We live in a world where there is a Wikpedia page, a documentary, or an ‘oral history’ article that will give you history 101 on almost every subject.
Granted, these histories are not perfect or 100% accurate – see the phrase ‘history is told by the victors’ and the works of Howard Zinn and Oliver Stone – but at least there is something.
However, the history of fantasy sports has always been shrouded in mystery. I own a fantasy site and, a few months ago, I didn’t know much about the pre-internet sports industry other than an origin story about Daniel Okrent and friends starting a league and naming it after the NYC restaurant La Rotisserie. Française who used to go often. I only know that story because I bought one of those Fantasy Baseball annuals before I hit puberty where a story like that can stick in your mind forever.
My first introduction to fantasy sports history came this preseason courtesy of Ron Shandler’s ‘Fantasy Expert’ (my Twitter review is here). This is a first-person account of building his Baseball Forecaster + BaseballHQ.com + First Pitch businesses but there was a lot of interesting baseball industry origin and history in its pages (especially regarding LABR and Tout Wars – the two long-standing industry leagues there Gray and I participate)
Before I had a chance to mentally climb out of that rabbit hole, I learned that Larry Schechter (who wrote Winning Fantasy Baseball almost ten years ago) had written a book about the history of fantasy baseball. So much so that he actually named it The History of Fantasy Sports. Unlike Ron, Larry did not have a horse in the race. He is/was an amazing multi-sport player and fan of the game. So this book provides more scope on the history of great sports – especially on the football side.
Interesting history, well researched and a breeze to read (given that Larry is not a professional writer). From both my content creator and fantasy player perspective, it really teaches me how much easier everything is now compared to the days of publishing, 1-900 numbers, and fax. While Razzball started too late to be included in Larry’s (or Ron’s) history, I don’t think Gray and I were made for the analog world. So perhaps it is appropriate that we are not in print. (Maybe add to e-books?)
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