Periodically, Kevin and I will be posting reviews of sports books, video games, movies etc. Our book review will be bi-weekly and will alternate between the two of us. If you would like to promote your book or suggest one to us, please let us know.

If you’re reading the contents of this website, you may be an active fantasy sports player. If you aren’t playing, chances are your friends are. If your friends aren’t, you need to find some friends or get better ones. Fantasy sports varies from the casual (most leagues), to competitive (our league), to the diehard (this league). Fantasyland, written by Sam Walker, is a review of Walker’s season in the world’s most prestigious fantasy baseball league, called Tout Wars.

Tout Wars was founded in 1998 by Ron Shandler, the author of Baseball Forecaster, the yearly prediction and analysis book for every single player in Major League Baseball. Walker, a sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal, competed with the most knowledgable of baseball writers. Competitors included Mat Olkin, a columnist for USA Today’s Sports Weekly and Jason Grey, a fantasy baseball columnist for SI.com. While the premise may not interest the casual fan or fantasy player, the methods Walker uses to attempt to win this league are hilarious and make the book enjoyable.

Walker thought that he would be able to use his position as a respected writer to his advantage. Before the fantasy baseball draft occurred, he embarked on a trip to every single American League (the league was AL-players only) training camp, attempting to gain any sort of edge he could. He talked to coaches, local writers, players he was scouting, and even their friends and family. Some players like Jacque Jones and Bill Mueller respected his team and his effort to win Tout Wars. Other players such as Dmitri Young demanded that Walker get the hell out of the locker room and never speak again.
Walker’s main approach throughout Fantasyland was trying to determine whether fantasy baseball success was based simply on analyzing the numbers of more on intuition. The way he used his angle as a sports writer was interesting in that it gave the reader a chance to learn about the players and how they interact with the media as well as each other. To try and acquire the best of both strategies, Walker hired a statistician and a man named Nando, who specialized in knowing random biographical details of players that might have any sort of impact on his numbers.

Throughout the book, Sam Walker gave the reader something to identify with. I was able to identify in the chapter “Get Somebody Loose,” where everything involving his team goes to hell over the span of a few hours. One of the highlights of the book was reading about his rage over Curt Schilling was shelled, even shouting resorting to screaming at Red Sox coach Terry Francona through the TV. Another chapter, “The Cinco de Mayo Massacre,” gives insight into the exact opposite: Walker’s team dominating. It was a rare occurrence for my 2006 fantasy team but I was still able to get some enjoyment out of it.

Fantasyland certainly went more in depth than many fantasy players usually do. But I thought that’s what made it so enjoyable. The reason this site exists is because we love sports; so nothing is ever “too detailed” for us if it involves something as great as fantasy baseball. I would highly recommend this book. It’s an easy read and combines humor with an insightful, worthwhile topic.