THE OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE STARTS ITS 32ND SEASON (COMMENT). David Quemere commented on my post about our “rotisserie league”, which I claim is the oldest fantasy baseball league in the country. (In the early years, fantasy leagues were called rotisserie leagues.) Of the 10 million or so current leagues, there may be some that are tied for first place, but there are none older. I loved hearing from another pioneering league. David Quemere’s league began in 1984 and has three of the original franchises. He remembers compiling stats by hand just as our league officials did. Nowadays, most players follow the drafting on a computer, but from the beginning we have had a large display board on which the draft picks are recorded, and we are maintaining the tradition. Mat Olkin, who ran the board for us for a couple years when he was in law school, has gone on to do sabermetric work for the Seattle Mariners and, as of 2010, the Toronto Blue Jays (see here). Pitchers and catchers are reporting, and we have drawn our draft postions.
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- michael gallo: since 1984…..the year the first book came out..stats done by hand when the sporting news arrived
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I love the display board, still. The in-person draft, the age of the league, and my memories of the league from a very young age give it a very special gravitas.
This will be the 3rd year of a league that I run for my friends, and perhaps one day we will have people invested enough to want to do an entirely live draft. Much more fun than online.
It is always interesting when you see the turning of a generation. There are now several children of the original members of this fantasy baseball league that either succeeded to the ownership of their parent’s team, or acquired a team of their own. Even more notable is that now we are looking to draft the sons of players that were fantasy studs for us years ago. I see Dee Gordon (Tom “Flash” Gordon’s son) and Dante Bichette Jr. when I look at prospect list. Nice to follow the gentle roll of time.
Our fantasy baseball league started in 1966 and we have not missed a year of drafting and owning a team yet. Our league consisted of 6 teams that first year. All of the original and most of later team owners worked at the same factory. We still have 4 of the original owners playing. Our league has consisted of 8 to 10 teams over the years. We have a copywright on a instruction book explaining how to start your fantasy league we published in 1975. I recall compiling all the league stats using The Sporting News. Over the years we have heard how someone played the first fantasy baseball in 1980 but I think our league can lay claim to be the oldest and original fantasy league.
I am in a Maryland Rotisserie league. It started in 1986 and is still going strong.
Have been in a an Al only Roto league since 91… started at Ohio University were we all went to college…… we currently have 12 teams, 7 of them origional…. still do an ” in person’ auction every year…. I realize we are by no means the oldest…..but having that many origionals still is rather impressive
since 1984…..the year the first book came out..stats done by hand when the sporting news arrived