After 20 years, the No Name League (NNL) is folding. The NNL was the first fantasy baseball league of which I was a member. Unbeknowst to myself at the start, it is one of the few events in my life that I can say was life changing.

I joined the league for its second season, taking over for a league member who moved to Jordan and would not be able to actively manage the team (remember, Al Gore hadn’t invented the internet then). I was in the fifth grade, and the league consisted of my older brother (by 11 years) and mostly a bunch of family, his friends, and friends of friends. But, since I was such an obsessive baseball fan and had lobbied for a team of my own, I was brought in when the league needed that replacement owner. While everyone else in school was trading baseball cards (actually, I think Marvel cards were the big thing at the time), I was trading real players with real implications. Yeah, I was a dork, but I loved every minute of it.

Since it was the early days of fantasy rotisserie baseball, there were no standard rules, so we just made them up (there is still no standard set, but at least now you can use the defaults from your commissioner service). We ended up with quirky rules like you could start a guy eligible at two positions (say, 1B and 2B) and could then start an extra player. If you did this right, you were able to start seven outfielders and get a little extra offensive power into your lineup. The NNL was a keeper league (we started over every five years just to shake things up), so if you had a couple of good drafts, you could really set-up your team.

The progression of the league in a lot of ways mirrors the growth of the industry. League stats were kept by hand and moves were only biweekly. If a guy was hurt on the first day after the transaction deadline, you were just unlucky. Moves were due by Monday night because that was the cut-off date for the statistics that were published in the Wednesday edition of the USA Today. In fact, the USA Today and the Baseball Weekly were really the only reliable sources for national player information. Sometimes, we had to wait days before finding out why a player left a game early, if ever. Sometime around 1995, the NNL decided to get a stat service. This was an amazing breakthrough. We could dial a phone number with our computers and get stats on a daily basis if we so choose. That was revolutionary.

Then, the internet really happened. You could get player news and stats the same day! This minor miracle also enabled me to stay in the league when I moved away to college. I was still able to draft my teams via chat, while the rest of the league still met in person to draft. If you had a brilliant trade idea at 1am, you could email it off and wait for a response. This brought about a new era in fantasy baseball,

Over the years, league members got older, got married, had kids, and moved in various directions. Some owners dropped out and were promptly replaced. No matter what though, we somehow managed to find a draft date in March or April where (almost) everyone could get together and draft our players. It was a constant in my life and that of many of my fellow owners.

But as I mentioned, things changed. 2009 marked the completion of our 20th season and the end of one of our five-year cycles. After polling the league, it seemed that no matter what the league did there was no strong reason, other than inertia, to keep the NNL alive.

About four, five years ago when I was looking to start a website, I naturally gravitated towards fantasy sports. It was the one thing in my life that had held my interest throughout all the stages of my life. It was a natural fit. I have enjoyed my time in the fantasy industry. I truly believe that I owe this part of my life to the formation of the NNL and my inclusion in the league.

Farewell, NNL.