On Loving Baseball and Not Knowing How to Write About It

Here we are. The 2018 baseball season rapidly approaches and I haven't posted on this blog in a year or more. I want to, I really do. I know that you don't believe me, reader. My track record is so, so poor, but I'm here and I had an idea and I'm going to write it and we'll see where this all goes. Sound good? Okay.

The title pretty much says it all. I don't consider myself a baseball blogger. I like baseball, I like Tweeting about it and having commentary on it but I don't really know how to write about it. I'm not qualified. I understand the analytics, but I would never be able to write about them in a coherent way. I know the game, but I'm not a source or an insider and wouldn't have any new or exciting information to share. I don't know how to write about baseball. That's my situation.

Why now? I've been thinking about this a lot but even more so with spring training starting this week. I've had the opportunity to write for a new and important blog and in my little biography blurb on that post, I mention this blog. Let the second guessing begin. Are people going to click on that link and come here and be all, "This is a joke, right?" Did you, reader, come from that site and stumble upon this post? If so, I'm sorry, and I hope you will stick around for what's to come.

Not to mention, and don't crucify me for saying this, I'm not feeling that excited for the upcoming season. I still love the Tigers; I always will. They're my team. Obviously, we aren't going to be that good this year and that's fine. That's not what's affecting my interest. I'm feeling not that excited because I don't know how much I'll actually be able to watch and experience the season. Is that a valid enough reason? (Why do I feel such a strong need for validity?) I don't have a TV at home and my internet isn't reliable enough to really stream games. If I'm still at my current job during the season, I work a lot of evenings and I don't always feel like going to other places to catch the game afterwards. I just want to go home. You understand that, don't you? I love watching games and I wish I could watch more. Not to mention, that would really help out with my whole, you know, blogging about baseball thing. I admit, I feel like somewhat of a fraud for having a partially themed baseball blog and not watching a majority of the games.

I don't want to switch this to a purely book-related blog because I really like the name of it. Is that a good enough reason? (Again with the validity!? Come on, Allison.) Books and Balks. It started as a new Twitter handle that combined my two favorite things at the time. It stuck. What would a semi-defunct blog called Books and Balks be if it were absent of Balks? I want to be more creative, more inventive with my posts. I don't want to rely on weekly baseball recaps and book reviews just to get content into the world. I want to be more than that. I have some ideas rolling around in my head and I hope that I can eventually be able to pluck them out and translate them into, well, a readable post. 

So I'm going to try this. I'm going to try to blog for myself, when and how I choose, about whatever I want. That's why I started this whole thing in the first place. I hope that you will join me in my sporadic manner; I hope that you will find something you can relate to here. There will be books, there will be balks, and there will be a bit of everything else, too. Here's to trying again.