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July 28, 1998

Between a rock and a hard place.

That's where the Online Authority of Fantasy Sports finds itself as it enters its second full season.

The problem is simple and one that any organization faces sooner or later: Growth is bound to happen and is welcomed, but will it take us out of our comfort zone?

With the OAFS website, anyone in the world with internet access can, with the stroke of a few keys, gain instant entry into our little world, that of fantasy sports.

Amazing? Definitely.

Frightening? Even more so.

We now find ourselves caught in the middle, with tough decisions to make. To expand or not to expand? To let anyone who comes calling into our organization or to do our best to screen the applicants?

The answers are as tough as the questions.

With this being our busiest time of the year (two sports have playoffs looming just ahead and one draft is under way), we are finding ourselves spending a great deal of time just trying to keep things sorted into neat little piles.

Do I draft Scott Mitchell ahead of Warren Moon? Is Nick Faldo actually going to play in a tournament this week? How do I come up with a solid second starter to push my baseball team over the top and into the playoffs?

It's enough to make a grown man cry. Or at least stay up until 2 a.m. on a weeknight trying to swing a deal for a utility infielder.

In the next year, our leagues will be bursting at the seams. Spots in our various offerings are becoming scarce even to our own members. The football league has reached 16 teams (definitely a maximum) and plans are in the works to expand every other sport.

If you're just finding this site for the first time, drop us a line and tell us what you think. In fact, tell someone else about it and encourage them to check it out.

It may be this league has become one of those things we want to keep to ourselves out of fear that too many will want to join and things will become even crazier than they already are.

My solution is we deal with it when it happens. In the meantime, we're having the time of our lives running these leagues and participating in them. It's non-stop action, all through the year.

And no matter what happens concerning the possibility of growth, it's only going to get better.

Good luck in your league,

Rick

June 30, 1998

I'd honestly have to say I didn't think this organization would exist for this long. It's an old story that you've probably heard from me before, but I think it bears repeating.

After leaving an established fantasy football league in West Virginia and moving to Tennessee, one of my first priorities - after finding a house, etc. - was finding a new fantasy football league.

Being new in town, I didn't know many people and the ones I did know didn't seem particularly taken with fantasy sports. I racked my brain thinking of ways to keep the "old gang'' in West Virginia together for our fourth season, but most didn't have a computer (it's West Virginia we're talking about.... running water was a luxury) and it seemed like too many stamps and long distance charges would be involved in running a league by mail and phone.

So I headed to the chat rooms and the AOL profile search. I really thought it was a shot in the dark and that I'd be facing a football season with no league. Now that would be a long football season!

I hoped to find at least one interested person who knew of an existing league I could join online.

I was shocked when it took about a half hour to locate and get in touch with a half dozen or so (fantasy) football fantatics who were either already in a league or interested in joining one.

Before the next day was finished, we had taken the first steps in setting up our own online fantasy football league. We managed to get eight pretty solid franchise owners and luckily, several got so involved that that league has now grown into the Online Authority of Fantasy Sports.

At last count, we had 20 total league members from about 12 different states. We seem to be very well represented in the northeast portion of the country and if we ever need an unofficial home office, it would have to be Bensalem, Pa. Three of our league members (that's 15 percent if you're scoring at home) reside in Bensalem and several others are in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont.

As I said, it's really a surprise to me that the organization is still intact, let alone the incredible heights to which it has grown.

This sounds like it's turning into a salute, which is OK by me. It's a salute to our 20 league members because without them this organization would have died a slow, miserable death soon after the football season.

Because of the unequaled loyalty of our league members, though, we have developed some pretty good online relationships and gotten to know each other a little better. Maybe someday we can all meet somewhere in the middle and actually have a face-to-face draft!

Good luck in your league,

Rick

May 12, 1998

In a few months, we here at OAFS will be getting ready to begin our second full year of free fantasy sports offerings. The first year has been relatively quiet so far with few real surprises or problems.

We're hoping to get our house a little more in order before starting that second year. A little more organized, a little more set in league policies, a little less playing things by ear.

So far, though, I'm extremely pleased.

Sure, there's been some rough spots, such as players losing interest during a season and not submitting lineups, making needed transactions, etc. All in all, though, we probably couldn't have expected things to run any more smoothly.

So what's in store for year two?

* The football league will be doubling in size this season, going from eight teams to 16 and playing in separate conferences. Much like last season, this will likely take a little trial-and-error and see how it works. I'm looking for the increased competition for playoff spots to take the football league to a whole new level.

* It's my understanding that the basketball league will also be looking at expansion. This was possibly our most popular league this year. Nomarr did a fabulous job as commissioner, keeping peak interest throughout the season. No definite numbers on expansion just yet.

* The golf league will expand from 12 to 16 teams, probably allowing us to bring in brand new members to the organization. For a shoot-from-the-hip, spur-of-the-moment league, I think the golf league has gone extremely well. We still have nearly half a season to go and the playoffs should be exciting with most of the teams still in serious playoff contention.

* The baseball league will likely also be looking at expansion. Another of the most popular leagues, things are starting to get interesting and we're only in the seventh week of the season. A few scoring changes are needed for next season, but those will be handled appropriately.

* The new Blades of Steel hockey league is getting the wrinkles out right now. Once the scoring system is locked in, we'll start gearing up for teams to be entered and the first draft.

These are a few of the things we're looking at for the immediate future. We also want to promote the Hall of Fame points standings, keeping everyone aware of where they stand and make a point of updating our league waiting lists.

Good luck in your league,

Rick

March 31, 1998

Hope springs eternal. It's a phrase we've heard often enough with the start of a new baseball season.

Around the Online Authority of Fantasy Sports, it's a phrase that deserves repeating again and again.

That's because every few months, there's a new sport starting a new season. It's a repetitive process that keeps our minds in a whirl most of the time.

But we'd have it no other way.

I've mentioned earlier in this space my monumental basketball trade this year. Yeah, the one where I swapped all-star guard Mitch Richmond for all-star guard Latrell Sprewell. You know the rest of the story.

Funny thing is, it wasn't the only bad trade I made. Oh no, just to make sure I had no chance of advancing past the first round of the playoffs, I made another pretty bad swap just before the playoffs started.

Needless to say, I lost in the first round.

The good news?

Baseball season! It's a chance to field an entirely new team and play against a new group of competitors. A chance to start all over and hopefully not repeat the same mistakes I made in basketball.

Hope springs eternal. In the OAFS, that says it all.

Good luck in your league,

Rick

March 9, 1998

One of the coolest things about fantasy league sports is that, as the owner/general manager of a franchise, you are forced to make a lot of the same decisions faced by a real big-league executive.

There's one decided difference, though, in the thinking of a fantasy team owner and a true front-office guru.

The fantasy owner occasionally gets bored and makes a trade just for the sake of making a trade. That's rare in professional sports and with good reason.

Once this basketball season, I made a snap decision to trade Mitch Richmond, the second-best player on my squad at that point, for another sharpshooting, standout guard. His name?

Latrell Sprewell. Yeah.

What happened next has been well documented.

As the Fantasy League Executive of the Year plaque was flying out the window, I realized there were two ways I could look at my fate.

One, I could count it as dumb luck. How was I to know I was trading for a guy who would soon be choking his head coach and getting banned from the NBA? Sprewell was an all-star guard with a bright, bright future and seemed to be a safe move.

Wrong.

Two, and probably the correct way to assess the situation, is that I never should have made the trade. It was like trading Chris Dudley for Joe Klein. There was no sense making the trade.

But that was the day I decided I needed to make a trade.

I've lived to tell about it, yes, but I can't help wondering how much better my team might be now if I had Richmond.

Or Sprewell.

League member WNaomi has started taking ballots to conduct weekly polls in all sports. Members participating in a sport are allowed and encouraged to take a few minutes each week and send in their rankings. There's nothing scientific about the polls, but they add a little excitement and another thing to argue about.

Back to basketball: The playoffs start in less than two weeks. The four playoff spots in the Western Conference have been clinched and two spots in the Eastern Conference have been clinched. Teams are still jockeying for seeding positions in the final two weeks of action.

Each team clinching a playoff spot receives five Hall of Fame points.

Good luck in your league,

Rick

Feb. 17, 1998

Possibly the greatest strength of Online Authority of Fantasy Sports is flexibility. Reserving the right to constantly examine and re-examine the ways our leagues are run is of utmost importance in making our leagues run efficiently for our members.

Right now, for instance, we're in the process of looking at different scoring systems for our upcoming fantasy hockey league. Anyone who finds his way to this column is welcome to send along any suggestions. If you've been involved in a successful league, e-mail Mike (Snipes666@aol.com) with your scoring system and let us take a look. Any help will be appreciated.

The greatest thing about running fantasy leagues could be that there is no scoring system which is set in stone. Rules and scoring systems can be developed which specifically fit the needs of the members it should serve.

For example, our baseball league does not include relief pitching. Maybe that's odd, but as long as everyone knows and understands the situation ahead of time, then everyone's on even ground and a fair and competitive league can take place.

We're always open to suggestions, though, and we realize that our way isn't necessarily the perfect way or the right way. We only want scoring systems that work for us.

We're thinking of tinkering with the scoring system we currently use in football, making it more complex by adding yardage, defense, etc. The downside is that someone (me) has to take care of doing the statistics each week, an extremely time-consuming task, especially with the new 16-team format. More details on the football scoring will be presented to league members at a later date.

The trial-and-error method may not be the best way to find a scoring system that works, but sometimes it's the only way.

After unsuccessfully trying to find information on fantasy golf scoring systems, I pieced one together in order to get us up and running this year. So far it has worked OK, but again, we reserve the right to review scoring systems and change them when needed.

That's one thing that makes fantasy leagues great, though: To each his own.

Good luck in your league,

Rick

Feb. 10, 1998

Every great organization needs a long-range plan.

The long-range plan for the Online Authority of Fantasy Sports still needs some ironing out but it's beginning to come into view. Our organization will see some major changes in the next few years. Some we can foresee, some we can't.

Because of the changes that we can't expect and plan for, we need to be flexible and able to develop new leagues and rules to meet the needs of our members or revamp the old ones to make them keep working.

A large percentage of our membership will be leaving for college in the next few years. The first concern is that, with less time on their hands, interest could wane. This organization will have to meet that challenge by coming up with new ideas to promote more competition. We need to find a way for the next few years to be growth years instead of lean years.

I would guess every college in the United States has internet access by now. This should allow our members who are leaving for college in the next few years to continue to play an active part in the leagues.

Several things will need to be addressed in the near future to make certain our long-range goals will be a reality and that this organization will continue to prosper. Among these are 1) ways to increase participation, not only for our existing members, but for adding new members who are eager to participate; 2) increased competition in our leagues with a larger number of teams entered in leagues and a smaller talent pool to choose from; 3) developing a strict code of ethics in the organization. Without this, the organization is doomed from the start; 4) development of rules committees to oversee and help work out problems in the guidelines of our leagues; and 5) help spread the league geographically, hopefully adding more teams throughout the country. As major league baseball eventually had to move west, so too will our league membership. This will create more diversity among the members and should increase the competition level. The average age of our league members right now is 17 years, six months. As we expand, we should be open to older fantasy leaguers who will help diversify our membership. We are currently without a female in the league and we should be open to adding them in the future.

Along with the lecture, though, we have to look at the bright side of what we're doing here, what we have already accomplished. We've had one extremely successful league already and two more in the midst of seasons, each running smoothly and efficiently.

Craig, our webmaster supreme, has had our homepage added to several search engines. This will increase our visibility to others and hopefully will continue to be a good recruiting tool. The homepage itself continues to improve almost daily, with new information for league members being added almost daily.

We've tinkered with new drafting systems, such as the one Nomarr ran with baseball. His system took a little time, but since baseball is still several months off, it worked magnificently. Look for more of the same with other sports.

Plans are under way for expansion in several leagues. We already have waiting lists in basically every sport and we're trying to add teams to the leagues to meet this need. The idea of running two separate, simultaneous leagues is not out of the question. I'd like to see waiting lists added to the homepage. This would encourage people who find our site to sign the guestbook, stating their desire to join one or more of our leagues. The waiting list actually being on the page could keep people up-to-date on where they stand on getting into an existing league.

The possibilities are endless. The titles are up for grabs.

Good luck in your league,

Rick

Feb. 2, 1998

If someone ever says, "It's not the money, it's the principle,'' you can bet it's the money.

With the Online Authority of Fantasy Sports, it's not about money. Never has been. Never will be. Plain and simple, we're not interested in the money. We feel it's a pretty refreshing approach. Maybe it's because I don't have any, but the OAFS leagues fit my budget perfectly.

With our league members, it's about competition.

Sometimes it's friendly. Sometimes it can be not-so-friendly. That's part of the game when pride is on the line.

Sure, we're playing for something material. It's a suitable-for-framing certificate, which the champion of all leagues receive. Looks nice on a desk, hanging on the wall, wherever. The point, though, is that we're playing in these leagues because it's pure, clean, competitive fun. No money, no knifefights.... that could be our motto.

A huge portion of the population is still wondering just what the attraction is to fantasy sports. If you're married with children or a youngster in high school, there's plenty of good justifications for spending your time with fantasy sports. Here's just a few:

*Your wife knows where you are (My wife would rather have me sitting in the office in my home trying to trade Fernando Vina for the rights to Butch Huskey and a minor leaguer to be named later than to have me sitting in a bar somewhere.)

*You're safe (If you still live with your parents, I'm sure they'd rather you be sitting in front of a computer testing your math skills figuring out if Glen Rice pulled down enough rebounds for your team to claim a victory as they would not know who you're with, what you're doing, etc.)

*Competitiveness (It's a chance to compete against people all over the country, all different ages, races, sexes, etc.)

All in all, though, trying to explain to a non-fantasy leaguer why you do this is like trying to explain what walking is like to a snake. He'll just never know until he does it.

Good luck in your leagues,

Rick

Jan. 29, 1998

I once heard a high-ranking executive with Walt Disney make the comment, "Remember, this whole thing started with a mouse''. That statement pretty much sums up how this Online Authority of Fantasy Sports has taken off in the last few weeks.

About five months ago, I went searching the member directory and sports chat rooms looking for some people to help form a fantasy football league. Before I knew it, seven had agreed to join and the first branch of the OAFS was born. If I had known then what we'd be enjoying now, I wouldn't have believed it.

The trend in fantasy sports now can be defined in one word: Money. Our aim is to provide cost-free, competitive, fun fantasy sports offerings to our league members. We think it's working pretty well.

Toward the end of a semi-successful football season, one highly-motivated and essential member, Nomarr, decided a fantasy basketball season would fit nicely with the football league. Seven new league members joined five football owners to form an intensely competitive basketball league. Midway through the basketball season, five more members found their way to us through our fantasy golf league, bringing the totals to three sports offered and 20 total league members. Our first baseball draft, headed by the tireless Nomarr, is currently under way. One new member was added for baseball.

Our current membership includes four sports (plans for adding a fantasy hockey league are in the works) and 21 league members. Our members represent 13 different states, from Massachusetts to California and from Washington state to Florida. Our members range in age from 13 to 35. Occupations range from seventh-grade students to a housewife.

One of our goals at OAFS is retention of league members. We want this to be an organization where the members want to stay year after year, throughout college years and beyond. While we always want to expand, we desire to have each league member involved in as many different sports as possible.

We're looking forward to several big happenings in the near future:

*Our football league is in the process of expanding from eight teams to 16 teams. We're undergoing radical realignment and using a dramatic approach which will include eight AFC teams and eight NFC teams, each drafting only from their respective conference.

*Our first basketball champion will be crowned soon.

*Our first golf champion will be crowned toward the end of the summer. The golf league will expand to 16 teams next year and a waiting list is being constructed.

*Our first baseball season includes 10 teams. Expansion in both baseball and basketball appear to be inevitable, with waiting lists in both leagues.

*Talks are under way on offering a hockey league.

*We have organized an all-sports trophy (actually a certificate) awarded to the member with the most combined points from all sports.

*We are set to vote on requirements for an OAFS Hall of Fame.

*We're developing waiting lists where visitors to this site can express their desire to join our leagues.

The most exciting development, in my opinion, of the OAFS is the creation of this homepage. Craig has done an excellent job of creating and maintaining this site. We're hoping it will be as beneficial to all league members and visitors as we know it can be.

Thanks for visiting this site and we hope to see you back in the future.

Good luck in your league,

Rick

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