Fantasy Sports

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According to a study released this week - by the job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas - fantasy sports are ruining the American workplace. More than 32 million people in this country play fantasy football, the study estimated, and if they spend an average of 10 minutes a day setting their lineups, mulling over trade possibilities and wondering whether Green Bay Packers running back Samkon Gado is the next Christian Okoye, that adds up to more than $196 million in lost productivity during football season alone.

So one of my colleagues argued the other day that fantasy sports have warped the way we look at real sports, especially football and basketball, where individual statistics fail to measure the interplay between complementary parts. It's something you hear from people inside sports, too. "So-and-so's a rotisserie manager," they'll say when deriding an executive who has ignored team chemistry while building a roster. I put a lot of stock in numbers, which help us get past the fallible human eye (I mean, for generations, we were sure the world was flat and located at the center of the universe)

You remember when playing fantasy sports was a little embarrassing? You'd talk about it with others who played at work or school but you didn't exactly fly a flag saying, "I spend five hours a week obsessing over make-believe games." And you waited maybe a month or two before explaining the whole thing to a new girlfriend. My wife accepted it pretty much in stride, one of many signs that she was a keeper and a queen of tolerating the inexplicable. But 10 years down the line, that all has changed.

Hensley on the Ravens See video of Sun beat reporter Jamison Hensley on the Ravens. Go to www.baltimoresun.com/hensleyvideo Murray on the NFL Hear audio of Sun NFL reporter Ken Murray analyzing this week's games. Go to www.baltimoresun.com/murraynfl Ask Preston Archived question-and-answer sessions with Ravens columnist Mike Preston. Go to www.baltimoresun.com/askpreston Fantasy sports In That Fantasy Guy, Dave Alexander writes about fantasy sports and answers your questions. Go to www.baltimoresun.