CODNP Day 100: Why Am I Doing This?

One hundred days.  100 days since we last saw baseball.  And every day since then, there’s been a post on this site.  It’s easily the longest series of posts I’ve ever done and the most consistent as well.  So we know what and when, but let’s figure out another answer–why?

There were a couple of reasons.  When I got the idea, I honestly didn’t think it’d be terribly long.  I knew it’d be longer than a couple of weeks, of course, but over three months and counting didn’t even enter my mind.  I wanted to provide some sort of content for people since there wouldn’t be much out there.  Now, given the stats on these posts and the downloads of the podcasts over the past few weeks, the content I’m providing isn’t exactly what a lot of people are looking for, but it’s something.

It also helps mark the time.  Time has such a weird quality these days.  The first weeks of quarantine seemed to drag by.  Now it still seems like forever since we’ve seen the Cardinals, but it also is hard to believe we are at the last third of June.  I think about some of the posts I’ve written in this series and think they were recent, only to see they were 20, 30, 50 days ago.  It’s been close to two weeks since my last random boxscore post and I would have been certain it was closer than that.  So, in some ways, for me it is a marker for how long this has actually gone on.

The biggest reason, though?  I was afraid if I didn’t, and there’s been a long stoppage, I’d never come back to it.  I’ve been blogging for almost 13 years, but the output over the last few years has been declining in numbers.  I’ve often said that blogging is a young man’s game and it shows.  More and more I tried to write a post that recapped a week of games instead of just the night before.  By the end of June last year, I had just 75 posts and 31 of those were the Playing Pepper series.  It was November before I reached 100 posts and for the year I had 154, buoyed by the Exit Interview and Top Cards on Twitter series.  To just sit and write regularly was–and is–something I haven’t been doing.

Like I said, though, I’ve been doing this for almost 13 years and I don’t really want to give it up.  Sure, I could retire the blog and focus giving my opinions on Meet Me at Musial or Gateway to Baseball Heaven when I’m not throwing them on Twitter, but I’ve always felt it works better to write these things out on a platform that lets you think about the topic, make your points, maybe argue with yourself a little bit.  You can do that some on a podcast but it’s more live and reactions to what my excellent cohosts have said.  Writing lets you order your thoughts a little more.  It should, anyway.

And I am just stubborn enough to keep something going when I’ve started it.  I could shut this series down and really no one would be the wiser.  If 20 people see this, it’ll be amazing.  But I’ll know I gave it up and I’m not quite willing to do that.  Honestly, it’s not been that bad.  Coming up with topics at times has been rough, but when you don’t have to wait until 10 to react to something, it allows you to write the next day’s post mid-afternoon or early evening.  Getting up at 5 to write about the night before’s game isn’t easy when you get to this age.

Someday we’ll hit the end of this.  Hopefully it’s in about a month when the players take the field for a real game.  If not, we’ll run it through the end of September, at least.  Not sure if I want to try to go through the playoffs, but it’s a possibility.  Which means if you’ve got ideas and topics I should keep in mind for days when there’s no news, please send them along.  I’m really going to need them if there is no baseball!

Series Navigation<< CODNP Day 99: The Cardboard Lives of Ozzie Smith, Part IICODNP Day 101: Father’s Day >>

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NL Central Standings

TeamWLPct.GB
Cardinals9369.574 -
Brewers8676.5317.0
Cubs7488.45719.0
Reds62100.38331.0
Pirates62100.38331.0

Last updated: 10/06/2022

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