Baseball 100 (?)

You may have noticed -- probably not, but maybe -- that I have taken down the old Baseball 100 page. There is a reason for this; you may find this to be good news or bad news or not news at all. But I've put a lot of thought into it and this is the way I want to go.

I'm starting the Baseball 100 all over.

There are a few reasons I'm doing this. The main one -- the one that pushed it over the edge for me -- is that I have come up with a new way to rank players, a way I think is much better than the system I began with five years ago (really? Five years?). There are a few new players for the new 100, a significantly different order and because many of those essays have aged I want to rewrite them So I'm beginning anew in the next few weeks.

I will add something else -- you probably saw this coming based on a recent post: Beginning the middle of next month, this blog will go through a change. I am going to go with a Patreon model; this will mean asking you Brilliant Readers (and podcast listeners) to pay a small amount in order to get blog stuff like Baseball 100 and, you know, the other nonsense we write about here (the podcasting piece is still being worked out but it will probably involve a special monthly episode for members),

You may ask why do this now after writing millions of words on this blog for free for a dozen years? There are several reasons, but really it comes down to this: I need to bring an editor on board and a producer for the podcast, both for my sanity and my grammar, and I obviously need to pay them. If there are a few bucks left over, great: I have a daughter getting ready to go to college.

I fully understand that some of you -- heck, maybe all of you -- will decide that it's not worth paying for the stuff here. I get that. Of the millions of words written here, I should have paid you to read many of them.

I also realize that there are some people who are fundamentally opposed to paying for content. I get that too, though I do think the world is changing on that front. Somebody wrote a somewhat snippy email to me a couple of weeks ago after I started at The Athletic saying, "What, the advertising money isn't enough?"

That's right. Yes. Exactly. Advertising isn't enough. America's great newspapers are dying, you see it every day, and while there are complex factors it can also be summed up with those three words: Advertising ... isn't ... enough.

I've never advertised on this blog, other than the occasional mention that I am writing a Harry Houdini book (The Secret Dream of Harry Houdini, which I hope will be published in the spring of 2019). There have been chances to do it. But ads never felt right for this place. I've been proud that the stuff I have written here through the years -- the personal stuff, the silly stuff, the made up words -- has been so well read and hopefully enjoyed.

The thing I'm most proud of with this blog is the community that has built up around it. This has usually been a sane and friendly corner of the Internet. I hope you'll come along as a member. Details to follow.

And the the new version of the Baseball 100 to follow soon after.