Have you been experiencing any issues lately using this site? What type of issues have you experienced? And, for how long? Thanks in advance for what you can share!

Hey, if your name is on this list, and you haven’t been left a comment here lately, why not say hello now?

Who’s still with me?

Here’s the story.

As mentioned previously, this is it for me.

Outside of an occasional book review, I don’t see myself posting much here going forward.

It’s been fun sharing the last seven Yankees seasons with you.  And, thanks for your interest, support and feedback over the years.  It’s all been very much appreciated!

As promised, if you want to continue Yankees-talk with the friends that you’ve made here, please feel free to use the forum set up for that.  (And, I may just  pop in there from time to time as well.)

And, of course, you can still follow my work at the B-R.com Blog – as I will continue to make contributions there.

Hasta amigos!

I’ve been writing this blog since April 20, 2005. This means, over the past 6 1/2 years, I’ve covered the last seven Yankees seasons at WasWatching.com.

That’s a long time.

I know that, several times in the past, I’ve talked about hanging them up. And, I have, somewhat recently, slowed down my pace in terms of posts to this blog.

In any event, now, I think the time has come for me to shut it down. Related, I expect this to be my last month writing here – and October 31st will be it for me.

Why? I don’t have the will to deal with more years of the Yankees Front Office.

Hal Steinbrenner is a paper tiger and shell of what his father was – and nothing like him on the inside. Hank Steinbrenner is the ‘Gob’ Bluth of the Steinbrenner family. Those two, like the rest of the Steinbrenner kids and their spouses, just care about the team making tons of money – and they’re fine with allowing Randy Levine, Lonn Trost and Brian Cashman run the show.

Ah, Levine, Trost and Cashman…

Where to start with those three? Heck, I’ll just cut to the chase and say that these three are the kings of “CYA” and ensuring that they insulate themselves more and more to the point where no one can touch them. If Levine, Trost and Cashman were dropped into a tank with nine Great White Sharks, I would not wager a dime on the fish. Levine would talk three of them to death. Trost would bore three of them death. And, Cashman would sign the last three to $40 million five-year contracts to pitch in Double-A, in exchange for letting him live.

Now, I know that the Steinbrenner kids aren’t going anywhere. Also, Levine and Trost will always have jobs with the Yankees as long as the Steinbrenner family owns the team. So, there’s not much hope for a change there.

To be candid, and this should not be a surprise to anyone who has been reading this blog for a while, I had hoped that this would be the last year for Brian Cashman. However, it looks like he will get a new deal with the team – after his current contract expires on October 31st.

In a word: Ugh.

Don’t get me wrong. I am still a Yankees fan. I will watch and attend the games. I will root for the team to win. And, I will be upset when they lose.

It’s just that I cannot see myself wanting to write about them anymore – since their Front Office is the same old story…for the last five years…or maybe longer.

Hey, it’s been a great ride. And, my many, many, thanks to all those who have read this blog and shared great comments and feedback, etc. I will sincerely miss interacting with you.

For what it’s worth, I will be continuing to add content to the blog at Baseball-Reference.com, if you would like to follow my work there.

But, unless the Yankees make a change – and the only one that can happen now is Brian Cashman – I don’t see anything giving me the juice to go for another season on writing about the Yankees. In the meantime, the next two weeks should be it for me.

First, thanks to those who have taken the time to complete our recent reader survey!

It’s still open. And, if you haven’t taken it yet, and you are interested, click here to take it.

Second, some background on why I launched the survey.

I was thinking about this blog the other day, and it hit me that I’ve been doing this for seven seasons now. That’s a long time. How many other Yankees-related blog out there have been at it for the last seven seasons? You can probably count them on one hand.

Pondering this, I started to consider hanging them up at the end of this year. And, then I thought “Why wait for tomorrow…?” After all, what’s the difference, two or three months? But, before I made that call, I wondered what people thought about this blog, these days.

(more…)

For the last two weeks or so, depending on your browser settings, etc., you may have seen a bunch of garbage on this site referencing Viagra Dosage, Viagra Price, Buy Viagra, etc.

Please accept our apologies for any inconveniences and/or disturbances which this situation may have caused you. Someone first brought it to my attention on April 8th. But, I didn’t see it, myself, with my own eyes, until today.

It’s fixed now.

Six years ago today, WasWatching.com was born.

Six years of blogging on the Yankees?  Yup, it’s true.

Wow. Thanks to all for their interest in WasWatching.com over these past 2,191 days and 10,841 entries. Man, the time has gone by fast…

When I started writing this blog, back in April of 2005 – which was 2,110 days ago, if you haven’t been counting – my life was so much different. My book had just published. I was 42-years old. I had been on my (then) job for six years. My kids were not yet one and three years old. And, there were maybe a handful of other people seriously blogging about the Yankees.

Today, nearly six years after I started writing this blog, things are so much different. I’m now 48-years old. I just started a new job. My kids are soon to be seven and nine years old and involved in so many more things today than when they were babies. There are more Yankees bloggers out there than I care to count. Even the Yankees have changed – the owners, the front office, the players, the ballpark, etc. – from those Yankees teams of the ’70′s, ’80′s, ’90′s and early 2000′s that I loved so much. (More to come on that on a later date.)

And, my “status” in the Yankees (and general baseball) Blogosphere has changed. When I started, and in the first few years that followed, the majority of my “followers” were fans of my work. Today, the majority of those who follow this blog do so because they despise my opinion and want fuel to rip me on Twitter and other blogs. (This doesn’t bother me as much as many may think. It’s the American way. Build someone up and then tear them down. Just about anyone who has achieved a somewhat high profile in the public eye has experienced this to some extent.)

Lastly, in addition to family, work, age, the Yankees, the following of this blog, my personal interests have changed. (This has been snowballing for the past four years or so.) These days, in my “free time,” I am much more interested in learning more about nutrition, fitness and health than I am about writing about the Yankees. In fact, one of my goals is to spend less time playing around on a computer – after all, as a society, we spend way too much time in front of electronic devices – and using what time I am “on-line” more focused on items that are more important than sharing my opinion on Yankees-related matters.

I’m not saying that I’m completely done with all this – or that this blog is shutting down. There are other authors here, since February 2010, besides me. But, while I have shared in the past that it may be time for me to scale down on this operation, at this junction, more than ever, I think it’s time. Times change. Things change. People change. If it didn’t, I’d be wearing bell bottom jeans, sporting a David Cassidy shag hair-style, and rooting for Otto Velez to take Roger Moret downtown right now.

Yeah, I know, ten cubed equals one thousand…not two.

But, today is 10/10/10 – and that’s sorta like ten cubed. And, today is the 2,000th day that WasWatching.com has been in existence. Hence, “When Ten Cubed Equals Two Large.”

Two thousand days…and I don’t even want to think about how many hours over those days…it’s been alotta time. A whole heap of alotta time.

I started this blog as an outlet. A vehicle to share in the celebration of things in Yankeeland that I found enjoyable. Also, a mechanism to facilitate some venting on Yankees-related items that I found unpleasing. In the process, over these past five and a half years, I’ve also put myself “out there” to a fair degree…allowing many to get to know me, somewhat, through my sundry posts these last 2,000 days.

For the most part, it’s been a very interesting and fun journey. And, for sure, it’s been a learning experience. Related, whether you’ve been reading this blog for the last 5 1/2 years or for some portion of time less than that, please accept my thanks for your contribution towards those results.

Good lookin’ out. And, may you always hang wit’em.

Nope. I’m going…just for a tad.

Programming note: I’ve decided to take a tiny respite from blogging about the Yankees over the next three days or so – but “I’ll be back!” – for sure – when they return to New York for their next, and big, homestand. In the meantime, you’ll be in the capable hands of the other contributors here. Syotos for now.

I am thinking about adding a photos page to WasWatching.com.

One part of it would be where we could display photos of the authors and readers here, if they desire, so that we can put a face with the name – again, if that’s something the author or reader wanted to do. And, hopefully, they’d be in some sort of Yankees attire or setting.

The other part would be for Yankees-related photos that are unique and interesting – sort of like what they do at Fantography.net.

Again, I stress, I’m just thinking about it now. They key factor would be if anyone had any interest in such a thing. So, what do you say? And, thanks in advance for your feedback.

For those using a mobile browser to access the site, FYI, I had to take that app down. It was causing some issues for the site. I hope to have it back up and running soon.

Today is the 1,952th day that this blog has existed. And, this is the 10,000th post published in its history.

These are very big numbers – more than I ever imagined to be possible, back on April 20, 2005.

So, thanks to all for their interest in WasWatching.com over this time. If you keep showing up, I’ll be here with something for you. Lastly, please, keep the comments coming. Those, along with the visitor counts, keep reminding that I’m not spending a lot of time here doing something absent of reason. As long as my fellow Yankees and/or baseball fans get something out of this, that’s a great reason to keep doing it.

Following up on the news from two days ago, we have more great news to share. Yes, we’ve added another author to the team here.

Joseph Maloney – who some may know via comments left here under the user name “Joseph M” – has agreed to provide some content to the blog going forward.

For more information on Joseph Maloney’s background, or to see our other author bios, please see this link.

And, please join me in welcoming Joseph to the WasWatching.com team!

Back in February, we added some additional authors to this blog for the first time. And, I’m now very pleased to announce that we’ve added another one to the team!

Jim TreshFan – who many know via sundry comments left here under the handle “Tresh Fan” – has agreed to provide some content to the blog going forward.

For more information on Jim TreshFan’s background, or for the skinny on any of our authors, please see this link.

Please join me in welcoming Jim to the WasWatching.com team!

Out of curiosity, I just noticed that WasWatching.com is currently among the Top 50 Baseball Blogs on Technorati and among the Top 100 Baseball Blogs on BallHype. Not too shabby.

That said, this does mark a good time to go all Bartles & Jaymes on ‘ya and say “… and thank you for your support…and for having an interest in WasWatching.com…”

It was five years ago today that I launched WasWatching.com.

Five years is a long time. If the clock on adulthood starts when school ends and working full-time begins, then this blog has been around for 20% of my adult life.

How many hours have I spent working on WasWatching.com during that time? Personally, I would say that 4,000 hours would be a conservative estimate. And, I wonder how many people have ever spent 4,000 hours working on one single project over a five year period?

In any event, it’s been an interesting journey. If you’ve been along for the ride, I hope that you’ve enjoyed some or most of it. I do appreciate those who are the long-time and/or frequent readers of WasWatching.com. It’s been fun to be in your company, for sure.

I sincerely intend on doing this for another year – covering the 2010 season.

After that, who knows? My priorities have changed quite a bit since 2005. And, there are several other projects that I’ve always wanted to tackle. But, for now, I’m still interested in doing this for a bit more.

So, I guess that’s good news for fans of this blog and not so good news for those who don’t like it. But, it’s news, nonetheless, as the title of this entry suggests.

I have some news to share today. Effective March 1, 2010, WasWatching.com will no longer be a member of the blog network for SportsNet New York’s official website, SNY.tv. This is an amicable conclusion to my contractual relationship with SNY.tv.

Being part of the network for the past two years was a very good experience. Specifically, collaborating with people like Fred Harner, Ted Berg, Matt Cerrone, and Jeff Goldman (and his team) was a pure pleasure. It was an honor to have an affiliation with such a talented crew. Further, while I met them through “business” when I first joined the network, I later came to consider them as friends. And, today, nothing has brought cause for me to change that view. Naturally, I remain a fan of their work and wish them continued success going forward.

This has been a month of transfiguration for WasWatching.com – adding additional authors, updating our look, and ending our affiliation with the SNY.tv blog network.

Personally, I find this all very exciting. In some ways, it’s a reengineering for WasWatching.com. I hope you find these modifications as invigorating as they are for me.

I’m going home,
and when I want to go home, I’m going mobile.
Well, I’m gonna find a home on wheels, see how it feels,
Goin’ mobile.
Keep me moving…

Sorry that, for the last two weeks, WasWatching.com was not working for many when using a Mobile Browser. The issue has been corrected this evening. (Thanks to WW reader “Justin G.” for the heads-up on the issue.)

One month ago, I shared that “there’s going to be three major changes to WasWatching.com – with the intent being to improve the blog.” And, last weekend I was able to share the news behind the first of those three changes.

The second major change to WasWatching.com arrives today – as you can see. We’ve updated the look of the blog with a custom theme via the good folks at Beers Design. There’s been a lot of work behind this effort over the last month. And, of course, my thanks to Beers Design for making this happen. In terms of asking the right questions, actively listening to the client, and providing consulting expertise, Beers Design hits a homerun on every swing. They’re extremely professional. And, they also excel at relating one-on-one with the client giving a personal touch to every interaction. If you’re ever in need of a custom websites and/or WordPress theme, I highly recommend using Beers Design.

Speaking WasWatching.com’s look, this is also a perfect time to once again thank Pete Mrsich for all his great work over the last three years on various WasWatching.com graphics – including our current banner. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: It’s always been a pleasure to partner with Pete on these projects. And, if you’re ever in need of a talented graphic artist, I highly recommend Pete Mrsich.

The look of this blog has come a long way in the last 4 years and 10 months, huh? Remember what it looked like back in the beginning?

A long way…indeed.

I sincerely hope you like our updated look. And, again, a million thanks to Beers Design and Pete Mrsich for all their creative efforts behind getting us to where we are today.

One more “change” to announce…coming soon…within the next two or three weeks. Stay tuned!

About three weeks ago, I shared that “there’s going to be three major changes to WasWatching.com – with the intent being to improve the blog.” And, today, I can now proudly share the details around one of those changes.

For the first five years of WasWatching.com, sans an anomalous and sporadic guest contribution, I was the singular voice of this blog. However, begining in Feburary 2010, there will be others contributing content here. Here’s the roster of who will be coming onboard:

• Andy K.
• Corey Italiano
• Dan LaTorraca
• Jeff F.
• “Jeteupthemiddle” Allie
• MJ Recanati
• Phil Allard
• Sean McNally

For more on the background of each if these authors, please see their “bio” information via this link.

To me, this is one of the most exciting updates to WasWatching.com in the last few years. While the posting frequency of these additional authors will vary contingent to their availability, the contributions from them will greatly add to the reader experience here. When I look at the diverse skills and backgrounds of this collective, I imagine all sorts of wonderful opinion, insight, analysis and energy being added to WasWatching.com. Expect to see them writing about all things Yankees-related…including, but not limited to, news and current events, franchise history, the minor leagues, and the Yankees fan experience.

Since the views and opinions of these authors may sometimes differ from my own, with respect to several Yankees topics, the synergistic effect of adding them to my voice (here) will greatly benefit the scope of content to be found at WasWatching.com.

See why I’m so excited? I feel like it’s the day before Opening Day following an off-season where I’ve just added an All-Star to my team at every starting position.

Please join me in welcoming Allie, Andy, Corey, Dan, Jeff, MJ, Phil and Sean to the WasWatching.com team!

I’m not sure how Mark Newman runs the numbers, but, WasWatching.com ranked 5th, overall, on his lists in the category of “MLB PRO” blogs for 2009.

I’m pretty sure that you have to take this in context – because I’ve seen some numbers that suggest these rankings would be different if some other sites were included. But, just to be in the Top 100 is an honor, as far as I am concerned.

Related, a always, thanks to all for their interest in WasWatching.com!

And, don’t forget – we have some exciting news about the blog coming in the next month or so. Stay tuned for more on that.

I have some very good news to share. Within the next 60 days (or so) there’s going to be three major changes to WasWatching.com – with the intent being to improve the blog, of course. Call me a tease, if you want, but, I’m not going to share the details on this until we get closer to the “reboot” (for lack of a better word). But, I did want to share that there’s a lot of work going on now, behind the scenes, to make all of these three items become a reality – as soon as possible.

As always, thanks to all for their interest in WasWatching.com!

Today, this blog is 1,630 days old. And, in that time, there have been 8,155 posts made to the blog – prior to this one. And, 99.99% of those posts have been made by me.

What’s that average out to? It’s 5 posts per day, everyday, for the last four years, five months, and two weeks.

How many hours of my life has been spent doing this? It has to be at least 2,000 – probably more. Actually, if you told me it was 3,000 hours, I wouldn’t be able to defend against it.

O.K., I’ll just hang up now and listen to your reaction to that…

As shared in past comments, my “Essential Baseball Library” recommendations have been added to WasWatching.com. Click here to see it.

A few comments on this:

1. It’s limited to books that I’ve personally read and/or have used for reference. Therefore, if there’s a notable work out there that seems like it’s missing – i.e., “Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero by Leigh Montville” or “Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life by Richard Ben Cramer” – it’s because I haven’t read it (yet).

2. If it seems like the list is heavy towards the time period 1980-2009, there’s a reason for that: My date of birth. Granted, it would be nice to have more works listed here covering the time period pre-1980. However, I was 17-years old in 1980 – and, until that time, I was more into playing and watching baseball than reading about it. It wasn’t until I was in college, and thereafter, that reading about baseball became one of my favorite baseball-related activities. As such, I was more likely to read baseball books released after 1980, etc.

3. Some of the books listed have publication dates that differ from what you might see in other sources. Basically, for the most part, I listed the publication dates as they appear in the copies of these books that are in my possession.

4. I decided to exclude “annual” baseball books from this list – although there are many great ones, especially the old Bill James Abstracts. Perhaps, at a later date, I’ll decide to include them on the list.

5. Related to the above, this list is very fluid – and a work in progress. And, I’ll be updating it appropriately, as needed.

Please feel free to use the comments section below to discuss this list – and thanks in advance for your interest and feedback on it.

A few members of the WasWatching.com Community have offered to become “Yankees News Aggregators” for this blog – and, soon, you will begin to see them posting WasWatching.com entries with links to Yankees-related news items.

How will you know it’s “them” when reading a post? Simple, you’ll see a closing with:

“- Posted by X”
[Where "X" is their name]

at the end of their entry.

My thanks to these members for adding to the big role they already have in the WasWatching.com Community.

And, I hope that the readers of WasWatching.com enjoy this additional content shared by our “Yankees News Aggregators.”

Within the last week, there have been a few citing of WasWatching.com elsewhere on the internet.

On July 11, 2009, Rob Neyer referenced a WasWatching.com feature on his ESPN.com Blog SweetSpot.

On July 14, 2009, Marc Carig referenced a WasWatching.com feature on his Yankees Blog at The Star-Leger.

And, on July 16, 2009, Bob Klapisch referenced a WasWatching.com feature in his column for the Bergen Record.

So, I thought it was proper to express my thanks to Rob, Marc and Bob for their interest in these recent WasWatching.com features and to also remind the readers here to check out their excellent work as well.

To read Rob Neyer’s SweetSpot Blog at ESPN.com, click here.

To read Marc Carig’s Yankees Blog at The Star-Leger, click here.

To read Bob Klapisch in the Bergen Record, click here.

Since I’ve shared some stats in the past with respect to this blog’s traffic when we had exciting news, I thought it was only fair to also share the news when it was not so exciting…

After starting the blog back in April 2005, right away, an increase in site traffic occured – thanks to many kind folks spreading the word, etc. Further, while I’m not 100% sure, I want to say it was around March of 2007 when traffic here peaked and was pretty steady from there out.

In fact, I can confirm that, from May 2008 through January 2009, the numbers were nice and very steady. And, for the point to made here, I’m going to use this 9-month period as a “baseline” with respect to traffic.

Now, from February 2009 through May 2009, traffic here started to slip, a bit, from the “baseline.” To put a number on it, I would say it averaged, during this 4-month period, to be “80% of the baseline.” And, while that was “down,” I wasn’t too concerned about it – since the overall numbers were fine (in my opinon) but just not as high as May 2008 through January 2009.

But, then came June 2009. Last month, traffic here was indeed “down.” To put a number on it, June 2009 was at 75% of the 4-month prior pace and at “60% of the baseline.” And, this is hard to ignore.

What does this all mean? Hey, it means this blog had a lot less traffic last month than it normally experiences. Why? While I have my theories, I thought I would ask you – the readers. Thanks in advance for anything that you care to share in the comments section below.