The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 82
he went broke and it was horrible. It got to be contentious."
Automation is so common now, says Marcum, that
a lot of it is free where "it used to cost several hundred
dollars. You almost had to have an accountant" in days
of yore.
These fantasy trophies
are from AAA Trophies
on Williamson Road in
Roanoke.
82 MAY/JUNE 2015
Marcum, who has always been an avid baseball
fan, found fantasy baseball was "dull for me from a
conversational standpoint. Stuff we talked about had
very little relevance." But that didn't apply to football.
"I don't know why." But, he says, he "needed to play
fantasy to appreciate pro football, but I didn't need it
to appreciate baseball." He wanted baseball to remain
lofty for him, so he stopped playing. He still keeps his
scorecard in the box seats behind home plate for home
Salem Red Sox games.
"Fantasy football is easier to keep up with than
baseball," says Butterfield.
Butterfield has been married a short while and "I play
in my wife's work league [one of three leagues he plays],"
which makes it a family activity. "The live drafts are a
lot of fun. Before this year's NFL season, we had a draft
at Blue 5" restaurant and bar. Drafts can be elaborate.
One Roanoker talked his middle-aged college fraternity
brothers into taking their wives along to the draft: a
Caribbean cruise, which made everybody happy.
And yes, there's trash talking even among employer/
employee. "Yahoo has a smack talk button," for its fantasy
leagues, says Marcum.
Marcum says the Internet revolutionized what had
been a difficult hobby. "Stats used to be kept by hand,
using the daily baseball box scores," he says. "You plugged
them into a stat sheet or you hired a stat company. When I
had a baseball card shop, we had a guy who did stats, but
FANTASY SPORTS HAS CREATED ITS OWN -
enormously profitable - industry. Lindy's, one of the
magazine conglomerates for which Lazenby is pro
basketball editor, has a 100,000 print run on its fantasy
football mag, says editor Matt Lowe. And it's not one
of the larger magazines of the type. Fantasy sports
publishing is "really big" for the industry, says Lowe.
Roanoke College grad Bill Pratt founded fanstat.net,
which he says "is time saving, a convenience. Anybody
who plays will benefit from having it." The potential
customer base is huge and so are payouts at the very
top end: "One league I know of has seven million players
and a $6.5 million payout."
Ron Shandler of Roanoke County publishes one of
the most popular fantasy baseball magazines and has
been playing since 1984 and writing about it since 1986.
"Fantasy sports is a way for fans to stay engaged in the
game as more than just a spectator. Spectating is passive;
becoming a make-believe general manager is active."
Shandler has found "very little" fantasy baseball
playing in this region because "the South is football
country," but those who play some type of fantasy sport
"are insatiable when it comes to information. That's the
competitive life blood of the hobby. Since it's a skillsbased game, information is power."
Salem sports lawyer Sam Lazarro has been one of
those baseball players for more than 20 years and finds
fantasy sports "is big everywhere, including here. ...
The bars and restaurants with the NFL package have
benefitted tremendously from fantasy football (Mac
& Bob's, Brambleton Deli, All Sports Café, etc.). Many
leagues have gatherings every Sunday at these sites. The
spending by the participants every weekend is enormous
and may be keeping some of these bars afloat during the
tough economic times."
THE YOUNG STAFF MEMBERS of the Salem Red
Sox, the Boston Class A affiliate of the Carolina League,
play "everything: football, basketball, baseball, hockey
and we even tried the English Premier [soccer] League,
but the format was too difficult," says General Manager
Ryan Shelton.
The fantasy leagues, which involve 10 to 15 staffers,
depending on the season and the availability, "is great for
team building," says Shelton. He says the Red Sox players
likely don't play fantasy sports "because they hope to
be one of those in the major leagues eventually," says
Shelton, "though I can't speak for all of them."
The Red Sox have even found a way to make fantasy
THE
R OANOKER.COM
http://www.fanstat.net
http://www.THEROANOKER.COM
The Roanoker - May/June 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - May/June 2015
The Best of Roanoke 2015
Rockledge: The Grand House on the Hill
Fantasy Sports: Diehard Drafters in Every Season
Blue Ridge Parkway Overlooks All in One Book
Tastes of Asia: Visits to 4 Vietnamese Dining Rooms
Letters & Worth a Click
From The Editor
The Flavor
The Calendar
The Gist
Get Outside
The Dish: Dining Guide
Where Are They Now?
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Intro
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Cover1
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Cover2
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 3
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 4
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 5
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 6
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 7
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 8
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 9
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Letters & Worth a Click
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 11
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - From The Editor
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 13
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - The Flavor
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - The Calendar
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 16
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 17
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 18
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - The Gist
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 20
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 21
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 22
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 23
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Get Outside
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 25
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 26
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 27
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - The Best of Roanoke 2015
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 29
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 30
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 31
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 32
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 33
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 34
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 35
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 36
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 37
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 38
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 39
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 40
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 41
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 42
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 43
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 44
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 45
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 46
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 47
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 48
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 49
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 50
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 51
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 52
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 53
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 54
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 55
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 56
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 57
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 58
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 59
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 60
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 61
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 62
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 63
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Rockledge: The Grand House on the Hill
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 65
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 66
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 67
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 68
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 69
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 70
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 71
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 72
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 73
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 74
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 75
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 76
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 77
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 78
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 79
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Fantasy Sports: Diehard Drafters in Every Season
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 81
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 82
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 83
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Blue Ridge Parkway Overlooks All in One Book
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 85
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Tastes of Asia: Visits to 4 Vietnamese Dining Rooms
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 87
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 88
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 89
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 90
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 91
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 92
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 93
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 94
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 95
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - 96
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - The Dish: Dining Guide
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Where Are They Now?
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Cover3
The Roanoker - May/June 2015 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/leisuremedia360/leisure/the-roanoker-march-april-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/leisuremedia360/leisure/the-roanoker-january-february-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/leisuremedia360/leisure/RKRND21
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/RKRSO21
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/TheRoanokerJA2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20210506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20210304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20210102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_2020_1112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20200910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20200708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20200506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20200304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20200102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20191112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20190910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20190708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20190506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20190304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20190102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20181112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20180910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20180708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20180506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20180304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20180102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20171112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20170910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/TheRoanoker_JulyAugust2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/TheRoanoker_MayJune2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20170304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20170102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20161112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20160910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20160708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20160506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20160304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20160102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20151112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20150910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20150708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20150506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20150304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20150102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20141112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20140910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20140708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_20140506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_201403
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/leisure/roanoker_201402
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com