Fantasy baseball has been around for decades. Fantasy baseball was once relegated to die hard stat crunchers who would have to sift through box scores and countless other sources to keep track of their teams. With the rise of the internet, Fantasy Baseball is now available to countless millions around the world and is increasingly becoming a fun hobby for fans of America's pastime.

There are many different forms of fantasy baseball out there. Though there are normally 2 main types.

Rotiserie, which pits teams in a system of points based on leading offensive and pitching categories, as well as number of teams in the league. For example, a 10 team league would got by a 1 to 10 point system applied to each category. The leader of each category would earn 10pts, 2nd 9pts, 3rd 8pts and so on. All point totals for all categories would them be added together to get the teams point total. The most points on any given day would be the leader, with points potentially changing each day.

Head-To-Head is based on a weekly system where teams compete again based on categories, though unlike Rotiserie, teams only compete against one other team on a weekly basis, following a pre-set schedule. In head-to-head each offensive and pitching stat lead is worth one "win". At the end of the week, usually Monday to Sunday, whichever team leads the most categories would win the week and their win/loss totals would then be translated into the updated standings.

As mentioned, there are other types of leagues, such as "Keeper leagues", which are long term leagues which allow owners to protect a certain number of players to carry over into the next season.

Due to the increasing popularity of fantasy baseball, there are now countless sites offering their own versions of this game. Some of the most familiar are offered by ESPN, MLB, Sporting News...but the most popular by far these days is offered up by Yahoo! Yahoo! is officially licensed by Major League Baseball and offers a full slate of fantasy games, from baseball, to football, even car racing and golf. Yahoo! offers the typical fantasy baseball options, Rotiserie and Head-To-Head. They also offer the ability to open your own league, where you can personally invite friends of coleagues to sign up and compete in private leagues. These leads have full draft options, where you are allowed to edit a pre-draft list in the order of your own preferences for those set to the auto draft option. The most fun option for drafting is the live draft option, where league owners can get together and select their teams live.

The fun of fantasy baseball is in tracking your drafted lineup on a day-to-day basis, with the ability to add and drop players to and from the free agency pool(known as waivers) and to also negotiate trades with other members if you choose to do so. Every year there always seems to be an undrafted gem who slips by and grabbing this player before your other leaguemates can be quite satisfying and lead to the success of your team.

If you do not have a lot of people to play with for a custom private league, fear not. Yahoo! offers public access leagues where you can play against other people from around the world. You don't need to have a lot of other mates to take advantage of this fun pastime.

If you are a baseball fan and have not played fantasy baseball, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. Who knows, you may end up hooked like millions of other players around the world who are just waiting for you to join their league.