The Most Important Guy in Sports You've Never Heard Of

Carl Crawford has become, for the most part, a household name. Crawford is a star in the making playing for the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Since Crawford became a starter for the Devil Rays in 2003 he has been one of the most versatile players in all of baseball with a career batting average of .292 and between 2004-2006, Crawford has averaged 98 runs, 26 doubles, 17 triples, 15 home runs, 71 runs batted in, and 54 stolen bases a year.

Crawford's talents and skills speak for themselves. Anyone who gets a chance to watch him play understands how dynamic of a player he is and how he can electrify a game by pulling a ball down the right field line and sliding into third for a triple. But chances are you haven't seen him play.

Crawford's talent which is portrayed in games is hidden from the small market he plays in. He like the NBA's Shareef Abdur Rahim have had statistically strong careers, but because of their teams inability to win games, they go for the most part unnoticed. But to many, they are some of the most valuable players in sports.

In 1963, something happened that some 30 years later would revolutionize the sports industry. Strat-O-Matic began publishing a game containing customized baseball cards of Major League Baseball players with their stats from recent seasons. Participants could then re-create previous seasons using the game rules and the statistics, or compose teams consisting of players from different clubs from the cards and play against each other and thus, the first Fantasy Sport was born.

Sixteen years later, a journalist and avid baseball fan named Daniel Okrent was having dinner with some of his friends at a French restaurant in New York. He pitched an idea to his friends about a new way to look at the game of baseball. The game's innovation was that "owners" in a league would draft teams from the list of active Major League Baseball players and would follow their statistics during the ongoing season to compile their scores. In other words, rather than using statistics for seasons whose outcomes were already known, the owners would have to make similar predictions about players' playing time, health, and expected performance that real baseball managers must make. Today, we know one form of Fantasy Sports scoring to be called Rotisserie, named after the restaurant Okrent was meeting his friends at.

Today, Daniel Okrent's vision has become a billion dollar industry. Fantasy Sports encompasses all the major sports and even golf and Nascar. The original Rotisserie league remains one of the most popular games in Fantasy Sports but the industry has expanded its games in many directions including websites like protrade.com which, like the mid-nineties Wall Street Sports, emulates players and teams in a stock market setting.

In terms of the media, TV shows are aired specifically for fantasy sports predictions and box scores on Sportscenter have "Fantasy Impact" boxes showcasing an update on a player's performance and what it could mean for your team. Magazines are published showcasing stats and trends of players and how "Owners" should focus in their Fantasy Drafts. And of course, the Internet is full of anything imaginable about that Fantasy Sports may be able to offer or speculate about.

I play Fantasy Sports and am really into it. I love setting my teams, making trades, and finding that young player who's under the radar or just got called up and putting up big numbers (thanks Aaron Hill). But the question I have come across recently is as sports fans, do Fantasy Sports question our morals?

We find ourselves rooting for teams and players to perform well so that our fake team has a chance to win...but what happens if you're a die hard Patriots fan but Peyton Manning is the quarterback of your fantasy team and the Colts are playing the Patriots this Sunday? If the Colts win and Manning throws for 300+ and 3 touchdowns, are you satisfied because your fantasy team came out on top that week even though your beloved Pats got the loss?

I think it's an interesting question and one that everyone should ask themselves next time they draft. I know that with my teams being the Cubs, Packers, and Bulls, I never draft a Bears, Pistons, or White Sox player. Sadly I do have Jason Isringhausen as my closer right now, but I sit him whenever the Cubs and Cards are facing off.

Daniel Okrent has given us a different way of looking at sports. How do you look at it? Has Mr. Okrent's game caused you to change your morals and who you really root for now that the players determine your team's results? Ask yourself that question and find out what's really important to you. I bet deep down, there are a lot of fans who put their Fantasy Teams ahead of their favorite real teams, but guess what...Carl Crawford's not complaining.