As baseball season comes to a close today, so does my fantasy baseball team’s campaign. I have played in the same league since the early 1990s, which amazes me.

I finished in sixth out of 12 teams this year. That might sound pretty unremarkable, but this is my best finish since 2001 when I finished in fourth. I managed to avoid major injuries for much of the season and looked like I would finish “in the money” (top 5) for a while, but just couldn’t get that extra push.

Even though I had pretty much set up shop in the bottom three of the league in recent years, I never really thought about leaving the league. First off, I would be in contention some years for a while before injuries and my lack of attention to which players would really help me did me in. Secondly, our regular meetings are a great chance to hang out, watch baseball and have a few beers.

Sometimes you hear criticisms about fantasy sports ruining the enjoyment of the sport itself. I’m sure that can be true for some people. But without this league, I would probably hardly notice what happened in baseball. I am much more interested in soccer and have so many other things going on in life.

I keep in touch with the sport mainly because baseball affords me the opportunity to engage in competition and have a few beers with friends every few weeks. That suits me just fine.