Many men playing fantasy baseball today are fathers of young boys. However, some have not yet realized the benefits of participating in the hobby with their sons.
Allowing a son to be involved with you in fantasy baseball can help him develop certain skills for the future. Although the game is designed for fun, it is full of universal learning opportunities. Below are four ways that a father can use fantasy baseball as a general tool for guiding his son through life.
1. Develop Math Skills
Possibly your young son really enjoys baseball and pays a lot of attention to it. Chances are his enthusiasm toward learning mathematics at school is not as high. As an attempt to raise that interest level, you could try teaching him math within the context of fantasy baseball.
Nearly every aspect of the hobby utilizes math in some form. Addition and subtraction are both used when calculating player totals or compiling league standings. Multiplication, division, decimal and ratio concepts are used to figure things like batting average or earned run average (ERA).
Even though statistics are calculated automatically, you can use some of those same numbers for hand written problems. For example, you could take all hitting category totals from a certain week and explain how each was reached using mathematical techniques. To help your son practice this, maybe take totals from a different week and have him try the same process on his own.
2. Introduction to Money Management
Many fantasy baseball leagues use certain monetary concepts. Some of these financially related ideas are salary caps, free agent budgets and auction draft bidding. Although this money is typically imaginary, an opportunity exists here for you to teach financial responsibility.
If a fantasy owner does not budget his money correctly, there is a good chance that team will not be successful. One mistake might be an owner spending all of his cash too early in a player auction. Another error could be spending too much on one player in a salary cap league.
First you can explain the negative consequences of such fantasy budget mismanagement. From there, a good idea might be relating that to real world money situations your son might face. Ultimately you can tie this together and help him understand how to avoid future problems.
3. Importance of Good Sportsmanship
Fantasy baseball has winners and losers, just as real sporting competitions do. Most fantasy teams will have ups and downs throughout a season. Because of this, a chance arises for teaching your son proper sportsmanship.
Most hosting sites allow team owners to communicate with the entire league all at once or individually. Unfortunately, some team owners use this to excessively brag or severely criticize. Some participants might even take things further and do it personally.
If this does happen, the best course of action would be to help your son understand why it is wrong. You can point out that gloating, insulting and pouting do not change outcomes. Through fantasy baseball your son can personally see that poor sportsmanship is unnecessary and only leaves someone looking like a fool.
4. Benefits of Perseverance
Achieving fantasy baseball success requires a lot of dedication. Teams have to be checked and adjusted frequently throughout the season. You can actually let this illustrate itself to a young son and ultimately let him see how it might pertain to everyday life.
Many fantasy leagues have owners that give very little effort. Also some members might even completely quit playing. Apathetic owners usually fail while those trying hardest generally finish near the top.
Your son should see from this that fantasy success is a result of determination. Aside from that, he should notice the negative impact created by any owners that gave up. These are lessons your son can later apply to any of life’s future endeavors.