Mama and Papa TMR

Yeah. So it turns out that Len Berry is one of the most influential marketing professors in the world, and we just honored him (along with 4 other professors) with the Paul D. Converse Award, which is only given out every 4 years. It's sort of a lifetime achievement thing. Of course, I don't really do much other than what I do in my research, so I had no idea who Len Berry was. But then I heard that Len Berry's son was Matthew Berry, aka The Talented Mr. Roto (TMR), of espn.com fame. Of course, I knew who TMR was. Somehow, I don't think that was surprising.

So, I ended up hanging out with Len and Nancy Berry a bit this weekend, chatting at dinner on both Friday and Saturday (a little research, and just chatting about life, and of course, fantasy sports, and how it's changed in the past 10 years with the movement of the Internet into the mainstream). They were great people, and were so proud of their son, of course.

It turned out that TMR started playing rotisserie baseball 24 years ago, at the age of 14. Back in the day, you added up stats by hand, probably week to week, and then mailed out hard copies to people. And since it was so time consuming, it was restricted to a niche audience. And if I had to guess, you didn't have to be particularly sophisticated to do well.

Now flash forward. Fantasy baseball had embraced some relatively advanced statistical analyses, information moves quickly. You get updates (and can change lineups) on a daily basis, and sometimes in real time (if you're willing to pay for it). Even the stats that are used have changed. While most roto leagues still go with the old school 5x5, many change up which 5 categories are used, and the very progressive UPL has gone to a 6x6 league, using slightly more SABRmetric-compatible stats like OBP and SLG. We still can't customize things enough to get things like adjusted OPS, or RC/27, and the like, and really get fielding stats worked in there. But we've found a happy medium.

Folks like TMR who got in early, and was innovative with the use of the internet early on, now have the luxury of talking about fantasy sports for a living. And you know what? More power to them. They were the trend setters who have helped fantasy get to where it is now. Are they the geniuses that they have to position themselves as? Maybe. Obviously, football is more or less a crapshoot. But I'd bet that finishing in the top 25% of a UPL roto league is just as hard as any other league that you'd come across, especially with people slowly catching up to the O.N. Thugs the last couple years. Maybe I can ask my new friends if they can get me into a league with their son, just to see how the UPL's reigning champ does against other "experts." Just FYI, last football season, I actually played in 2 other non-UPL fantasy football leagues (my only non-UPL leagues, since we've started), and somehow won both of them, and I'm guessing that our UPL members do well in their other leagues. And we've definitely diverged from what I wanted to talk about in this post... so getting things back on track...

What's become interesting is how, while many "male" institutions (e.g., barber shops, "Cheers" type-bars, hanging out in the garage, etc.) where guys would just hang have diminished, we have taken new-age institutions, like fantasy sports on the internet. I've noticed that with my friends, the ones who play fantasy sports are the ones that I keep in touch with most regularly. Those who don't? Sporadic, at best. People are busier with work, and planning out weekends well in advance are the norm. The few minutes a day that you use to check your lineup, send a mocking e-mail or message board post, and have time for dudes being dudes (albeit online) seem to be more valuable than ever.

So, here's to the internet, fantasy sports, and to dudes being dudes.

-Chairman, aka O.N. Thugs