STEVE WULF AND THE LAST ROTISSERIE DRAFT

[Ed's note: Steve Wulf, one of the best baseball writers of the past three decades, helped found ESPN The Magazine back in 1998. He's also the go-to guy on any player active between roughly 1957 and now. Oh, did we mention that he—and handful of friends—also pretty much invented Fantasy Baseball? It's true. But after 20-plus years, this is the final season of that original Rotisserie League. Fortunately, we caught the last draft on film. If you're between the ages of 1 and 45, and call yourself a baseball fan, this is a must watch.]

It began in a French restaurant and ended (probably) in a garage.

If this really was the last draft of the original Rotisserie League, let's raise one last bottle of Yoo-Hoo and toast the 28 years of its existence. Formed at La Rotisserie Francaise (hence the name), this league has been credited with starting the whole fantasy sports movement. It's even given a whole new meaning to the word "rotisserie", according to the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: "of relating to or being a sports league consisting of imaginary teams whose performance is based on the statistics of actual players."

A lot of water has flown under the bridge since 1980, including Charlie Hudson and Marcus Thames. Almost all of the regulars from the early years have given up the game, either out of ennui or envy or family obligations or, in the case of Cork Smith, our original host for the annual event, death.

So the spirit of the original league has been getting dimmer and dimmer, even after we transformed ourselves into the AARP League, a kind of Rotisserie Light. The 2008 draft, we figured, should be our last one. I volunteered to host it in the main conference room at ESPN The Magazine, a space known as the Garage because, well, it has a garage door.

Seated around the conference table were a few of the seminal figures of our early years: Beloved Founder Daniel Okrent, originals Rob Fleder and Glen Waggoner, longtime Commissioner Cary Schneider, onetime employee John Hassan. For four hours, we batted around names and prices, and actually, it felt like old times. But at one point, I looked down at the rosters and saw Ken Griffey Jr., Tony Gwynn Jr., Prince Fielder, Chris Duncan, Aaron Boone, Jose Cruz Jr., Scott Hairston, Jason Kendall, Justin Speier, Daryle Ward and Jayson Werth, and realized I had once bid on all their fathers.

Time to go. Besides, my team is already sinking in the standings.

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