How long you been pooling?

[The Bottlenecker]

I know this is my 1K post, so I thought I would do something a bit different and ask the forum members to tell us a little bit about how & when they got into fantasy sports, memorable moments, and anything else that comes to mind.

I became interested about 7 years ago when my friend, Craig, and I were playing poker. Halfway through a hand his phone went off. He answered, and went right to his computer. I went over to see what was up and on his screen was a mish mash of statistics, players, and acronyms. Once he was off the phone, he explained to me that he had only recently joined a "keeper" hockey league. He explained the details, and I was hooked. But his league was full.

Skip ahead four years later when out of the blue I get a phone call from my buddy Craig asking if I was still interested in joining his keeper league. I didn't hesitate. He wondered if I should check with my wife first given that I had just made her a fantasy hockey widow. I didn't, and he told me the team I was getting sucked...I mean really sucked. I didn't care, and joined my first keeper.

The team in the sig below is what remains; none of the original players are still there. I blew it up and made it mine. I won't contend for a bit...or longer, but it doesn't matter. My wife, the fantasy widow curses Craig every now and then, but sees the fun I have while studying the latest draft class or pulling the trigger on a trade and keeps the grumbling about it to a minimum. I have since discovered Dobberhockey and it's forums, and think it is really cool to have met a larger group of equally fanatic poolies like you.

Keep on pooling! And thanks for all the advice, both good and questionable.

[Bazz]

I'm 35, we started in high school. We had binders for stats, match ups and records. All done by hand and all by reading the paper. As far as a fantasy hockey league, last year was year one. Now I participate in three football leagues, two baseball and this one hockey league. The most fun and drama is had in my hockey league, bunch of alpha dogs.

[Axeman33]

I've been doing it since the 1980s. We used to sit around a kitchen table, with our fantasy guides and draft the old fashion way, pen and paper. We would have one guy as the stats guy and every Tuesday here in NS the weekly stats would come out in the Chronicle Herald and he would tally up the numbers. He would then phone all the league members and pass on the info.


Old skool bitches!

[MXHockey]

Seven years for me!

Congrats on the milestone!

[The Bottlenecker]

I've been doing it since the 1980s. We used to sit around a kitchen table, with our fantasy guides and draft the old fashion way, pen and paper. We would have one guy as the stats guy and every Tuesday here in NS the weekly stats would come out in the Chronicle Herald and he would tally up the numbers. He would then phone all the league members and pass on the info.

Old skool bitches!

I remember reading the Tuesday edition of the Herald. Always checked how the Leafs and Doug Gilmour were doing.

[The Bottlenecker]

And actually, now that you say it, me and the guys in our league meet once a year in Halifax to do our draft, drink a couple of pitchers of beer, and, if possible, take in a Mooseheads game. I asked our commish if he had ever considered doing the draft via the internet, and his response was: "And miss all the fun we are having, I think not". Excellent point.

[Shoeless]

I started pooling late in life, the year after the lockout in 04/05. I was working in Korea and there was a group of Canadians in the community who were keen of something called fantasy hockey and they needed someone to fill out a roto league and I said sure. I have never been much of a fan of hockey, but as a jock, if it touches it fits and so off I went to learn what this stuff was about. By the end of November I got it - I figured out that fantasy hockey didn't really have a lot to do with real hockey, that it was much more of a strategic management game. I was hooked - what a wonderful puzzle to solve. I won the league going away - increased my activity to 3 one year leagues the next year and found Dobberhockey - it was the year Dobber took the plunge to go fulltime and my life changed again. The forums were ridiculously captivating for me - a place to get lots more strategic information, learn and share what one had learned. Partly a fun, social environment as well.

The last 9 years have ticked by quickly with fantasy hockey being a terrific hobby. I don't watch hockey except for the odd game I stream on Sunday mornings (Saturday night in North America) but it is a rare day that I don't check the ramblings and forums. I packed up work in Korea this last winter and moved to Cambodia, and with that move I decided to get out of fantasy hockey as I expected my new life to severely limit my time to be involved. I withdrew from my 2 keeper leagues with a sniffle - good GMs and commissioners in both and I liked the teams I had built. Severe withdrawal, I gotta tell you - to mitigate that I decided to hang around until I hit 25,000 posts on the forums, but I don't post much anymore so that could take a while - but as the summer approaches I am starting to think - what the hell! I could probably do one more year of Rocky Horror Roto Show (RHRS) - just one more and then I will quit. Right - frigging addict.

My favorite format? One year rotisserie - especially with top-notch GMs like in RHRS - the thrill of a full draft and all it's prep work, working the wire like a fiend and always looking for new ways to get an edge. My favorite tools? Fantasy Hockey Geek by far and then the same night tool that RJ puts up every year and lately Mr. McGoo's NHL schedule tool is a must.

My clearest memory? Shane Doan taking 27 pims after the final horn back in 06/07 I think it was. I needed them. My greatest accomplishment? Drafting a team where I was only allowed to pick players from teams that missed the playoffs the year before while the other gms had no such restriction and missing winning the league by a whisker.

Future fantasy hockey challenges? Beat Pengwin7 one more time before final retirement - he's good.

[The Bottlenecker]

I increased my activity to 3 one year leagues the next year and found Dobberhockey - it was the year Dobber took the plunge to go fulltime and my life changed again. The forums were ridiculously captivating for me - a place to get lots more strategic information, learn and share what one had learned. Partly a fun, social environment as well.
- but as the summer approaches I am starting to think - what the hell! I could probably do one more year of Rocky Horror Roto Show (RHRS) - just one more and then I will quit. Right - frigging addict.

Nice post. I imagine most of us have similar stories about how we discovered fantasy hockey. I'd love to hear how Dobber got started if for no other reason, as you said, it seems he changed our fantasy hockey lives.

I say go for that one final win in the RHRS. You could be the Rocky Balboa of fantasy hockey.

[Shoeless]

Dobber didn't change our fantasy hockey lives - we changed his career path.

[ericdaoust]

My start: January 2002. I was 15 and my cousin recruited me into a sim league. The prospect draft was the day after I joined and we had a snow storm that knocked out power in most of town. Had no chance to do research or join the draft live. My cousin was in a different part of town that had power so he had to give me a list by phone so that I could make my picks.

My best accomplishment: 2012-13 UHL champion. Most competitive league I've ever been a part of. The quality of owners you have to go through to get to the top is unreal. It was my first league of this type (dynasty roto H2H) and I became obsessed with figuring it all out. Hard work paid off.

[STONE.]

Started one-year pools in high school (around 1995) and have been doing a dynasty league for the last 6 years.
But I remember my brother doing pools long before I got started -- he used to add up all the points when the stats would come out in the Tuesday paper.

[mojavedesert]

Summer of 1998 I told my friend that I had Ziggy Palffy for a one year pool during Palffy's rookie season and that I wish I still had him on my hockey annual pool rosters. My friend immediately suggested that we should create a hockey pool where we can keep players from year to year. Thus our keeper league was born. We thought we created something innovative, something no-one had done before. Of course I have since learned that others have been in keeper leagues prior to 1998.

[Magicstew]

I've been doing it since the 1980s. We used to sit around a kitchen table, with our fantasy guides and draft the old fashion way, pen and paper. We would have one guy as the stats guy and every Tuesday here in NS the weekly stats would come out in the Chronicle Herald and he would tally up the numbers. He would then phone all the league members and pass on the info.


Old skool bitches!

Like Axeman started mid 80's at university, stats on tuesdays to add up. At one point we had to split Wayne Gretzky points into either G's or Assists, it was too much of an advantage for 1st pick. Those were the days.
Current $ league auction draft been going since 1991, our first keeper pool. Had buddy in computer science do an early program, where I picked up at his house on Wed morn on the way to work, then would fax out weekly stats and transactions to all 16 teams.

[Chunkys_Choice]

I started in either 8th or 9th grade, so that would be 1994 or 95. I remember checking stats in the newspaper in the high school library! (Yes, I was a dork.) Anyway, that was a one-year league and I stuck with one-year leagues right up until last summer when we switched it to a semi-keeper. Great to read everybody's stories on here!

[The Bottlenecker]

I was too busy chasing girls in grade 8 & 9 to pay too much attention to being in a hockey pool. LOL! Maybe had I stuck to fantasy hockey then, I would've been better at it now.