Posts Tagged ‘rotisserie baseball’

Fantasy to Appear Among ESPN’s ‘30 for 30′ Films

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

As part of its celebration for being on the air for 30 years, ESPN will debut a series called 30 for 30, in which 30 accomplished filmmakers treat some of the biggest sports stories of the past 30 years with one-hour documentaries.

Among the pieces will be one on the generation of fantasy sports. Although the release refers to fantasy sports in general, the synopsis of the feature seems to indicate that fantasy baseball will actually be the focus.

Here is the word-for-word entry under Silly Little Game by Adam Kurland and Lucas Jensen on the release linked to above:

“Fantasy Sports is a $4 billion dollar industry that boasts more than 20 million participants and a league for almost every sport imaginable. But for all this success, the story of the game’s inception is little known. The modern fantasy leagues can be traced back to a motley group of writers and academics who met at La Rotisserie Francaise in New York City to form a baseball league of their own: The Rotisserie League. The game quickly grew in popularity, and with the growing use and popularity of the Internet, the “Founding Fathers” never foresaw how their creation would take off and ultimately leave them behind. Innovative filmmakers Adam Kurland and Lucas Jansen will chronicle the early development and ultimate explosion of Rotisserie Baseball, and shine a light on its mostly unnoticed innovators.”

We know, of course, that fantasy football didn’t sprout from the Rotisserie session mentioned above but from Oakland Raiders beat writers and team officials years before. Either way, though, it should make for interesting viewing.

The series is set to begin in October, though no date appears to be available for the airing of Silly Little Game.

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Fantasy Baseball Advice from the Guys Who Started It

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

“I was a schmuck for not making any money on this thing,” Daniel Okrent says early in a Forbes.com story posted Wednesday.

Although Okrent is universally attributed with creating what we know most commonly as fantasy baseball, he and his fellow originators failed to capitalize on their copyrighted Rotisserie Baseball.

But while the Forbes report leads with that unfortunate tale, the crux of the item is really the advice sought from Okrent and several of his leaguemates — as well as select other experts from the fantasy industry.

Forbes went to the eight gentlemen listed below in search of some player recommendations and a bit of sage advice. You’ll have to click on the links for the players. For the words of wisdom on the other hand, look no further than …

Daniel Okrent, creator of Rotisserie Baseball: Pay attention to your wife.

Ron Shandler, Baseball HQ: Decide whether you are in this to have fun or to win. In many cases, those two goals are mutually exclusive.

Harry Stein, original member of Okrent’s league: Bid up superstars (in auction drafts), but make sure someone else gets them. The successful rotisserie player does not get wedded to the idea of landing a particular player. And avoid one-dimensional players.

Scott Swanay, FantasyBaseballSherpa.com: Use a set of player rankings that quantifies position scarcity. If time permits, compare your player rankings to Average Draft Position (ADP) data from a credible source (such as Mock Draft Central) to avoid picking your targeted players too soon.

Sam Walker, Fantasyland: Read psychology books. The way to win is to understand the people in your league and to know what they do before they do it. Try to get inside peoples’ heads.

Bobby Jurney, 2008 winner of NBC Sports’ National Fantasy Baseball Championship: Know the players. It is easy to draft the big names, but nine times out of 10, that is not going to win you anything. It is the people who do the research and know all of the players, big and small, that are going to be successful.

Cary Schneider, original member of Okrent’s league: Find someone younger than you to give you information. If you’re over 30 you won’t know who any of these players are.

Nando Di Fino, The Wall Street Journal: Don’t follow the experts blindly. And read Rotoworld or Rotowire every day. (Di Fino forgot to add: “… and FSB.com.”)

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