What's Next

The ever-changing plan

What I wanted this to be

As you may have noticed, there were a lot of interviews posted over the last six weeks or so. I was very fortunate to have so many friends willing to take some time to speak with me and tell their stories. I still have a backlog of interviews to write up and more to do over the next little bit but now it’s time to look at what’s next.

When I did my first interview in this relaunched project, I didn’t know what I wanted to get out of it. I knew I needed practice interviewing subjects and what better way than to use my lovely friends as guinea pigs. So for those who’ve read from beginning to now, you might notice that things have changed a little, and hopefully improved. I’ve gotten better at listening and following someone’s story wherever it goes, which I think has led to better articles. I’ve also tried to get better at steering some of the interviews back on track. Baseball fans are stat nerds by default, and sometimes we go off on details of certain games, players or seasons that, while awesome, aren’t really what I’m looking for. We have Baseball Reference for that.

So around mid-February, after knocking out the first 5 interviews, I made some goals and timelines. I took all of February to crank out interviews, five a week, and between that, work, hockey and the dog, I nearly burned out. But I needed to go hard at first into getting this off the ground. I think now I know what this project is going to be, but that’s an ever-changing idea.

When I started, I said I just wanted to get people’s life stories, and use baseball as the subject to get people to drop their guard and open up. It worked. I’ve had people tell me they learned new things about people they’ve known their whole lives. I’ve had some people I talked to say they never thought about some of the things they did and called it therapeutic. I’ve learned a lot about what makes baseball the perfect tool for this project.

As I said, this country is the United States of America. But it’s made up of 50 states and if you ever do a road trip around the country, you will feel like you went to a dozen different countries with their own cultures, languages, food, politics, etc. A quick glance at our country and one might think we’re hopelessly divided, especially going into another god**** election where “bloodbaths” and “civil wars” are being mentioned on the campaign trail. Well, I know we still have enough in common with each other to keep progressing as a nation in spite of those who profit off our differences want.

I’ve talked to people born in 5 different decades, from about a dozen home states and in all different census categories of race, income, education, political party. But I guarantee you will find something in these stories that resonates with you. Maybe it’s you growing up in the 90’s playing ball in the street with the neighborhood kids in Florida, just the same as someone else did in the 60’s as a girl growing up in Arizona. Or the people that love the analytical side of baseball but appreciate the romantic, atmospheric draw of the sport. And vice versa.

What my current plan is

So now my plan is throttle back a tad. I thought I’d have been able to use March as a great time with half the baseball world here in Phoenix to expand, but it turns out people are very busy ramping up to Opening Day. I’m aiming to post 2 to 3 interviews a week as well as probably one non-interview a week, like the Competitive Balance Tax explainer post, something to break up the constant drumbeat of interviews.

I’m also going to try to travel a bit more and talk to all new people, I’ll be at the Oakland A’s opening day boycott and then the game this Friday. I think that could be cool, we’ll see.

I just want to keep improving at whatever this is I’m trying to do. Which means I have to personally keep pushing myself even if it is uncomfortable, stressful and at times unhealthy. But I’ve also felt energized, excited and fulfilled with it, too, and that outweighs the bad. I also really appreciate the input and feedback I’ve gotten from you readers as well. I will keep trying to improve, but there will be ups and downs and let’s see where the season takes us.

That being said, no interviews to post this week. I’ll get restarted next Monday, for now I need to take a break. Or in baseball lingo, I need my turn skipped in the rotation.