This is probably not the first time I’ve written something like this, though admittedly I haven’t looked back. I’m certainly not the first or only one to write a piece of this nature, but it came to me tonight.
There are two things that people will inevitably ask me when I tell them that I write for a blog. The first question is, “What do you write about?” The second question is “Do you get paid?” Maybe it’s because I’m used to it, maybe it’s because I don’t care, but I answer the second question with a non-chalant “no” just about every time. Perhaps I’m non-chalant because I’ve been asked it a bunch. Or maybe I’m non-chalant because I just don’t really see the whole no pay thing as a big deal. Don’t get me wrong, people, if Moshe and Larry were offering checks, I’d take them. Anyway, it’s safe to say that money isn’t my motivation for doing this.
So what are my motivations for writing this stuff every day? First and foremost, I love baseball, just like you guys do. I’ve loved baseball for as long as I can remember–playing it, watching it, talking about it, whatever. Baseball has been a huge part of my life and at some point, commenting on message boards and forums stopped fulfilling my need to express this deep love I have for all things baseball. So primarily, as obvious as this sounds, my blogging was born out of a love for the game. Of course, when I started this in 2008, I thought my love for the game had reached its peak; there was no way I could enjoy baseball as much as I did then. Luckily, I was wrong. Writing about baseball almost every day for the last three plus years has only deepened my adoration of this game.
I’ve learned to love this game more because of exposure, not just to numbers, not just to perspectives, but to the people from where those numbers and perspectives come. You readers, you other writers, you are the ones that make me love baseball even more every day. You, collectively, are the reason that I keep this up. With the varying opinions that you all present on a daily basis, you challenge me to better myself and my writing as well as delve deeper into the game. Thank you. You have no idea the impact that you’ve had on me.
And this last one, this is one that just dawned on me as I wrote this. I’ve mentioned it before in various posts, but only now am I realizing it. My grandfather Louie died in July of 2006. That is when my obsession with baseball started. I loved baseball before then; I was enamored with it after. Baseball was one of the biggest things that connected me with my grandfather and during his demise and after his death, I found solace in the Yankees. Every inning I watch feels like I’m watching it with him. Every word I write, I feel like I’m writing it for him. I’ll never get him back, but I feel him with me each time I sit down at my desk to write about the Yankees. He never read a word that I wrote about the Yankees, but a part of him lives on with each keystroke.
Sure, it’s nice to be pseudo-famous and have my opinion looked to by many people, but those reasons are secondary. Whether it’s for the game or for people–both strangers and and cherished relatives–I write because of love.
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3 Responses to Why I Do This
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TIQ IQ
Last nights game would be a good of example of why I love this game, even if it didn’t involve the Yankees. I feel bad for anyone who claims to be a baseball fan that didn’t watch it, because the yanks weren’t involved. Epic game, and tonight should be even better.
Last night was absolutely insane. I don’t think I’d be breathing if I were a Cardinals’ fan.
Great post Matt. I’ve spent a lot of time reminiscing lately about my time as a baseball blogger. I started by first blog in the beginning of the 2006 season, although I tried some pseudo-blogging a bit before that, and haven’t thought twice about stopping since. I counted, and I’ve now posted content regularly on ten different blogs over the years. I was only paid for one of those blogs for less than a year, and not very much, but its still an amazing experience.
I don’t quite have that amazing story of a connection with my grandfather over baseball. I started blogging because I love to write. When I was in college, a professor recommended that I blog as an excuse to write every day. He was 100% right that my writing improved tenfold as I started constantly using the skill. I look back at some of my early stuff, and its embarrassingly poorly written.
Blogging about baseball has brought me so many amazing opportunities. You can draw a line straight from baseball blogging to my current job, and its open a lot of other writing doors as well. I’ve cut back my blogging schedule considerably (I used to post multiple times a day), but not because its any less fun. Life just gets in the way sometimes.
Being paid to blog for a short time was actually pretty difficult. You take a different attitude toward these things when you start having set-in-stone obligations, or look at it like a job. It compromises the basic dynamic of, “I do it because I love it”, and that’s tough.