(!) RICK WILTON: 20 Years of Firsts

Last week, Brent Hershey sent me an invitation to jot down a few of my thoughts about the 20 years of BaseballHQ.com, and I gladly accepted. Then, I started thinking how long it has been since that historic launch 20 years ago this month. Back in the beginning, I had hair on the top of my head, Donald Trump was just a (very successful) businessman, and fantasy leaguers struggled to get valuable baseball information-anywhere. The world wide web was in its early days, and information was gold. Most people were not "on" the internet. But that was about to change.

Pre-Baseball HQ – the Merger
In 1993, my business partner Jim Dressel and I formed a company called Fantasy Baseball Journal. We created three products—the Fantasy Baseball Journal (FBJ) newsletter, the Fantasy Symposium (which later became First Pitch Forums under BaseballHQ) and the Hot Sheet. The Hot Sheet was a fax report that I sent out (manually, of course) a couple times a week. It contained injury and player information you couldn’t get anywhere else.

During the second half of the 1994 season, I also produced an online version of the Hot Sheet on what was called a BBS (bulletin board service). It was a text-only service—and as it turned out, it was a prelude to having a website. In case you don’t remember (though Expos fans do), the baseball strike hit on August 12, 1994, and lasted through early in the 1995 season, when replacement players peppered the fields. Eventually, regular players returned, but the game, including Rotisserie (aka fantasy) baseball, took a big hit. That hit included Fantasy Baseball Journal. We paid off all our bills, closed our doors, and then merged our subscribers with Ron Shandler and his Baseball Forecaster.

We combined some of the FBJ concepts with Ron’s ideas during 1995 with an eye on 1996. The critical area of FBJ that I wanted to keep publishing was the Hot Sheet. It was a ground-breaking product and the internet came along just at the right time. We then moved it over to the web in a news format.

But in 1996, our attempt to broadcast via email failed miserably (due to technical issues). Tomorrow, Ron will address some of the painful details. Now, we take a look at more exciting developments, like the name of the website.

The Name
Early in 1996, Ron is plugging along with his self-taught HTML training, and I’m focusing on the news and analysis. One day, I get a call from Ron. He says, "I got a name for the website. How about Baseball Axis? Our website will be a crossroads where Rotisserie baseball players come to get the latest baseball information."

I’m glad Ron rambled on, because I needed time to process this. Did he just get done reading the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich? Maybe he’s watching the black and white TV series World at War? What was he thinking?

Inside, I'm thinking, "Wow, we are off to a great start—We’re stumped on the name of the website! Geez, this new internet stuff is really easy. That HTML stuff must be a piece of cake." Eventually, I called Ron back and suggested BaseballHQ. It will be the headquarters for Rotisserie baseball fans to get all the information they need to win their league.

To this day, I remain convinced that if we had settled on "Baseball Axis," the website would have failed and Ron and I would never have talked again. So yes, I am taking credit for saving BaseballHQ, even before it got off the ground.

A Look Back
For the next couple of years, Ron focused on building the website, and I focused my efforts on constructing the best News and Analysis section I could. Remember those local newspapers I would pick up at the newsstand in year one? I added a "scout" network in year two of the Hot Sheet, where Hot Sheet subscribers called in reports to me. Once BHQ launched, we expanded the scout network even more, as new BaseballHQ.com subscribers joined the network. It was fantasy baseball’s first information network.

Via the Wayback Machine, here's an early BaseballHQ.com archive of my Hot Sheet Network Report from February 1997.

In sum, here are some important "firsts" that BaseballHQ.com has brought to the table, stemming back from the early days:

• BaseballHQ.come was the first fantasy baseball website to offer an injury column (Dr. HQ).
• BaseballHQ.com was the first to offer news and analysis. Yes, even before RotoNews (now known as RotoWire), RotoWorld and RotoTimes.
• BaseballHQ.com was the first website with year-round fantasy baseball coverage.
• BaseballHQ.com subscriber forums were the first and best baseball community online.
• And much more…

The beginning of BaseballHQ.com was exciting, frustrating, ground-breaking and gratifying, and I am so grateful for being a small part of it.

 

Random thoughts
For me, the most frustrating part of BaseballHQ.com’s history is the lack of accolades for Ron Shandler—all that he did in launching and building BHQ. He is a pioneer in both sabermetrics and building of the first complete fantasy baseball website. Others got more visible credit, yet didn’t contribute half to the game as Ron did. That’s because he is one of the few who didn’t brag about his successes. I wish I could go back and change that.

The people—past and present subscribers and writers—are what make BHQ. Brent Hershey, Ray Murphy, Dave Adler, Matt Dodge, Doug Dennis, Jock Thompson, Joe Hoffer, Andy Andres, Phil Hertz, Deric McKamey, Jeff Winick, Brian Feldman and so many others are BaseballHQ. I have made life long friends through BHQ and the best years of my professional baseball writing career were with the website. Everyone that has made it the great website/community should take a bow—you deserve it.

Happy Birthday BaseballHQ.com! 

More From Archives