I love sports. I have all my life. All of my favorite childhood memories are of playing sports, watching sports, reading sports, daydreaming about sports. And as an adult, well, I don’t know how I lucked into this life, but I have written about pretty much every sport you can name — in 48 states and a couple dozen countries on six continents.
I still love sports as much as I ever have.
That’s what JoeBlogs is about … and has been about ever since I started it almost 20 years ago. The world was a different place then. I worked for The Kansas City Star in those early days — newspapers were, as Nate Bargatze might say, doing pretty good back then. They’re not now. I kept doing Joe Blogs when I went to work for Sports Illustrated — SI was the very pinnacle of sports storytelling then. It’s not now. I kept doing Joe Blogs when I was a writer for NBC Sports — television networks put a lot of emphasis on the written word then. They don’t now.
Somehow, JoeBlogs is still going.
I think it’s still going because so many sports fans are hungry for storytelling and joy. You can still find it, but you have to dig through layer upon layer of cynical, hot-take, gambling-centric, hype-pumping, screaming-match bluster.
A lot of people like that stuff. That’s great for them — everybody should enjoy sports the way they like. But what about the rest of us? Is there any room left for the rest of us?
I believe there is — that’s the big bet of JoeBlogs. For the last few years, we have been a typical (albeit prolific) sports newsletter built around subscriptions, paywalls, upsells, and the like. No complaints. I feel like I’ve done some of my best work, and it has helped us put a couple of daughters through college.
But I can’t help but think that JoeBlogs can be something more going forward — a place that continues to tell stories and highlight the joy of baseball and sports, but also spotlights new voices, pushes some old boundaries, and serves as a little oasis in the increasingly hard-bitten and jaundiced sports world.
How can we possibly do that?
That’s where The Clubhouse comes in — it’s our friendly, passionate, and committed community of Brilliant Readers. Clubhouse members get some fun perks — an exclusive post every week, special invitations, access to our active Discord, early book previews, and other surprises — but mostly, they are supporting our mission to make JoeBlogs free, ad-free, gambling-free, paywall-free, and cynicism-free.
Right now, we’ve got a special deal going — standard clubhouse membership is $60/year (some pay more, some less), but through Thanksgiving, you can join at any price that fits your budget, from $1 on up. If this sounds like your kind of thing, we’d love to have you join us.
