Hi everybody! Wanted to get out a few housekeeping notes. (1) Father’s Day is this Sunday! Of course, I am going to remind you of the perfect Father’s Day Gift — The Baseball 100! (Available at Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Rainy Day Books for signed copies
I hate to be "that guy", but will we really get aTen Who Missed essay once a week? You can't keep promising us stuff but then don't deliver. Football 101 was supposed to be once a week. Then it disappeared. A few weeks ago it was returning soon. Now it's coming back in a month. If this was all free, that's great, but I supported your JoeBlogs endeavor by becoming a paid subscriber. Kind of feel like you are taking advantage of our goodwill.
Hi Tom, I appreciate your comment and I just want to say, as Joe's editor, I am already buried in Ten Who Missed essays—in other words (spoiler alert): You are *definitely* going to get the whole enchilada on this one. (Also, no surprise, they're awesome.) Thank you for reading!
You are probably not alone in how you feel about this. My perspective is different. I read Joe’s free (and ad-free) blog almost daily for a dozen years or so. It was outstanding, with tremendous posts and great readers. I owe Joe a lifetime of subscription fees whether he writes another word here. Of course, he posted 20 pieces in May and has posted 17,000 words so far in June, so I probably do not have to worry about that.
I appreciate what you're saying Tom. I will say in my defense that you probably get more words here on JoeBlogs than pretty much any Substack going. As for the timing of the posts, a lot of this is experimentation. I am trying to make as many people happy as I can. I try to do a lot of analytics on reading habits, and just a peek behind the curtain, the Football 101 posts were flagging badly the last two months -- it's clear that the majority of people are simply not interested in reading football stuff right now.
Joe, is there a reason you don't provide any way to submit suggestions or questions through JoeBlogs? For example, on the Poscast, you asked people to send in suggested nicknames for baseball teams, but you don't provide any avenue to do so. Some of us don't want to join Twitter and it would be nice if the paid subscribers of JoeBlogs could participate in the fun. As of now, the only way seems to be to reply to an old comment you made and hope it sends you an alert. It would be nice to have a simple way to send things in, like the important fact that the A's should clearly be called "the Beane Machine." :-)
Joe, I appreciate the reply. I do find it somewhat ironic that someone who has written on more than one occasion about how analytics has made baseball less joyful, most recently with Kershaw being pulled while pitching a perfect game, is in fact mindful of analytics when it comes to his own profession.
The Football 101, while extremely well written, just doesn't seem as compelling as the Baseball 100, either. I think it's because people don't debate the history and historical significance of football players quite as much as they do with baseball players. No one is really debating whether Pat Mahomes is a better player than Otto Graham, but you can get baseball fans to go 15 rounds (or maybe 9 innings?) over Barry Bonds vs. Juan Soto or Mike Trout or Babe Ruth or Henry Aaron.
Since you asked, it is 17,075 words - in June. I wish I had time to parse this further and say something funny about it, but I do not. Anyway, it speaks for itself.
Note: “Subscribe Now” buttons and so forth are included in the total, so deduct accordingly. Let’s say nine hundred. So make it 16,175. (kidding)
Not that Joe or this blog needs my defense, but I’ve always found that part of the charm is that it does kind of meander and change course. Joe’s writing for me is like hearing from a friend - it doesn’t matter so much what the topic is, I’m interested because his writing is engaging and his perspective is interesting (and to me at least, relatable).
I will read Joe’s posts about golf or tennis even though I follow neither precisely because they are something different and I know the writing will engage me on a human interest level.
Same thing with the Poscast. The new “recurring” segments that we know probably won’t last more than a couple episodes are a fun kind of inside jokey way of underlining that the whole appeal of the Poscast is that you’re listening to two friends talk as if you’re the third one sitting in the room. Whatever rambling direction it goes, it’s engaging because the people doing it are.
I get if that’s not everyone’s thing but for me it is.
Maybe you could do an essay on what follows when people start their conversation with phrases like “I hate to be that guy” or “no offense but” or “to be honest”…..
This is a crazy understatement! There is so much writing on this thing, I can barely keep up as is! I for one think there should be no stress about timing or schedule. It's more fun to get a surprise post anyway. Thanks for all the great content!
@Abe. Yes yes, yes. Joe gives us a tremendous amount of great writing. I know he has a tendency to promise a little more than he can deliver sometimes (e.g. the first two aborted attempts at the Baseball 100) but it is usually because he gets caught up in something else. Not because he goes dark.
I’m Really enjoying the football 101 - in some ways almost more than the Baseball 100, simply because I’m less familiar with many of the stories of the football players so there is so much I’m learning. Most of the Baseball players I had pretty good knowledge of. I’m actually surprised at the dearth of comments on the football 101 . I think the fewest number of comments on the Baseball 100 was around 90, and most were in the hundreds or several hundreds. I think the number of football 101 comments range from the teens to the 30’s. And I’m guessing this is mostly for to the nerdiness of baseball fans. We are a breed apart.
Thanks for all you do Joe. Your blog is one of the best deals, maybe the best, on the internet.
I certainly enjoy Joe’s writings and all the commenters, but I’m sure TheAthletic had a broader reader base so there is now a smaller pool of Brilliant Readers to comment on the articles. Plus, it’s easier to argue for stats in baseball than judging the quality of an offensive lineman.
On the Poscast, they mentioned how badly the Yankees own the Twins. Since 2000 (including playoffs) the Yankees hold a 118-48 advantage for a 0.710 winning percentage. That winning percentage would map to 115 wins over a full season.
And the Twins were a really good team for much of that time. This isn’t the ‘27 Yankees playing the ‘62 Mets. But to Twins fans, it must have felt that way.
Please add the poll to this blog. Thanks!
Looking forward to it Joe!
I hate to be "that guy", but will we really get aTen Who Missed essay once a week? You can't keep promising us stuff but then don't deliver. Football 101 was supposed to be once a week. Then it disappeared. A few weeks ago it was returning soon. Now it's coming back in a month. If this was all free, that's great, but I supported your JoeBlogs endeavor by becoming a paid subscriber. Kind of feel like you are taking advantage of our goodwill.
Hi Tom, I appreciate your comment and I just want to say, as Joe's editor, I am already buried in Ten Who Missed essays—in other words (spoiler alert): You are *definitely* going to get the whole enchilada on this one. (Also, no surprise, they're awesome.) Thank you for reading!
You are probably not alone in how you feel about this. My perspective is different. I read Joe’s free (and ad-free) blog almost daily for a dozen years or so. It was outstanding, with tremendous posts and great readers. I owe Joe a lifetime of subscription fees whether he writes another word here. Of course, he posted 20 pieces in May and has posted 17,000 words so far in June, so I probably do not have to worry about that.
I appreciate what you're saying Tom. I will say in my defense that you probably get more words here on JoeBlogs than pretty much any Substack going. As for the timing of the posts, a lot of this is experimentation. I am trying to make as many people happy as I can. I try to do a lot of analytics on reading habits, and just a peek behind the curtain, the Football 101 posts were flagging badly the last two months -- it's clear that the majority of people are simply not interested in reading football stuff right now.
Joe, is there a reason you don't provide any way to submit suggestions or questions through JoeBlogs? For example, on the Poscast, you asked people to send in suggested nicknames for baseball teams, but you don't provide any avenue to do so. Some of us don't want to join Twitter and it would be nice if the paid subscribers of JoeBlogs could participate in the fun. As of now, the only way seems to be to reply to an old comment you made and hope it sends you an alert. It would be nice to have a simple way to send things in, like the important fact that the A's should clearly be called "the Beane Machine." :-)
At minimum it should be possible to embed the twitter link in a Substack message. Thereby killing the ease of use for Joe :-)
Joe, I appreciate the reply. I do find it somewhat ironic that someone who has written on more than one occasion about how analytics has made baseball less joyful, most recently with Kershaw being pulled while pitching a perfect game, is in fact mindful of analytics when it comes to his own profession.
The Football 101, while extremely well written, just doesn't seem as compelling as the Baseball 100, either. I think it's because people don't debate the history and historical significance of football players quite as much as they do with baseball players. No one is really debating whether Pat Mahomes is a better player than Otto Graham, but you can get baseball fans to go 15 rounds (or maybe 9 innings?) over Barry Bonds vs. Juan Soto or Mike Trout or Babe Ruth or Henry Aaron.
Since you asked, it is 17,075 words - in June. I wish I had time to parse this further and say something funny about it, but I do not. Anyway, it speaks for itself.
Note: “Subscribe Now” buttons and so forth are included in the total, so deduct accordingly. Let’s say nine hundred. So make it 16,175. (kidding)
Not that Joe or this blog needs my defense, but I’ve always found that part of the charm is that it does kind of meander and change course. Joe’s writing for me is like hearing from a friend - it doesn’t matter so much what the topic is, I’m interested because his writing is engaging and his perspective is interesting (and to me at least, relatable).
I will read Joe’s posts about golf or tennis even though I follow neither precisely because they are something different and I know the writing will engage me on a human interest level.
Same thing with the Poscast. The new “recurring” segments that we know probably won’t last more than a couple episodes are a fun kind of inside jokey way of underlining that the whole appeal of the Poscast is that you’re listening to two friends talk as if you’re the third one sitting in the room. Whatever rambling direction it goes, it’s engaging because the people doing it are.
I get if that’s not everyone’s thing but for me it is.
I totally agree, although I don't listen to the PosCast.
Maybe you could do an essay on what follows when people start their conversation with phrases like “I hate to be that guy” or “no offense but” or “to be honest”…..
The iPad review was awesome!
I have been waiting for that for years!
This is a crazy understatement! There is so much writing on this thing, I can barely keep up as is! I for one think there should be no stress about timing or schedule. It's more fun to get a surprise post anyway. Thanks for all the great content!
@Abe. Yes yes, yes. Joe gives us a tremendous amount of great writing. I know he has a tendency to promise a little more than he can deliver sometimes (e.g. the first two aborted attempts at the Baseball 100) but it is usually because he gets caught up in something else. Not because he goes dark.
I’m Really enjoying the football 101 - in some ways almost more than the Baseball 100, simply because I’m less familiar with many of the stories of the football players so there is so much I’m learning. Most of the Baseball players I had pretty good knowledge of. I’m actually surprised at the dearth of comments on the football 101 . I think the fewest number of comments on the Baseball 100 was around 90, and most were in the hundreds or several hundreds. I think the number of football 101 comments range from the teens to the 30’s. And I’m guessing this is mostly for to the nerdiness of baseball fans. We are a breed apart.
Thanks for all you do Joe. Your blog is one of the best deals, maybe the best, on the internet.
I certainly enjoy Joe’s writings and all the commenters, but I’m sure TheAthletic had a broader reader base so there is now a smaller pool of Brilliant Readers to comment on the articles. Plus, it’s easier to argue for stats in baseball than judging the quality of an offensive lineman.
On the Poscast, they mentioned how badly the Yankees own the Twins. Since 2000 (including playoffs) the Yankees hold a 118-48 advantage for a 0.710 winning percentage. That winning percentage would map to 115 wins over a full season.
And the Twins were a really good team for much of that time. This isn’t the ‘27 Yankees playing the ‘62 Mets. But to Twins fans, it must have felt that way.