I can't help myself

Let's call it a "soft launch"

I know I said when announcing this newsletter yesterday that it would not launch until Monday. And, really, I’m not actually launching it yet. I am not dealing with actual baseball news and scores and things before then. I’m still shaking off the NBC job ending and feel like I deserve a full two weeks before going back to the grind.

But (a) I sort of want to do a shakedown cruise with the tech of this thing — I’ve used WordPress for like a decade and there are differences here — and (b) I’m kinda excited to talk to all of you. Excited because yesterday’s signups were super encouraging.

No, we are not yet up to the number of paying subscribers necessary for me to set fire to my resumé, but it was a good day and we have a nice foundation from which to reach for sustainability. Thank you so much, everyone who subscribed. And to everyone who signed up for free, which suggests a willingness to give me a chance. I’m gonna continue to pitch a subscription to y’all, but I appreciate you kicking the tires.

In the meantime, I’m feeling nostalgic, so I thought I’d share something fun with you.

The Birth of And That Happened

I started my original baseball blog, Shysterball, in April of 2007. As I’ve written elsewhere, it was a lark. An escape from the daily grind of my law firm. For the first year of it, I would share a lot of silly things and would almost go out of my way not to talk about baseball in a straightforward manner. I’d write about books and plays with baseball themes and talk about celebrities who themselves talked about baseball and all manner of stuff that was merely tangential to the game. Partially because it was fun, but mostly because I didn’t think I had much standing to talk like I worked for ESPN or something and to take on the game head-on. I was sitting in an office procrastinating. Who the hell was I?

At the beginning of the 2008 season, though, I decided that I should remedy that and set out to do daily recaps of the games from the night before. I struggled with what to call it, but that struggle ended in late March when the Boston Red Sox took on the Oakland Athletics in the Japan Series that opened that season.

An American guy at the game was sitting right behind home plate and he filmed some of it on his phone, offering his own commentary. The video soon went viral:

Guy: “And Dustin Pedroia — or Pedoria, I’m not quite sure — but he’s number 15 and he’s up right now and let’s see what happens when the person pitching starts off the inning”

*pitch delivered; nothing happens*

Guy: “Annnnd, that happened.”

Note: We’d later find out that the commentator was rock star John Mayer of all people. Either way, it was absolutely silly. It just struck me as completely absurd. But it also struck me as a perfect name for a baseball recap feature that was also going to be done by a guy completely unqualified for the job, so my recaps became “And That Happened.”

I launched And That Happened when the non-Japan portion of the 2008 regular season began. That entire season they appeared on Shysterball, and in 2009 they migrated to The HardballTimes when Shysterball moved over there.

In 2010, after I transformed from part-time to full-time at NBC, I began doing it there. No one ever asked me to. I just figured it was good content so I decided to keep it up. For what it’s worth, I don’t think NBC ever liked the name of it. In my last couple of years there they tried to convince me to change it because it was terrible for SEO. They weren’t jerks about it — no one ever ordered me to change it — but some days, after it had been up for a couple of hours, I’d notice that some editor had gone in and changed how it displayed on the main page, just calling it “scores and highlights” or something. Hey, they had a job to do. If I wasn’t going to optimize my posts for search engines, someone had to.

A great thing about newsletters? No need for SEO. Not that I would care about it even if there was a need for it. If you know anything about me, you know that I’m kind of stubborn. So “And That Happened” will live on. At least until I die or retire. At which point someone will hopefully steal it from me like I stole it from John Mayer.

I think Blogspot ate my first few And That Happeneds, but below is one of the super early ones. It’s from April 14, 2008, talking about the Sunday games the day before. Well, most of them. For the first month or two, rather than recap all 15 games, I’d just do a smattering of the ones that interested me, so there were only 10 here. There are days I still think I should do that but I’ll continue to do ‘em all. Seems lazy not to.

I also talked about the fact that I went to a damn Hank Williams Jr./Lynyrd Skynyrd concert the night before. I’d do a lot more of that sort of thing before I went to NBC. Chatting about my day. Movies I’d seen the night before, stuff I was doing in my life. I cut that out to some degree at NBC too, but not that much. I’ll probably do more of that here. I’m the boss now.

As for the concert: I only vaguely remember it now. Someone at my office had tickets for it and a few of us decided it’d be fun. Apparently it was. This, of course, was back before I thought too hard about the ethics of the performers I’d go to see. If I were writing this again I’d go way easier on Skynyrd — they just wanted to play music, man — and much harder on Bocephus given the kinds of things he’s said over the years. But eh, I was young.

MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2008

And That Happened

Cubs 6, Phillies 5: I started watching this one but I fell asleep on the couch. Not because it was a boring game or anything, but because I didn't get much sleep on Saturday night what with going to the Hank Williams Jr./Lynyrd Skynyrd concert here in Columbus. That's right, wanna make something of it? And I'm not gonna lie to you: Bocephus was pretty awesome. I used to hate his rebop back when I was forced to listen to it on the junior high school bus every morning down in West-by-God, but it was a nice little nostalgia trip the other night, even if the impulse to go in the first place was an ironic one.

Skynyrd? A study in necrophilia, really, with the lineup and the aesthetics of it all making it feel like a show put on by a cut-rate tribute band, which to be fair is what they are these days. Awkward moment: after they closed the main set with "What's Your Name" and left the stage, people started clapping and chanting and flicking their Bics. If it were any other band, I would have taken a swig of my Budweiser, reared back, and offered an ironic call for "Freebird." Knowing that was exactly what was coming, however, I was at an utter loss. Yes, the triple guitar attack was as enjoyable as it was inevitable, but I couldn't help but walk away feeling like I was ripped off somehow.

Red Sox 8, Yankees 5, game time 3:55: I turned this one on at 8pm. The first inning ended at 8:44, and the rest of the game wasn't all that lickety split either. Dice K walked 6 and threw 116 pitches in 5 innings. That's good enough to get the win, though, given Phil Hughes' 2 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, and 3 BB. His ERA is now up to 9.00. You just can't count on young pitching.

Nationals 5, Braves 4: Everyone knew going in that the health and age of the rotation was going to be an issue. Now you can add Glavine's hamstring to Smoltz's shoulder and Mike Hampton's osteogenesis imperfecta. You just can't count on old pitching.

Brewers 9, Mets 7: This time last year, Gabe Kapler was managing in the Sally League . Yesterday? 3-4, 3 RBI, 2 2B, HR.

Indians 7, A's 1: Cliff Lee (8 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 8 K) gave the Tribe so much nothin' last season that it's easy to forget that he won 18 games a few years ago. The season, she is young, but so far Lee is 2-0, 0.61 ERA with 12 Ks in 14 IP. Even a league average season from him will be a marked improvement for Cleveland.

White Sox 11, Tigers 0: Probably the low point so far, or at least the Tigers hope so. Javier Vazquez (7 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 9 K) would normally get more props from me in this space, but c'mon, it's Detroit we're talking about here. The Tigers, by the way, have been outscored 32-11 since their big breakthrough win against the Red Sox on Wednesday. “I feel like everybody’s laughing right now,” Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera said. Laughing? I'd say we passed that point a couple of days ago. This is like watching a horrific car accident.

Royals 5, Twins 1: It may hurt a lot now, but someday Margo Posnanski is going to get lots of laughs at cocktail parties when she tells the story of how her husband left her for a 27 year-old pitcher from Scottsdale (9 IP, 0ER, 3H).

Pirates 9, Reds 1: Johnny Cueto is human after all (6 IP, 5 H, 5 ER). Hard to say how he's going to progress this season. On the one hand, he's given up four dingers in his first three starts, and seems to have some focus problems with men on base. On the other hand, brother still has a 24-1 K/BB ratio in his first 19 IP.

Giants 7, Cardinals 4: Joel Pineiro gave up 10 hits and 6 runs and didn't strike anyone out in less than 4 innings. Question: were the Giants batters just locked in, or is Pineiro's shoulder still bothering him? Answer: As soon as Pineiro left the game, Cardinals relievers gave up only 2 hits and a single run over 4.1 IP. Not that it mattered in this game, as Lincecum struck out 11 over six innings to pick up the W.

Padres 1, Dodgers 0: Mid-90s on the thermometer, mid-40s on the odometer, and mid-80s on the Jugs gun are why Maddux only went five innings, but oh what a nice five innings they were (5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER).

POSTED BY CRAIG CALCATERRA AT 5:30 AM