Here are all of the finalists for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s 2008 Industry Recognition Awards. Only FSTA members are eligible to win, and the membership selects the winners (in bold below) from the final candidates.

Commissioner Product
CBSSports.com Commissioner
ESPN Fantasy League Manager
Fanball.com Football Commissioner
Fantrax
MyFantasyLeague.com (FB)
RealTime Fantasy Sports (FB)

Draft-Style Tool
CBSSports.com Live Draft Room
Mock Draft Central

Draft-Style Contest
CBSSports.com Free Fantasy Football
FanaticFantasyFootball.com LLC (FB)
Fanball Draft and Play MLB (NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR
Head2Head The Draft 2008
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
U-Sports (College FB, BB)

Salary Cap Contest
Fanball Challenge Games
Head2Head Salary Cap Football
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
Sports Buff Salary Cap Style Football

Live Event or Contest
AOL Sports (FB)
ESPN Fantasy Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (FB)
FLW Fantasy Fishing

Unique Contest
Alma Mater Football League
ESPN Streak for the Cash
FLW Fantasy Fishing
Head2Head Match Play Madness
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
Pay The Fan Fantasy Sports (FB,Racing)

Innovation
CBSSports.com User Generated Player Updates
ESPN Streak for the Cash
Accuscore.com GMC Fantasy Scout
LeagueSafe.com
Rosterdilemma.com

Draft Kit
CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Downloadable Draft Kit
The Huddle Fantasy Football Draft Kit
ESPN Fantasy Football/Baseball Draft Kit
RotoExperts
RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit
KFFL.com’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide

Draft Assistance Tool
CBSSports.com Mock Drafts
Draft Dynamix Draft Analyzer
Mock Draft Central
RotoLab, DraftLab, HoopLab

Print Ad
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY
Fantrax
Fanball - Gatefold (4 Page) Ad in Fantasy Football Index & Fanball Cheat Sheets
LeagueSafe.com
MyFantasyLeague.com
RotoWire 2008 Fantasy Football print ad
U-Sports (College FB, BB)

Magazine
Athlon/Grogan’s Fantasy Football Analyst
Baseball HQ - Baseball Forecaster
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY
ESPN The Magazine Fantasy Football Draft Guide (FB)
Fanball Fantasy Football Draft Issue
RotoWire 2008 Fantasy Baseball Guide
Rotoworld/NBC Sports (FB, Baseball)

New Website or Site Update
AOL Sports (FB) Fanhouse
CBSSports.com College Fantasy Football
FantasySportsBusiness.com
FantasySportsGirl.com
LeagueSafe.com
One Season Fantasy sports stock market
RotoExperts
Sports Data Hub

Specialty Products or Services
BlogTalkRadio: The Fantasy Sports Channel (FB,BB,Baseball,H)
FantasyDispute.com
Fantasy Trophies LLC
LeagueSafe.com
Sports Data Hub
Titlecraft Inc.

Online Content Service
BaseballHQ.com
CBSSports.com Fantasy News Site
ESPN Insider Answer Guys
Fanball - Owner’s Edge NFL
The Huddle Fantasy Football Service
KFFL Hot off the Wire
RotoWire.com
Rotoworld/NBC Sports (All Sports)

Blog
AOL Sports (FB)
ESPN Stephania Bell’s Injury Blog (FB)
Fanball - Godfather of Fantasy Sports Blog
The Fantasy Baseball Sherpa’s Blog
Fantasy Football Sherpa’s Blog
RotoWire’s blog area, also called RotoSynthesis
Sporting News Fantasy Source Blitz blog (FB)
William Del Pilar’s Locker Room Buzz

Podcast
BlogTalkRadio: The Fantasy Sports Channel (FB,BB,Baseball,H)
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY(FB)
ESPN Fantasy Focus Baseball
ESPN Fantasy Focus Football
FantasySportsGirl.com
RotoExperts.com Start em and Sit em Sunday

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association will dole out its annual industry awards later this month at its winter business conference. Among the categories to be recognized is Best Blog. Voting ends Monday, Jan. 5, and the finalists are as follows:

• AOL Sports
• ESPN — Stephania Bell’s injury blog
• Fanball — Godfather of Fantasy Sports
• Fantasy Baseball Sherpa’s blog
• Fantasy Football Sherpa’s blog
• Rotowire — Rotosynthesis
• Sporting News — Fantasy Source Blitz
• William Del Pilar’s Locker Room Buzz

Who: Nando Di Fino
What: Fantasy writer for The Wall Street Journal

“I kind of just fell backwards into all the fantasy stuff and decided to roll with it.”

That’s how Nando Di Fino describes how he got to be the first writer to cover fantasy sports for The Wall Street Journal. OK, well, maybe that’s oversimplifying just a little bit.

Once upon a time, Di Fino only casually participated in fantasy leagues.

“Like really casually,” he says. “I remember Sandbox once disbanded my team when I went to Italy for a couple months because I didn’t make lineup changes for three weeks.”

Things changed, though, when Di Fino was working on his master’s degree in history at Fordham University and he took a job with SportsTicker, scoring a couple of baseball games a day. Along with paying him a little money, the gig provided him with experience in research and writing, as well as “an insane amount of worthless baseball knowledge.” (That must go beyond the amount built into the average American male’s DNA.) It also got him onboard with Wall Street Journal reporter Sam Walker for his book “Fantasyland.”

The exposure from the book led to Matthew Berry inviting Di Fino onto the team at Talented Mr. Roto, which led to him joining ESPN’s fantasy department when the company bought TMR. How he went from there to The Wall Street Journal, even Di Fino can’t pinpoint.

“I’m not 100% sure, but they had mentioned that they were going to start addressing [fantasy], and I had a burger and beer with the editor of the page, and I think we hit it off,” Di Fino says. “We kicked around some story ideas, he read some of my stuff on the now-defunct ‘Nandovia’ page that Sam forced me to write for the book, and that was that.”

His initial offering for the Journal profiled the industry’s three top injury analysts - Stephania Bell, Will Carroll and Rick Wilton - and he has added an article a week since. Subject matter has comprised such topics as the potential impact of fantasy on professional beach volleyball, the value of playing fantasy sports with your children and the evolution of fantasy baseball statistics. More than a mere fantasy-advice column, it’s a spot that calls attention to various areas of the industry, giving mainstream treatment to a rapidly growing market that was once relegated to the fringes.

Aside from getting used to addressing his subjects formally as “Mr.” and “Ms.” upon second reference, Di Fino says he hasn’t been given too many restrictions by his editors.

“The parameters were pretty vague,” he says. “Obviously the Journal has really high standards, and not from necessarily a haughty, business-like point of view, but from the quality that they expect from the writers. This isn’t something I can sit down and write two nights before.

“I basically look at it like this: I send it to my brother Joe when I’m done, and if he says it’s not funny, or it’s boring, or if he’s even the tiniest bit unenthusiastic about it, I tear it to shreds and rewrite it. The last thing I want is for this column to be stale or boring.”

Career development stuff aside, though, the important thing is that his fantasy play has taken off since its early days. He limits himself to three football leagues, including one with buddies from back home that has been going on for about 15 years.

Baseball, though, the sport that launched him as a fantasy writer, remains king.

“Nothing beats rotisserie baseball for me,” Di Fino says. “Football is fun, but there’s so much luck and racing to the waiver wire involved.”

He’d better like it, as Di Fino says he balances 14 fantasy baseball teams. He’s quick to point out, though, that many are shared with Walker, lest someone mistake him for a fantasy geek.