I recently read Fantasy Life and went in to it with the preconception that it was going to be stuffed full of funny anecdotes about Fantasy Sports. That's all that I needed to know to pick up a copy because if you know me, you know I loves me some Fantasy Football.
I walked away from this book with a pleasant surprise. It is a book that can not only entertain the passionate Fantasy Sports player, but it may have the power to convert those who are "opposed" to the game or just simply don't understand what the obsession is.
Not only is it the submitted stories that Matthew asked for while he was writing the book, it is also a well written narrative of the journey that he took from Hollywood Screenwriter from such "popular" hits as Crocodile Dundee 3, the sitcom Kirk and a little known comedy called Married with Children, to the Face of Fantasy Sports for ESPN. It served as an autobiography of sorts telling stories of his struggles in Hollywood, to the start of his fantasy sports career with his TalentedMrRoto.com page to selling those pages to ESPN and joining their staff as the "Senior Fantasy Analyst", to meeting his wife in Bristol CT and how Fantasy Football brought his family together.
If you have no idea what Fantasy Sports are, you can play fantasy with anything that keeps statistics. Football, Baseball and Basketball are the most common but you can play with anything from Rugby to NASCAR to a Summer Movie League where you draft the movie you think will have the higher Box Office performance.
There are hilarious stories submitted from people all over the world like the guy that accidentally "hooks up" with another guy at a bar after his draft, and then his league mates had T-Shirts printed with a picture of the lovely couple on it, and the trophy for a league that is made from a busted washing machine.
I want to elaborate on two of my favorite stories from the book. Matthew Berry's podcast hosts what is called "The Man's League" where they select 15 people to play against the producer of the podcast. A few years back one of the people selected was a soldier stationed in the Middle East. He set up for their draft and his base was then promptly attacked by rockets and he refused to leave his barracks because he didn't want to lose his WIFI signal and needed to finish the draft. You read that correctly, This man refused to seek shelter during a rocket attack to draft a Fantasy Football Team.
There are also heartwarming stories such as the story of the gentleman that joined the "George Braitsch Memorial League": He joined the league and was upset at their less than enthusiastic approach to preparing for the draft. Until the league commissioner then explained that the league was named after a guy that was in the league who suddenly passed away and that the league donated the majority of the league fees to that mans daughter for her to use for college.
I feel like this is the most accurate portrayal of the world of Fantasy Sports and if you already play and are looking for some good stories (or league punishment ideas, like the much publicized Tattoo League) or if you are just wondering what all the fuss is about, this book can show you. You don't even have to watch football to play the game. It is really about the people and the togetherness and having a good time with people that you care about. While some of the people in this book may take the game a little bit too far for my taste (see the Tattoo League) I applaud the fact that they love the game and hopefully this book will take away some of what Matthew calls the "Nerd Label" and will get the game out there to more people.
