Fantasy baseball can trace its roots back several decades to table-top simulation games like Strat-O-Matic, that were based on the actual statistics and performances of Major League players. For years, this was the closest average baseball fans were able to get to the excitement, the magic, of running a team of their own. That was, until what is now over twenty years ago, when a new level of participation was achieved. The sports world has not been the same since.
According to The Official Website for the Rotisserie League Baseball Association (RLBA), "Rotisserie league baseball was invented in 1980 by Dan Okrent, a New York writer and editor. He joined with other like-minded baseball fans to form the Rotisserie League Baseball Association (or RLBA), the very first rotisserie league. The name "Rotisserie" comes from Manhattan's La Rotisserie Francaise restaurant, the now-defunct historic eatery where the RLBA regularly met.
"The idea is to simulate owning and managing your very own baseball team comprised of actual players. You select your players from the rosters of teams in the American or National leagues and compete against other teams in your own unique league. The batting and pitching stats that your generate in real life fuel the competition in your rotisserie league. The winner gets a trophy, a cash award, or any other prize your league decides. It's the next best thing to owning a major league baseball franchise." And so, it began.
In 1989, an article in Baseball Today magazine written by one of the founding Rotisserie owners, Glen Waggoneer, sparked the imagination of a band of young men in Staten Island, NY. They were intrigued and set off to experience for themselves the game that was reinventing the way America followed baseball.
The One New Enterprise, League of Champions (T.O.N.E. L.O.C.) was born, reflecting the pop culture sensibilities and fascination with acronyms of the organizationšs founders. The lure of this new venture enticed a total of 10 owners for the inaugural run. That summer, the game of baseball was never more alive. It was official; they were hooked.
The proceeding years saw a decline in membership in the league based on an inability to maintain the level of commitment demanded by the LOC. Forced to compensate, the core group of owners adapted their vision and toyed with alternate versions of their beloved league. What resulted was a realization that, along the way, they had innovated their game to levels once only imagined. In 2000, the LOC reformed with a renewed determination to become the ideal fantasy baseball organization. A year later, the league is once again 10 teams strong and the future has never looked brighter.
