Monday, September 9, 2013

Where Have We Been?

Where have we been, what are you doing, why do you hate us and other FAQs

If you have been a frequent reader of the Full Count the last year, you probably noticed that we've been absent the last few weeks.  We'd like to take today to answer a few questions about what we've been doing the past few weeks and the future of this blog and other questions that may have as we head into September.  Let's get into it....


Question #1 - Where have you been?

  
Easy answer.  Work.  Trying to make a living.  Trying to feed ourselves.  Watching baseball.  Each of us have full time jobs that often extend past 40 hours per week.  We don't make a profit from this so unfortunately, when the decision comes to "Keeping our job" vs. "Blogging about baseball", keeping our job almost always wins.  Almost.  Don't get me wrong, we would love nothing more to talk about pennant races over budget reports but the latter pays.  When we go on a few week spells where there's little to no content, usually the boss is looking right over our shoulder.

If anyone that reads this is a billionaire and would like to offer us donations where all three of us could quit our day jobs and do this full time, you can send it through PayPal at fullcountblog@gmail.com.  I estimate we would each need about $100,000 annually to make this really bad-ass so please, billionaires.  Make it happen.


Question #2 - What are you doing?  

You can kind of link this one with the other question.  Besides work, we are also in the process of transitioning our blog over to Sports Rants.  By partnering with hem, we hope to reach a larger audience while still providing the same type of content that you've come to expect.  The positives?  A larger audience and more exposure.  Throw in the better design quality (I'll take the rap for the current shitty design) and it seemed like the right thing to do.  The negatives?  It takes a while.  We don't want to make the transition complete unless we're absolutely ready and part of that takes time which frankly, we haven't had. 

Realistically, this probably won't be complete for another week or so and then we can be up and running by the stretch run for pennant races and the postseason.  Forgive us for this and again, billionaires, you can make this happen sooner by donating.  I hope to get a solid a cash flow from you by this weekend.  


Question #3 - What will this blog look like two months from now?

Two months from now the World Series will be over and if my Tiger's wrap up their first title in my lifetime, I know that I'll be dead from partying in Detroit.  As for Wade and Tommy, I hope that they will continue providing baseball news, coverage and stories for our readers....and seriously it's all about our readers.

Tommy and Wade started this as an outlet to talk baseball and invited me to hop on board.  I hope I've done my worth of contribution as this is entirely their thing.  We hope to keep doing the season reviews/previews and as much up to date news and opinion as we can.  We think that blogging is the future of sports "journalism" and love that we can be as passionate, crass, obscene and humorous as we want without the fear of retribution by some giant corporation like the evil minions at ESPN ESPN.

By moving to Sports Rants, we want to continue that.  We've been shocked at some of the traffic numbers and that's really kept us going where most blogs fall flat and end.  We love baseball too much to stop regardless of who is (or most likely isn't...) reading but if you do notice a few days or weeks where the posting is light, we're probably trying to find a way around our office's new network security.  If we're posting a lot, we've probably been fired.  So either way keep the donations coming.  Please.


Question #4 - Why do you hate us? 
Because you are a Yankees fan.  But we love hate mail too so keep it coming.


Question #5 - So what now?

Finally, we want to thank you.  The posting has been light/nonexistent the past few weeks but we're still here.  We'll keep going.  And hopefully on a bigger stage.  We owe that to you.  I've never dreamed of seeing some of the traffic numbers when this was getting started and we want to keep that going.  It will be better.  It will be soon.
But what the hell?  This has been one of the most memorable seasons ever!  Almost half of the teams in either league are either leading their division or within 5 games of a wildcard!  Young guns like Patrick Corbin, Jose Fernandez and Matt Harvey (oops) are slinging darts all year!   The MVP Award is Miggy's but can he catch Crush Davis for his second Triple Crown?  



In the Bronx, the veteran (or is it aging) Yanks are playing catchup and a 40+ legend is leading the league in saves.  In the rest of the AL East, three teams are fighting to the death for a wildcard while the Indians and Royals are clawing to stay alive in the AL Central.
It's heating up on the West Coast with Moneyball vs. Nolan Ryan's Rangers battling in the AL, while the Dodgers are trying to lap the field led by Yasiel Puig, completing one of the most improbable turnarounds in recent history.   In Pittsburgh, the Bucs are actually winning and dueling with the scrappy Cards and efficient Reds for the Division.  Over in the East the Braves are running away from the field, but not running away from the questions marks they have about whether they're a championship team.

And even if you're team is not in the hunt, chances are pretty good you've got the chance to see September call-ups with a top prospect or two and get a glimpse of the future.  And meanwhile all the drama and headlines of Biogenesis continue to haunt the individuals implicated....


WHEW!!!  You don't need a blog to love this.  But you'll get one back soon.  Stay tuned and thanks for your patience baseball freaks...


Here's Kate too....