It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

Seven thousand three hundred sixty days ago, I sat in an apartment in upper Manhattan and typed these words into Blogger:

This will be a continuation of a bloggish thing I did at this site. My other website is dedicated to the 1918 Red Sox and the book I wrote about that team and season.

Back in 2001, around the time that "1918" came out, I started a website dedicated to Pedro Martinez. While working on the book, I was unable to root for the Red Sox (because if they actually managed to win it all, no one in the world would give a shit about the 1918 team). It was my good luck to not have my team break my heart by winning and as soon as I could, I embraced my fandom like never before.

It was, more or less, perfect timing. Major League Baseball was just starting to provide access to every team's radio broadcasts. I started listening to Red Sox radio broadcasts via my desktop computer in 2001. MLBTV would soon follow.

I started the Pedro site (pedro45.net) solely for my own amusement -- and anyone that stumbled upon it. One part of the site gathered links to Red Sox articles and a snip from each one. That pre-blog blog started on February 9, 2001, with . The first post of what would evolve into "Schadenfreude: A Continuing Series" appeared on November 5, 2001. With few exceptions, I did not add my two cents to the links/snip format for two seasons. On March 1, 2003, I started writing short posts, loaded with links.  (Who could have imagined that the next two seasons would be the absolute pinnacle of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry?) Also, it's no surprise my complaints about the Boston media and the Red Sox manager were there from the very start. (I was, for a while, forbidden from uttering the words "Jimy" and "Williams" while my partner was home.)

"The Joy of Sox" was the second possibility when I wondered what to call this new forum. My first thought was "Tagging on Evans", a phrase I remember well from listening to radio broadcasts as a teenager in the late 1970s. "The Joy of Sox" is a far superior name, not tied to any era or player.

Posts from the 2004 season were a mix of baseball and 9/11 research. Initially, I offered no option to comment, but I changed that in 2005. Gamethreads emerged rather quickly -- and they were never better than in 2007.

The first (and only) Josapalooza was held at Fenway Park on July 28, 2009. I purchased a block of 20 seats in the left field upper deck. I wanted to have t-shirts made, but I ended up designed a game program with everyone's name/avatar on the back and a scorecard inside.

When the Red Sox fell out of contention early in the 2012 season, I had the brilliant idea to stop wasting three hours every evening watching the Red Sox lose. This would happen again in various seasons.

I have always said that if writing this blog ever became like a job, actual work rather than something I enjoy, I would stop. There have been several winters when I thought it was over, but I always rebounded in the spring. On February 12, 2021, I announced that I would no longer be doing regular season game recaps.

I no longer worry about watching the Red Sox every day, of immersing myself completely in their current season so if they do win it all, I'll have gone through the full experience. I don't need to do that any more and, if I'm being honest, I really don't want to. Fifteen years ago, following the team was a part-time job even on the slowest days. 

My main reason for watching the Red Sox now is because I enjoy watching the Red Sox. There's only one problem. I don't enjoy watching the Red Sox in the manner in which the games are presented to me.

If you have been reading my posts for a while, you are undoubtedly familiar with my ever-growing list of grievances, my numerous complaints, about MLB and NESN. In brief: I have zero patience for gaffe-prone announcers who remain blissfully ignorant of their nightly missteps or who mail it in so often their face should be on a stamp; the incessant advertising makes me sick; and while the slower pace-of-play bothers me, MLB's refusal to intelligently deal with it annoys me much more, because MLB cannot do anything without somehow fucking things up and Rob Manfred's crusade to trash the fundamental competitive structure of the game by adding gimmicky rules better suited to beer-league softball, none of which will solve the problems he claims he wants to solve, and all of which causes me headache-level infuriation, as well as a profound sadness over the clear realization that I've already begun losing one of the few things I've loved for nearly my entire life.

Also: I switched time zones two seasons ago (Eastern to Pacific) and added a fourth day to my work schedule. Now, night games usually begin at 4 PM and weekend day games start before noon. Watching every game is not a priority and these earlier start times don't make it any easier. . . . 

Almost three seasons later, my attitude is unchanged. But in an unexpected twist, it is watching (and accepting) baseball as it exists in 2023 that has become a burden. I truly hate how the rules of the game have been perverted in the last five years.

I have not abandoned baseball. Baseball has abandoned me. I want to watch a baseball game in which managers can position their fielders wherever they want, use their available players in the manner they believe is best, and I want the same rules to apply for the entire game. I watched that type of game for more than four decades. I loved that game. But that game is gone . . . and it's never coming back.

This is my 9,307th post at The Joy of Sox and it should be my last.

Except . . .

I am not about to never read anything about baseball again. There will be times when I need to rant about MLB, or post crazy linescores and factoids, or share my happiness at the Yankees' misfortune. When the writing project I mentioned in 2021 results in an actual physical book, I'd like to have a little spot at which to promote it, where it might be seen by more than a few people. And what if the 2025 Red Sox are blazing their way to a 117-45 record? Could I stay away?

The Joy of Sox has likely run its course OR it might be merely going into a deeper hiatus. I'll still post occasionally, perhaps bring game recaps back for the World Series. I will definitely have something to say as we approach the exact date we greet out Robot Umpire overlords.

My main outlet for writing will be Writer. Reader. Grouch.