Day 32 - Sam's Town
The Killers
2006
Disclaimer: All perspectives, opinions, and memories in this entry are mine and mine alone. Some content is rugged, raw, and - sometimes - NSFW, but it's all authentic and included with purpose.
Why It’s On The List:
When better than Super Bowl Sunday to talk about my all-time favorite hobby: fantasy sports!
Growing up, I vaguely remember my dad playing in a fantasy baseball league. But without the use of the internet, it was a whole different ball game. They would have to mail in their teams to the commissioner who would tally scores by hand, using the newspaper and then mail out the results to everyone in the league (our kids are going to look at us like we are dinosaurs when we tell these stories).
My first real exposure to fantasy sports as we know it today came when my buddies Kevin and Paul invited me to play in their fantasy football league, the SEVC (the South East Virginia Conference) in 2004. I had zero clue what I was doing and selected wide receiver Terrell Owens in the first round because he had just joined my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles.
I was immediately hooked.
In the coming years I would launch my own fantasy leagues in football (The East Coast 10 which became The Great 8 which became The Epic X), basketball (The Rebound League because basketball is our “rebound” sport between football and baseball) and baseball (The Senior Circuit League because we started as a NL-only league but quickly realized that was bananas) which are all still going strong to this day. Paul has always called them "The Josh Leagues" but just this morning, I sent an email to everyone letting them that we are officially launching "The Triple Crown Leagues," with a Hall of Fame track and everything.
Yes, I love obsessing over the stats, and draft strategy, and making trades, and trying to find undiscovered gems on the waiver wire. But the best part of fantasy is how it keeps us all together.
It’s always the entry-point of conversation with me and my friends. Every conversation starts with some version of “do you want to make a trade” or “what did you think of my trade” and then eventually pickups steam to “How are you doing?” or “how’s work” or “how’s the family?”
We always get to the important stuff but it always starts with fantasy.
It’s our bridge.
So what does a song by The Killers have to do with fantasy sports? Everything to me. We are all nerds and we take everything about fantasy way too seriously - including team names and logos. Dead serious we have “BREAKING NEWS” text threads when someone changes their team name or logo. I'm not remotely close to joking.
I had just gotten really into fantasy when The Killers’ second album came out in 2006. Because I apparently lacked any creativity at that point, I named my team the “Sam’s Town Killers” and won the first championship of the very first “Josh League” season.
So the name stuck.
When we launched basketball and baseball, I wanted to keep the Sam’s Town location as part of my "brand" so I dug into other Killers songs to find my other team names. As I mentioned in the Intro, my baseball team, the Sam’s Town Bombers, comes from Miss Atomic Bomb and my basketball team started as the Sam's Town Rebels (“stars are blazing like rebel diamonds” from Read My Mind) but have recently switched to the Hombres ever since The Man came out.
You want next level nerdy? I listen to "Sam's Town" every Sunday morning before my fantasy football matchup starts. It’s my official hype song.
A lot of the guys in our leagues have similar stories. It’s who we are. It’s what we do.
Thanks to all of the guys that play - Chris, Frankie, Tyler L. Ian, EZ, Paul, Kevin, Isai, Jonathan, Chad, Robert, Michael, Tyler G., Dan, Phil. I know it gets crazy with all the texts and info and updates, but I appreciate that everyone is so hard-core.
Taking it so seriously is what makes it so great.
Listen to "Sam's Town" here:
Favorite Line:
Growing up, I vaguely remember my dad playing in a fantasy baseball league. But without the use of the internet, it was a whole different ball game. They would have to mail in their teams to the commissioner who would tally scores by hand, using the newspaper and then mail out the results to everyone in the league (our kids are going to look at us like we are dinosaurs when we tell these stories).
My first real exposure to fantasy sports as we know it today came when my buddies Kevin and Paul invited me to play in their fantasy football league, the SEVC (the South East Virginia Conference) in 2004. I had zero clue what I was doing and selected wide receiver Terrell Owens in the first round because he had just joined my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles.
I was immediately hooked.
In the coming years I would launch my own fantasy leagues in football (The East Coast 10 which became The Great 8 which became The Epic X), basketball (The Rebound League because basketball is our “rebound” sport between football and baseball) and baseball (The Senior Circuit League because we started as a NL-only league but quickly realized that was bananas) which are all still going strong to this day. Paul has always called them "The Josh Leagues" but just this morning, I sent an email to everyone letting them that we are officially launching "The Triple Crown Leagues," with a Hall of Fame track and everything.
Yes, I love obsessing over the stats, and draft strategy, and making trades, and trying to find undiscovered gems on the waiver wire. But the best part of fantasy is how it keeps us all together.
It’s always the entry-point of conversation with me and my friends. Every conversation starts with some version of “do you want to make a trade” or “what did you think of my trade” and then eventually pickups steam to “How are you doing?” or “how’s work” or “how’s the family?”
We always get to the important stuff but it always starts with fantasy.
It’s our bridge.
So what does a song by The Killers have to do with fantasy sports? Everything to me. We are all nerds and we take everything about fantasy way too seriously - including team names and logos. Dead serious we have “BREAKING NEWS” text threads when someone changes their team name or logo. I'm not remotely close to joking.
I had just gotten really into fantasy when The Killers’ second album came out in 2006. Because I apparently lacked any creativity at that point, I named my team the “Sam’s Town Killers” and won the first championship of the very first “Josh League” season.
So the name stuck.
When we launched basketball and baseball, I wanted to keep the Sam’s Town location as part of my "brand" so I dug into other Killers songs to find my other team names. As I mentioned in the Intro, my baseball team, the Sam’s Town Bombers, comes from Miss Atomic Bomb and my basketball team started as the Sam's Town Rebels (“stars are blazing like rebel diamonds” from Read My Mind) but have recently switched to the Hombres ever since The Man came out.
You want next level nerdy? I listen to "Sam's Town" every Sunday morning before my fantasy football matchup starts. It’s my official hype song.
A lot of the guys in our leagues have similar stories. It’s who we are. It’s what we do.
Thanks to all of the guys that play - Chris, Frankie, Tyler L. Ian, EZ, Paul, Kevin, Isai, Jonathan, Chad, Robert, Michael, Tyler G., Dan, Phil. I know it gets crazy with all the texts and info and updates, but I appreciate that everyone is so hard-core.
Taking it so seriously is what makes it so great.
Listen to "Sam's Town" here:
Favorite Line:
“I see London
I see Sam’s Town
Pulls my hand and let’s my hair down
Rolls that world right off my shoulder
I see London, I see Sam’s Town now”
If You Liked This Song...
Buckle Up. Here are all of my other favorite songs from The Killers that didn't make the list:
- Runaways
- The Way It Was
- Here With Me
- From Here On Out
- Human
- Dustland Fairytale
- Spaceman
- Neon Tiger
- The Ballad of Michael Valentine
- Tranquilize
- Andy, You're a Star
If You Liked This Song...
Buckle Up. Here are all of my other favorite songs from The Killers that didn't make the list:
- Runaways
- The Way It Was
- Here With Me
- From Here On Out
- Human
- Dustland Fairytale
- Spaceman
- Neon Tiger
- The Ballad of Michael Valentine
- Tranquilize
- Andy, You're a Star
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