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Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe | 
 enlarge | Author: Sam Walker
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy Used: $0.79
You Save: $25.16 (97%)
New (28) Used (44) Collectible (2) from $0.79
Avg. Customer Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 425863
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0670034282
Dewey Decimal Number: 793.93
EAN: 9780670034284
ASIN: 0670034282
Publication Date: March 2, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Normal wear. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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 countrys 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 pantheon: 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. Its 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 nations 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 thinkers: 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 37 more reviews...
 A fun, well-written look into the geeky but hypnotic world of fantasy baseball June 25, 2008
Sam Walker traces the origins of the game, profiles the super geeks who advise the rest of us, and gives insight into playing in the most competitive fantasy baseball league. The one downer, I think, is that Walker emptied his bank account to have a staff of two full timers, an actress/temptress and a psychic. It makes for good reading, but to me, not as interesteing as if he would have went it alone or with advice from buddies. His moments with the players themselves are excellent, and I walked away from this book with a few new favorite big leaguers, for many different reasons.
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who plays fantasy baseball or is just curious as to why those who play it are so fanatical about it.
Fantasyland: A humoruos story of the Rules and beginnings of Fantasy Baseball March 30, 2008
If you are an avid Fantasy Baseball fan, this is an absolute must read. This book is to Fantasy Baseball, what 1776 is to American History. Sam Walker is the David McCullough of Fantasy Baseball. He accuratly descibes the sport, and intertwines the story of how Fantasy Baseball got its humble start.
 Any fan of baseball or fantasy sports MUST read this! March 21, 2008
So...you think you're crazy about the lengths you will go to in managing your fantasy baseball or football team??? Well, Sam Walker has some things to teach you about what he calls the "lunatic fringe" of fandom. This book will draw you in with its hilarious character studies, warm you with its emotional connection, and draw you into the depths of competition amongst friends. A fantastic read!
 WOT = WASTE OF TIME March 18, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The only reason people like this book is because they play fantasy sports and its the only (or close to only) popular book about fantasy sports. On its own, its quite boring and adds nothing at all to fantasy sports. C'mon, if this book were about horse racing, it would be a stinker. Stop stroking your own egos. Hopefully we will get something worth reading, but for now, I'll stick to the so-call experts' excerpts about their fantasy seasons. Try than and you will save many hours. But if you play fantasy sports, and you get a kick of knowing some guy drafted your guy and wrote that in a book, than this one is for you.
A Good History of Roto, Slightly Odd Current View November 3, 2007
Fantasyland provides an excellent review of the history of rotisserie baseball that has developed into an entire industry. This is much more than a retelling of the commonly cited story about a few baseball fans developing a game at the Rotisserie restaurant in New York. The narrative is breezy and a quick read. I would buy the book for this back story alone.
The odd way Sam Walker goes about trying to win a well-known fantasy baseball league has some significant holes. Hiring a rocket scientist(literally) to crunch numbers and a self-proclaimed baseball talent evaluator is a clever idea, but its never clear why these two guys are remotely qualified to help. The passages describing other gurus in fantasy baseball, many of whom are well-known to avid roto players, is interesting in pointing out the ranks of experts are filled similarly with people of questionable talent.
Together, the book is worthwhile, but it does not necessarily prove there any secret to the fantasy baseball world. Instead, it does a nice job of revealing how a game has become an obsession to so many.
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