by Mike Harmon, FOXSports.com

My name is Mike Harmon, and I'm proud to join the fantasy sports team at FOXSports.com. That's Mike. Not Mark. Never, ever Mark. Let's get that out of the way first.

I appreciate the fine body of work that Mark Harmon has put together, I really do. He's been a star on both the big and small screens, with film roles in Summer School and Stealing Home and memorable television characters in Chicago Hope and the wildly popular NCIS.

And lest we forget, he did play quarterback at UCLA, and his dad was a Heisman winner. Every time he adds a new role to his resume, my name gets changed. From grade school teachers to radio hosts nationwide, everyone gets "Mark" on the brain. I hope to one day get a chance to meet him and let him know just how popular he really is, although the latest ratings probably do that just fine.

But I digress. Beginning Thursday, I'll be adding to the fantasy sports coverage across the site, breaking apart box scores, tearing through game notes, answering your e-mails and using every piece of information at my disposal to assist you in fantasy domination. Near-term, I'll examine Tony Stewart's quest to repeat as Nextel Cup champion and break down the field to get you ready for the NASCAR slate. The World Baseball Classic is just around the corner, whetting our appetites for the return of Major League Baseball.

I know. The Super Bowl is Sunday. Believe me. I've got my game face on for that as well.

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In early March, I'll pack the Hawaiian shirts, suntan lotion and the digital audio recorder and head down to Florida to give you first-hand reports of Grapefruit League action. I'm still finalizing the tour schedule, but keep an eye on the site for full details. Of course, I'll inundate you with rankings, team breakdowns, and opinions and analysis of all things on the diamond.

And, of course, I'll always have an eye fixed on the comings and goings during the NFL off-season and get myself ready for the driving tour of NFL camps on the East Coast.

Let me pull back for a minute to tell you a bit about myself.

I'm originally from the South side of Chicago, and though school and work moved me away years ago, I still bleed into my accent when I speak for an extended period. My passion for all things sports was formed there, cheering for the Bears of Ditka, the pre-Jordan Bulls, and Harold Baines and the White Sox. Sorry, Cubs fans. You know the rules.

My educational pursuits took me north of the city to Northwestern University, where I earned an English degree with an economics minor. And, yes, I was a face painter. We traveled across the country to watch our beloved Wildcats, and we were rewarded with a handful of wins for our efforts.

Though the wins weren't plentiful, my friends and I did get a splash of celebrity. Video game makers hadn't included the Wildcats before the '94 season, but when they finally introduced the purple and white, our paint-laden faces were front and center. Each big play brought a clip of a cheering crowd, and my mug.

My attempt to procure a free copy of the game for use of my image was met with a "Read-the-back-of-the-ticket stub" form letter. Denied! Of course, the Cats hit the big time with a Rose Bowl appearance in the year after I graduated.

It was during my undergrad days that I first jumped into the world of fantasy sports with participation in baseball and football leagues. Back then, the onus was on the commissioner to get things right. We certainly had our share of arguments and disagreements, but the passion for the game kept everyone involved.

I continued to crunch numbers in my post-graduate world, taking a job at NU to aid graduate students with their financial aid. Pouring through piles of budgetary data and making presentation after presentation set the stage for where I am today. And what brings out more passion from people than money!

After several years, my new wife and I packed up shop and headed to California. She began graduate work at Stanford, and I examined new career options.

In early 1999, I joined Yahoo! to aid in the development of their newly formed sports site. I arrived just following the release of their first in-house fantasy offering and assisted in the creative process to strategize feature sets, customer interaction, and messaging for all future releases until my departure from that role in mid-2004. I found myself back in the classroom and earned my MBA from Santa Clara University, burning the midnight oil to complete my coursework at night and translate the coursework into my daily operations.

All the while, I continued to play fantasy sports games, logging seemingly endless message board posts and, of course, firing off opinions on any variety of topics within said meetings. That led to the beginning of a weekly fantasy column in early 2003, offering picks, analysis and sit/start advice. In mid-2004, the column moved to a daily format which opened things up to new topics, greater debates and more interaction with readers through a weekly mailbag.

My work at Yahoo! provided me with a number of additional opportunities to offer fantasy analysis. In 2002, I offered analysis on a weekly basis for MLB.com. For the 2003 NFL season, I had the unique opportunity of appearing weekly on SpikeTV through The Football Network's Fantasy Football 2003. I provided analysis and weekly picks for the Yahoo! Sports' NFL This Week webcasts for the 2004 and 2005 seasons. I've appeared as a radio guest in more than 50 markets, with weekly appearances in Sacramento, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Memphis among them. My first book, The Savvy Guide to Fantasy Sports, a guide to the world of fantasy sports, was published in June 2005. I am currently working on my Fantasy Football preview guidebook to be released in July of this year.

Stay tuned for the evolution of fantasy coverage from FOXSports.com in 2006. We've got a number of exciting things in the works, but there's no need to lay them all out in an introduction.

I reside in upstate New York with my wife and daughter and sleep with one eye open to keep tabs on the late-night West Coast action. After all, you can't form an informed opinion without watching the action between the lines.

That's what you can expect out of me as you turn to FOXSports.com for fantasy information. No laundry lists of the players everyone knows. I'll rank them and make sure that you're apprised of their successes of failures. The focus will be on opinions and analysis formed to better familiarize you with the players off the radar and make you the King or Queen of the water cooler.

It's all about building a community. Let's get a free-flow of ideas going. Who's your No. 1 pick? Who's leaving you cold? What trades are you thinking about making? Or sit/starts? Or waiver wire pickups? What topic would you like to see dissected?

Each week, I'll dig into the mailbag to answer the most pressing fantasy questions out there. I want to hear your opinions about the latest stories of the day and how they're impacting your fantasy decisions.

Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me why you disagree with my take on a team, player or situation. Call me any name in the book that you can think of.

Just don't call me Mark.

FOXSports.com fantasy contributor Mike Harmon would welcome your comments and feedback.