5 mins read

An Autistic Teen tries Fantasy Baseball

What is fantasy baseball?

Fantasy baseball is a game that is played by becoming the “owner” of a fantasy baseball team. You are the general manager of a fake team that you choose (either by draft or by auction) of real live baseball players (all MLB players are there for the choosing).

The game is played by using the stats produced by the real players to win certain categories that your league has established and outdo your fellow owners in each category (examples are home runs, batting, wins for pitchers).

What’s key to playing it?

You have to like baseball…and you have to like the statistics that baseball players produce. If you have a guy on your fantasy team that hits a lot of home runs and home runs is one of the categories you are competing in in your fantasy league, than that players good to have on your team.

What about my son?

My son has been exposed to baseball games since he was a baby. My family has always attended them, especially my husband who grew up a Dodger fan.

For years, my son went to baseball games and wasn’t all that interested in the game. He would play with stickers or draw or do whatever he was interested in at the time. Of course, it eventually became some kind of device like watching videos on a portable DVD player or being on his phone.

A couple of years ago he finally began to get interested in the watching the games, he became a fan of the Dodgers (and the Seattle Mariners, but we’re not sure where that came from).

He began to understand the game enough to eventually ask us if he could play fantasy baseball someday. My husband runs and plays in one league and plays in a second league with family members. (I used to play, but I’m now retired.)

Since the family league isn’t as competitive as the other league, we told him he could join that one.

So, last year, 2016, we let him play in his first fantasy baseball league.

What happened?

Well, the main issues were my son didn’t realize how long it takes to draft a full team, and he didn’t monitor his team on a daily basis throughout the entire season.

It’s a long day of drafting because there are ten teams in this league and each team gets one pick at a time, the full roster is made up of usually around twenty four or twenty five players.

My son only lasted through about ten or twelve rounds. At that point, he decided that he needed a break. It turned out to be quite a long break, so long that I had to finish up choosing players for his team.

I believe this was autism-related since my son is fidgety and his body gets easily un-regulated. He also probably didn’t realize just how long a draft with ten teams can take. We were asking him to sit and look at names and stats for several hours, and not playing video games.

Additionally, the other problem is it’s a long baseball season—one hundred and sixty games.

What happened this year?

This year was his second fantasy baseball league. Instead of coming to us and saying that he didn’t want to do it again because (it turned out) he didn’t like it, he came to us with renewed interest.

How did we handle it this time around?

Well, the first thing I did was to remind me about the commitment on draft day. He has to try much harder to stay and draft his own team. I didn’t want to draft his team for him.

The second thing is to tell him that he needs to make a much better effort at monitoring his team throughout the entire season. Make it a daily activity to just look in on his team, make injury adjustments, rotate pitchers in and out, and various other daily tasks that are required.

Well, his draft this year—his second year at being a fantasy owner—went much better. He did take a few short breaks, but he made sure he did them when he wasn’t needed to choose a player for a while.

We will see about how he does during the season with the daily checking of his team, but he has promised to commit to being a more conscientious owner.

Hopefully, he follows through with his promise. An Autistic Teen tries Fantasy Baseball

 

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