FANTASYLAND by Sam Walker

Sam Walker’s FANTASYLAND (Viking) is justly earning high praise. It’s an extremely funny account of Walker’s experiences as a Wall Street Journal sports reporter who took a year off to participate in Tout Wars, a national fantasy baseball competition. The great thing about the book is the way that Sam both describes the madness of rotisserie baseball and succumbs to it.

I’ve known Sam Walker since he was only a few years old. His father, Jack Walker, was a colleague of my dad’s in the University of Michigan’s political science department, and they were best friends. They had season tickets together at the Big House for close to twenty years, and I sat with Jack on many occasions — the last being a drive down to Lexington, Kentucky for the SouthEast regional game in Michigan’s run to the 1989 NCAA basketball championship, with my dad and his then girlfriend Susan McClanahan. Jack died an untimely death at 55, blindsided by a drunk driver who ran a stop sign. Sam’s mother, Linda, is a writer and novelist, who was friends with my mom for many years too. After Cheryl and I were married in 1989, we were close with Linda, too; Linda and I had always shared a love for the written word, and she has a terrific sense of humor that resonated well with Cheryl’s.

FANTASYLAND reflects the best of Sam’s heritage. It combines sports mania, a passion for quantitative methods (something Michigan’s political science department is known for), a strong narrative drive, and many laugh-out-loud funny moments. This is a terrific book.

Related posts:

• Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball’s Lunatic Fringe by Sam Walker
• T-Bone Walker – I’m Still in Love With You
• T-Bone Walker – The Hustle Is On (78 Rpm version)
• THE AMERICAN HERITAGE PICTURE HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II, BY C. L. SULZBERGER AND THE EDITORS OF AMERICAN HERITAGE. EDITOR … by C. L. (Cyrus Leo) Sulzberger
• T-Bone Walker – Strollin’ With Bone