Fantasyland: A Sportswriter's Obsessive Bid to Win the World's Most Ruthless Fantasy Baseball

by Sam Walker

book data

339 ratings, 3.85 average rating, 68 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		21%
4		47%
3		27%
2		3%
1		0%

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published

2007 (first published 2006) by Penguin (Non-Classics)

binding

Paperback, 368 pages

isbn

0143038435 (isbn13: 9780143038436)

description

Every spring, millions of Americans prepare to take part in one of the oddest, most obsessive, and most engrossing rituals in the sports pantheon: Rot...more

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08/28/07

Martin rated it:

(review of isbn 0670034282)

bookshelves: 2007books

Read in September, 2007

Believing the positive reviews I read of “Fantasyland” by Sam Walker, I started this book – about a sports journalist with no fantasy baseball experience who plays for a season against the top fantasy experts in their league, called ‘Tout Wars’ – looking for a funny, insightful look at the game of fantasy baseball, and its hard-core practitioners. I imagined that the book would appeal to at least one, if not both, of the two following groups:
a) baseball fans who know little ...more Believing the positive reviews I read of “Fantasyland” by Sam Walker, I started this book – about a sports journalist with no fantasy baseball experience who plays for a season against the top fantasy experts in their league, called ‘Tout Wars’ – looking for a funny, insightful look at the game of fantasy baseball, and its hard-core practitioners. I imagined that the book would appeal to at least one, if not both, of the two following groups:
a) baseball fans who know little about fantasy baseball but are either interested in the game or think it’s hilariously dorky or both, OR
b) fantasy baseball nerds looking for insight into the strategies of the best fantasy baseball players currently at work.

I consider myself enough of a baseball fan to enjoy a scathing look at baseball nerdery, and enough of a fantasy baseball nerd to enjoy analysis of the top experts. What I got was forced, dull comedy, and a deadening lack of interesting insight. Walker’s comedy is strained – “can you believe these CRAZY CHARACTERS!” he shrieks; if only he had done more than barely, hesitantly sketch his characters they might be funny. As they stand, they are paper-thin quasi-people who are introduced so haphazardly as to be utterly indistinct and unmemorable.

Further, he offers no real substantive insight into fantasy baseball play or the larger statistical revolution currently underway in Major League Baseball. Again, he brushes against both topics, but never manages to say anything of any real value. Turns out – you might want to sit down – that some fantasy baseball strategies are better than others but there is no sure thing or foolproof method when it comes to managing a team! (Be still, my beating heart.) Moreover, we learn – hold onto your hat – that BOTH quantitative (statistical) and subjective (traditional) analysis have value when it comes to the real game of baseball. (What a breakthrough.) Really, Sam Walker? I read your book for THESE middle-of-the-road opinions? Now tell me something I DON’T know. Please! What a snore.

Walker saps his narrative of naturally occurring suspense by jumpily and erratically describing the inherent drama of an up-and-down fantasy baseball season. His team finishes dully in the middle of the pack – not a disaster, far from a success. Which is also essentially how I feel about the book. It’s not the worst book ever written, but I sure wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. The epilogue, which could have been an interesting peek at the men (all men, by the way) who peopled the story, ended up making me wonder over and over again: “which one was this guy?” Finally, in the last line of the epilogue, Walker mentions that the next year when he played in the Tout Wars league for a second time, he won(!), which is a decently impressive accomplishment. I wish he had put off publishing his book for another year to show us that season – or, better yet, BOTH seasons! Imagine watching our hero scaling the steep learning curve! Imagine the glee with which our fearless narrator would beat all the uber-nerds who had taunted him the previous year! Imagine the ultimate triumph! And, I imagine that his readers could maybe have drawn some interesting conclusions, drama, or humor out of this dull tale.
(less)

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12/09/08

Steve rated it:

Read in June, 2008

There are hundreds of terrific books on baseball, but none capture the pure love of the game quite like "Fantasyland: A Season's on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe", by Wall Street Journal columnist Sam Walker.

My friends know I am an avid fantasy baseball player, but you certainly don't have to play fantasy (or "Rotisserie") baseball to enjoy this book. Walker, in fact, had never played fantasy baseball in his life when he set out to write it.

Walker was a ...more There are hundreds of terrific books on baseball, but none capture the pure love of the game quite like "Fantasyland: A Season's on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe", by Wall Street Journal columnist Sam Walker.

My friends know I am an avid fantasy baseball player, but you certainly don't have to play fantasy (or "Rotisserie") baseball to enjoy this book. Walker, in fact, had never played fantasy baseball in his life when he set out to write it.

Walker was a skeptic about Rotisserie going in, but decided to try it out for himself, and garnered an invitation to join the "Tout Wars", a league consisting of the nation's most renowned fantasy baseball experts. Walker thought he could exploit his contacts inside baseball to gain an edge on the competition.

The results of this "experiment" were hilarious. Walker hired two men (at $1500 a month) to act as his advisers - one was assigned to learn personal facts about the players, the other was a mathematics and statistics expert.

Then, Walker proceeded to "scout" his fantasy team himself. He attended winter ball games in Puerto Rico, spring training in Florida and Arizona, and interviewed countless players, scouts and general managers. Three months of full-time prep work, just to draft a fantasy team.

After the season began, Walker scouted his own players, talking to them after games to try and steer their stats toward his fantasy goals. Players like David Ortiz, Doug Mientkiewicz, Jacque Jones, Miguel Batista, and Bill Mueller not only spoke to Walker, they were actually willing to help him. In the case of Mientkiewicz, for instance, Doug suggested that Walker trade him.

Walker also interviewed GMs (such as Billy Beane of the A's) to try and get them to make trades that benefited his team. And spoke to managers to try and get more playing time for his players. In other words, he did what every fantasy baseball player dreams of doing: affected the outcome for his own team and league.

What's most enjoyable is not whether Walker's team wins or loses (I won't give that away), but that his pure love of the game shines through. He shows us why we love to play fantasy baseball, and why we love to watch baseball in general.(less)

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06/17/09

Ori rated it:

I read this about a year after it came out, and since I find myself wallowing in the basement of my first fantasy league I decided to reread it.

This book is hilarious and the passion for baseball is apparent on every single page. It won't take long before you find yourself rooting for the Streetwalkers as if they were your hometown team, or thinking of how to apply Walker's methodology to your own fantasy team. Astrological predictions anyone? The characters, from his fellow league...more

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05/14/09

Mike rated it:

Read in May, 2009

This book almost requires four reviews:

Casual sports fan who isn't that into baseball - 3 stars as it's a well written and humorous book even if it's not up someone's alley. Would get lost a bit sometimes in the intricacies of the fantasy stats probably.

Heavy baseball fan but non-fantasy player - 4 stars. It's a great baseball book as the author takes advantage of his insider access and interviews players and coaches around the league, all with the goal of helping his...more

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05/12/09

Ak. rated it:

Here is a book that is as fun as the baseball season is long. A behind-the-scenes look at the very origins of fantasy baseball as we know it today. Walker is witty, his cast of "characters" lovable, and his seamless blending in and out of the reader's world into his own, that of baseball and its stars and money, is fantastic. Seamhead dorks and baseball novices will love this book. As Walker delves into sabermetrics/Jamesian baseball, it's not boring; it's riveting, and it's not condes...more

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04/16/09

Bud rated it:

Read in March, 2009

I've wanted to read this since it came out and chose the weeks leading up to my own fantasy draft to finally do so. Funny stuff, what with the characters (real people) involved and the obsessiveness that can take over your life if you play fantasy baseball. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars was the sort of over the top "hiring" of helpers to do the draft (doesn't really connect with real people who do this on their own) and the ending didn't nicely wrap things up as well as ...more

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10/15/08

themacinator rated it:

Read in October, 2008

recommended to themacinator by: dad
recommends it for: anyone who liked moneyball

I love baseball. I know that's obvious. When I was little, my dad was in a "rotisserie" league. I don't think I ever knew why it was called a "rotisserie" league- maybe I thought they made that up, since everyone else played "Fantasy" baseball, or maybe I thought they ate a lot of rotisserie chicken. I don't know, but I do know that I played a lot of rotisserie baseball with dad. I collected baseball cards at the time, so I knew a lot of the stats in my pre-teen br...more I love baseball. I know that's obvious. When I was little, my dad was in a "rotisserie" league. I don't think I ever knew why it was called a "rotisserie" league- maybe I thought they made that up, since everyone else played "Fantasy" baseball, or maybe I thought they ate a lot of rotisserie chicken. I don't know, but I do know that I played a lot of rotisserie baseball with dad. I collected baseball cards at the time, so I knew a lot of the stats in my pre-teen brain, although I didn't always know what they meant, and I rarely knew more advanced (or nerdy) stats like WHIP or OPS- just thinks like strikeouts, saves, HRs, etc- things actually printed on TOPS or Upper Deck cards. (Sidenote- weren't Upper Deck cards cool? When they came out it was like baseball cards had just soared to a new level.) Anyway, Dad and his good friend Harvey were in this league of dorky baseball dudes (I don't remember any other women) and every year for a few years Dad had a team- LODI- which stood for "Long Distance" because he was always travelling, and Harvey was the "Commissioner" of the league, who we called, and still call, the Commish, and together, we'd have this father/daughter bonding experience of planning our draft in the off season, and I would go with him to draft our team. I even got to help him pick our players. Pretty nifty for a baseball dork. This was before the internet (yes, I remember that time) and we would go to get the newspaper and read the boxscores every morning to see how LODI was doing. So much fun!

Well, Sam Walker has written the book about my childhood. Or at least, why Rotisserie leagues are what they are, where they came from, why they're controversial, and who the big-wigs are in fantasy baseball. And my dad's league didn't make up the name, and they didn't eat a lot of chicken. (My family ate a lot of rotisserie chicken, but we don't get the credit here.) This is a pretty awesome book, if you care about stats, or if you like to dorkout about balls hit hard vs contact, etc. Sabermetrics vs fantasy vs scouting, etc. If this is greek, or boring, this book will not interest you. If you still want to trade baseball cards, and not just on their value as cards themselves, but on the value of the player, to help complete your little roster, then this book is awesome. It's a nice supplement to "Moneyball," which describes Billy Beane's now not-so-new method of building a successful low-budget team, using mathematics. Walker jumped into the league for the experts in fantasy ball, and expected to do well. "Fantasyland" is his story, and the chronicles of his humbling. Go Streetwalkers!(less)

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06/27/08

Chris Jagalla rated it:

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in June, 2008

This book was an interesting take on fantasy baseball as described by an outsider playing in his first league- which just happened to be the biggest league of them all. Walker offered insight into the all too familiar delusions and compulsions of fantasy sports owners, but ultimately I didn't find it enlightening with regards to the actual game of fantasy baseball. What it did highlight was the creation and history of the game, and in a more interesting take, the attitudes of baseball players an...more

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05/30/08

Billy rated it:

Read in July, 2008

This book promised to be a humorous, entertaining look at the national pastime, and the people that play Rotisserie Baseball.

I'm a sports fan (especially baseball and football). I'm a geek. I've spent many hours managing my fantasy teams (thereby combining the "sports" and "geek" parts of my life). I've also been told that I am a humorous, entertaining writer. How come it didn't occur to me to write this book? I think I would've done a better job... and I d...more

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04/14/08

Jeff rated it:

bookshelves: 2008

Read in April, 2008

I've been a fantasy baseball geek for about the last 12 years. I played in leagues with friends in high school, too. I've seen a season come down to a single Rafael Palmeiro home run in the eighth inning of a meaningless last-game-of-the-season (it cost me a second-place finish). I accumulate stacks of magazines and web site subscriptions every February. I've wasted more than one perfectly nice summer's day, in my living room pounding the "refresh" button. I have a passing familiarity...more

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12/13/07

Daniel rated it:

(review of isbn 0670034282)

Read in December, 2007

I've read a lot of baseball books and this is one the best. Sam Walker, a sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal, took a leave from his job in December to begin a quest of winning Tout Wars, the most elite Rotisserie (fantasy) baseball league around. This book tracks that journey, which becomes an amusing obsession.

Over the course of the 10 months, he would hire two employees, one a NASA employee whose primary assignment was to develop a computer program for analyzing players...more

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11/24/07

Susan rated it:

bookshelves: nonfiction-adult

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: fantasy baseball afficionadoes, baseball fans, fans of Word Freak and/or Horsemen of the Esophagus

Since I myself am a former fantasy baseball GM with a pretty appalling track record, this book held a lot of appeal for me. I appreciated the tales of obsessed rotisserie nuts, each more ridiculous than the last, which prefaced every chapter; I empathized with the frustrations and little humiliations; and I left it with a clearer sense of at least some of the fatal trading and drafting mistakes I made in the past. All in all, this was a pretty decent gatecrasher's account of the popular pastime,...more

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02/12/08

Kip rated it:

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: baseball junkies

Let me start by saying this probably only appeals to fantasy (or rotisserie) baseball, or perhaps hard core baseball fans in general. If you fit either criteria, this book is a must read. If not, move along.

**** for the baseball junkies
* for everybody else

Walker does a great job describing the complexities and highs and lows of bulding your own team to follow during the year. It was interesting as an experienced player / owner to see the learning curve for a new guy...more

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09/17/08

Scott rated it:

Read in April, 2008

Fantasyland is one of the few baseball books on my shelf that I'd actually recommend to non-fans. The gist is that the author, a well-established sports writer, joins the country’s premier fantasy baseball league & documents his “rookie” season while also providing a history of fantasy baseball and the key players involved.

However, as I implied, this book is not just for fantasy geeks. You don't have to be at all familiar with fantasy sports to understand and enjoy it - it's f...more

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04/08/07

Chris rated it:

bookshelves: baseball

This is not a book that you think a non-fantasy baseball playing non-sports nut would like; I've only followed baseball for a year, and I still have a hard time remembering which teams are in the National League and which are in the American, let alone being able to understand what would drive someone to absorb so many numbers about so many players in order to play a game.

Okay, coming from a man who is currently reading a rule-book for mass combat in a role-playing game he knows he w...more

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11/25/08

Bfeyen rated it:

Read in April, 2008

Even though I am not a fanasy baseball player, this was a very entertaining book. It shows what extreems some people go to in order to win at fantasy baseball. Written with humor and with the realization that some of these people are nuts.

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12/05/08

Andrew rated it:

Read in January, 2006

If you are into Fantasy Sports you will likely enjoy this book about a sportswriter who is invited to participate in his first Fantasy Baseball League, which just so happens to be an elite league comprised of industry experts.

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02/15/09

John rated it:

This may have been one of the worst books I've ever read. On a positive note, it got me really psyched for baseball season, fantasy or otherwise.

That should tell you a little too much about me.

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