McClellan/Showalter Syndrome

One of the things I love most about fantasy football is how much I learn about myself through the decisions I make during a season. Most Chess players would probably tell you the same thing about why they love chess. In fact self-awareness and self-improvement whether as a conscious pursuit or as an unsought by-product is probably a driving force in why we each are driven to do the things we are each uniquely driven to do.

I am an actor by profession and passion and a fantasy football player by leisure and passion and I have found that both push me to face what shortcomings I have and both push me to overcome them. And one of my greatest shortcomings is my constant struggle with a problem I have named McClellan/Showalter Syndrome.

The name choice in itself is probably an indication of the condition: I can't decide between the two names because they both come to my head simultaneously as an illustration of the problem.

Quick history lesson before I continue: George McClellan was a young Union General who had shown some ability in limited action with a small force at the early part of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln soon chose him to become the supreme commander of the Eastern forces. McClellan's attention to detail and intense discipline turned the largest army in the western hemisphere up to that time into a fine-tuned disciplined war machine within a year. Having done so, he then found it difficult to put this machine into the battlefield. It became little more than a grand show-piece. In fact, it was McClellan who gave it the name "Grand Army of the Potomac".

After two chances Lincoln finally gave up on McClellan and after turning the command over a few times finally found Ulysses Grant who, though not as detailed or well-educated as McClellan as able to drive that well trained army toward it's purpose--victory.

Quick recent baseball history lesson: Buck Showalter was the manager of the Yankees when I first moved to New York and fans were pretty happy with him. He got the team to the playoffs in 1995 for the first time in a long time and it had looked like he would have done it in '94 if the strike hadn't happened. The only problem was that with the talent he had, he still couldn't get into the World Series. Showalter was fired in '96 and Joe Torre took them to five out of six World Series and won four of them.

Buck went on to be the first manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks where he was fired in '01 and Bob Brenley took them to the Series where he beat those selfsame Yankees in that fifth appearance. He then went on to the Rangers and was fired in '06. Lightning didn't strike three times but that's because it was the Rangers who don't suffer under a curse but rather suffer from supernatural indifference.

The book on Showalter was that he was a great details guy, who could put a great team together but then got bogged down in side issues and allowed himself to think himself out of winning.

(Interesting fact. I attended game 4 of the 2001 World Series and found myself only about 10 yards from Showalter who was standing on a platform watching the game as it went into extra innings. He was an analyst for ESPN at the time and had not made any appearance on the platform until that moment. The fans around greeted him warmly and I observed a soft smile on his face as he watched these two teams he had built locked in a tie fighting for the championship. To this day I wish I could ask him what he was thinking that night.)

I wrote all this because I started LenDale White in week 5. Not a stupid decision but an overly cautious one that cost me an easy victory against a particularly annoying individual who enjoys bullying the worst player in our league. Mr. Annoying is 42 years old. I had hoped to teach him a lesson. Instead, I taught myself one by recognizing my affliction.

I had Joseph Addai and his backup, Kenton Keith. Keith had come into the game the week before and showed that he was quite capable of being more than productive in the Colts offense. Addai had left that game with a minor shoulder injury. The early reports were that he would have returned but the Colts had the game well in hand. By the middle of the week, reports were that Addai might not play because he had a bye week coming up in week 6 and sitting out would give him an extra week to heal. Those were reliable reports but not official. The official report was that Addai was a game-time decision.

I knew that Addai probably would not play and I had Keith in my line-up right up until Saturday night when I over thought it. My logic was that White had been reliably producing seven or eight points a week and since I would be out before the late game started I would not have time to plug Addai in if Coach Dungy decided to put him in. But Dungy is not Bill Belichick he does not play games with injury reports.

All three choices bore some risk. But, like McCLellan being fooled into believing he was outnumbered on the peninsula by the same Confederate battalion being marched through a clearing over and over. I was fooled by the lack of a definite answer.

When I first started playing fantasy football, I had to rely on matchups because I was still learning how to draft. As the years have gone by, I have gotten much better at putting together a team of clear starters(Joseph Addai) along with above average handcuffs(Kenton Keith), reliable backups (Maurice Jones-Drew), and the best of what's left(LenDale White). The whole reason I had Kenton Keith on my roster was just for this situation...and then I played it safe.

LenDale White had his worst week. He fumbled and was pulled off the field early in the game and only scored one and a half points. Kenton Keith scored thirty points. Jones-Drew scored twenty. Had I started either Keith or Jones-Drew I would have won. I haven't even gone into why I didn't start Jones-Drew because I'm not sure. He hadn't been producing as well as he should but he was still averaging as much as White and he definitely had more upside. Besides I like the guy's attitude and work ethic far more than White. Somehow I had rationalized that since White was playing at home, he was the smarter pick. It was almost as if I was punishing Drew for not playing up to his potential.

As I said at the beginning I love playing fantasy sports because it can illustrate my strengths and limitations through the choices that I make. Not only can I be aware of them and deal with them in the game, I can recognize and be aware of the same patterns in my work and private life.