Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Fantasy Baseball
It’s a damn good thing my subconscious doesn’t rule my life, because it comes up with some of the most hare-brained schemes.
This morning, I woke up convinced I had a multimillion dollar idea, if only I could find a venture capitalist willing to stake me. The concept is a marriage of batting cages and fantasy baseball. Picture this: the customer (and maybe some of his pals) would go online and put himself on a fantasy baseball team. There he is with his teammates Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth and Willie Mays and that about exhausts my knowledge of famous ballplayers. Sandy Koufax, I suppose. And Mannie Mota.
On the designated day, he shows up at the batting cage. The system tests him out first — how well can he hit? How fast can he run the bases? Because this cage would have have a whole damn infield. Meanwhile, his friends would do the same. The system would handicap itself in accordance with the players’ skills; it wouldn’t be much fun batting against Nolan Ryan* if you have zero chance of hitting Ryan’s fast ball, now would it?
You’d have to have one humongous flat screen TV up somewhere (protected from pop flies, of course) where the computer would show the simulated action. And then the game is on, you and your pals taking turns with famous players, working your way through a nine-inning game. Or four innings. Whatever!
The problem with this plan, aside from the fact I don’t know jack about baseball (but how weird is it to wake up thinking, “What is the infield fly rule?”) is what do you do when it’s no longer your team’s turn at bat? How do you play a defensive position with virtual infielders? On the other hand, if it’s a couple of friends playing on opposite sides, maybe the one guy sits it out drinking his beer and watching the big screen while his pal comes up to bat.
It took most of the morning to shake this weird notion. And why is my subconscious bothering with baseball, anyway?
D.
*I had to look that one up.
National League or American?
i love fant baseball and congress too been playingboth since mid 90s
Isn’t that more or less what the baseball simulator proggies do? Oh, except they’ll be actually swinging a bat. How are you going to simulate fielding?
I foresee technical challenges.