The Cy Young Award is given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB), one each for the American League (AL) and National League (NL). The award was first introduced in 1956 by Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick in honor of Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young, who died in 1955. The award was originally given to the single best pitcher in the major leagues, but in 1967, after the retirement of Frick, the award was given to one pitcher in each league.
A fantasy sport is a game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete based on the statistical performance of those players in actual games. This performance is converted into points that are compiled and totaled according to a roster selected by each fantasy team's manager. These point systems can be simple enough to be manually calculated by a "league commissioner" who coordinates and manages the overall league, or points can be compiled and calculated using computers tracking actual results of the professional sport. In fantasy sports, as in real sports team owners draft, trade, and cut (drop) players.
Diana Wynne Jones was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually described as fantasy, some of her work also incorporates science fiction themes and elements of realism. Jones's work often explores themes of time travel and parallel or multiple universes. Some of her better-known works are the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark series, the three Moving Castle novels, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
The history of baseball can be broken down into various aspects: by era, by locale, by organizational-type, game evolution, as well as by political and cultural influence. The game evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. Baseball is popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Matthew Paul Clement is a former Major League Baseball starting pitcher. Clement played for the San Diego Padres (1998–2000), Florida Marlins (2001), Chicago Cubs (2002–2004) and Boston Red Sox (2005–2006). While on the Red Sox active roster, he was injured all of the 2007 season. He batted and threw right-handed.
Kristin James Benson is a former Major League Baseball starting pitcher who played for several teams between 1999 and 2010.
Fantasyland is one of the "themed lands" at all of the Magic Kingdom-style parks run by The Walt Disney Company around the world. It is themed after Disney's animated fairy tale films. Each Fantasyland has a castle, as well as several gentle rides themed after those Disney films.
Baseball Prospectus (BP) is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well as player and team performance projections on the site. Since 1996 the BP staff has also published a Baseball Prospectus annual as well as several other books devoted to baseball analysis and history.
Joliet Catholic Academy is a coed Catholic high school in Joliet, Illinois. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet. One of the oldest Catholic high schools in the Chicago area, Joliet Catholic is perhaps best known for its prowess in football. Since the advent of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) state football playoffs in 1974, JCA has won more state football titles than any other team in the state, with 15 as of 11/26/2021.
The Hardball Times is a website which publishes news, original comments and statistical analysis of baseball each week Monday through Friday, in addition to the Hardball Times Annual book which features essays by leading sabermetric personalities. The website features the slogan "Baseball. Insight. Daily." Run by current owner Dave Studeman and David Gassko, it was founded by Aaron Gleeman and Bill James assistant Matthew Namee in 2004. Fangraphs acquired the site in 2012. The Hardball Times went on temporary hiatus in early 2020 due to decreasing traffic caused by the delay of the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland is a nonfiction book by the British author Diana Wynne Jones that humorously examines the common tropes of a broad swathe of fantasy fiction. The U.S. Library of Congress calls it a dictionary. However, it may be called a fictional or parodic tourist guidebook. It was first published by Vista Books (London) in 1996. A revised and updated edition was completed in 2006 and published by Penguin, first in the U.S.
LABR was the first high-profile fantasy sports experts league of its kind. Formed by John Hunt, the fantasy baseball columnist for USA Today Baseball Weekly, the league was first formed in 1994 and featured such celebrities as Peter Gammons, Keith Olbermann and Bill James. LABR stands for League of Alternative Baseball Reality and was given that nickname and the pronunciation ("labor") by Olbermann as a play on words with the labor strike in baseball at that time. Hunt ran the league and published the results of the LABR league in the Baseball Weekly's fantasy baseball preview issue each March from 1994 through 2006. He opted not to return for the 2007 league and was replaced with in-house staff. The dollar values players were sold for in the fantasy league are used as a benchmark for readers in their own fantasy drafts.
Will Carroll is an American sportswriter who specializes in the coverage of medical issues, including injuries and performance-enhancing drugs. Carroll's "Under the Knife" column appeared on Baseball Prospectus for eight years during his stint there as a senior writer, and he also contributed to the site's radio efforts as well as the Puck Prospectus spin-off site. He is the author of two books on sports-related medical topics..
In 1986, Ron Shandler began publishing the Baseball Forecaster, an annual publication focused on applying sabermetrics to fantasy baseball, and later founded Baseball HQ, a website with the same focus. Shandler has an MBA from Hofstra University.
Matthew J. Berry is an American writer, columnist, fantasy sports analyst, and television personality. Berry started his career by writing for television and film and creating a few pilots and film scripts with his writing partner Eric Abrams. After writing for Rotoworld as a side-job, Berry launched his own fantasy sports websites "TalentedMr.Roto.com" in 2004 and "Rotopass.com". Berry worked for ESPN from 2007 to 2022 as their "Senior Fantasy Sports Analyst".
RotoWire.com is a company based in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. that specializes in fantasy sports news and fantasy-style games. RotoWire provides fantasy news and information to ESPN.com, Yahoo! Sports, FoxSports.com, NFL.com, CBSSports.com, FanDuel, DraftKings and Sirius XM Radio. RotoWire is the successor to RotoNews.com, which pioneered the concept of real-time fantasy sports information when launched in 1997.
Jewish Sports Review (JSR) is a bi-monthly magazine that was established in 1997. Its editors are Ephraim Moxson and Shel Wallman.
Diana Wynne Jones was a British writer of fantasy novels for children and adults. She wrote a small amount of non-fiction.
Sig Mejdal is the assistant general manager for the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball.
