FSWA Hall of Fame

[ToddZ]

As we all know, our own Greg was in the inaugural class for the Fantasy Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He is being joined by

David Dodds - Football Guys
Brandon Funston - Yahoo
Emil Kadlec - Publisher, FSWA, HSFF
Nate Ravitz - ESPN
Peter Schoenke - Rotowire
Ron Shandler - Baseball HQ

What a great class. Congratulations.

[Ryan C]

Ron Shandler getting in rights a wrong - he should've made the initial class.

Congrats to him and the entire class this year.

[Greg Ambrosius]

As we all know, our own Greg was in the inaugural class for the Fantasy Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He is being joined by

David Dodds - Football Guys
Brandon Funston - Yahoo
Emil Kadlec - Publisher, FSWA, HSFF
Nate Ravitz - ESPN
Peter Schoenke - Rotowire
Ron Shandler - Baseball HQ

What a great class. Congratulations.

All VERY deserving. These were no-brainers. All of them pushed the envelope to bring more visibility to fantasy sports, some were pioneers in their games and stats analysis, and some advanced the careers of others in the fantasy sports industry. All VERY worthy of joining the new Chum-Chum Club!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

I'm proud to report that I will be presenting Ron Shandler before he is inducted into the FSWA Hall of Fame in Las Vegas on Monday, Jan. 16th. Ron asked me to present him and I'm honored to do it. The Mustachioed One presenting The Bearded One!! I love it.

Congrats again to all of these Hall of Famers. What a great class and well deserved by all of them.

[ToddZ]

Excellent -- I just booked my flight. Should be a great night.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I'm proud to report that I will be presenting Ron Shandler before he is inducted into the FSWA Hall of Fame in Las Vegas on Monday, Jan. 16th. Ron asked me to present him and I'm honored to do it. The Mustachioed One presenting The Bearded One!! I love it.

Congrats again to all of these Hall of Famers. What a great class and well deserved by all of them.

I would personally like to congratulate the six inductees to the Fantasy Sports Writers Hall of Fame:

Ron Shandler
Peter Schoenke
Brandon Funston
Nate Ravitz
Emil Kadlec
David Dodds

All of these guys are VERY deserving and have done much in their careers to advance the growth of fantasy sports content and games. The Hall of Fame presentation was held at the Mirage Las Vegas on Tuesday night and was very well done. All of the HOFers were very honored and humbled by the honor and all gave very heartfelt speeches. Well done all.

I presented Ron Shandler and when I did a little research on Ron I realized how much Ron has done for this industry. There aren't many people who have been around this industry for 26 of the 32 years it's been in existence. Heck, even the Founding Fathers checked out after about a dozen years. Ron continues to lead the way with fantasy baseball projections, content, opinions and more. He's a pioneer in the field of baseball analytics and fantasy baseball analytics specifically. Here's my intro to Ron's induction:


It’s an honor and a privilege to present Ron Shandler for the FSWA Hall of Fame, an honor he so richly deserves. The only regret Ron has with this honor is that he really wishes it was called the Fanalytics Hall of Fame!

When you look over Ron’s body of work in this industry – which spans almost three decades – you realize how deserving he really is for this honor and why he is such a slam dunk choice for this Hall of Fame. Remember, Ron first published the Forecaster in 1986, just two years after Glenn Waggoner published The Rotisserie Baseball Guide and really only 6 years after Rotisserie Baseball was invented. He was into baseball analysis long before fantasy baseball really took off.

In 1986, Ron was a market forecasting analyst for a publishing company outside of Boston. He enjoyed analyzing baseball data and felt he could project baseball stats as well as anyone else. This was Baseball Analytics well before anyone else got into it. The Forecaster was born that year and he continued to work full-time for the next 8 years as a market forecasting analyst, while writing and projecting for The Forecaster.

Then in 1994 he made his best prediction ever. As Ron told me, “Two weeks before the baseball strike in 1994, I told my wife, "I’m quitting my day job to do this fulltime. Don't worry, they'll never go on strike.”

His girls were only 2 and 4 at the time, but he made the move that would change his career and his life. Sure, Major League Baseball went on strike and proved Ron wrong, but eventually they returned and with it came the Internet, a vehicle that none of us who started our careers in the 1980s could ever imagine would come and take our industry to new heights. Ron dove into the Internet early with BaseballHQ.com and has never looked back.

Through 26 years of writing, Ron has become well-known in MLB circles because of the Forecaster, he even worked for an MLB team for a time, he writes a weekly fantasy column for USA Today, he has advanced the writing careers of dozens of baseball fanatics who write for BaseballHQ, and he was even the star character known as The Bearded One in the book and movie Fantasyland. One day I’d like to be known as the Moustachioed One, but even if nobody ever refers to me as that I do know that Ron and I are graduates of the ‘70s who love our bad facial hair and we’re keeping it ‘til we die!!!

It’s tough to minimize 26 years of work in an industry that has been around only 32 years. Ron, you truly are an industry pioneer, a leader in the baseball space and someone who many of us look up to. And in your honor, for the next 15 minutes this industry will be known as the Fanalytics Baseball industry. Congrats my friend and enjoy this fine honor.

[Greg Ambrosius]

The FSTA also announced the following winners of the 2011 FSTA Awards at Tuesday night’s banquet:

· Best Live Event: Stats LLC, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
· Best Commissioner: MyFantasyLeague.com
· Most Innovative Fantasy Contest: ESPN, Streak for the Cash
· Most Innovative Fantasy Product or Service: LeagueSafe.com
· Most Outstanding Fantasy Contest: MyFantasyLeague.com, SiriusXM Fantasy Football Challenge
· Best Mobile App: CBSSports.com, Pro Football App
· Most Valuable Fantasy Content: Rotoworld.com
· Most Valuable Fantasy Tool: Advanced Sports Media, Draft Analyzer for Fantasy Football
· Rookie of the Year: Ziguana.com