The great Wi-Fi Crisis of 2013 continues, and even getting a whole new Wi-Fi router has not fixed the problem.
It may well be a week or more until I am back at full strength. I continue to apologize, and ask that you all remain patient with me as I try to figure this out. I may be able to get one or two big features up and perhaps some small stuff, but if you don’t see anything, it’s not that I don’t care… it’s that I’m unable to.
Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve been having internet trouble the last few days, making it hard to do short updates, much less long ones. It took a minor miracle to type up the Turner Field thing, and I was so frustrated at one point that I just up and used the “Reblog” feature of WordPress to link a HardballTalk article (adding a quick comment) so that some content would be up today. I have never done this before and hope to never do this again.
So, hopefully I’ll get these internet problems all fixed up soon and be back up to full-strength with the eclectic and insightful posts you expect from the Continuum. Until then, I’ll try to do as much as my situation allows.
Thanks.
Apologies for the lack of “Offseason Baseball View Listings” today, for the very good reason that….. I forgot. Sorry about that. I’ll make sure to try and avoid this problem tomorrow.
As a consolation, here’s Randy Johnson’s perfect game:
Well, now that the World Series is done, you probably are wondering what I’ll be doing to waste away the winter, especially since I won’t have any World Baseball Classic news to fill time with?
Well, here’s a run-down of what’s going to be happening:
If my WordPress is to be believed, this is my 1,000th post on the Baseball Continuum! So, let’s take a look back at some of the best posts here:
The First “Big” Post
The first “big” post here, the first to get any attention beyond the small group of friends and family that I told about the Continuum, was Baseball in the Year 2044: A look at “Rockets on the Mound”. The look I did at the obscure 1950s baseball sci-fi story was written about over on Hardballtalk, and It provided the template and something of a prologue to the Bizarre Baseball Culture segments I’ve done, which are probably the most popular things on this site.
The Most Viewed Posts
The top 10 most-viewed posts on the site all have to do with the World Baseball Classic, which isn’t surprising, given the fact I was one of maybe eight on the baseball blogosphere (at least in English) to give it the time of day and may well have been the first to start projecting out rosters. The most popular post that isn’t WBC related? Why, it’s the first Marvel/AAA Baseball Crossover. In case any of you who have read it missed it, I’ve actually talked to that comic’s writer as well as Chris Hill, who was one of the main people who made that promotion happen. The most viewed post that doesn’t involve the WBC or Bizarre Baseball Culture in any way was the post about strangest stadiums.
My Favorite Posts to Write
Two posts come to mind as my favorite to write, in no particular order:
The first is the one about international team names, just because it was so fun looking at all of the creative names abroad. One team, the Bolton Robots of Doom, liked it so much they sent me a t-shirt. I really need to find that t-shirt, it’s around here somewhere….
The second was the one on favorite baseball memories, simply because I was so glad and a little surprised at all of the ones I got back. I was expecting some from some of the bloggers I’d been in contact with before, but I was pleasantly surprised when I heard from some big-name writers and/or editors like Joe Posnanski, Howard Megdal and John Manuel. Besides, it was just cool to see all those memories.
Stupidest Post
This one. What was I thinking?
Most hilarious-in-hindsight post
The time I wrote an obituary for the 2012 Baltimore Orioles’ playoff hopes.
The One With the Most Photos
Probably the post on the Pepsi Legends game.
The post that got the most attention in my hometown
The Rochester Red Wings tweeted and Facebooked about my post about Jeff Clement and a miracle comeback.
The one that got the most attention in Hollywood
My recent post on Parks and Recreation‘s tie-in book got the attention of both show co-creator Michael Schur and Mets reliever David Aardsma.
And finally…
Thanks to everyone who has been reading the Continuum, promoting/linking to it, and helping to make it possible! The best is yet to come, and here’s to 1,000 more!
I missed it due to being out of town at the time, but I contributed an article to Baseball de World’s charity blogathon, so check it out- it’s about my favorite baseball memories.
You may remember the two Marvel giveaway comics, and you may remember how Chris Eliopoulos, who wrote the first comic, had a brief Twitter conversation with me.
Well, a few days ago I heard from another person involved with the comics: Christopher Hill, who helped make the deals that got those comics made in the first place and also did some of the writing. With his permission, I’m putting up what he sent me, with only one edit (removing a link to the comic overview, which I already posted higher up):
A friend just sent me a link to your blog articles on the books we did with Marvel. Thanks for taking the time. Great article.We had fun writing those. Tough to pack so much in to a few pages, but we had a good time doing it. The boy on Hulk’s shoulder is based on my son. My favorite thing I have written! Glad you liked them.We are working on a few new things in MiLB and MLB so I may circle back to borrow some of your ideas for future books! – ChrisPS – For those new things you can find me quietly on twitter @mPrintComics
Just a bit of a heads up: my Twitter account has been suspended for some reason. I’m not sure why, since I only tweet out sports stuff and the occasional popular culture quip, but somehow I’ve been suspended. Obviously, this was done in error, and I am trying to get it fixed and back to running as normal.
Thanks for understanding.
Some of you may be wondering what the next installments of Bizarre Baseball Culture will be. Well, here’s a little sneak preview- not really giving out exactly what and exactly when, but some good hints:
Actual Books: There hasn’t been a Bizarre Baseball Culture on fully-written material since the short story that acted as a prologue to this feature. That will soon change, as I am currently reading two books that fit into the realm of Bizarre Baseball Culture. One of them involves time travel, the other involves the Frankenstein Monster. I’m not sure what one I will do, but one of these WILL be the next installment.
Ultimate Sports Force: At the turn of the century, there was a comic company called Ultimate Sports Force that made it’s name making giveaway comics that depicted athletes as actually being superheroes. I have obtained some of these comics, and I can confirm they are as crazy as you could think. How crazy? Well, as I told Michael “Old Time Family Baseball” Clair on Twitter, one of them involves four members of the New York Yankees fighting off meteor-monsters by order of Cal Ripken Jr. and the United States Military. Go back and read that sentence again, and not look for the pieces of your mind, as it has just been blown. Expect to see some Ultimate Sports Force comics between now and winter, although I’m not quite sure of the order yet.
Public Domain Comics: The backbone of early Bizarre Baseball Culture installments, there still are some tales left to tell from way back. There is, however, one public domain story I will not be doing, at least anytime soon: a Captain Marvel Jr. story in which he goes and helps American POWs in a game against the Japanese. The reason I am not covering it is because it is incredibly racist, and even considering that it was a product of being in wartime, I don’t feel comfortable printing any images of it here.
Television: There are other television things I’ll be covering, both live action and cartoon. They will range from shorts like the Goofy segment to longer-form things like the Pokemon and the Pinky and the Brain episodes.
So, keep an eye open….
Do you have any suggestions for “Bizarre Baseball Culture”? Let me know.
The Baseball Card Haiku Project is going to be on a temporary hold over the next week or so. Sorry for the inconvenience.
The Baseball Continuum 