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This SF Giants blog (titled "Waiting For Boof"... take note: Leee), has to contain the best writing I've encountered on the subject. Crystal clear in concision and equally humorous, I recommend you take a look at the archives.

"If writing a baseball blog is the baseball fan’s equivalent to owning a 12-sided die, commenting on a list of six-year minor league free agents list with any pretense of authority is like writing a novel based on Rush’s 2112."

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 13 November 2003 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

are any of you guys familar with aaron gleeman, the fresh-faced college sophomore? He's great.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 21:17 (twenty-two years ago)

three weeks pass...

From WFBoof: It is actually illegal in several states to discuss Jennings without referring to him as an "athletic catcher"

Hahah gygax! I kiss you

― Leee Iacocca (Leee), Monday, 15 December 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Another gem about Giant prospect Todd Linden: Though his year-end stats don't look that great, it's worth noting he started the season hitting like Neifi Perez with his eyes stapled shut.

― Leee Iacocca (Leee), Monday, 15 December 2003 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

Waiting For Boof... on fire again. This guy is great.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 5 March 2004 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

gygax!, this is awesome!

BTW, I think most of the folks over @ all-baseball.com are solid (though I only read the Transaction Guy regularly).

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 5 March 2004 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

Haha the latest Boof shouts out to me!

(I was the commenter that G mentions.)

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Thursday, 6 May 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

i'm gonna take back anything i said about aaron gleeman's blog mentioned upthread. he's gone from an interesting POV to a whiny little ego-tripper. he basically abandoned his blog to write for some other less-engaging site and now he's threatening to hold his blog ransom until he gets enough money to buy a new computer. the problem is, he's probably lost all his key audience already by talking less and less about baseball. so yeah, waiting for boof is still the best that i've read.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 27 May 2004 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah wfb almost makes me wish i was a giants fan and i might start reading it anyway. i started checking out gleeman after reading this thread and i was recently moved enough by one of his entries to send a very snippy email his way. THB is a nice site though.

― John (jdahlem), Thursday, 27 May 2004 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

er, THT. does anyone know who writes for WFB? he's too good to be merely writing in an (afaik) obscure blog once a week.

― John (jdahlem), Thursday, 27 May 2004 14:40 (twenty-one years ago)

his name is Grant and he used to contribute (or may still?) to Baseball Prospectus.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

ah, i feeggurned as much

― John (jdahlem), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

No, no! I'm still very much obscure. Never wrote for Baseball Prospectus, and would pleased as punch if they even knew who I was.

Thanks for the praise. I am kind of great, huh? (Kidding...)

I want to write for a living, so hopefully I won't be obscure for long.... None of you fellas are editors at Playboy, or anything, are you?

― Grant, Thursday, 27 May 2004 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

If I were, I'd be too busy reading the articles to post here.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 27 May 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, didn't you write for some mental baseball brigade along the lines of BP? I could've sworn that was you...

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 27 May 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Nope. I have a passing familiarity with the simpler stats, but my specialty has always been as the Gallagher of the baseball blog world. Don't forget your tarp.

― Grant, Thursday, 27 May 2004 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I love you Grant!1!!

http://myke.trecento.com/arc_img/people/liu_jonathan/watermelon.jpg

― Leee's a Simpson (Leee), Friday, 28 May 2004 05:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Redbird Nation.

Leeee is reeeally weird.

― bnw (bnw), Friday, 28 May 2004 12:47 (twenty-one years ago)

gygax! otm with Aaron Gleeman, I hardly ever read his site anymore. I used to visit that site religiously last year, esp. for the Joe Morgan bashing.

For Cubs blogs I enjoy Big Red C and Rooftop Report. Cub Reporter is OK but can be kind of bland.

― mattbot (mattbot), Friday, 28 May 2004 13:19 (twenty-one years ago)

That's not me under the melon hat!

― Leee's a Simpson (Leee), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

You're twisting my melon man.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 28 May 2004 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

grant (who posted upthread), the author of waiting for boof is at it again. scroll down to the neifi long-distance dedication.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Can't Stop The Bleeding is a mostly baseball blog that hstencil sent me a link to and I always have to remind myself to check it more often.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 23 August 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

yay, he disses televised poker! i'll have to check that one out too. who the fuck watches that shit anyway?

there was a really good blog i read a week or two ago but now i can't remember the name. : (

― John (jdahlem), Monday, 23 August 2004 23:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I love CSTB, but I can't abide by the dissing of televised poker. In other words, I fucking watch that shit! Yeah!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 00:47 (twenty-one years ago)

me too, i love the woman who was too proud to join the "women's championship round" of texas hold 'em, she went ahead and beat all the men in the other tournament held that weekend at binions.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

it was cool when it was on like the travel channel in the afternoons, but it's gotten kind of nuts lately. i just figured it was due to all the retirees or something. yeah that's right i'm calling you mothers geriatric, bring it!

that mystery blog is really bugging me now. i remember it reminded me of wfb but that's it.

― John (jdahlem), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 00:55 (twenty-one years ago)

EPSN's poker coverage = choice; I wanna be Norman Chad when I grow up. Celebrity Poker Showdown = choice depending on the aptitude / ineptitude of the players; comedians are fun; Dave Navarro is like an after-school special; Dave Foley is a great host, but he should be getting more ACTUAL work. That nonsense w/ the Van Patten & the Party Poker shill = BONNNNNNG (though the celebrity episode w/ Jennifer Tilly, James Woods, & the freak Baldwin brother muttering to himself was ... something).

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

OK NOW BACK TO BASEBALL

― John (jdahlem), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

BONNNNNNNNNG

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 11:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Norman Chad sux at commentary. He should stick to his column.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 20:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Unless cheesy one-liners are your thing, in which case, NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Tuesday, 24 August 2004 20:53 (twenty-one years ago)

BONNNNNNNNNNNNNNG

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 00:41 (twenty-one years ago)

hey, um, who writes cantstopthebleeding?

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 26 August 2004 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Mr. G3rard C0s1oy.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 26 August 2004 02:19 (twenty-one years ago)

No way! For realz??

― Monetizing Eyeballs (diamond), Thursday, 26 August 2004 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

yes way. i was pondering adding that tidbit but i thought that indie rock is so out that you guys would rather die than click on his link.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 26 August 2004 07:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Nah, I just thought that his whole steez was minor league.

Like, I met GC one time and I was all like, "so, you dig baseball??" and he was all "Nah, not really, I'm more into watching the minor leagues." You know. One of THOSE guys.

That's all.

― Monetizing Eyeballs (diamond), Thursday, 26 August 2004 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe he's from buffalo or pawtucket!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 26 August 2004 10:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd rather watch a FW Cats game (live) than a Rangers. No money in Hicks' pocket - it's all good.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 27 August 2004 04:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i love minor league baseball, though to be honest in many ways it's just as skeezy and corrupt as mlb, esp. in regards to 'give us a new taxpayer funded stadium or we move' (cf. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0970911718/qid=1093590892/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-8846760-5004963?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) . still alot of fun, going to see ozzie canseco play for the stars is a cherished memory.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 27 August 2004 06:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i imagine independent league baseball would be really cool but in a much different way. i mean the whole appeal of minor league baseball (and i'm guessing here since i've only been to NY Penn league game), if you're being realistic, is watching/picking out the future stars since the teams and players are really just sweatshop-factory slaves to the majors (ie it ain't about team/winning, it's about individual/cultivation). in that sense IL basbeall does away with both minorlb's biggest appeal and biggest drawback.

― John (jdahlem), Friday, 27 August 2004 07:09 (twenty-one years ago)

hahhahahaha "he likes minor leagues" yeah whatever dude when I interned there I remember GC wearing a Clemens Blue Jays jersey more than once!

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 27 August 2004 13:22 (twenty-one years ago)

five months pass...

this one isn't bad at all: http://www.baseballmusings.com

― The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Friday, 18 February 2005 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Will (Not a Yankee Shill) Carroll's at all-baseball:

http://www.all-baseball.com/willcarroll/

The reader Comments on today's steroid stuff make me and Alex look as convivial as HR and Kruk.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

OUCH

― The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha does Buster Olney have a blog? Now I can only imagine what his comments pages would be like. They'd probably make Will Carroll's look like friendly fun play time at Romper Room.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG, I want to marry the basegirl.blogspot girl.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 18 February 2005 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I've needed someone new to crush on!

I love how Joe Buck continually reminds Al Leiter of the time his Marlins blew a series lead in 1997. Yes, that will make the guy like you, remind him of his failures. Honestly, I keep forgetting that Leiter is even there thanks to McCarver’s ceaseless babbling. My father, no surprise, has been ahead of the McCarver hating curve. It’s trendy to hate him now but, as my dad says, “I’ve hated him for fifteen years.”

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Friday, 18 February 2005 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

three months pass...

mojo - I'm sure I said it EXACTLY the way you remember it.

hstencil - there's a word for a man who remembers what a guy was wearing 8 years ago.

Observant.

― GC (Gerard Cosloy), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

oh, snap!

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 03:01 (twenty years ago)

g3rard had a nice tony conrad/faust outside the dream syndicate shirt, too.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 03:03 (twenty years ago)

what can I say, my mom dressed me funny.

― Gerard Cosloy (Gerard Cosloy), Wednesday, 8 June 2005 03:47 (twenty years ago)

I'm sorry I had to miss this exchange.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 13 June 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

i was probably the one dressing funny seeing as it was my first summer not living at my parents' house.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 14 June 2005 00:32 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Alex Sanchez: What you get when Vince Coleman and Venus De Milo have a child.

from The McCovey Chronicles (formerly Waiting For Boof).

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 29 July 2005 02:14 (twenty years ago)

I'm playing poker right now! Wheeeeeee!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 29 July 2005 02:20 (twenty years ago)

http://firejoemorgan.blogspot.com/

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 29 July 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

i dunno. the concept there kinda pisses me off, but not to the point that i'm going to write a bitter 300 word spiel about it i guess.

if the writing & ideas are good enough and the ppl being taken to task deserve it, i guess it doesn't really matter anyway. but obv 'yard work' does the same thing only 1000x more cleverly.

i liked this:

From the preface to "Three Nights in August":

"In this new wave of baseball, managers are less 'managers' than 'middle managers,' functionaries whose strategic options during a game require muzzlement, there only to effect the marching orders coldly calculated and passed down by upper management. It is wrong to say that the new breed doesn't care abut baseball. But it's not wrong to say that there is no way they could possibly 'love' it, and so much of baseball is about love. They don't have the sense of history, which to the thirtysomethings is largely bunk. They don't have the bus trips or the plane trips. They don't carry along the tradition, because they couldn't care less about the tradition. They have no use for the lore of the game -- the poetry of its stories -- because it can't be broken down and crunched into a computer. Just as they have no interest in the human ingredients that make a player a player and make a game a game: heart, desire, passion, reactions to pressure. After all, these are emotions, and what point are emotions if they can't be quantified?"

Of all of the stupid things I have read about baseball, and which we have discussed on this board, this makes me the angriest.

I know he's talking about managers, (although at times he seems mid-sentence to shift to talking about GMs), but extrapolating just a tiny bit, he means people like us, too.

I promise you, Buzz, I love baseball. So does Tito Francona. So does Ken Macha. So do Theo Epstein, JP Riccardi, and Billy Beane.

Saying that the "new breed" doesn't care about things like heart, desire, passion, and reactions to pressure is stupid. The entire Theo Epstein era in Boston has been about finding (a) good players who are (b) loose enough to handle the Boston press. Would Kevin Millar be on this team if Epstein didn't care at all about things like "human ingredients?"

The "new breed" loves baseball as much as the "old breed." They're just smarter about putting winning teams together. If they didn't care about baseball, they'd go to Wall Street or run a hedge fund and make about fifty times as much money.

I've read four pages of your book and already hate you.

― John (jdahlem), Friday, 29 July 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

oooooh

http://www.japanbaseballdaily.com/

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 17 February 2006 18:10 (twenty years ago)

I still love Fire Joe Morgan.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 17 February 2006 18:16 (twenty years ago)

That Japan Baseball Daily site is a design nightmare.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 17 February 2006 18:17 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

Bugs Bunny, Greatest Banned Player Ever:

http://ussmariner.com/2006/03/12/bugs-bunny-greatest-banned-player-ever

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 22:47 (nineteen years ago)

four months pass...

at last, the CLUTCHINESS blog!

http://clutchiness.blogspot.com

Look at the MLB leaderboard -- Ortiz is only 14th!!!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 11 August 2006 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

Paul Depodesta started blogging:

http://itmightbedangerous.blogspot.com/

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 17:15 (seventeen years ago)

nine months pass...

so is the death of the newspaper a boon for baseball media?

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/thoughts-on-baseball-media

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 27 February 2009 21:05 (seventeen years ago)

No, it is only a boon for MLB.com. They hate credentialing bloggers.

They have the most restrictive online photo coverage rules I have ever heard of:

In a repeat of past efforts by MLB to limit the use of photographs and play-by-play coverage of games, the new 2008 press credentials:

* Limit to seven the number of photographs from each game that may be displayed online;

* Prohibit the use of game photographs as part of a photo gallery;

* Require prior written notice of the intention to display non-text accounts of games;

* Restrict the recording of audio and video from 45 minutes prior to a scheduled game until that game has concluded; and

* Restrict the length of time certain content may be made available or archived online.

They had a rule that limited archiving of multimedia to 72 hours. Supposedly they are trying to ease up but they are going to kill baseball if they keep up with this.

― felicity, Sunday, 1 March 2009 10:53 (seventeen years ago)

eight months pass...

This fella is marking the 75th anniversary of MLB players' tour of Asia in '34:

http://robfitts.com/allamericantourdiary.htm

― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 November 2009 20:29 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

MLB Official Historian John Thorn:

http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/

― joyless shithead (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 04:33 (fourteen years ago)

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