Who could survive in a bleak, meaningless world without fantasy sports?

According to my profile, I have an overall winning percentage of 44 percent in Yahoo! Fantasy Sports games since 2003, having played in various leagues on 19 separate teams. That's pretty poor, I admit, but it doesn't stop me from coming back every year. I've played fantasy basketball and fantasy football, but the crème de la crème, for me, has always been fantasy baseball. 
  Every year, our league gets more competitive and exclusive, though the stakes remain the same: bragging rights, not a pot of gold. And that helps, especially in these hard times. Some of my favorite past team names: Real Madred-Sox (my first baseball team, when I was living in Madrid); The Bloody Socks (can you tell I'm a Red Sox fan?); and AnotherTerribleYear (yep, that was last year). There's nothing like a live online draft, where the league gets together all over the country to pick teams. There's an instant messenger tool, so teams can talk smack during the draft. Like last year, when someone picked up A-Rod, who most people, at least in our league, concur is a former-steroid-abusing phony. Once your team is picked and is sitting there in the queue, there's a feeling of, well, anything could happen. This could be the year. This could be the team that wins it all.
  I find it interesting, too, that it took this long for TV to pick up on this craze. I knew FX's The League would be nothing but fun, at least for me. (And it was great—I watched nearly the entire first season on Hulu over the holidays.) Sure, if you're not into fantasy sports, all the jokes go right over your head. But I know for a fact that this is not just a man's game, as The League sort of proposes. One of my best friends played in a football league this season with his fiancée's family. Think about losing to your future father-in-law. Or maybe letting him win a week. The possibilities for greatness are endless.

—Posted by Will Levith