Bored Games

It’s that time of year again. Almost all of the sports except baseball are in their off-season. Hockey, hoops, football, all of the players and coaches are probably out on the golf course for a while until it’s time for them to report to training camp.

I guess they have started the early rounds at Wimbledon, but it’s only the tennis buffs who care about that. We’ll get more serious about tennis when it gets nearer to the finals.

So, what’s a sports fan to do?

You can watch baseball, of course, but there are many who only like baseball when the games and the action on the field MEANS SOMETHING. You know, when the pennant races heat up. When they get to the All Star Game. When some marquee player goes on a tear and everyone wants to see THAT player do something outstanding (like when Max Scherzer threw a no-hiiter in one game and then went five more innings of hitless ball in the next game before allowing his first hit).

Fantasy baseball participants have their fantasy teams to follow and tend to, but there are a lot of people out there who simply aren’t involved in fantasy leagues. What are they to do?

Here’s a couple of things for a sports fan who wants to see some “meaning” in the games he watches. You know, something to “make it interesting.”

Golf

There’s a pro golf tournament every week. One “game” you can play is (assuming everybody has a friend who likes to bet or “play games”) each participant gets to draft a team of, say, five players each to compete against each other in the tournament for that week. Player A drafts one player, Player B picks two players, and each team picks two until the last team takes one and both teams are filled with five players each.

The object can be one of two scenarios. One, the two teams combine their scores like a college golf match, and the team with the lowest cumulative score wins the wager. Or, the team who places the most players in the top ten (or top 25), or it can even be determined by which “team” wins the most cumulative prize money. Or, it can even be a contest to see which player can select the man who wins the tournament.

The bottom line is that golf can be a fertile ground for two people who want to have some kind of venue where they can place a friendly wager on a sporting outcome.

Baseball

The same two “friendly wagerers” could also play a little game of friendly wagers on some baseball games. Each contestant could pick their own “slate of games,” probably in a similar fashion to the golfing draft, where each picks their own favorite teams that they think they will win that day’s games. You could have ten total games, with each game having a value of one point, and he who picks the most winners vs. their opponent wins that many total beers. Or some form of agreed upon currency, perhaps.

Another game could be a form of mini-fantasy baseball. Each player drafts a small team of, say, seven or so players. It could be one corner infielder, one middle infielder, two outfielders, and one wild card hitter, and each team could have one starting pitcher and one relief pitcher for that game. A traditional fantasy method of assigned point values awarded for hits, home runs, steals, runs, RBI’s, walks, etc. and pitching stats such as innings, wins, saves, strike outs, lowest WHIP, ERA, etc. which can be compiled with the winner, or course, being he who accumulates the most points for that day/night’s games.

Baseball on its own can sometimes be kind of boring. Baseball with certain meaning attached to its results, suddenly turns into something infinitely more interesting.

These are just a few “suggestions.” The point is, there are some things a couple of sports enthusiasts can do to get through the summer doldrums without going too batty, while waiting for the “good sports” (including baseball’s playoffs) to return in the fall.

Try out these suggestions. Or make up your own. Be creative. Do what it takes to “survive.”

Or, if you get really desperate, you can always bet on women’s soccer.