also been distracted, restless and hungry the past few days. They take pretend money and bid on real players (but not the Real Players – where would we keep them?) to make a pretend team that plays for real stats that add up to a Number. The winner has the best Number.
How was that, Lloyd?
Lloyd Here:
Hmmm, I’d like to think there’s a little more to it than that, but maybe not. I sure wish I would have remembered to take a picture of everything after it was set-up. Trust me, it was amazing. The spreadsheet we use to run the auction has been downloaded by 114 other fantasy baseball people in the last few months. You can read about that here if you’re interested. I got my own little bit of internet fame this month too. Nothing like Lauren’s Little Pies, but the fantasy baseball files I’ve collected were mentioned here.
It was a strange auction. Nothing went the way anyone thought it would. I walked away with way too many $#%@ Mets for a Cardinals fan, but I did get Pujols (and his elbow is fine, thank you very much).
Kristi says
Go, Cardinals!
And how can I miss the HUGE-ness of your screens? Are all of the particpants severely sight-impaired?
Lloyd says
It turns out that it’s not too big when you’re projecting 16 teams each with 26 players (along with their MLB team, position and salary). I had to squint just to read Kosuke Fukudome.
Karla says
Go Cubs! 🙂
Lloyd says
Ohh, that explains the player’s name.
Karla says
Hehehe The Cubs color commentary is done by Ron Santo, the Cubs 3rd baseman in the late 60s, early 70s. He’s easily confused and says things wrong all the time. We’re taking bets on how soon he’ll be fined by the FCC for mispronouncing that name.
Brad says
I’m sorry to hear you got Pujols. Is that anything like scabies?
Deborah says
I hear scabies is more common than you think.
Lauren says
I hear that many people call it ‘Elbow Cancer’ and should maybe just wait for a post about it, ok?
Annette says
While scabies and alcohol do not mix, I think Pujols, elbows and scabies shouldn’t compromise performance at all. (BTW,,,I’m sending a huge check in the mail L&L)
Michele says
Lloyd -- I pride myself on my Excel knowledge and expertise. I use it for everything from grade recording to accounting spreadsheets, but what you have here blows me away!
I dunno Brad -- I went to Lloyd’s helpful little links and what I saw looks even more complicated than playing Super Mario or whatever it is you and my kids play. What do you think?
Lloyd says
It’s been evolving over four or five years, and it never seems to get any less complicated. Ironically, it gets more complicated to keep things simpler. The idea is to just enter the information once in a very simple manner and have the spreadsheet spread it out over several owners.
Hmmmm, that’s the way the new high school website is suppose to work too.