Although I'm probably late, I just read the book Fantasyland by Sam Walker, a writer who spent a year competing in America's most competitive Fantasy Baseball League, Tout Wars. Along the way Walker highers two men, one of whom is a NASA scientist and another who uses nothing more than his gut to value baseball players. He also hired an attractive woman to help give him an advantage in the draft, not to mention an astronomer to give him advice on players.
While Walker didn't do terribly well (he finished 8th out of 12 teams, including finishing 1 spot and 7 points worse than the now semi-famous Joe Sheehan of BP, 2004's only other rookie in Tout that year), he also had perhaps the unluckiest team that year, including a devastating injury to then White Sox outfielder Magglio Ordonez. Also, Walker managed to finish 1st in thr 2005 version of Tout Wars.
This book shows how crazy some people can get about their fantasy teams, and the lengths at which people will go to improve their teams. At one point Walker called Pittsburgh Pirates GM Dave Littlefield to persuade him to trade for Doug Mientkiewicz so that he could get more playing time than if he went to Boston.
While Walker didn't do terribly well (he finished 8th out of 12 teams, including finishing 1 spot and 7 points worse than the now semi-famous Joe Sheehan of BP, 2004's only other rookie in Tout that year), he also had perhaps the unluckiest team that year, including a devastating injury to then White Sox outfielder Magglio Ordonez. Also, Walker managed to finish 1st in thr 2005 version of Tout Wars.
This book shows how crazy some people can get about their fantasy teams, and the lengths at which people will go to improve their teams. At one point Walker called Pittsburgh Pirates GM Dave Littlefield to persuade him to trade for Doug Mientkiewicz so that he could get more playing time than if he went to Boston.
While I don't think I could ever get so worked up over my fantasy team, this book shows both the dark side and the good side of managing a fantasy baseball team. This book really piqued my interest in auction style drafts and non mixed leagues. Hopefully I can talk my fellow league mates this year into doing a non mixed auction league next year. I could have done without a lot of the sections about the history of fantasy baseball, but whether you're a fantasy baseball fan or just a baseball fan I would highly recommend this book.
Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5
1 comment:
I've never even heard of it... I'll have to check it out after I finish all the other millions of books on my list.
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