I love baseball. 

The day I was born my grandfather, who I was named after (I'm actually the third), brought me a Giants cap to the hospital.

As a child my only desire was to play baseball. I remember the first time I stepped onto the field, with the smell of freshly cut grass in my nostrils and the warmth of the sun on my face. I buried my face in my A2000 Wilson glove and forever linked the smell of leather with the game of baseball in my mind.

I ate, slept and breathed baseball as a child. It's all I did. 

As a youth I learned that there was no need to worry about the baseball hurting me. I wore a cup, thankfully, so even when that first bad hope struck me there as a seven year old I knew I would be alright.

I started playing Minor-B as a seven year old on the Bears. My father was the manager, my five year old brother the batboy (always with a huge mouthful of Big League Chew in his check), and my mother the team mom and scorekeeper.

When I wasn't playing I was literally carrying around the Baseball Encyclopedia memorizing statistics. It wasn't as sad as it sounds. OK, maybe it was. 

I also collected baseball cards. I mean, who didn't at the time? From my still sealed Topps 1985 Factory set, to about 12 boxes of useless 1988 Score baseball cards, to my first autographed inserts, the hobby kept me connected to baseball for nearly 30 years. 

I remember watching the Braves, back then the only nationally broadcast team, ESPN hadn't taken off yet, on TBS. The sight of Dale Murphy in his powder blues, swinging the bat loosely below his knees, waiting for the pitch, was my baseball nirvana. 

As a lifelong Giants fan, my heroes on the field were Jack Clark, Johnnie LeMaster (my first autograph), Will Clark, Robby Thompson and Dave Dravecky. 

As a child I played Micro League Baseball and APBA baseball on the computer. That progressed to Bases Loaded on Nintendo and eventually RBI Baseball. I currently have the six foot tall arcade RBI Baseball game in garage to this day.

My own career in baseball was successful. I know I often joke about it, but the truth is that I was a very good player. An All-Star every year, a first round selection in Majors (Little League) and Pony, in Babe Ruth I had a season long hit streak never going a game without a hit. Baseball was never far from my mind. 

There was the 1984 All-Star Game where my lifelong friend ran into Joe DiMaggio in the parking lot, luckily wearing his NY Yankees cap, and Mr. Coffee signed the hat on the underside of the bill.

There was the Earthquake game at Candlestick in 1989, October 17th at 5:04 PM, when the World Series between the Giants and Athletics had to be halted. 

In 1993 the Giants added a dashing, dominating outfielder who literally could do everything on the baseball field. I had never seen a player so thoroughly dominate a game in person. Anything he wanted to do, he seemingly did. That player was the NL MVP Barry Bonds.

There was the 1994-95 strike that inexcusably canceled the World Series.

After the game returned to prominence I started to play fantasy baseball in earnest. My first league was with my brother, my best friend and myself. We drafted nine hitters and six pitchers and made no transactional moves save for one pickup at the All-Star break. I kept score for our league having to wait until Sunday's for the newspaper to print the all the players stats not just my hometown Giants and across the bay Athletics. I then went to work with my paper and pencil. No computer program, no internet, to speed the process up.

There was Greg Maddux posting a 1.56 ERA and 1.63 ERA in 1995-96 for the Braves.
There was Pedro Martinez posting a 1.74 ERA an a 0.74 WHIP in the AL in 2000 in one of the most dominating pitching efforts in baseball history given the context of the offensive game at the time.

At the dish it was Chicks Dig the Longball as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa brought baseball back to life with their amazing 1998 season that finished with McGwire hitting 70 home runs and Sosa 66.

As the 21st century began my life changed. After working part-time, first for free and then barely for enough to take my girlfriend out to dinner once a week, I was offered a full-time job by Ryan Houston and Fantasy Planet to work for Fantasybaseball.com. The year was 2001. I've been in fantasy sports - full-time - ever since. Not many can say that they've worked full-time in fantasy sports for 15 years.

ESPN, YAHOO and CBS brought the fantasy game to the masses. No longer was fantasy sports merely the home of losers who couldn't get a date. It became cool to play fantasy sports. All those kids who dreamed of one day playing in the big leagues finally had a way to continue their love of baseball as they grew into adulthood.

The game moved into the 21st century with an explosion of PEDs. We all turned a blind eye at the time. There were accusations, hearings, insults and allegations, but the game moved on, stronger than ever.

Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera became two of the best right-handed hitters in 50 years.
Mike Trout became a superstar doing things on the field that hadn't been seen in decades.
Clayton Kershaw won three Cy Young awards in four years (2011, 2013-14).

The Red Sox won the World series in 2004, their first since 1918. They went on to win again in 2007 and 2013.

The Giants last won the World Series in 1954 when they played in New York. They shocked the baseball world in 2010 with their first championship since moving west. They then pulled off the trick again in 2012, and for good measure again in 2014.

The Cubs, by the way, are still waiting for their first World Series championship since 1908.

And so baseball moves on, as much a part of my life as it was when I was a seven year old hitting my first double, or when I was a 13 year old hitting my first home run, to seeing my first World Series game in 1989 and finally seeing my hometown Giants with their first San Francisco World Championship in 2010. 

I love the game of baseball, and in the words of Sammy Sosa, baseball has been very, very good to me.

Love,

Ray