Fantasyland (This Post Is Not Brought To You By A Sponsor)

It's not about the Mariners, and it is related to fantasy baseball, but neither myself nor the network are getting anything out of this. Rather, I'm just putting this up because I think a lot of you might enjoy it. Yesterday I got to see a sneak preview of Fantasyland, a Stephen Palgon documentary based on the 2006 book of the same title by Sam Walker. I already wrote my little piece on the movie over here, and you can read another summary over here, but in short, Fantasyland follows the story of an obsessive fantasy baseball owner who earns the opportunity to play a season in perhaps the world's most well-known and competitive fantasy baseball league, run by industry icon Ron Shandler. It's supported by anecdotes from fantasy owners, owners' wives, and Tom Candiotti, but at the heart is one Jed Latkin, who...no, I don't even have words. Dictionary.com defines "obsession" as "the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc." but I don't think that's good enough, here. If you've ever felt bad about the amount of time you spend reading LL, Latkin will make you feel normal again. The money quote, as Latkin describes his balance between life and fantasy trade negotiations:

Everybody says that the best day of your life is the day your kids are born.

But you don't necessarily have to be there.

By the way, there are scenes with players, too. Yeah. It hurts. It really hurts.

I'm embedding the 84-minute movie, which you can watch at your leisure. You know what? Avatar is cool, but it won't change your life. Fantasyland will change your life. I feel so much better about myself now than I did 24 hours ago.

(If you're annoyed by this post, shut the hell up, you're seeing it for free.)