Fantasy Baseball has a Whole New Meaning
 

Fantasy baseball. A fairly recent past time for fans all over America - it is an obsession for many. One that I have never indulged. I've been told that since I'm such a baseball freak, I'd probably do pretty well, but I just never have gotten into it.

Whenever I think of Fantasy Baseball, visions of dragons breathing fire at baseball players come to mind. Baseball players with swords instead of baseball bats. Am I alone in this? Probably.

But it gave me some ideas for my latest creation. I've been thinking about it for a while now, and since someone had hired me recently to do a Magic the Gathering card, I thought now would be the time to try and come up with a cool Canseco MTG card. I think it fits, because while my son is not into MTG, he does love Pokemon cards and dragons - same difference, right?

I'm sure I probably offended a good portion of my reading audience by that last sentence, so please forgive my ignorance on the subject.

For starters, I wanted a picture of Canseco who was not just in the typical green & gold. No, I wanted something obscure. Something with different colors. Something with a double flap helmet.

Mission accomplished:

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...415_105212.jpg

This picture is of him in his post MLB playing days, so it makes it extra unique.

Slap this baby on an MTG card, and put a catchy name on it and we are good to go!

Let's call him CANSECO THE CRUSHER!!!

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...515/normal.jpg

A few things to be noted on this card. All of the little things on an MTG card mean something. I forget what the upper right circle areas are for, but for my card, I wanted it to be his home run total.
The bottom right number shows the # of hits in a game a user can sustain, followed by how much punishment he can dish out. I was racking my brain a bit to see what I should put there. Then ... duh! 40/40, of course since he hit 40 homers and stole 40 bags in the same season.

Note that is says leather spitting dragon. I guess in the real fantasy baseball, a leather spitting dragon can be a pitcher.

Something about this card simply does not look ... "done" yet, so let's take this a little further. I didn't just want a fantasy type MTG card with a regular photo, so I added some effects to Jose and cut out the background.

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p.../blackback.jpg


To give it more of a fantasy feel, I thought I'd add some more type of glowing effects.

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...41515/glow.jpg

We are getting close! But no self-respecting leather spitting dragon slayer would come at one of those guys with a bat. How about this instead?

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...s/041515/3.jpg

Yeah, that should do it!

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...owandsword.jpg


BOOM! But something still isn't quite right. Let's give him some other-worldly eyes...

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...5/fakeeyes.jpg

Yeah, that's not working this side of toon-town. Let's give it another go, and make them glow subtly yet deviously (is that a word?)

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...41515/eyes.jpg


Okay, THERE it is. This dude looks bad to the bone. However, I still feel like we need to add something. Something in the background, something fierce and mystical. Like DRAGONS!!!

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...littlepony.jpg


Ehhh, no ... that isn't quite what I had imagined. I said DRAGONS. Bad to the bone, make you want to pee in your pants if you aren't Canseco the Crusher, heavy metal inducing DRAGONS. This is probably better.

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...5/canseco2.jpg


That's what I'm talkin' 'bout, Willis! YEAHHHHH!

I ended up making two versions: A base and a foil version.

http://www.mycollectionofcards.com.p...415_140717.jpg

For a goofy type of card, I think it turned out pretty slick! These pics don't do them justice ... they look MUCH better in hand.

For those of you still reading along, I wanted to share a little bit of the story of how this whole thing came about:

The person that contacted me wanted to have me make a card of one of his co-worker's children. The child passed away recently, and because his co-worker liked MTG, he thought it would be cool to be able to give him an MTG card of his child, so that is where I came in.

For anyone who wouldn't mind sending a few dollars there way, you can go to their gofundme website here. - it is hard enough to deal with the loss of a child (words completely fail me at the very thought of this) - I couldn't imagine being thousands of dollars in debt because of it as well. Anyway, just think about it. They are currently at $8,950 and have $11,050 to go.

Nice custom. I played Magic in high school (I'm 36) and got back into card collecting by liquidating my friend's $7000 Magic collection.

Rotisserie...not Fantasy
 

I have been in a "Fantasy" baseball League with the same core group of guys since 1985. In the early days it was referred to as Rotisserie Baseball in honor of the group of guys in NY who either invented or popularized the concept. It was also called Roto Baseball. The term Rotisserie was derived from the name of the restaurant where the guys met on a weekly basis to do stats. An article on the guys and their League in NY papers went viral and copy cat leagues sprang up everywhere

That was in the days before the internet was what it is today, and so almost all Leagues were tied to the reporting of stats in the USA Today, which had more comprehensive box scores than other publications and publised comprehensive stats by team for both the National and American Leagues each week. My guess is that the reliance on such stats was a subscription boon to that paper in the 80s. Today almost all Leagues are tied to one of several subscription companies that cater to such Leagues in multiple sports and handle all stats and record keeping once you give them your League rules and players on each team

Our League membership has been fairly stable but we have had a few new folks come and go over time. It has been my experience that no matter how much of an expert a person is on baseball in general or the statistics of current players, they do horrible in their first couple of years in adjusting to how to draft a winning combination of players under the rules of any particular League

In the late 80s and early 90s there were news articles about how much money such Leagues were costing employers due to lost productivity at work with people consumed by attention to their team, and the use of company phones, faxes and copy machines to further League business. In the early days stats were done manually, usually on a weekiy basis and the stats then compiled and disseminated. It was time consuming and required honest participants and or double checking of stats for accuracy .

With the automation today I find the process less satisfactory due to the diminished interaction among the participants, but it is certainly less time consuming

You could substitute a large syringe for the sword on the card:)