Bloops: “Fantasyland”, the Movie
Posted by Neil Paine on March 26, 2010
If you're a fantasy baseball player (or a baseball fan in general) and you've never read Sam Walker's book Fantasyland, you should pick it up right away and dive into the author's (mis)adventures as a newbie in Tout Wars, one of the most competitive fantasy leagues on the planet. And if you're one of those people who needs a movie adaptation to get them into the original book (no shame there, btw, that was me for The Lord of the Rings), have no fear -- Endgame Entertainment has released a new documentary based on Walker's book:
"Based on the bestselling book by Sam Walker, Fantasyland, directed by Stephen Palgon, traces a single season in the expert baseball league Tout Wars. But this wasn’t any ordinary season. This season an outsider, a fan, a non expert, would compete against the greatest minds in fantasy baseball including the founder of Tout Wars and one of the icons of the industry Ron Shandler. To compete against the experts, Jed Latkin, a financial analyst from New York is willing to do anything and everything in his quest to win Tout Wars. Jed is more than just a fantasy baseball player, he puts the 'fanatic' in fantasy.
In order to beat the experts Jed attempts to play fantasy for real and hits the road to meet, motivate and plead with actual Major League Baseball players to perform well for his squad the Jedi Knights. He presents players like Gary Sheffield, Justin Verlander, Carl Crawford, JJ Putz, Ichiro with team jerseys in hopes of inspiring his players to lead the Jedi Knights to the top of the Tout Wars standings.
Fantasyland is NOT a film about statistics but rather a glimpse into the world of fantasy sports and the personalities, characters and stories that make up this billion dollar industry. It is a journey with Jed Latkin, one of the most wild and crazy, obsessed fantasy sports players you will ever meet."
The best news is that you can watch Fantasyland online, for free, via Hulu. So check it out, and be sure to support the filmmakers by visiting these links:
www.snagfilms.com (site for the movie)
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/fantasyland
http://Facebook.com/fantasylandfilm
Twitter.com/fantasylandfilm
March 28th, 2010 at 1:10 am
I am going to watch that when I get the time. Looks interesting. I'm about to participate in my first fantasy baseball league. I did well in a basketball one last season (mostly because I lucked into a core of Paul/Bosh/Pierce), but I'm much more interested in baseball than basketball, so it should be fun!
March 28th, 2010 at 8:14 am
People are always surprised when they hear that I don't participate in fantasy baseball. The truth is that I don't enjoy recreational activities that require me to intervene at regular intervals, such as daily or weekly. Fantasy sports also bug me because they don't really make much measure of players' true worth and weekly or seasonal winners rarely have anything to do with how well the real players did in their own sports.