Well, I guess it had to end sometime…..
By now, you’re certainly seen the announcement that BJOL will be shutting down soon (probably September, from what I understand). I’ve had several weeks to digest the news, and I felt the time was right to post a short retrospective of my time writing for this site over the past 8 years. I’m not saying that this will be my final article, but September will be here before you know it, so I felt compelled to write this one first in case I’m unable to post another one before the site closes.
First of all, in order to make sure this doesn’t get lost in the middle of an article that’s bound to meander a bit, I want to be sure that give a big public thank you to Bill James. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this previously, but I’ve been a reader and a fan of Bill’s for nearly 50 years now, and it’s always been a bit surreal to me that I have had the opportunity to write on Bill’s site.
The best comparison I can come up with is the relationship between Johnny Carson and comedians on the Tonight Show. My life can roughly be split into two 30-year time frames – The Johnny Carson Tonight show era (1962 – 1992), and the post-Carson era (1992 – present). For those of you who remember Carson’s tenure well, the Tonight Show was essentially a Mecca for stand-up comedians. A gig on the Tonight Show was a real feather in the cap for comedians, and there were 3 different levels of responses that a comedian could get after completing his or her set:
1) The camera would pan over to Carson and he would thank them
2) Carson would give the comedian an "OK" gesture with his hand (basically giving his official endorsement)
3) Carson would invite them over to the couch for a chat
That third one was rare indeed, something that only a few fortunate folks would experience over those 30 years….Eddie Murphy, Ellen DeGeneres, Roseanne Barr, Drew Carey, and Steven Wright to name a few.
THAT’S what that this experience felt like to me. I think of this period as my "time on the couch". And I thought the time was right for a little retrospective.
My Background
For those of you who don’t know, my background is that I was (and still am) a member of BJOL. My member handle is DMBBHF, which is shorthand for three of my favorite things (Daniel Marks (DM), Baseball (BB), and the Hall of Fame (HF)). Although, and I’m not sure anyone is aware of this, in 2011 and 2012 I actually went under a different member name – I used the handle "MarkoMachine", which is a reference to both my last name and The Big Red Machine, the team and era which sparked my fandom. I posted a little over 100 times under that name, took a hiatus away from the site for about a year, and then re-joined in early 2014 under my current name.
I’m a member of the "3,000 post" club, currently 27th on the all-time list, but most of my heavy lifting was done in earlier years. My "posting" participation in that venue kind of came and went over the past few years as I tended to focus on researching and writing articles, although I always tried to read and stay current with the various reader threads.
In mid-2015, Bill (through his son Ruben) posted a notice that they were looking to "hire" a couple of readers to post occasional content, and had an open contest to submit sample entries. As luck would have it, I submitted a piece and Bill liked it.
The piece I submitted eventually became the first article I posted on this site called OK…You Can Play……But Can You Manage?, which took a look at individuals who were both players and managers at the Major League level (not necessarily at the same time). Actually, the piece I submitted to Bill was much shorter than the final article, and part of his feedback to me was that he liked it, but felt it was "a little short on analysis".
Which, I have to tell you, strikes me as a little funny in retrospect since "short" is not a word that tends to be associated with most of my articles. I admit, I tend to have an issue with conciseness. I "blame" my father, who always instructed me when presenting anything to anyone to do 3 things:
1) Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em
2) Tell ‘em
3) Tell ‘em what you told ‘em
Also, it was often said about my father that, if you asked him what time it was, he would tell you how a clock works. So, yeah, I guess I take after him.
In any case, despite being a little short on analysis, Bill saw some promise in that initial piece I submitted, and invited me to be a regular writer on his site. He also told me that he would not "ride herd" over content or frequency of posting. And, true to his word, he never did.
Looking Back
This is article #179 for me on the site, so I’ve averaged about 2 articles a month over these past 8 years here. I’m reminded of something Billy Joel once said when asked about his expansive song collection, and he compared his songs to children. I’m paraphrasing, but he said something to the effect of you don’t really think of favorites, they all have meaning to you, as you go through various stages with all of them: conception, nurturing, labor, and birth. And then you care for them, and eventually they go off and have a lives of their own….and some of them turn out to be bums, and some of them turn out to be doctors.
Most of my articles were, I think, fairly light-hearted and innocuous. They were of interest to me, and I hope of interest to you. Most of them were meant to be fun, definitely not in the realm of what I would call "serious" baseball research.
I definitely have an affinity for using the "fill out a team" template. Several of the articles followed that structure. I did "build a team" concepts based on Nomar Garciaparra (high peak value as a % of total career), Fielder Jones (players who were unusually consistently good but rarely poor or great), Billy Grabarkewitz (players for whom one standout season made up an an unusually high percentage of their career value), and a special Harold Baines Hall of Fame for Long and Meritorious Service, which compiled a roster of Harold-like players who best fit the following laundry list of criteria:
- Played for a lot of years
- Had a high number of games played
- Accumulated a large number of hits (or wins for starting pitchers)
- Had rWAR in the 30 to mid-50’s range (I didn’t want it to be too high, as we’ll see below)
- Was named to a few All-Star games (but not "too many")
- Preferably had a Hall of Fame Monitor score below 100, or at least not too far above
- Had moderate "black ink" (league leadership in certain categories)
- Didn’t get too much support in annual awards (MVP or Cy Young)
- Received little BBWAA support while on the writers’ ballot
- Has notable or unique "positives" that would look good on a résumé
There has always been something about that "fill out a roster" format that appealed to me.
However, if forced to pick one article that was a little more unique and memorable for me, I would probably pick this one: "Strange But True" turns 50. It was an homage to the first baseball book I ever read called "Strange But True Baseball Stories" by Furman Bisher, which was published in 1966. It told the tale of many very famous baseball tales (including Harvey Haddix’s "perfect" game, the one-armed outfielder Pete Gray, Johnny Vander Meer’s double no-hitters, the unusual career path of Dazzy Vance) as well as the more obscure (a bat boy getting inserted into a minor league game, a minor league catcher who pitched all 22 innings of a game, and a minor leaguer who hit 3 home runs in an inning). In my article, I identified candidates that might be included in a hypothetical "updated version" of that book. It was memorable to me for two reasons:
1) Bill posted a reply in the comments section under the article saying what a great article he thought it was
2) Rob Neyer reached out to me to tell me how much he liked it.
I can’t tell you how much getting feedback from those two gentlemen meant. So, even though I’m proud of all of my articles, that one has a little extra meaning.
What Now?
Well, to tell you the truth, I’m not sure. I’m still planning to work with Terry Vent ("Ventboys") on keeping the Gallery of Renown (GOR) project alive. We’re not sure exactly in what forum it will continue, but we’d like to keep it going. I definitely thank all of you who have participated in that project over the years, and keeping alive the memory of Bob Gregory’s brainchild.
As for me….well I’m not sure about continuing the article writing once this site shuts down. I know there are plenty of ways to get content out there, but I’m not sure I can ever have an opportunity like this one again.
I’m reminded of a quote from "Field of Dreams", where Moonlight Graham says "We just don't recognize life's most significant moments while they're happening. Back then I thought, "Well, there'll be other days." I didn't realize that that was the only day."
Now I’ll admit, that quote doesn’t exactly work here – I had more than just "a day" here. I had 8 years. But the underlying sentiment is true. I kept thinking there would continue to be plenty of opportunities to put out content and have it consumed, to have a good-sized audience see it. But those days are quickly coming to an end.
I’m a little saddened by it, but I’m comforted by the fact that I was able to do this, for a time. There were several satisfying moments along the way – Bill and Rob saying how much they liked that one article, Tom Tango reaching out to me with advice and suggestions after reading some of my content, David Schoenfield (ESPN.com) referencing an article I wrote from within one of his own articles, having the opportunities to meet (on separate occasions) Bill, Rob, and Joe Posnanski when they visited the Cincinnati area for various events, occasionally seeing my article content referenced on other baseball bulletin boards by baseball fans who had read them…..none of that happens without this experience.
But, in looking back, I think the most satisfying aspect was the anticipation of feedback from you, the BJOL readers. Whenever I would post an article, there was always uncertainty of how it would be received. Generally speaking, the reader responses were kind, appreciative, supportive, and even when there was "criticism", it tended to be of the constructive kind. I definitely appreciate the interest and the comments that you, the readers, have posted over the years.
But, I guess it’s time for me to "get off the couch".
As always, thank you for reading,
Dan