Fantasy football or fantasy baseball?  Passionate advocates abound on both sides of this spirited debate, providing solid reasoning as to why their sport is king of the fantasy sports monarchy.  Their arguments are persuasive as they are partisan; what is eminently clear, however, is the phenomenal popularity of both genres. 

Yet the chasm between these two fantasy sports is as wide as the gulf between their real-life rules and actual game play.  Football, for its part, not only has a shorter season but – for the much sought after casual fan – it requires roughly half the fantasy time of baseball.  The rigidness of football’s schedule also makes viewing easier, thereby helping the popularity of the National Football League and the sport as a whole.  Importantly, too, unlike in baseball, when training camp breaks all teams actually do have a shot at the postseason – and, with a bit of luck, the Super Bowl as well. These factors, combined with the relative simplicity of football categories – yards and touchdowns foremost among them – make football the choice of many novices and fantasy skeptics. 

To wit, often owners enjoy a modicum of success by only checking up on their charges once a week!  Adjacently – and to the dismay of throngs of experienced competitors – due to the volatility (and brevity) of the season, fantasy football rookies frequently enjoy remarkably good fortune, regularly parlaying it into a disproportionate amount of success.  Such strange happenings, though, don’t drive away the more experienced manager – for he knows that in fantasy football the money is the principle lure. 

More so than fantasy baseball, fantasy football can be an extremely lucrative enterprise.  On average, money leagues run $25 per squad, usually encompassing twelve teams.  For playing an exciting and enjoyable game, the $300 added to your holiday till is a fine way to ring in the New Year.  Perhaps the biggest attraction, though, are the games themselves.  Watching these phenomenal athletes – given the league’s parity, often embroiled in tough, close contests – put it all on the line every Sunday is a sight to behold.  And when you factor in Mondays as well?  It never gets better.  Amazingly, it is rare that a Monday Night Football game does not affect the outcome of all league games every week.  So if you’re rooting for your own running back or the kicker of the last place team, the first day of the work week every autumn – whether the game directly affects your chosen team or not – are heavenly for fantasy football fanatics.

In my mind, though, baseball still dominates the fantasy landscape.  It has it all.  Superstars?  Check.  Rivalries?  Yep.  History?  Certainly.  The lure of hot summer days and cool summer nights?  Definitely.  And numbers?  Boy does it have numbers!  To fantasy gurus, basketball and hockey pass the time, football pays the bills, but baseball – baseball is king.  Five months, 184 days, 162 games for each and every team – the statistics, the possibilities, the patience, the strategy: all are breathtaking.  Players whose seeds are planted on your team in March, are expected – albeit more so in head-to-head leagues – to begin blossoming in June and be fully effloresced by early September.  Those excavated in midseason are harvested to produce immediately, spurning the requisite growth requirements to mature even more quickly.

It is this part of baseball – the inimical, vast, and abyssal knowledge of all its 750 players (and at least a score of top minor leaguers as well); the ability to recite depth charts and recall in a moment’s notice the OPS of whoever is hitting cleanup for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays that day; and, of course, the uncanny ability to accurately predict days off for your stud player and know precisely which line-up card each manager is going to fill out every day – that elevates baseball to its altitudinous and lonely obelisk. To put it bluntly: to win any fantasy baseball league is impressive; to win one of the monied rotisserie variety is a truly amazing accomplishment.

This is not to say both sports don’t have their virtues.  For football, the thrill of competing in head-to-head match-ups every Sunday is the absolute pinnacle of the fantasy world.  But for all of that testosterone and rapid, fleeting pleasure, the calm, abiding and leisurely pace of a baseball game is even more fulfilling.  The summer months – where only baseball matters – embodies the American spirit, grounds us in our country’s history, all while severely testing the mettle of all those who dare step across the white baseline on to the fantasy field.