Fantasy baseball is a game where participants act as owners and general managers, drafting real Major League Baseball (MLB) players and earning points based on their actual on-field statistics. Its roots stretch back to 19th-century tabletop games like Sebring Parlor Base Ball (1866), and later board games such as Strat-O-Matic (1961) helped popularize statistical simulation. A pioneering computer version was even coded for an IBM 1620 by John Burgeson in 1961. The modern game, known as Rotisserie League Baseball, was invented in 1980 by a group of journalists, including Daniel Okrent, who created the scoring system and named the league after the New York City restaurant La Rotisserie Française. This 1980 creation transformed the hobby into the widespread digital phenomenon enjoyed by millions today.