The idea was that I’d take some time off between Christmas and New Year to relax before pushing hard to finish the book. The reality was that I found myself involved in three other projects:
- I’m honored to announce that I’ll be writing at Baseball Digest Daily in 2008. Joe Hamrahi and company do awesome work over there, and I’m proud to call myself a member of their team. This doesn’t take the place of any of my current projects, but rather augments them all. When in doubt, do both, or in this case, do everything.
- Houston Astros outfielder Hunter Pence is now blogging at Inside the Ballpark, brought to you by b5media, the fine folks who let me blab endlessly over at Knuckle Curve. My involvement in this project consisted of watching it happen and thinking how cool it is to be blogging alongside a big-league ballplayer. When it doesn’t directly affect the Padres, I’ll be cheering a little for the Astros this year.
- Finally, I’ve launched PadreBlogs.com. There are enough of us doing this stuff now that I think it might benefit readers and writers alike to have some kind of directory that makes it easier for us to connect with one another. This site is in beta, or maybe even late alpha, so suggestions are most welcome.
So, now that my “vacation” is over, I’ve got a book to write. Meanwhile, for those of you who find announcements tedious, perhaps these will be more your liking:
- July 5, 1985 @ Three Rivers Stadium — Garry Templeton became the first (and only) member of the San Diego Padres to be intentionally walked four times in a game. The Padres lost, 5-4, in 12 innings, courtesy of a Johnnie Ray sac fly off Craig Lefferts.
- How freakish is it that Templeton drew four intentional walks in a game? Well, it’s happened just eight times over the past 50 years. Four of those games belong to Barry Bonds; the others belong to Manny Ramirez (2001), Andre Dawson (1990), and Roger Maris (1962). Go figure.
- June 5, 1997 @ Coors Field — Archi Cianfrocco became the first (and only) member of the San Diego Padres to hit into three double plays in a game. The Padres lost, 9-7, in 11 innings, on a two-run homer off the bat of Larry Walker against Terry Burrows.
Terry Burrows? Really, I had no idea…
I like the Padreblogs site, one thing that would make it way more useful (though I am sure way less simple) is if there were either a last updated date, or, most recent article. Also, would be nice to have Chargers section since there are a lot of “crossover” fans and intelligent and active Chargers talk seems to be virtually unfindable.
Wow G.Y. I really like the PadresBlog site, way to take charge and really pull the comunity together!
Just pinned on our PadreBlog badge.
#1, 2: Sweet, glad you guys are diggin’ it. Keep the ideas coming; with other projects going on, I don’t know when I’ll have time to implement stuff, but I’d like this to be a resource for fans everywhere and I’m open to ideas.
#3: Thanks, bud. Drop me a line if you want me to update your info.
GY, congrats on the new gig. Plus, the Padreblog.com is a great idea. Puts a bunch of my favorites in one spot.
I love the PadresBlogs idea, and I agree with #1 – a last update / more recent feature would be sweet, and would turn the site to somewhat of an RSS aggragator.
Come to think of it, an RSS feed that would include entries from all the Padres blogs would be pretty awesome. Hmmmm. I think it’s time to go play with Yahoo! Pipes.
Geoff, the Padreblogs site is awesome. I agree that a date and time of the most recent update would be a great addition.
padresblog.com is perfect. exactly what was needed. way to step up and take care of it!
One idea is to use a feed aggregator web page like http://www.planetplanet.org/.
Thanks, everyone, for the excellent suggestions! I’ve been playing a little with rss2html:
http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm
I’m not sure how robust it is, though. Keep ‘em coming…
Sure is quiet here in Padre land. Do you think they’re essentially done for the offseason?