On this day in 1979, fantasy baseball might (or might not) have been invented
Fantasy baseball celebrates its birthday (sort of)
It's rare in sports to be able to point to one moment and say, "This is the moment that specific technique, concept or game was invented." Who "invented" the bunt? Who was the first fan to think to bring a glove to a game? Who flipped the very first bat? We'll likely never know.
But, it turns out, there's one facet of our game that has a reasonably well-defined origin story:
Fantasy baseball.
If Abner Doubleday is the father of baseball (maybe), Daniel Okrent is the father of baseball's nerdiest subculture. Okrent, a writer who once served as the first public editor of The New York Times, invented what became known as "rotisserie baseball" on a flight from Hartford, Conn., to Austin, Texas, in 1979. And, allegedly, that flight took place on Nov. 17.
Not that Okrent can confirm it:
"I started jotting down some basic rules on a piece of paper," he says. (In a disappointing revelation, Okrent says he did not make those antediluvian scribbles on an airline napkin.) "There's no more to it than that. People ask me, 'Well, how did you get the idea,' and I tell them, 'It beats the [heck] out of me.' "
Amazingly, the first group of friends to whom Okrent unveiled his game were less than impressed. Those people were, of course, wrong. On Okrent's return to the Northeast, he shared the game with another group of friends during a monthly lunch at New York's La Rotisserie Francaise restaurant, and they were much more receptive to the idea.
They began playing the game among themselves (featuring an auction draft, of course) and quickly grew something of a following among seamheads. Others wanted in on the fun, and eventually, the game turned into the massive phenomenon it is today.
Happy birthday, fantasy baseball! Or not. Either way, today's as good a day as any to start studying up for 2015.