2024: Take Two
We’re going for it this year!
When I started this page before last season, I had a vague idea of a plan. I wanted to fund a road trip around the country, write about baseball stadiums and talk to different people to see how baseball is consumed and enjoyed in different regions. I figured I could put gambling advice up and paywall it for subscribers and that would do fund it.
That idea wasn’t good. I burned out on gambling analysis and didn’t know how to “interview” people, so it just turned into occasional posts with random topics while I went back to a desk job.
In early October I was let go, took a couple months off and started a new accounting job last week. I sat at that desk for 15 minutes before I knew I wanted to try this again, but actually following through this time. It helped that as I went through some rough life events the past 6 months I took up journaling (like my role model Arthur Morgan) and it helped me get better at writing.
So now I know what I want to explore this idea better, and I’m as equipped as I’ve ever been for what that is.
I want to talk to people, same as before. I want people from every corner of the country, every kind of background, every economic, social, political, religious or fill-in-the-blank category. I want to get their stories and do it using baseball as the conversation starter. I’m not looking for surface level things like what it’s like growing up as a Cubs fan, or who your favorite player is or why you think the designated hitter is an abomination. I’m going to use those memories and feelings to capture who that person really is, and how things like baseball, family, their hometown and whatever else is there has made that person who they are.
Why baseball? As much as anything, baseball was, is and will always be a major part of the United States of America. Everyone has had at least some kind of life experience that involved baseball, and a memory was captured. Some people are just casual fans, some are even less than that, some are diehards and some are batshit crazy. But there are millions of stories in this country that baseball has been a part of.
Do I have an end result in mind for this project? Not yet. I want to get stories from coast to coast and watch these puzzle pieces slowly start to reveal a picture of what baseball means to the country and its people.
But I can’t do this alone. What I’d love is any help you as a reader can provide. If you can subscribe to a premium package, that’s great. I hope to be able to provide enough interesting content and stories to earn those dollars. If you just want to read for free, that’s fine too. I’d love your feedback as well as these move on. And for anyone who would like to tell their story, or knows anyone they think would be perfect for this, please contact me.
Let’s see if we can unearth some positive stories and feelings as we go headlong into 2024, a year already shaping up to be rough one with a presidential election, the A’s final Oakland season and my dental checkup next month.