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2023 Baseball Forecaster
Coming Fall 2023, from Triumph Sports!
“Fantasy Expert“, a new book
Online Now
Two named to Rotisserie Hall of Fame
Recent Work
Sign up for information on Ron's future projects
Available for Pre-order Now
2023 Baseball Forecaster
Coming Fall 2023 from Triumph Sports
“Fantasy Expert“
Online Now
“An auction by any other name…?“
Recent Work
Sign up for information on Ron's future projects
Ron Shandler'S CREATIONS, PAST AND PRESENT










Publications
Baseball Forecaster
The BABS Projects
and more!
Sites
BaseballHQ
BABSBaseball
Events
First Pitch Arizona
First Pitch Forums
Projects
Rotisserie Hall of Fame
- Testimonials -
For those among us who have been playing roti-ball since the early 1980s, Baseball HQ is a dream become reality. Cheers to Ron Shandler, whose open methodology and consistent approach provides the best player performance predictions in the roti-universe.
F. X. Flinn,
editor of the original Rotisserie rules and first publisher of 'Rotisserie League Baseball'
"Shandler loves him" was a commonly-used phrase at the Rotowire staff auction when we wanted to drive up the price of a player.
Scott Pianowski,
Rotowire.com
There are dozens of Web sites retailing Roto advice. The best I have found is BaseballHQ.com, which does a superb job blending the practical and the theoretical. Many was the day that I passed the office of Senior Writer John Byrne, who won our league last season, and found him studying BaseballHQ.com when he should have been finishing a story or something. Not that I'm bitter.
Business Week, "How to Build Your Dream Team"
March 31, 2003
For massaging the numbers and writing clearly about them, no one's better than Ron Shandler.
Alex Patton,
author
- Twitter Feed -
Frequently asked questions
So Ron, why exactly did you create this website?
My kids are not going to take over the family business so I needed a place to store my stuff. I have a lot of stuff.
This seems like a purely vanity project. How do you respond to that?
You make it sound like that’s a bad thing. Of course this is a vanity project. Do you have a place for all your stuff? Maybe you need a website too.
Let's find out more about you. We know that you're a Mets fan but who were your favorite players growing up?
Tom Seaver and Rusty Staub. Seaver was a strong, quiet leadership presence that I’ve tried to emulate in my life. Staub was a successful player with an atypical baseball body. It made me think that even I could become a baseball player. Ha!
What is your favorite ballpark?
There are several Major League parks I like. Fenway for the history. PNC for the majestic view of downtown Pittsburgh. CitiField for its proximity to Shea Stadium where I grew up. There are lots of minor league parks I’ve enjoyed that offer a slice of history, local culture and great food.
I know you're a hot dog connoisseur. What is the perfect dog?
Glad you asked. It starts with a few immutable foundation elements. It has to be all-beef and grilled, not boiled, and preferably fire-grilled. Brown deli mustard is the only acceptable condiment. (If you put ketchup on your dog, just stop reading now. And go away.) A fresh egg bun is important, but I’ll take “fresh” even if it’s just plain white. That core experience is sacrosanct.
To that we add the perfect toppings, and they don’t have to be fancy. Sauerkraut is a fine standard. You can have your peppers and cheese and chili – whatever. But ketchup- braised onions – at CitiField or any Manhattan push cart – is a major step up. If not those onions, then coleslaw. The only place where I’ve found a nearly perfect hot dog was at Hunnicutt Stadium in Princeton, West Virginia. You can’t take anything away from the Appalachian League.
What's your favorite holiday?
That’s an odd question. Am I supposed to answer Opening Day? I’m not big on holidays – they’re just days – so my favorite is probably Groundhog’s Day. It’s the epitome of the ridiculousness of giving special meaning to a day.
What would you say is your spirit animal?
You would think it would be the groundhog, but nah, I’m not much into large rodents. Smaller rodents, though, they’re okay. I like squirrels, mostly because they are great noun replacements in fortune cookies. Also moose (mooses? meese?) And up until I just said that, I did not make the connection to Rocky and Bullwinkle. I suppose that says a lot. So I’ll add a third – penguins. Creating a flightless bird shows that some higher power has a sense of humor.
You're now over 60 and living in Florida. That means you're retired, right?
No. NO! Not yet. Maybe never. As long as my fingers can reach the keys, I’ll be writing something, somewhere. Just like sharks will die if they don’t keep moving, so do writers if they don’t keep writing. They’ll have to drag me out to the shuffleboard courts, kicking and screaming.
So are you planning to write your memoirs?
I am currently writing a book called, Fantasy Expert, which might be considered a memoir, of sorts. It’s more of a history of the people who became the fantasy baseball industry’s first “experts,” as told through my personal lens. If you want to call that a “memoir”, so be it.