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Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe
A Wall Street Journal writer spends a season in a fantasy baseball league to explore the inner workings and contagious passions of one of the country's most popular pursuits
Every spring, millions of Americans prepare to take part in one of the oddest, most obsessive and engrossing rituals in the sports rotisserie baseball, a fantasy game where armchair fans match wits by building their own teams. Starting with a player "draft" before the Major League season, contenders spend six months scouring the box scores to see if their handpicked players can outperform the opposition. It's a pastime that threatens to overtake traditional baseball in the passions it generates. In 2004, Sam Walker, a sports columnist for The Wall Street Journal, decided to explore this phenomenon by talking his way into Tout Wars, a private league generally reserved for the nation's top experts. Using his baseball contacts and access to locker rooms, Walker spent a year trying to dredge up information that might give him a competitive edge over his eccentric cast of competitors. But in his quest for victory he also endeavored to settle the great question that divides modern baseball Can excellence be predicted by statistics alone or is the human element more important? Together with his crack research team, Sig (a statistician) and Nando (a baseball savant), Walker finds himself possessed by the game and determined to win at any expense, spending weeks on the road interacting with his real Major League players and trying to "manage" them. We follow his descent into sleeplessness, panic, triumph (temporarily), treachery, and even consultations with an astrologer as he keeps his ever-blearier eyes on his elusive goal. The result is one of the most entertaining sports books in years and a matchless look into the heart and soul of our national pastime.
Every spring, millions of Americans prepare to take part in one of the oddest, most obsessive and engrossing rituals in the sports rotisserie baseball, a fantasy game where armchair fans match wits by building their own teams. Starting with a player "draft" before the Major League season, contenders spend six months scouring the box scores to see if their handpicked players can outperform the opposition. It's a pastime that threatens to overtake traditional baseball in the passions it generates. In 2004, Sam Walker, a sports columnist for The Wall Street Journal, decided to explore this phenomenon by talking his way into Tout Wars, a private league generally reserved for the nation's top experts. Using his baseball contacts and access to locker rooms, Walker spent a year trying to dredge up information that might give him a competitive edge over his eccentric cast of competitors. But in his quest for victory he also endeavored to settle the great question that divides modern baseball Can excellence be predicted by statistics alone or is the human element more important? Together with his crack research team, Sig (a statistician) and Nando (a baseball savant), Walker finds himself possessed by the game and determined to win at any expense, spending weeks on the road interacting with his real Major League players and trying to "manage" them. We follow his descent into sleeplessness, panic, triumph (temporarily), treachery, and even consultations with an astrologer as he keeps his ever-blearier eyes on his elusive goal. The result is one of the most entertaining sports books in years and a matchless look into the heart and soul of our national pastime.
354 pages, Hardcover
First published March 2, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
August 28, 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 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.
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.
October 13, 2008
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, comparable to Word Freak and The Horsemen of the Esophagus. The last part of this book dragged, however---the author is so brutally honest and transparent when it comes to the process, his methods, and results that the reader has a very good idea of about where he'll end up in the league standings quite a bit before the end of the season rolls around, and this is where the book's only real flaw comes in. It really appears, that this particular gatecrasher went a little too deep, to the point where it might actually be impossible to separate Sam Walker the author/sports writer from Sam Walker the almost insanely-committed fantasy owner of the Streetwalkers. At times, particularly toward the end, the book begins to take on the quality of comprehensive stats notes-to-self for reference at future drafts, and loses a bit of its perspective. Baseball fans may or may not appreciate this book depending on their view of fantasy (or "rotisserie") teams/leagues, but it's hard to imagine a true blue rotisserie player passing this up.
January 24, 2021
In late 2003 Sam Walker, a sports writer for the Wall Street Journal, set out to join a competitive Rotisserie Baseball league called Tout Wars, comprised mainly of writers and analysts from various baseball analytics websites/publications. The title of the book calls it the most "compulsive" fantasy baseball league, and Walker frequently says that it's the "best" such league in the country (more on this later). Walker had never participated in a Rotisserie league before but he was able to use his baseball connections to convince league founder Ron Shandler to allow him to join the league when there was an opening in 2004.
Once he was in, Walker was ALL IN in his pursuit to not only hold his own among the pros, but to win. Although he never explicitly says this, I imagine that writing this book was the goal all along, despite the fact that it wasn't published until 2 years after his first Rotisserie season. I don't really see any other way he would have spent the money he spent traveling all over the country and even hiring 2 interns at about $3k/month to help him out. It's also unclear how complicit his employer, the Wall Street Journal, was in this. Did they pay his expenses and give him permission to spend the time doing this? Was he publishing updates of his pursuit in the WSJ (I supposed I could figure that out with a Google search)?
In any event, the result of Walker's dedication was a very entertaining book, if not filled with a bit of embellishment and hyperbole. Walker was convinced that his press pass, which gave him open access to baseball clubhouses all over the country, would give him an edge in scouting players. Both in Spring Training and throughout the regular season, he would speak with players, managers, and GMs in an attempt to gain an edge over his Tout Wars counterparts, who were mainly using statistics. Walker thought that a marriage of the qualitative and quantitative would be the best way to win the league. One of his interns, NASA scientist Sig Mejdal, actually went on to become a baseball analyst with the Cardinals, Astros, and now my hometown Orioles. Needless to say, Sig handled the quant side of things. Walker's other intern, Nando, was in charge of gathering as much qualitative intelligence as possible.
When talking about his interns, his Tout Wars competitors, and even many of the players he met, Walker treated them almost like characters in a fiction story rather than real people. This added to the entertainment value for sure, but was also cringeworthy at times--especially when it came to the unflattering way that he described some of his opponents' appearances. His interactions with the players, where he would openly tell them they were on his Roto team, were also very amusing to read about. That said, I don't buy that more of them didn't just tell him to "F off" because they don't care about someone's fantasy team.
Getting back to my comment at the beginning, I also didn't fully buy into Tout Wars being the "best" fantasy league in the country. Perhaps it was the best known at the time (the draft and ongoing results were public, though it doesn't sound like they had a ton of followers) and, yes, consisted of people who make a living off of baseball analytics. However, I don't doubt that there are hundreds of unknown leagues throughout the country where "non-professionals" pour every bit as much time into managing their teams. And I believe that time spent and luck (and experience playing Roto) are much bigger factors in being successful than simply being a "pro". Walker came into Tout Wars after allegedly never having played fantasy baseball before yet, by his own account, he held is own and even managed to "fleece" some of these pros in trades. He finished in the lower half of the standings but, per the afterword of this book, went on to win the league the following year.
I found Walker's tone to be self-aggrandizing and condescending at times but still found this to be a quick and entertaining read. Most importantly, it has given me the itch to play fantasy baseball again, which I haven't done in many years.
Once he was in, Walker was ALL IN in his pursuit to not only hold his own among the pros, but to win. Although he never explicitly says this, I imagine that writing this book was the goal all along, despite the fact that it wasn't published until 2 years after his first Rotisserie season. I don't really see any other way he would have spent the money he spent traveling all over the country and even hiring 2 interns at about $3k/month to help him out. It's also unclear how complicit his employer, the Wall Street Journal, was in this. Did they pay his expenses and give him permission to spend the time doing this? Was he publishing updates of his pursuit in the WSJ (I supposed I could figure that out with a Google search)?
In any event, the result of Walker's dedication was a very entertaining book, if not filled with a bit of embellishment and hyperbole. Walker was convinced that his press pass, which gave him open access to baseball clubhouses all over the country, would give him an edge in scouting players. Both in Spring Training and throughout the regular season, he would speak with players, managers, and GMs in an attempt to gain an edge over his Tout Wars counterparts, who were mainly using statistics. Walker thought that a marriage of the qualitative and quantitative would be the best way to win the league. One of his interns, NASA scientist Sig Mejdal, actually went on to become a baseball analyst with the Cardinals, Astros, and now my hometown Orioles. Needless to say, Sig handled the quant side of things. Walker's other intern, Nando, was in charge of gathering as much qualitative intelligence as possible.
When talking about his interns, his Tout Wars competitors, and even many of the players he met, Walker treated them almost like characters in a fiction story rather than real people. This added to the entertainment value for sure, but was also cringeworthy at times--especially when it came to the unflattering way that he described some of his opponents' appearances. His interactions with the players, where he would openly tell them they were on his Roto team, were also very amusing to read about. That said, I don't buy that more of them didn't just tell him to "F off" because they don't care about someone's fantasy team.
Getting back to my comment at the beginning, I also didn't fully buy into Tout Wars being the "best" fantasy league in the country. Perhaps it was the best known at the time (the draft and ongoing results were public, though it doesn't sound like they had a ton of followers) and, yes, consisted of people who make a living off of baseball analytics. However, I don't doubt that there are hundreds of unknown leagues throughout the country where "non-professionals" pour every bit as much time into managing their teams. And I believe that time spent and luck (and experience playing Roto) are much bigger factors in being successful than simply being a "pro". Walker came into Tout Wars after allegedly never having played fantasy baseball before yet, by his own account, he held is own and even managed to "fleece" some of these pros in trades. He finished in the lower half of the standings but, per the afterword of this book, went on to win the league the following year.
I found Walker's tone to be self-aggrandizing and condescending at times but still found this to be a quick and entertaining read. Most importantly, it has given me the itch to play fantasy baseball again, which I haven't done in many years.
April 15, 2023
This was both a fun and weird read for me. It follows the 2004 fantasy baseball season, so it's a time capsule of baseball from 20 years ago, but because I'm a baseball fan reading it now in 2023, it's also strange to see writers and baseball players and front office guys so early in their careers (Jeff Luhnow and Nate Silver and Keith Law and David Ortiz and Bartolo Colon and Alex Rios). I also did a single season of fantasy baseball around 2017 or 2018 (Colon really helped me out, despite the memes about him!), but quit since it was so exhausting and not actually very fulfilling after all.
Walker's book is an interesting look at the weird people involved in fantasy ball and some of the lengths they will go through. Some of the things Walker did to try to get an edge were quite funny, but talking to the players themselves about how well they're doing (or not) for your Rotisserie baseball team seems incredibly gauche.
Coming out just a few years after Moneyball, this book also reveals a lot of interesting tension between the "scout (old baseball) v. analyst (new baseball)" especially since it's clear that new baseball won in the 20 years since.
Walker's book is an interesting look at the weird people involved in fantasy ball and some of the lengths they will go through. Some of the things Walker did to try to get an edge were quite funny, but talking to the players themselves about how well they're doing (or not) for your Rotisserie baseball team seems incredibly gauche.
Coming out just a few years after Moneyball, this book also reveals a lot of interesting tension between the "scout (old baseball) v. analyst (new baseball)" especially since it's clear that new baseball won in the 20 years since.
April 19, 2021
Well written, by someone who comes off as insufferable. And who represents the people he writes about as a set of very peculiar weirdos, in a fairly negative light.
I'm glad I took up fantasy baseball before reading this book.
I'm glad I took up fantasy baseball before reading this book.
January 31, 2024
A slow start to the book, but once the draft happened and the season got under way the book picked up and became interesting. It was also interesting to see back in 2004 the beginnings of the analytical/traditional scouting fight that is still taking place in MLB.
February 15, 2017
I liked "Fantasyland." I am a big baseball fan and a somewhat serious fantasy baseball player (though nothing on the level of what Sam Walker discusses in this book). "Fantasyland" is an adventure through Walker's first season playing Rotisserie fantasy baseball. He joins the Tout Wars league, an experts' league that is populated by some of the most prominent fantasy baseball players in the world. Walker must learn about the Rotisserie game and determine what his strategy and identity will be in this league. He goes to oftentimes ridiculous lengths to try to secure an advantage on his league mates; he attends the spring trainings of most AL teams (this is an AL-only league), he hires two employees to aid him throughout the season, and he approaches a multitude of players, coaches, and front office types to try to coax insider information from them. I wouldn't say that much of the book is particularly humorous, but Walker's willingness to put himself out there and potentially look like an idiot is endearing. I can see how some readers may be turned off by how gimmicky some of his antics are, but I think most will agree with me.
Walker chronicles his descent into fantasy addiction, telling how his mood shifts with the performance of his team. Any serious fantasy player can likely relate to those types of mood swings and the addictive nature of the hobby. His discussions of trade negotiations and psychology are entertaining, too. I generally think that both the baseball expert and baseball novice can find some entertainment value in this book. Walker will not blow you away with any novel statistical analysis or approach, but serious fantasy players will appreciate how quickly he becomes addicted to the hobby. Baseball novices can hopefully appreciate why those that they may denigrate as fantasy nerds are so entrenched in their favorite hobby.
Walker chronicles his descent into fantasy addiction, telling how his mood shifts with the performance of his team. Any serious fantasy player can likely relate to those types of mood swings and the addictive nature of the hobby. His discussions of trade negotiations and psychology are entertaining, too. I generally think that both the baseball expert and baseball novice can find some entertainment value in this book. Walker will not blow you away with any novel statistical analysis or approach, but serious fantasy players will appreciate how quickly he becomes addicted to the hobby. Baseball novices can hopefully appreciate why those that they may denigrate as fantasy nerds are so entrenched in their favorite hobby.
September 9, 2014
This is one of the funniest books I have ever read, in any category. I think it goes without saying that you need to be a fan of fantasy baseball to have more than an passing interest in Sam Walker's Fantasyland. If you are, you will find many of the experiences Sam went through ring true.
His grilling of major league baseball players and executives, in the name of gleaning an inside information edge on his competition, had me laughing so hard that I had the put the book down at times.
The amount of time he spent with his quant sidekick trying to build a more predictive system for player performance is something many, many of us have done (and failed miserably at).
Walker's love for all things baseball and fantasy comes through in spades. This is just a fun, fun book, and pretty well written for non-fiction sports. I had a great time reading it. I put it right up there with Moneyball as an all-time favorite baseball book.
His grilling of major league baseball players and executives, in the name of gleaning an inside information edge on his competition, had me laughing so hard that I had the put the book down at times.
The amount of time he spent with his quant sidekick trying to build a more predictive system for player performance is something many, many of us have done (and failed miserably at).
Walker's love for all things baseball and fantasy comes through in spades. This is just a fun, fun book, and pretty well written for non-fiction sports. I had a great time reading it. I put it right up there with Moneyball as an all-time favorite baseball book.
November 8, 2014
To enjoy this read, it helps if one likes fantasy baseball, but being a fan of baseball is enough. Walker tracks the 2004 MLB season through his eyes as an obsessed rotisserie league owner. Thanks to his credentials as a sports columnist for The Wall Street Journal, he is able to meet with his rotisserie players, their managers and GMs, all with the rather delusional goal of helping the players perform better on the field--or in some cases to get on the field at all. With all this in mind, "A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe" seems a fitting sub-title.
May 8, 2020
Rating - 8.1
Thoughts
Light read that is focussed on a topic I appreciate (the numbers side of fantasy sports) & written in an engaging & humourous style; Could have used a little more of the Justin Morneau/Jose Guillen stories
A nice expose into the life of a player/GM w just a smattering of inside info; Lots of parallels to data driving sport decisions & losing your passion as you get older (for the Touts & for us middle-agers)
Thoughts
Light read that is focussed on a topic I appreciate (the numbers side of fantasy sports) & written in an engaging & humourous style; Could have used a little more of the Justin Morneau/Jose Guillen stories
A nice expose into the life of a player/GM w just a smattering of inside info; Lots of parallels to data driving sport decisions & losing your passion as you get older (for the Touts & for us middle-agers)
July 5, 2019
Unique insight to America’s pastime
“Touted” as a must read book by one of my long long time friends (since he knew I loved baseball), I found fantasyland to be a wonderfully diverse read from my typical non-fiction reads. If you’re a fantasy baseball participant it definitely is a must read. If you’re intrigued by fantasy sports and its participants this book is for you.
“Touted” as a must read book by one of my long long time friends (since he knew I loved baseball), I found fantasyland to be a wonderfully diverse read from my typical non-fiction reads. If you’re a fantasy baseball participant it definitely is a must read. If you’re intrigued by fantasy sports and its participants this book is for you.
October 13, 2011
One of my favorite baseball books
March 18, 2022
If I could give this book 3.5 stars I would. Honestly, I loved the opening. It was bright and full of the energy that I have had as a fantasy sports player for 20 years. Walker's writing style is journalistic and detailed, keeping the story moving while throwing in details that make the routine scenery feel special. As the book went on, though, it felt like it dragged (not unlike the middle of a baseball season). Only the truly dedicated can stay with the season... or story...
My main compliment to the book is that Walker shows the various different personalities who are drawn to rotisserie baseball leagues. There are some stat geeks, sure, but there are also former jocks and people who have aspirations for professional careers in pro sports. There are all sorts of idiosyncratic personality elements of Walker's cast of characters that makes them sound like a lot of fun.
To no fault of the book itself, it feels incredibly dated to read now. It's almost a period piece at this point. Fantasy sports have lived through their high point and are now being supplanted by "daily fantasy sports" and more than ever outright gambling. With DraftKings and FanDuel dominating fan spaces everywhere (live games, websites, podcasts, etc.) the stories in Walker's book feel like pioneer days of innocence. The quirky personality types and foibles along the way with early Tout Wars feels like something out of the Oregon Trail game in comparison to the high-flying, data-driven, over-analyzed, sabermetric approach to baseball today... let alone fake baseball today.
So if you are interested in the history of fantasy sports, this book should be included for sure. As far as sheer entertainment, it is a fun page turner (especially the first half). Overall, though, as the second half of the book covered more and more the intermingling of roto and real baseball through Walker's atypical access to major league teams, the shtick sort of wore off. Part of what made the opening so charming was how little Walker really knew about the game and how he covered the roots (including Okrent's original Roto league). By the end, there is nothing about Walker that is relatable for the common fan or fantasy player.
To borrow a phrase Matthew Berry might use... the book "jumped the shark."
My main compliment to the book is that Walker shows the various different personalities who are drawn to rotisserie baseball leagues. There are some stat geeks, sure, but there are also former jocks and people who have aspirations for professional careers in pro sports. There are all sorts of idiosyncratic personality elements of Walker's cast of characters that makes them sound like a lot of fun.
To no fault of the book itself, it feels incredibly dated to read now. It's almost a period piece at this point. Fantasy sports have lived through their high point and are now being supplanted by "daily fantasy sports" and more than ever outright gambling. With DraftKings and FanDuel dominating fan spaces everywhere (live games, websites, podcasts, etc.) the stories in Walker's book feel like pioneer days of innocence. The quirky personality types and foibles along the way with early Tout Wars feels like something out of the Oregon Trail game in comparison to the high-flying, data-driven, over-analyzed, sabermetric approach to baseball today... let alone fake baseball today.
So if you are interested in the history of fantasy sports, this book should be included for sure. As far as sheer entertainment, it is a fun page turner (especially the first half). Overall, though, as the second half of the book covered more and more the intermingling of roto and real baseball through Walker's atypical access to major league teams, the shtick sort of wore off. Part of what made the opening so charming was how little Walker really knew about the game and how he covered the roots (including Okrent's original Roto league). By the end, there is nothing about Walker that is relatable for the common fan or fantasy player.
To borrow a phrase Matthew Berry might use... the book "jumped the shark."
May 8, 2022
A person's descent into the throes of addiction can have a crippling effect on the addict's common sense, rationality, and grip on reality as the walls cave in. What else can explain staging a demonstration to protest the suspension of your star fantasy baseball player, all for the sake of salvaging your season?
I picked this up as I have, starting with the COVID-shortened 2020 season, been gripped with the same addiction Walker documents with hilarity in this book: obsession with my fantasy baseball team. The book is a spooky look in the mirror: an initial aversion to playing that has morphed into a desire to discuss my team at any given chance, the foolhardy infatuation with a player (fantasy baseball's cardinal sin), the moral dilemma of rooting for baseball's Evil Empire because you have their star pitcher on your team (for Walker, Mariano Rivera; for me, Gerrit Cole), the volatile swing in league standings in the first month of the season (I ranged from 1st to 8th in my ten-person league this April), and random outbursts of "f------ a-------" and "G--------" when your players fail.
The book touches upon some great nuanced baseball detail (Gary Sheffield discussing his altered approach to southpaws pitching him on the outside sticks out) and contains legit heartfelt moments as well.
The strongest point, though, is the humor. Even my wife, not remotely a sports fan, laughed out loud as I told her about Walker's retelling of Lawr Michaels' anguish listening to a Royals game while his pitcher, Mark Gubicza, was having a bad outing. Taking a guess that she can relate to the unsung heroes of this book, the significant others of Rotisserie players.
Not sure if non-fantasy sports fans will relate to this, but it's a must-read for fantasy freaks.
I picked this up as I have, starting with the COVID-shortened 2020 season, been gripped with the same addiction Walker documents with hilarity in this book: obsession with my fantasy baseball team. The book is a spooky look in the mirror: an initial aversion to playing that has morphed into a desire to discuss my team at any given chance, the foolhardy infatuation with a player (fantasy baseball's cardinal sin), the moral dilemma of rooting for baseball's Evil Empire because you have their star pitcher on your team (for Walker, Mariano Rivera; for me, Gerrit Cole), the volatile swing in league standings in the first month of the season (I ranged from 1st to 8th in my ten-person league this April), and random outbursts of "f------ a-------" and "G--------" when your players fail.
The book touches upon some great nuanced baseball detail (Gary Sheffield discussing his altered approach to southpaws pitching him on the outside sticks out) and contains legit heartfelt moments as well.
The strongest point, though, is the humor. Even my wife, not remotely a sports fan, laughed out loud as I told her about Walker's retelling of Lawr Michaels' anguish listening to a Royals game while his pitcher, Mark Gubicza, was having a bad outing. Taking a guess that she can relate to the unsung heroes of this book, the significant others of Rotisserie players.
Not sure if non-fantasy sports fans will relate to this, but it's a must-read for fantasy freaks.
May 19, 2017
This book is funny, interesting, and an outstanding look at the "stat" side of baseball from the view of fantasy baseball. I enjoyed the book as a better understanding of baseball and also just a lighthearted look at what might constitute an "obsession" -- the various fantasy, rotisserie and other leagues, whether in baseball or all sports.
Sam Walker writes well, has an engaging sense of humor, and with his two "employees" Sig and Nando, takes on the elite of baseball's fantasy players. The book has the feel of a "travel" book, where there is a destination and you're following along. I would say the type of writing that Walker does is sort of like Bill Bryson's writing -- wry and sardonic.
I would say this book is worth a look for anyone who likes 1) baseball and 2) a touch of humor and 3) a study of what draws people's interests and obsessions.
Sam Walker writes well, has an engaging sense of humor, and with his two "employees" Sig and Nando, takes on the elite of baseball's fantasy players. The book has the feel of a "travel" book, where there is a destination and you're following along. I would say the type of writing that Walker does is sort of like Bill Bryson's writing -- wry and sardonic.
I would say this book is worth a look for anyone who likes 1) baseball and 2) a touch of humor and 3) a study of what draws people's interests and obsessions.
December 10, 2021
If you like baseball and good writing, then this is a great book. So interesting to witness a deep dive into Rotisserie Fantasy Baseball. It was a book that I didn't want to put down, but it took me a few weeks to make it through. I'm not a fantasy player, and after reading the book, I understand why. It attracts a certain compulsive personality. If you read this and also Moneyball by Michael Lewis you get a good understanding of how analytical baseball is and how statistics have changed the sport. I want to look for other books by Sam Walker.
October 21, 2022
Accidentally produces a lot of insight into a great many of characters who are more prominent now than they were then. I picked this up as a light read from a second hand bookstore. One of the guys the writers hires on a lark to make his "expert" fantasy team better is now the Assistant GM for the Orioles. He just thinks he's some weird guy he meets at the winter meetings. Seems like helping him int his league was his actual way into major league baseball front offices. Works as a quasi unintentional history.
March 7, 2025
A very fun read-read that I breezed through probably 15 years after my first time. It’s certainly dated, in both its humor and its baseball arguments (scouts vs stats is long passed played out), but I’m the kind of dork who loves a play-by-play of a fantasy baseball draft in March.
If you had unlimited time, money, and access, how far could you get in the world’s most competitive fantasy baseball league and would you be as cringeworthy? I’m at least the right kind of stupid to enjoy the answer!
If you had unlimited time, money, and access, how far could you get in the world’s most competitive fantasy baseball league and would you be as cringeworthy? I’m at least the right kind of stupid to enjoy the answer!
July 18, 2017
If you play, or ever have played, fantasy baseball, or any fantasy sport for that matter, this book displays going to all extremes; jet setting across the country to scout players, lobbying to GM's, and putting on hold all aspects of a social life. Fantasyland follows somewhat along the theories of "Moneyball" - If you read Moneyball, then Fantasyland may interest you.
February 25, 2024
If you play fantasy baseball, this book will interest you. I've played fantasy baseball for over 20 years and I found this book interesting, but not compelling. The first chapters of the book are interesting and fun, but later chapters get bogged down in too much detail about trades and the competition.
April 19, 2024
Wonderful book that was nerdy, obsessive, and entertaining. I liked the line: Expert fantasy baseball players spend all off season preparing for the draft, their wives say they have sex in the baseball season. There was also a great chapter on the real history of Rotisserie Baseball and about Keith Law's background.
February 9, 2024
Love this book. It is an incredible documentation of what it is like to be engaged in Fantasy Baseball. Sports fanatics, fantasy sports enthusiasts, baseball fans, will get a kick out of reading this. The interactions with players documented throughout the book are highly entertaining.
February 23, 2025
4.25 stars. A WSJ sports column columnist gets himself invited to the a top tier experts fantasy baseball league and pulls out all the stops to win. An entertaining and informative read, especially if you're into baseball.
May 6, 2019
A good, enjoyable read. Far from deep or impactful, but interesting in the superficial way that fantasy baseball is.
July 18, 2019
Walker makes a novice foray into the obsessive world of fantasy baseball, armed with front-office contacts and a press pass.
November 14, 2022
this book is exceptionally addictive.
January 9, 2025
Might be my favorite sports book ever.
June 23, 2025
I love and cherish this book so much, cheers to Rod Barajas
October 15, 2008
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!
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!
November 25, 2010
This book is a very entertaining adventure into the extremes of fantasy baseball. I play fantasy baseball on a much more modest level than Sam and the others that are profiled in the book, and I found that it actually fulfilled my 'fantasies' - that is, breaking down the barriers between "fantasy" and "real" baseball. For instance, the book opens with a magnificent anecdote about Jacque Jones, who upon reading his fantasy profile seems close to tears. Walker uses his baseball contacts to move in and out of the "real" world of baseball - meeting his players in lockerooms and calling GMs and managers on a regular basis - all in the service of improving his fantasy team. Players, GMs and Managers respond with a hilarious mixture of skepticism, support, and patronizing eye-rolling advice.
Through his manic embrace of fantasy baseball, Walker gives you the history of the phenomenon. He also investigates the two warring sides in baseball management today - those who are "old-school" and trust character and hunches, and those who are stat-crunchers who reduce players to a series of a numbers that become more and more peripheral to winning games. In many ways, this book is a companion to Moneyball. Walker seems like he did a lot of planning before he began to write to "set up" these tensions, as his fantasy employees and consultants (really, he hired people) were a "hunch-master" who absorbed player bios, a NASA engineer who ran complex formulas to make decisions on individual players, and a baseball fortune teller.
My one complaint with Fantasyland is that sometimes you get the sense that everyone is striving to create the most exclusionary world possible and women, in Walker's narrative, are completely peripheral - as either "patient" or frustrated wives, sexual distractions, or in the case of his third employee, fortune tellers. Sure, fantasy baseball is played overwhelmingly by men, and maybe Walker succeeds in implicitly critiquing these "fantastic" male worlds. Maybe I am just overly defensive because Alexa's "A Team of Their Own" took 2nd place in our fantasy league this year. I don't want fantasy baseball to be exclusionary!
Anyway, Walker's book is a pure page-turner for baseball and fantasy nerds, and I'd say that even fans who don't play fantasy would enjoy it purely for its adventure. It's extremely fun to watch his best laid plans go awry, and his inability to find the Unified Theory of baseball statistics helps support what is so great about the game to begin with.
Through his manic embrace of fantasy baseball, Walker gives you the history of the phenomenon. He also investigates the two warring sides in baseball management today - those who are "old-school" and trust character and hunches, and those who are stat-crunchers who reduce players to a series of a numbers that become more and more peripheral to winning games. In many ways, this book is a companion to Moneyball. Walker seems like he did a lot of planning before he began to write to "set up" these tensions, as his fantasy employees and consultants (really, he hired people) were a "hunch-master" who absorbed player bios, a NASA engineer who ran complex formulas to make decisions on individual players, and a baseball fortune teller.
My one complaint with Fantasyland is that sometimes you get the sense that everyone is striving to create the most exclusionary world possible and women, in Walker's narrative, are completely peripheral - as either "patient" or frustrated wives, sexual distractions, or in the case of his third employee, fortune tellers. Sure, fantasy baseball is played overwhelmingly by men, and maybe Walker succeeds in implicitly critiquing these "fantastic" male worlds. Maybe I am just overly defensive because Alexa's "A Team of Their Own" took 2nd place in our fantasy league this year. I don't want fantasy baseball to be exclusionary!
Anyway, Walker's book is a pure page-turner for baseball and fantasy nerds, and I'd say that even fans who don't play fantasy would enjoy it purely for its adventure. It's extremely fun to watch his best laid plans go awry, and his inability to find the Unified Theory of baseball statistics helps support what is so great about the game to begin with.
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