and what's
he all about?
Hi. My name is Dave Del Grande. You can call me Mr. Fantasy.
What qualifies me to sit on that lofty throne? I think Mr. Fantasy is an
appropriate title because few people have more experience in the fantasy
field than I do.
I guess you could say I was meant to write about fantasy sports. When I was
hired as a sportswriter by ANG Newspapers while I was a college student in
1977, little did I know The Oakland Tribune, the biggest in our chain of
newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, had been the birthplace of fantasy
football some 15 years earlier.
Yes, I made my debut in fantasy sports 23 years ago. That's before many of my
rivals in the fantasy industry were born. In fact, it's quite possible I
introduced many of these guys to the fantasy game.
I travel around the country with the Golden State Warriors, covering them as
my primary beat for the newspaper. But I'm proudest of the fact that for the
past nine years, ever since the day the innovative Dave Burgin gave me the
assignment, I have been writing a weekly fantasy-sports column, the first of
its kind in a daily newspaper. It now appears in newspapers across the
country.
My expertise in the four main fantasy sports -- football, baseball,
basketball and golf -- comes from observing first-hand from front-row seats
in just about every sports venue in America. I have covered professional
football, traveled with the San Francisco Giants' division-winning team in
1987, written on three U.S. Opens and gotten up close and personnel with
fantasy heroes at NBA All-Star Games. I know which runners lower their head
at the goal line rather than run for the sidelines, which batters have the
green light on 3-0, which guards go to their left as well as their right, and
which golfers aim at the stick.
If you've got questions, you know who to ask -- the guy ESPN hand-picked to
answer all its fantasy questions on football, baseball, basketball and golf.
That's right: Mr. Fantasy. You can read my stuff weekly at espn.com.
In fact, you can talk to me live if you're lucky enough to avoid a busy
signal when dialing up my weekly fantasy-football radio show, where I'm the
expert analyst Thursday nights in the fall on KNBR-680 in San Francisco. The
show can be heard in 16 Western states (as well as through a link on this
site).
For years, we went up against Seinfeld at 9 p.m. Only one of us is
left standing.
The mrfantasy.com site is a three-man production. I provide the fantasy
insights, Ted Spittal of BigheadIS
designs the site and Wil Fekeci operates the books.
In this industry, it comes down to this: Why trust Mr. Fantasy instead of
some other service? Because, frankly, we have Mr. Fantasy
and they don't.
When you see a draft list on
mrfantasy.com, you know it came from one source: Mr. Fantasy. The other guys? They seem to believe the more opinions you're
offered, the better off you'll be. Let's see ... if you wanted to learn how
to throw the perfect spiral, would you: A) Call Dan Marino; or B) Get the
consensus of Trent Dilfer, Dave Brown, Neil O'Donnell, Rick Mirer and Bubby
Brister?
Mr. Marino, er, Mr. Fantasy can be reached 24 hours a day, seven days a week
at www.mrfantasy.com. Rest assured, I'm here to serve you.
Good luck in all your fantasy endeavors.
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