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Every week when I write this column, I think about how I got into baseball writing. I've never shared that story with you all, and since you're my captive audience now, I think I will. Jayson Stark is the reason I even started writing about baseball. After he continuously bashed on Albert Pujols because of a "down" year in 2011, I felt the need to respond. Now, Jayson Stark was never going to read what I had to write, but I could at least get my thoughts out there.
Baseball Nation: Cole Hamels (not surprisingly) named Opening Day starter
From there, I kept writing. One time per day. Twice per day. Three times per day. Eventually I was recruited to a paying gig, and even more eventually (that's not a phrase) I landed here.
Best of Blogs, Week 10
Miss last week's edition? Catch up now.
Ok, stop snoring and focus again. I tell this story because of all those out there writing for themselves. It's a good release. Keep doing it. Do it often. AND SUBMIT YOUR STUFF TO ME, so I can link you up here.
Commence with the Best of Blogs:
- Diane over at VORG, gave us some interesting 3.14-related stats in baseball history in honor of Pi Day. Yes, we love stats. Yes, we're nerds. Yes, we love combining nerdiness with our nerdy stats.
- Geoff Young takes time away from his gig at Baseball Prospectus to write for a great new Padres'-specific blog called Padres Public. He took us through a history lesson on baseball, Padres, and the defunct Portland Beavers (now the Tucson Padres).
- Michael Clair of The Platoon Advantage read Mike Piazza's book. He was not impressed, so he took a deeper look into Mike Piazza's body of work in commercials.
- Dan Lependorf of the Hardball Times is not the only one to do so, but he does a pretty great job at defending the World Baseball Classic. The tournament is in its third installment, and Lependorf explains what's to love about the WBC.
- Grant Brisbee of Baseball Nation also gave us some reasons to care about the WBC. He reminded us that the tournament is still young and building its history, but already there are things to look forward to the next time the tourney comes around.
- The great (and I do mean GREAT) Joe Posnanski, now a writer for NBC's Hardball Talk, took a more in-depth look at closers over time. More specifically, he looked at the winning percentage for teams in the ninth inning based on certain circumstances throughout history.*
- *Did I gush enough about Posnanski? If you don't read his work, give it a look.
- The Unbiased MLB fan gave us a pretty interesting list of home run milestones that should be reached during the 2013 season. Did you know Alfonso Soriano is only 28 home runs shy of 400 for his career?
- Michael Stephenson of BleedBlue92 had more on the USA vs. Dominican Republic WBC matchup earlier in the week. He points out the passion Dominican Republic fans have shown compared with U.S. fans.
If you'd like to be included in Best of Blogs, shoot an email my way: jecazador(at)yahoo(dot)com. I promise I'll try to read it.
