Hello everyone, it’s Dan Glickman, your writer and host here at the Baseball Continuum. Today, I am writing to let all of you know of an exciting and hopefully helpful upcoming event, to begin on January 29, 2016: The First Annual Baseball Continuum Blogathon for Charity!

What, exactly, is the blogathon? Well, it’s simple and takes a page out of the blogathons of some previous years held by Michael Clair over at Old Time Family Baseball. In essence, it is a collection of baseball content put together by people from across the baseball internet, all to raise awareness and funds for charity. Some might be big long articles, others might be short jokes, and still others could be works of art or music. But for two to three days (depending on participation), the Baseball Continuum will (hopefully) be stuffed to the gills with baseball content, and, more importantly, will help raise money for a worthy cause.

That “worthy cause” is one that I know has affected seemingly everyone: cancer. It’s likely that all of us have known somebody who has suffered from it, and too many of us have personally lost somebody we love. Just last year, for example, I lost my grandfather- a devout baseball fan- to a form of the disease. I first heard of his death just as the Wild Card game between the Royals and Athletics began, and only hours before I had been talking to him about who was going to win. I’m sure many of you have similar stories.

And so, in this inaugural year, all money raised will go to the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Roswell Park, located in Buffalo but with affiliations across New York and the world, is America’s oldest cancer center, specializing in research and treatment. The RPAF is rated four stars by Charitynavigator.com, and donations will, according to their website, be “put to immediate use to increase the pace from research trials into improved clinical care, to ensure state-of-the-art facilities, and to help improve the quality of life for patients and their families.” Fittingly, Roswell Park has a close relationship with the State University of New York at Buffalo, where my late grandfather studied to become a pharmacist. 

So, here’s how the Blogathon will work:

• On January 29, starting at midnight, I will be posting at least 24 new pieces of content on the Continuum. These will range from short stupid ditties to big long features.
• Then, starting on January 30 and going until we run out of stuff to run, some of the best baseball fans, writers, bloggers, artists and analysts on the internet will take over, bringing a caboodle of content that will hopefully inform, amuse, and entertain readers from around the web. If you are interested in contributing a piece, please e-mail me at djgwriter@yahoo.com with the subject title of “Blogathon” (or something similar to that) and I can give you further details. In addition, I will be reaching out to many of you in the coming days and weeks to see if you may be interested in contributing, so if you are a noted personality of Baseball Twitter or the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, check your in-box!
• At the end of the campaign, anybody who donated at least one dollar will be eligible to win prizes, such as a copy of the 2007 installment of the immortal comic book, AAA Baseball Heroes. If you have something baseball-related that you would like to contribute, please let me know through my e-mail, djgwriter@yahoo.com.
• Donations will open on a GoFundMe page about a week before the beginning of the blogathon and will close about a week after.

Thank you, and please look out in the coming weeks for more updates on the The First Annual Baseball Continuum Blogathon for Charity!