I could easily have chalked up the recent events to ignorance and moved on. However, it is the ignorance of the ignorance that is inexcusable. The arrogance of the ignorant people in this league is so shocking that I feel as though it’s my duty to try and explain to them why they are so ignorant. So, away we go…

April 20th, circa 10 am – Kush (I don’t even know his first name. That fact will be important later), IM’s me telling me how he’s about to pull off a blockbuster trade with Jen. He does so in a joking manner, and within the bounds of “fun competitive spirit”. Considering that he has the 2nd best team in the league, obviously I do not want his team to get better. So, as I have done before (and as any good gm would do), I try and see if I can offer a better deal to the person he’s about to trade with (in this case, Jen).

April 20th, circa 11 am – My opening line to Jen is along the lines of “I better stop this trade any way I can, even if that means you getting mad at him” I can’t remember the exact wording of it, but it was clearly an opening joke and playing up the same competitive spirit that Kush started the conversations with that morning. I then followed up with something like “If you only knew what he was saying about you, you’d trade with me instead. See, right here he says trading with you is annoying” Yes, I pasted a line. Just like lines were pasted by certain people to my sister where I was calling her a “nerd” or something equally offensive. Had I known that I was dealing with a completely insecure and paranoid person, I wouldn’t have made the initial joke. However, I didn’t, and Jen then demanded to know what was said about her. After attempting to defuse the situation by explaining that it was just joking around and nothing serious, she wouldn’t shut up so I just sent her the rest of the inoffensive lines. After that, she said, “Ok let’s talk trades” and the deal was worked out for chavez/jeter.

April 20th, circa 11:30 am – Kush says “thanks for getting my girlfriend angry at me”. I try to explain to him that it was not intentional and she’s just taking things the wrong way. Jen then IM’s me cursing at me, and saying I was evil and that she never would have done the trade had she been aware of what I was doing to her. I can’t remember her exact wording, but it was shockingly delusional.

Now, I’m going to have to fill in the time between 11 and 11:30 b/c that’s where the ignorance sets in. Here’s what Jen has to believe in order for her side to make sense.

1) She has to assume that her own boyfriend considers her annoying
2) That not only does he think she’s annoying, but that he would share that with people.
3) That he would share that with me, someone he doesn’t even know, has never met, and who’s first name I don’t even know.
4) That I would then take that confidence and break it by telling her.
5) That I would do so in the context of fantasy and try to use it to my fantasy advantage
6) That I would think that it would actually work. And that she would then dislike her current boyfriend and just trade with me.

All of that has to be true in order for her theory to hold water. Here’s a much simpler explanation: I was joking around by sending that line in the exact same way that someone sent similar lines to my sister. Did I go around accusing people of trying to break up my family? No, mainly b/c I’m not a delusional nut who thinks the world revolves around them.

There should be a general competitive spirit that comes with fantasy. You should want to beat other teams. I was trying to enjoy such a spirit when I was trying to block kush’s trade and better my own team. It wasn’t an attempt to get Jen to actually dislike Kush or get mad at him. If the standard by which fantasy decisions are made is “which GM do I like more?” then this league is doomed.

So, whatever, a completely irrational person called me evil and had this conspiracy theory that I was intentionally playing on real emotions to my fantasy benefit. The funny part is that she said that I “admitted” it with my opening line. Call me crazy, but if was really going to try and manipulate someone, I wouldn’t joke about it at the very beginning. “Hey moron, I’m about to do something, get ready.”

But, like I said, I can tolerate ignorance and although Jen was completely wrong about my intentions, I didn’t really care. I know that my integrity remains in tact and that it was a misunderstood joke, not something evil. Then things got ridiculous as she arrogantly IM’s me with “just to let you know, your little scheme did not work and good triumphs over evil.”

And that brings me to:

April 20th 12:49 pm – My trade gets vetoed.

I recently went back to the league settings to make sure the standard for trades was “league vote”. Nowhere in the yahoo constitution does it say the standard is “whiny 20 year old girlfriend is sad, so trade gets vetoed.” If people want to question my integrity, perhaps they shouldn’t abuse their commissioner’s powers. Why was this trade vetoed? Was there a league vote that I was not aware of in those 40 minutes? If so, how many teams vetoed? And what was the standard that they used? It clearly wasn’t based on anything fantasy related, b/c the talent on both sides of the trade was essentially even. Was the trade vetoed b/c I’m a “bad” person? If so, that’s subjective, unethical, and not apart of the fantasy experience. It’s also flat out incorrect.

So, the commissioner abuses his power to make his little girlfriend happy. How sweet. And how unethical. How am I supposed to run my team the way I want when he’s just making decisions on his own personal tastes? Now that I’m “public enemy #1”, I guess I should never expect to even get a trade offered in my direction. Never mind the fact that two players, Chavez, and Jeter, SHOULD have been on my team and no longer were. It was an accepted trade. An accepted trade has to be vetoed by the RULES, not because someone is irrational and misunderstood a joke.

So after this debacle, I pretty much lost all respect for this league (or at least the two parties involved). However, since I only know these people through my sister, I was going to allow the ignorance to go unmentioned just to avoid making waves. But, then the commissioner goes ahead and vetoes another trade involving Jeter. Again, no explanation as to why the trade was vetoed, what teams agreed, or what standard he is using. But guess what happens? Of course, he eventually winds up getting the player (Jeter) who was involved in TWO unfairly vetoed trades.

What’s the point in being in a league where one person can abuse his power and unfairly manipulate the playing field. I was accused of trying to manipulate people, but I think it’s time that others look in the mirror. Jen took such arrogant satisfaction in telling me that the trade was vetoed…that good triumphed over evil. I don’t see how clicking on a button makes anything more right or wrong. Yes, he vetoed a trade, but he was able to do so not because he was “right” but because he was “powerful” in the fantasy sense. He could probably beat me up too, does that make his position anymore right?

Whoever had a problem with my trade (and who knows, maybe people did veto it on their own accord in those 30 minutes and w/o prodding from certain people) did not have a problem from a talent standpoint. I was giving up pedro among other players. In a league where Nomar for Nomo can actually make it through, obviously there doesn’t seem to be a problem with lopsided trades. No, the veto of this trade was done for personal reasons. Thus, it was a compromise of integrity and I find it insulting and disgusting. I have no desire to play in a league where someone can just wield power without any restraints…especially when that person has proven to lack integrity.

If he wants to win so badly, I’m going to help him. I’ll guarantee that every time he plays me, he’ll get a 10-0 win. Then, I’ll just dump whoever into my roster when I’m playing other teams. Even without checking or updating, I should at least get a few cheap wins and ruin other people’s chances.

And for anyone in this league who is going to complain that “I’m ruining it for everyone”, I have a question. Where were you when these other trades were vetoed? Is it fair that certain teams are not allowed to run their teams as they see fit? That certain teams are allowed to trade and others aren’t? That it’s one person who’s allowed to make such decisions.

If people’s stance is “he can do it b/c he has the power, he’s the commish”, then fine. But guess what, I have power to control my team. And until he figures out how to officially kick me out of yahoo, then I’m going to do my best to fight fire with fire.

To anyone not involved in this debacle, I regret any decrease in enjoyment that my participation caused. To Jen, I apologize for upsetting you with my joke, but clearly it was not intentional. Maybe it’s my fault for not appreciating how sensitive people can be. Especially younger people. And for you commish, I’m sorry that you can’t see the error of your ways. You can threaten me with “no future invitations” but why would I want to be in a league where you abuse your powers. Enjoy winning the league. Enjoy, too the fact that you compromised your integrity in doing so. I did nothing intentionally wrong but was punished nonetheless. Really fair.

That is all. Thanks for making me a martyr.