THE SECOND OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE. I am an original member of the second oldest fantasy baseball league in the country. Actually we must be tied for second with some other leagues. (There are apparently over ten million leagues now.) What happened was that the first ever league, the “Rotisserie Leagueâ€, founded in 1980, was written up in the off season before the 1981 season. Our league began in 1981.. That first year one of the categories we used was errors. The scorekeepers had to go through every box score for the season to calculate the standings for that category because there were no satisfactory compilations available. This Wikipedia article says that some attribute much of the early success of USA Today to the fact that the newspaper was sought out by Rotisserie league participants because their box scores were so much superior to those in other newspapers. For years now our league has included the children and even the grandchildren of the early members. We will be getting together again tomorrow.
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Hi,
Are you guys (and gals) still together? We just had our belated 2011 end of the season bash celebrating our 28th year. We started in 1984. Have a trophy with the names of 28 Champions and all the season stats etc. There are 8 teams including three originals.
We are the Hunnewell League using ESPN for our site. I remember compiling stats every couple weeks to see where we all stood it was already outdated. Now it is up to the pitch.
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Our fantasy league has also been running continuously since 1981. I would love to talk with you, Philip, about your league. Compare notes, best/worst practices/ and lore. Do you have a league website?
–John Grossmann
Hi,
Just wondering if you know of a site that posts longest running continuous leagues. We have been going strong since 1984. We are looking forward to our 30th year next year.
Thanks
Our fantasy baseball league (UBL) was started in 1967. I joined the league in 1970 (over 42 years ago!) We have 20 teams across the country and several of our members have been in the league for over 30 years!
Hi all,
Just completed our 32nd consecutive season of the Hunnewell League Rotisserie Baseball. Congrads to the Johnson Wax!
I remember “helping” my dad prepare as a 5 or 6-year old, then legitimately helping a little bit as I got older, and attending the draft to drive him and has partner nuts by getting fixated on certain players and insisting they draft them. Although, I believe my father and I differed on Mike Mussina v. Chan Ho Park one season and I feel that history has vindicated me.
Griffey Jr. was the default 1 pick for the first few seasons I can remember.
Now I’ve had my own team since spring of 2007. Time flies.
Just curious – you guys still going? We started in 1990 and are finishing season 29 this year…
Still going! Managed to come in second this season.
The Larson Baseball League in Omaha started the same year that the Cockroaches started. While they dump champagne on the winner, the winner buys a keg and pays for food at the next year’s draft which is easily afforded by their winnings. We still have twenty teams, some run by the kids of original members – including our beloved founders son after he passed after a long and courageous battle with cancer. We’re an unruly bunch that only are able to agree on what is funny and who bid the highest on a ball player.
the Sixth Street Baseball Association started in 1985. Two of the founding members are still active in the league. It’s a 12 team NL only 6×6 roto style keeper league with an auction draft for the 23 man active roster and a rotation draft for the 14 man reserves. There are 4 teams that have been in for at least 13 years, 7 teams that are heading into their 8th year another team that has been in for 5 years 2 teams in their 2nd season and we just lost a 10 year owner and are trying to fill that slot or we will go for 11 this year. One cool note our championship trophy is the same one that we started with in 1985. The champion gets to keep it for the year much like the Stanley Cup in hockey. At the draft every year the previous year’s champion presents the new champion with the trophy with the reigning champions team name newly engraved for them to keep for the season.
Would be great to see a photo of that trophy, Jack.
The Gasparilla Memorial Fantasy Baseball League is a 12 team mixed 4×4, keeper AUCTION Rotisserie league!
Our first season was 1990. We just finished our auction for the 30th year. Though we are not the OLDEST league, I wonder how many older than ours are ‘mixed keeper 4×4 auction rotisserie leagues, if any!
Originally formed in Tampa, Florida five of the original team owners are still active in the league. Several new owners have come and gone from cities not only all around Florida, but from as far away as San Francisco. We currently have team owners from Tampa, St Petersburg, Clearwater, Winter Haven, Land O’lakes, Floral City, Gainesville, New Orleans, and Nashville! We all meet one day each year for our all day (or all night) blood-letting auction! (I can’t imagine how anyone would actually play in a draft only league when they could do one with an auction … one of the best days of the season!)
We have a couple of interesting, and challenging wrinkles in our rules, but for the most part, try to stay consistent with the original Rotisserie game. We are a 4×4 league with HR’s, (RBI’s-HR’s), BA, SB, Wins, Saves, ERA, WHIP.
… AND … we have a bodacious trophy! I challenge any other league to show us a better one!
We are the Brockville Rotisserie Baseball League founded in 1984 in Ontario, Canada, using the original rules of the famous Waggoner book. NL only and have graduated 10 years ago from 4×4 to 5×5. Still 3 of the 10 original owners (a 4th passed away in 2010) and 2 other owners that have been in it since year 3 (34 years). Celebrated Draft #36 last weekend with 11 owners in the league. We believe after extensive online research that we are the oldest original Rotisserie Baseball League in Canada using the NL. 36 years as of this past draft. Complete history kept with full annual media guide, records, minor league drafts, owners franchise history etc. It is very cool to read about the leagues in the USA on here. It has been alot of fun and kept a core group of friends and new friends together and connected for a long time. My son is now an owner in the league which is amazing. And we are drafting star players sons now in the league just for a reality check on how long this has been together. All the best to all of the long running leagues. Cheers
Never too Old – Since 1985, that’s our name and when we started. We still follow the book pretty closely but we made modifications to adjust to the times and to keep a competitive balance. We only do NL because we never wanted to root against the Yankees, and then inter league play came about. We started with 10 teams and expanded to 12 as the NL did and it’s still a 4×4 with the original categories. 6 of our original 10 are still playing. Our league and our owners have has gone through life’s up and down experiences together – Marriages, divorces, births and deaths. We began using an excel spreadsheet to calculate weekly stats and standings but have since moved to CBS Sports. We meet annually in person for the auction draft and have a Stanley cup type trophy with the names of each winner and the year. Our only issue each year is dealing with trades – we’ve tried several rule modifications but continues to be a thorn in our side. Hoping we gone on another 35+ years and pass the torch to our kids and/or grandkids.