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Baseball: The birth of a phenomenon
by Kip Ritenour
It's that time of year again - the slow warm-up of spring, the blooming flowers, the smell of dungy basements.
Let me explain.
While countless athletes head outdoors for Spring Training, millions of others - mostly middle-aged couch potatoes - head to rec rooms, dens, garages and sometimes elaborate halls for that phenomenon known as Rotisserie Baseball League Drafts.
The official sport for those too old and not talented enough originated in New York City in 1980.
Rotisserie Baseball got its name in the since-gone-out -of-business French restaurant La Rotisseri Francaise.
The Rotisserie League Baseball Association headed up by then Sports Illustrated writer Dan Okrent wanted a way to become Major League Baseball general managers without the hassle of dealing with greedy agents, whiney players and overbearing owners.
The game those original 11 members created for self-entertainment has now spawned into a multi-million dollar juggernaut and branched out to other sports such as NASCAR, the NBA, PGA golf, and most notably the NFL.
The fantasy sports industry ignited by Rotisserie Baseball is perhaps the biggest innovation in all of sports the past 25 years.
It's estimated by the Fantasy Sports Players Association that over 20 million fans play some style of fantasy sports games, with over 6 million playing baseball alone.
It's become a billion dollar industry.
And guess what?
The inventors haven't received a dime from it, except from their yearly Rotisserie League Baseball Guide published by Diamond Library.
Okrent credits Bob Sklaar, a professor at the University of Michigan for laying the groundwork for the league in the late 1970s.
In their annual, Okrent writes: "Using imaginary money, Sklar and a few sociologists and historians selected various major league players at the beginning of each season, and their performance - batting average and ERA - determined the winner, and who got a blue ribbon, or something."
Amazingly, Okrent doesn't play Rotisserie anymore.
While millions of crazed fans spend countless hours studying, drafting, managing, trash-talking, trading and competing, Okrent, now an editor for Time Magazine, swears he doesn't miss the game at all.
When Okrent wrote an article for Inside Sports in 1981 titled "The Year George Foster Wasn't Worth $36," leagues started sprouting up all across the country.
By the late 1980s Rotisserie Baseball was a full-fledged national institution.
How else could an ordinary Joe actually own his very own Major League franchise?
Once one enters this misunderstood pastime they're usually trapped, much like a fly in a pot of warm Gorilla Glue.
Unlike the now more popular fantasy football leagues, true Rotisserie Baseball requires a well-thought out game plan.
The adage, "It's a marathon, not a sprint" definitely applies to Rotisserie Baseball. The unprepared perish in the land of baseball genius geeks.
The Valley Baseball League located here in the northern part of the Shenandoah Valley is the oldest known existing league in the area, originating in 1989.
This 10-team American League-only league holds its annual draft on Saturday, March 26 at an undisclosed location in Front Royal.
This band of baseball fanatics includes people from all walks of life, including bankers, doctors, writers, salesmen, postal workers, electricians and scientists to name a few.
They all come together with their imaginary $260 of draft day money to select a team of 24 players who compete statistically in five offensive and five pitching categories.
The winner at the end of the season takes home half of a large pot of green leafy material with the runner-up receiving 25 percent, third 15 percent and fourth 10 percent. The other six are usually left with a good list of keepers for the next campaign.
"It's changed the way I watch baseball," said one league member from a cloak of anonymity. "Instead of rooting for just my favorite team, I now follow players on several different teams. All because they're on my Rotisserie team."
Most leagues hand out trophies and some - like in the tradition of the original league - also dump chocolate flavored Yoo Hoo over the head of the winner.
Still don't believe that Rotisserie Baseball is this big, this important?
Check out the countless websites dedicated to the subject and the dozens of books and magazines located in any bookstore.
Okrent once said in one of the many books he's written on baseball that, "Between now and the time I die, if I find a cure for cancer and end the conflicts in the Middle East, the obituary will say, 'Okrent dies; invented Rotisserie Baseball.' There's no question about that."
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More stories on Shenandoah.com:
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(Bluemont Concert Series)
- Wednesday Jul 28 2010
(Woodstock Enhancement Committee)
- Wednesday Jul 28 2010
(Virginia Farm Bureau)
- Wednesday Jul 28 2010
(The Warren Sentinel)
- Monday Nov 30 2009
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