This Hat Tip Is For You
Posted by Steve Lombardi on November 1, 2011
Have to say, I feel like Captain Spaulding at this moment.
…Hello, I must be going,
I cannot stay, I came to say, I must be going.
I’m glad I came, but just the same I must be going…
Back in June of 2007, I started contributing to the (then) "Stat Of The Day" Blog at Baseball-Reference.com. And, I've been doing it here ever since then - over the last 5 baseball seasons.
It's said that time flies when you're having fun. And, my time here is testament to that – as it has gone by in a blink of an eye. Heck, I want to get Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes to sing a song about it - it's been so much fun. Time of my life, really.
Of course, I want to thank Sean Forman, the Henry Chadwick of the electronic age, for taking a flier on me back in the summer of 2007. It's been a privilege and an honor to be associated with him, and this site, during my time here.
And, thanks to Neil Paine for all his help while we have been here together. For a Red Sox fan, he's an OK dude.
Also, thanks to my colleagues at this blog - Andy, Raphy, and John - for adding great content to the blog and allowing me to ride on their coattails as often as I have over the years.
Sean, Neil, Andy, Raphy and John are very astute baseball fans - as are those who read this blog and leave comments herein. And, while I have already thanked the former, I especially want to thank the latter as well.
I'm a diehard baseball fan - but, not the most sabermetrically inclined one. I know just enough to be dangerous and little enough to easily make a fool of myself.
Yet, the readers of this blog have always been very friendly and kind towards me regarding my posts here. That's unheard of in cyberspace where it seems like just sharing a sundry thought publically at times opens the "You're an idiot!" shooting gallery for the veiled e-flame throwers. Those who leave comments at this blog are a unique bunch. And, it’s been great hanging with y’all.
Again, the whole thing here, since that first day back in the summer of 2007, has been wonderful. Please accept my thanks to everyone - on both sides of the curtain for this blog - for your part in making that happen.
November 1st, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Very nice tribute Steve. Hope this conversation continues elsewhere.
November 1st, 2011 at 8:03 pm
sorry to see you go. will you be keeping up elsewhere?
November 1st, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Oh, and remember one last thing: The Phillies are done.
November 1st, 2011 at 8:39 pm
@3 Not if they can pull off their own version of the Fister-Furbush trade.
November 1st, 2011 at 8:41 pm
I like:
"I'm a diehard baseball fan - but, not the most sabermetrically inclined one. I know just enough to be dangerous and little enough to easily make a fool of myself.
Yet, the readers of this blog have always been very friendly and kind towards me regarding my posts here. That's unheard of in cyberspace where it seems like just sharing a sundry thought publically at times opens the "You're an idiot!" shooting gallery for the veiled e-flame throwers. Those who leave comments at this blog are a unique bunch. And, it’s been great hanging with y’all."
Well said.
November 1st, 2011 at 9:18 pm
I hope someday we can all continue this conversation on another site but until then: thank you for making almost every day of the past several years just a little bit better.
November 1st, 2011 at 10:29 pm
@5
Exactly. This might be the only civilized mancave on the internet.
November 1st, 2011 at 10:30 pm
The end of my daily baseball fix... but hopefully you'll find bloghomes elsewhere. Thanks for everything guys!
November 1st, 2011 at 10:47 pm
Thanks all for the kind words. They're appreciated.
Robb - strange but true: I had my own, Yankees-focused blog, WasWatching.com - however, about 2 weeks ago, I decided to stop posting there effective 11/1, which is today. (I started that blog back in April 2005.)
I did not know this blog was closing until today.
In any event, as of this moment, I am not posting blog content anywhere.
I have no intention of re-opening WasWatching.com. Whether or not I will be blogging somewhere else is TBD.
November 1st, 2011 at 10:51 pm
This is so sad. It added life to the stats (although this site drew me because of its incredible stats) and gave us a chance to have discussions and share with fellow stat-heads, from those who design stats and those new to the concept.
Thank you, Sean, thank you Andy and Steve and Raphy and Neil and the very many commentators for making my day every day.
One thing is for sure -- I'll keep using this site and subscribing to it. I'm just going to have to try and start these discussions elsewhere with my friends. Too bad most won't listen...
November 2nd, 2011 at 12:39 am
Steve,
I loved guessing the author of a post by the title. You were always easy because you consistently gave a hard-nose, strict-number driven, no window dressing STATS. You always put together some unique and fresh ways to look at certain situations or stats that might have passed us by. And you never missed anomalies.
Thanx for the hard work, I enjoyed all of it!
Good luck.
ps
I offered to set up a Website for Andy, John A and of course you.
If you’d like any help starting up a blog or website, I’d be more than happy to accommodate.
Andy and John A have my email address, so feel free to contact me if you’d like to see any of my work or collaborate.
Good luck either way.
November 2nd, 2011 at 1:48 am
dugoutcentral.com could use more voices-e
November 2nd, 2011 at 1:51 am
...especially after the season has ended. Just check the latest active thread-click on any one & on the top right it will tell you which that is. Discussion veers off thread topic,s especially when exhausted, but it is often fun. And certain posters have become somewhat more civilized! dugoutcentral.com.
November 2nd, 2011 at 4:09 am
@Steve(9) Wow. Sorry to hear that.......
November 2nd, 2011 at 7:25 am
As a great fan of your insight a baseball fanatic and a ocscure stat freak let me extend my greatest respect honor and love you have deminstrated in all your articles. Of course we all have favorite ones but I can't think of a single article that i didn't glean something from. It is a shame this should all be saved tweaked with all the comments and put into book form hey it might become more famous and be as big as "War and peace" Thanks an American who lives in China where baseball is an unknown species lol. The Olypics (Beijing) had baseball the Dodgers and Padres came and played here can I tell you as cheap as China stuff is in America the tickets were 288 RMB that's $38 each ouch. BTW The stadium(was beautiful) reminded me of Jerry Park in Montreal butwhen the Olympics finished it got converted to a basketball stadium. Thanks a million .Please someone publish this in book form and someone please take over this blog writing assignment pronto.
November 2nd, 2011 at 9:41 am
The Discontinuing of the blog may be more depressing for me then the Phillies early exit from the playoffs.
🙁
November 2nd, 2011 at 10:06 am
Again, thanks to ALL for the kind and appreciated feedback!
dukeofflatbush - LOL. Thanks. You can thank Sean & Neil for the title format that I used. It followed their suggested posting guidelines.
Bruce - thanks.. Nothing to be sorry about WasWatching.com ending - that was my call. After doing that for the last 7 seasons, it was time.
Hubert - nice to hear that we reached out over the Great Wall! Now, that's clearing the fences! 🙂
November 2nd, 2011 at 10:15 am
Always loved everything you did here Steve.
Here's a toast (coffee, it's 10:14 a.m.) to us all meeting at the new place Andy's setting up.
November 2nd, 2011 at 10:15 am
"Occupy Baseball-Reference.com!" 🙂
I wish I understood Sean's decision. I suppose I don't know much about the whole B-R operation, but I didn't think the blog required much of Sean's attention.
Anyway, it's a sad day for me. I'll miss everyone and everything about this experience -- the serious and the silly, the regulars and the drop-ins, and especially those who have disagreed with me and corrected my errors.
So long for now.
November 2nd, 2011 at 10:30 am
Steve — good writing, great use of numbers, every post solid. Whenever I saw the "WW" I knew there'd be something to read worth knowing. Thanks for all the good work you've done here!
Terrific baseball surname, too. (-;þ
Hubert @15, writing from China: The [Beijing] stadium (was beautiful) reminded me of Jerry Park in Montreal but when the Olympics finished it got converted to a basketball stadium.
I'm sure they found a way to make this work, but it sounds like just about the worst idea ever.
November 2nd, 2011 at 11:25 am
At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I agree with JA's sentiment: I don't really understand the decision. To me, stats are only as useful as what you do with them. The raw data is great but I'm generally more interested in figuring out what that data is telling me and how it helps support the narrative and story of the game. The blog was perfect for that. Personally, I've never been a fan of "reporting". "Just the facts, ma'am" is not for me. The facts are usually available and can be found pretty easily, though obviously some are propiatory. What is really valuable is the analysis, which not just anyone can do.
Regardless, thanks for all the work and hopefully we can weave our own stories and decipher our own analysis with the new data put forth.
November 2nd, 2011 at 11:57 am
tuna & bluejaysstatsgeek - thanks!
November 2nd, 2011 at 12:34 pm
@3
The Rays & Cards this time.
Keep it up to date, man 😉
November 2nd, 2011 at 1:01 pm
All of you will be missed. This was intelligent, passionate blogging, without the foolishness or fan boys of so many other places. I didn't even mind, on my occasional posts, to be made fun of, because the commenters here knew what they were doing.
I agree with John Autin and BSK. This doesn't seem to make any sense at all, and I have spent enough time consulting for e-media companies to wonder why the plug is being pulled. This stuff doesn't cost that much to do. What can we do to get Sean to change his mind?
November 2nd, 2011 at 1:41 pm
I'm not sure what all of you cost Baseball-Reference to support in terms of costs and wages, and know even less about how bref made/hoped to make money off of you. But I do know that the blog was the number one reason I came to this site.
Maybe this is heresy, but stats by themselves just aren't that interesting. What is interesting is good writing from people who understand the stories that stats help to tell about the game that I love. I can't believe that at least some of you won't find a way to continue writing about baseball, because the talent is evident to anyone who reads regularly.
Thank you all.
November 2nd, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Love the Captain Spaulding reference from M*A*S*H! Loudon Wainwright lll.
November 2nd, 2011 at 3:02 pm
For one last time... goodbye.
November 2nd, 2011 at 3:15 pm
@26-
This must be how Radar (my favorite palindrome) felt when
McLean Stevenson left for "Hello Larry". Anyone...
November 2nd, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Sorry to see you go. Thank you for your outstanding contributions.
November 2nd, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Steve,
Thanks for your insight. I hope this does not mean the end of B-R. It is a terrific site! If I could, I'd support it more (financially). I refer to it everyday.
November 3rd, 2011 at 6:37 am
Thanks guys.
I have no idea where I may end up after this. But, when I do - if I do? - I will update y'all in the comments section here. (Assuming this is available and it's not months later from now.)
November 3rd, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Just a heads-up that I will be continuing my writing at WasWatching.com now. Just did the first post today:
http://waswatching.com/2011/11/03/matty-alou/
November 4th, 2011 at 5:38 am
Good luck in life Steve.
Thanks for everything.
November 4th, 2011 at 7:35 am
Thank you.
November 4th, 2011 at 10:27 am
Why is the blog being discontinued? Down sizing? Have not read a reason anywhere...?
Thanks, Marc