On this trip we don’t go clubbing or try to hit on girls. We go to gamble, drink, watch March Madness and get into as many heated arguments about how elite pitchers are better draft picks than elite hitters as we can. They aren’t.

You see we take this trip every year to hold our Fantasy Baseball Draft. Yes, it’s an extremely dorky reason and yes we are extremely serious about it. We have a trophy. It’s a real trophy. It’s heavy and you can drink from it. It’s called the Chris Sabo Commerative Cup. When I had it made in 2003 I spelled “Commemorative” wrong on the engraving sheet and literally no one noticed until 2008 nor have we done anything to fix it.

And lastly, it is very important to us that this tradition continues as long as we live.

Which brings us to last year’s trip. Lately, we’ve had a new Vegas tradition where on Saturday night after out draft: we make our way to the Imperial Palace for some two in the morning karaoke. We each order a bucket of beer, sing some songs and watch others be way too serious about performing ‘Black Velvet’ in front of drunks. This lasts until we get bored or one of us throws up and/or gets in a fight.

Now, my “go to” karaoke song is usually “Bust-a-move” by Young M.C. I know what you’re thinking and yes “Principal’s Office” was Young M.C.’s masterpiece, but I’m good at “Bust-A-Move”. Really good. Like awkwardly good. However, this particular evening I chose to stray from my standard and sing a song called “Dammit” by Blink – The 182 part of Blink’s name was added after the Cargo pressing of Dude Ranch, which is the last Blink record I enjoyed so I refuse to recognize it. “Dammit” is essentially a song about a guy and a girl who break up and then the guy starts hearing about and then seeing his ex-girlfriend out with new guys. Something we’ve all been through and will continue to go through because for the most part women are sadists. I broke pattern and sang this song mainly because I knew my friends would think it was funny, but at the same time sing-a-long un-ironically, because you see five of the eight of us grew up in San Diego and we were the right age for this song to matter when it was released. As I sang the song (Or just did an impression of myself singing punk music in 1994, which is actually just an impression of Fat Mike from NOFX.) I started to notice that the chorus of the song took on a whole new meaning. If you remember the chorus of “Dammit” just repeats, “Well, I guess this is growing up.”  The lyrics are kind of overshadowed by the somewhat famous line in the second verse, “Did you hear he f*@ked her?” However, it was the chorus that turned my smile to sadness.

The inventors of Fantasy Baseball.

This is our ninth trip to Vegas and our twelfth year playing fantasy baseball together; and in recent years this trip is the only time I get to really hang out with a couple of these guys, which makes the trip even more important to me. All of us are now between 30-33 years of age and the last couple of trips it has really started to show. Not only are three guys now married, but two more are engaged, one owns a house and now has two children. BAM! Real life dropped on us in room 2149 of The Venetian before the fifth beer. These life changes prompted some Vegas rule reminders, including one that was introduced in our mid-twenties when it became apparent some women for some unknown reason might actually want to spend their lives with us: No wives or kids will ever be allowed on this trip. I have a feeling that this rule will hold strong although I’m almost certain that it won’t.

While cruising through the second verse I started to realize the situation at hand and I could do nothing about it. When you start your annual Vegas trip at 22 with some of your best friends willing to do anything just to make one person laugh you feel like nothing will ever change. When you find yourself at 30 so hung over after the first night you’re thinking of leaving, you know that everything already has. No more strip clubs for fear of loved ones getting upset, no more all night binging because we now have people who depend on us, and of course no more Fatburger. For lunch that Saturday we headed somewhere in some hotel that I can only remember as being too bright for me to handle. I sat poking at a plate of mush that looked like a hamburger salad, barely able to form sentences and nursing a headache so bad I’m amazed that every time I yawned the four horsemen of the apocalypse didn’t come riding out of my mouth. This meal is known as the “Before Draft Breakfast” that happens at 3pm. It’s usually reserved for proposing rule changes, adding new members or player trades. But, as we all scanned the table we noticed no one was laughing or smiling or even talking. We were all feeling “it”. No one at the table could accurately describe what ‘it’ was but let’s just say whatever it was rhymed with ‘age’. Maybe, just maybe we’re getting too old for this. Years ago we would have been a hip looking group of twenty somethings cruising the strip looking for trouble, but now we find ourselves stumbling through those groups of kids lost, sloppy, looking for the Sportsbook, and talking to our loved ones on the phone trying to convince them that fifty beers in a day is not that much – all things considered. Then like prophecy someone asked the question that was on all our minds we just couldn’t put it into words: What happens if one of us dies? This turned into a pretty spirited debate, which ended an hour later with two solutions: Either that person’s eldest son is offered the position in our league or you must name a successor in your will. This was not a joke and…

…This is why I love these guys and fantasy sports.

With all the thoughts of our own mortality, the conversation never dipped into what will happen to my wife, or will I have a secure retirement. It was purely about one thing and one thing only.

That night onstage nasally yelling the last verse of my Karaoke cover I became lucid. Because, that night a somewhat crappy pop-punk song turned into a Shakespearean tragedy. We were adults now, sitting on the ides of March. We were too old. This was behind us and we did not know exactly how to handle it other than try and kill ourselves with free Coors Light and doubling down on a nine just to piss off the table. Right before the last chorus of a song meant to be a joke it become abundantly clear that I was the real joke. Not my life, mind you but the ridiculous expectations I had had of life. The one thing I learned from that afternoons breakfast filled the room so thick I could taste it: This trip was never about escaping, or baseball, or trying to stay young forever like some balding version of the Lost Boys. No, this trip is our way to lighten the darkness that is growing up.

I walked off stage; high-fived my friends, laughed, then sat in the corner nursing beer number thirty-eight. As my buddy Sean hopped on stage to belt out Third Eye Blind’s ‘How’s It Gonna Be’ the clarity only became more…well…clear: The person you think you’ll always be at 22 is never the person you become. It’s not even the person you’re supposed to become. And what’s worse is that you could never make your younger self understand that this isn’t necessarily good or bad, it’s just how it is now. Things change and as much as I (Probably most out of the league.) don’t ever want them to, it’s not up to me. It’s the curse of life. If me at 22 saw me today he’d probably cry and ask the simple question, “What the hell happened to you?” I could only reply, “Everything?” And as younger me turned around to walk away he’d stop and say loud enough for me to hear, “Dammit.”

For more Padres stuff and other things you might not care about follow me on Twitter @dallas_mc

This year was no different. In fact this year was a little worse than normal. I almost drafted Yonder Alonso out of pity. Another person in our league joked about taking Carlos Quentin to fill his DL spot, and we used Will Venable’s sticker to hold up the draft board. It’s not that we don’t want to draft Padres players; its just there really isn’t any point.

When we started our Fantasy League in 2000, the very first player picked was Trevor Hoffman. We made fun of the guy who did this immediately, to which he replied, “I have a strategy.” Needless to say his strategy didn’t pay off.

Since that first draft there have been few Padres worthy of a selection. Heath Bell, Jake Peavy, Mat Latos, and Adrian Gonzalez all had good runs. Brian Giles had a minute, Chris Young had a moment, and of course Khalil Greene had an issue. But, it’s been few and far between for quite awhile. I know you might be thinking, “A lot of teams don’t have players you would draft in a fantasy league.” That statement is correct. The Royals only have a couple, as do the Pirates, Rockies, and Indians. I mean hell, when we started our league we only had seven guys, so to make things even we made the Tampa Bay Devil Rays our eighth. Which meant you couldn’t draft any Devil Rays, and that was fine because you really didn’t want to. Remember this was the early 2000’s when the Devil Rays were still a joke. Yes, there are and have been plenty of teams who have had less than desirable fantasy players, but I write about the Padres not those other teams. For the most part drafting a Padre means you’re taking a pitcher or taking a chance. Now with the fences moved in, all that has changed. Not one Padres hurler was taken this year, not one. And, we have some pretty good candidates: Clayton Richard could be okay, Huston Street should have a strong season, and Andrew Cashner might end up with a regular line that tempts owners with a waiver wire pick up. I can only assume that the hesitation is in part due to PETCO’s fences being moved in, and I understand that, as I also refuse to draft any Padres pitchers this year. And, I’m the guy who picked up Joe Randa more than once – in the same season.

In our fantasy league there is a lot of hometown bias. Guys want to try and draft as many players from their hometown team as possible. We have a Dodgers fan, an Angels fan, an Orioles fan, a Giants fan, and four Padres fans. One of my favorite things to do is find out who the up and coming stud is in one of these organizations and snatch ‘em up before the homer does. It drives them crazy, and makes me happy. Dork jokes. You want the star player on your fantasy team that you get to watch on your real team, but when that star doesn’t really exist? It’s tough.

Seriously, just let him play 2nd. (Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports)

This year Chase Headley was kept, and someone drafted Jedd Gyorko as a minor leaguer. Yes, we do a minor league draft. If you don’t then I pity your league. But, both of those picks are attached to a whole lot of wishful thinking. We hope that Gyorko is the player he looks like he could be. We hope that Headley continues his 2012 stride. Of course, if both of those things happen it won’t only benefit the Padres, it will benefit our fantasy league. We could have a couple fantasy stars that are talked about, and offered in deals, and admired for a few years to come. This is would be good. It would be a point of pride for me on two levels, and I want to live on two levels. I’m a diehard Padres fan, and I am more hopeful than most that this season could be a real step up for the team. I want people in my fantasy league to drive up the prices of players who no one thought of before. I want the Padres to be the envy of statheads, and roto-junkies everywhere. I want that, because it echoes why most of us get in to Fantasy Baseball: A fun escape from the mundane realism of the actual game itself. It can trudge on and forcing yourself to pay attention to every facet of that mundane realism ends up making it more exciting and ultimately fascinating. You not only care about players and teams you once hated, but you start to care about your own hometown team even more. You want reality to imitate the fantasy, but in Baseball that can never be true, because as much as you cheer Cameron Maybin on as the hope of the future, he’ll almost certainly never be worth it.

For more Padres stuff and other things you might not care about follow me on Twitter @dallas_mc

For the players, spring training is the time to get in shape for the upcoming season. It gives managers and general managers of all 30 Major League Baseball clubs to get a feel for their players and piece together a full 25-man roster.

More importantly, spring training is a time for fantasy baseball geeks to scout players for their fantasy baseball draft.

While big names like Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Tim Lincecum come off the draft board early, there will be a few San Diego Padres who could be a steal in the later rounds.

Here are the three Padres who should be on your draft list:

Chase Headley: Headley is going to have a big fantasy year. This year, I project him to put up numbers in just about every scoring category – runs, hits, homeruns, RBI, average, and walks. His numbers will be juicier having Carlos Quentin batting behind him in the line-up. Headley is a true fantasy guy. He is my first pick for the Padres that will come off the board.

Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

 Tim Stauffer: Stauffer is the ace of the staff. He is a reliable pitcher who doesn’t get batted around too often. He keeps his walks low and strikes out a decent amount. His E.R.A. is respectable. If you’re looking for a quality pitcher at a low buy, then Stauffer is your guy.

Carlos Quentin: If Quentin stays healthy, he may be your best fantasy option. Quentin has power and great plate discipline, so he can draw a handful of walks. He is projected to bat clean-up so expect a boat load of RBI from Quentin. His fantasy season will depend on his health.

If your fantasy squad had a poor draft and now you’re scouring the waiver wire to solidify your roster then you may be in luck. Here are two Padres you should quickly snatch up off waivers.

Edison Volquez: When this guy is health it is clear that he can be a dominant pitcher. If he is available on the waiver wire he is worth the risk to be scooped up. Volquez can get an abundant amount of strike outs for your team and notch a bunch of wins.

Cameron Maybin: Need a speedster who can boost up your stolen base totals? Then Maybin is your guy. He is perhaps the best and fastest base runner on the Padres. Last year, he stole 40 bases. This year he is projected to reproduce that number. He also has some pop, which can be a bonus for your fantasy baseball team.