The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. And I admit it. I’m a fantasy sports geek. It doesn’t matter what sport: baseball, basketball, football or others. I play them all with the fervor of a general manager.

Between two jobs and school, I find time to spend checking on my team, trying to make a key trade, or writing posts in my league to the morons who think that Allen Iverson is the best player in the NBA and think that they can trade me some guy who’s going on the disabled list for Albert Pujols.

Even with my daily habit, I’m definitely not at the same level as certain other nameless individuals at the Guardian. I don’t always have time to go to sites like http://www.whatifsports.com, where I could draft my own team from every player of all time in each sport and then play a hypothetical season. But if I did, I’d be there in a heartbeat, throwing down $9.95 per fantasy season to play my all-time Dodgers against anybody in the Internet world.

For now, I’ll stick to the regular fantasy sports, where checking my team and other people’s teams daily is not only part of the game, but increases my sports knowledge.

Some would say that fantasy leagues take away from the game: that they make a fan begin to care more about individual statistics then how his team does. Case in point: Yesterday — when Tom Glavine, one of my pitchers, faced my favorite team — the Dodgers. Was I to root for my team or for Glavine? The answer is … I went ahead and rooted for the Dodgers to win 1-0.

Fantasy sports may create some conflicts of interest, but I think they create more interest and, in my opinion, the more interest in sports, the better. Do you know who Mike MacDougal is? If you’re a fantasy baseball “”manager,”” then you probably know that he’s leading the American League in saves (as of May 6 with a total of 10); a very important statistic and the one that has been keeping me from climbing from fourth place to my rightful spot atop both of the leagues I’m in.

Other people might say that if you do fntasy sports, you’re a geek or some kind of social misfit. Maybe this was once true, but it’s not anymore. Fantasy sports have invaded even the coolest of circles.

Fantasy sports give people who think they know something about sports a chance to prove that they know more than others. In essence, it’s much like gambling on a game, but what you’re gambling is more your reputation as a complete sports fan, not money. As if I needed it, fantasy sports gives me one more reason to pay attention to what’s going on, and that could never be a bad thing.