It’s been a pretty good year. It was my first full year as a dad and while the transition involved with my wife going back to work was difficult, we’re managing. It’s also nice seeing my name in print. While I’ve helped out with legal columns that got me a mention in some obscure legal publication, I’ve also gotten my name in Business Week. But none of that compares to being able to go to Borders and seeing a book where you’re listed in the table of contents.
It’s also been a good year for the site. Following up on the 1984 Tigers diary, we took a look further back in the past at the 1935 Tigers. It’s hard for me to say which one was more fun. When I did the 1984 diary, I was able to relive the memories, but there was also something very cool when I took a look at one of the greatest teams in the history of the franchise. They had Hall of Famers out the wazoo, and a few more guys who were borderline and didn’t get in. And while the current day Tigers falters, there’s some hope that they’ll finally be able to get over the hump and put together a winning season.
In addition, it was fun doing a few joint ventures with other Tigers bloggers. DIBS will be a fun project going forward and I’m looking forward to be a part of this community.
In 2006, I’m going to take a break from at least doing a Tiger diary. I’m going to write a 1976 Reds diary for Reds Cutting Edge, but I’ve also had some correspondence with some other sites who are interested in doing diaries as well and I plan on assisting them. You’ll see a 1986 Mets diary at the Tom Seaver Fan Club. Probably one of the more ambitious projects will be the Black Sox Blog going back 100 years to document the White Sox first World Series win in 1906. In addition, I’ve been talking to a guy who hasn’t even started his blog yet, and he wants to do a 1926 St. Louis Cardinals diary (also their first World Series ever).
So with the popularity of the diaries and also with some of the other things that these sites are doing, I’m going to start a loose affiliation between all of these sites. Baseball Historians (the domain currently points to Tigerblog, but it’ll have it’s own stuff soon enough) is going to be a central repository for all of the historical writings from these various sites and it’ll also be a spot were the group gets together and discusses baseball’s past. This is probably my most ambitious project to date so I’m hoping to make it all work. The current plan is to have the site go live some time in 2007 (sounds like a long time) but hopefully it’ll be sooner rather then later.
So with that, I hope you’re as excited (or at least interested) as I am. Thanks for sticking with me this year.
Have a safe and happy New Year.
Rather then complain more, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Check back in on Monday, and I’ll the Jack Morris piece up for the 1975 Reds/1984 Tigers debate with Blade.