So, here's the deal... I have been doing baseball analysis and writing about fantasy applications (fanalytics!) since the Reagan administration. Back then, "Rotisserie" still meant chicken and this "internet" thing was still an Al Gore pipe dream. Those of us geeks who played the game had to wait a week for our stat reports to arrive in the "mailbox" (i.e. the receptacle outside your house) and if we needed to make a trade, the only way to do it was with a "telephone." (i.e. that thing you are holding in your hand but hard-wired to a box on your desk.) Yes, it was the "Golden Age of Fantasy Sports," which is what we call anything we can't remember and is older than dirt. So, I started publishing this book called the Baseball Forecaster one month after my beloved Mets won their last World Series. A decade later I started a website called BaseballHQ.com. Then I started running these First Pitch conferences all across the country. I came up with some interesting monikers for common household items and started winning high profile competitions. Then they started calling me an expert and giving me awards. That's my career in a nutshell. My full bio - including dates and specifics - is on this page. It is far more accurate than Wikipedia. I vowed that I would keep writing, and publishing, and speaking until the next time the Mets won it all. I figured I'd give it 20 years. That would be a reasonable talent cycle and a good career. Then I would retire to some place where I could wear shorts and sandals all year long, and call it a day. But the Mets' September swoons of 2007-08 scuttled my plans. Disgusted, I sold my company in 2008, figuring I'd give it a few years to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, and everything would fall into place. But now it is 2012, I've been at it for 26 years, and it seems that the world is functioning like a sub-.500 ballclub. Besides, there are more important things to worry about. For instance... what if the Mayans are right? So, time is short. While I figure out what I am going to do with this website, you should at least hop on for the ride. For starters, two things: 1. Add your name to the e-mailing list. I promise you my intent is not to spam, but to inform. And only periodically. I will not sell your name to anybody, especially law enforcement officers, so rest easy. Fill out your e-mail address to receive exciting, never-before-distributed personal emails periodically but not too often from Ron Shandler! E-mail address: 2. With my daughters both off to college, I've been spending the past six months cleaning out the basement. Underneath decades-old electronic equipment, I uncovered a hidden stash of old Baseball Forecasters. I know many of you are collectors and I don't need to hang on to these old books, so I am offering them up to you now. Details here. You can purchase any issues that you are missing at ridiculously low prices -- AND -- shortly, I will be holding an auction of several complete sets of every edition for those die-hard collectors among you. That's another reason to send me your email address - so you can be the first to know about things like these auctions. There will be much more coming, beyond the world of BaseballHQ.com and the Forecaster. If you join the mailing list, I'll keep you updated. But only periodically. -- Ron

The Shandler Company, P.O. Box 20303, Roanoke, VA 24018 - scowling@ronshandler.com