BYB HITS 3 MILLION VISITORS! HOW YOU DOING?

3 million visitors to BYB is a major achievement in my life personally, because when I was yelling about Sergio Mitre back in September 2010, it never entered my mind that I would have an audience this large, this smart, this kind and this tremendous.

You are an amazing group of individuals who understand the game and understand that we at BYB are fans just like you.  You also understand that we never force you to like us, we never try to hammer you over the head with our opinions. We are one opinion of many on the web when it comes to the New York Yankees. Each of us as writers for BYB have individual opinions as well.  Our goal here was to get you to open your mind and let you know that there may be a different way of looking at something, sometimes in a gentler way... and yes, sometimes harsh too.  One thing we don’t do here is hate though. We will criticize you if you clearly didn't read the article and give opinions that are off base or offensive.  We'll call you out on that... and usually we'll be right. For the most part though, we love what we do, because we love that you read us and we thank you for being there since day 1.

Baseball is our first passion at Bleeding Yankee Blue. The Yankees and family are the other important passion we celebrate.  Sure, we’re going to keep you in the loop with any Yankee news that’s out there, but if my kid hits a home run…. I’m telling you about it. That's because I'm proud and I know you can relate in some way.

The collection of writers we have is dedicated to the BYB audience.  We work hard to do what we can to present honest posts about everything baseball and life related.  But again, and the haters don’t seem the get this… we don’t expect you to always agree with us.  Disagreements are healthy, hate is not.

I lost readers a few months ago because I supported ARod as a player, NOT because I’m a fan.  The ARod haters can’t get passed that.  I’ve been called names, threatened, verbally abused and for what?  Open your eyes!  There are more important things going on in the world than ripping a person writing about Alex Rodriguez, or even an ARod Fan. Let's not forget, ARod made mistakes... his fans did not.  Get over yourself.  Again, we have opinions... you do to. Disagree, but leave your hate at the door.

We have made some pretty solid relationships, 4 years and 3 million visitors later.  Former Yankee and foodie Clay Rapada still has #RapadaFoodWars with us. We love Clay here.

Home made Alice spring chicken... @BleednYankeeBlu pic.twitter.com/yUWwqIgyuQ
— Clay Rapada (@pada5something) October 22, 2014

He's honest, a hard worker and a fan favorite. Plus, I always side with the southpaw being one myself.

Laura Posada has exploded on the scene in the Life Coach realm. She’s touring, she’s doing her best her, and as the chief of BYB, I couldn’t be prouder to know that we have a friendship with the Posada family.

Our goals are similar.  Our family values are the same and the drive we all possess allows us to collaborate on things.  It's a terrific give and take and we appreciate it.

The other Yankee sites can’t say that. We can!

How about Amber Sabathia? She’s a strong woman who is fully committed to her family and still manages to do so much for others.  She has a face and personality for television ladies and gentlemen! I’d like to see her doing a talk show one day.  She would be amazing! I need to get Amber to wear one of our BYB sweatshirts... do you think she'll do that for me?

Even CC, someone we support here loves us back and the coolest thing I’ve seen was when this video popped up in my email one day:

How amazing is that!  That’s when you know you’ve arrived as an entity.

We appreciate Ty Hensley and his fight back from injury. We've stood by Ty since he was drafted, that's how far the bond goes back. We also love chatting with his wonderful family. We share their values about working hard and fighting for yourself. You know... climbing the mountain to success!

Plus, Marci, his mom is the absolute best!  We love Tyler Austin and his mother Kim who is always supportive of BYB. We love Rob Segedin, a terrific player, a good guy and a decent year in Trenton and working his way up the ladder!

The Bichettes, Dante and his mother Mariana are tops! And we even got to interview Michael O'Neill (HERE) and Ian Clarkin (HERE). Up and comers with a huge up side. BYB is pulling for all these guys, because they are part of the Bleeding Yankee Blue family! They'll make it to the big show real soon!

We can't forget that is all started with David and Erin Robertson. 2 amazing people who helped get us noticed when this lovely couple threw our BYB shirts on and posed for a picture for us.

Nice selfie! We were able to raise money for High Socks for Hope and I was really proud of that project! We will always support David and Erin and hope DRob comes back to the Yankees as our closer again in the future! Read our interview with them HERE.

We’ve made shirts, tank tops… hoodies… and you wear them!  At first I thought to myself. "Oh my god, what have I done! I’m going to be stuck with boxes of shirts and sweatshirts in my office!" 

The delivery is in. http://t.co/7dtsbkhUUj #BYB pic.twitter.com/upNOSRSwoa
— Robert Casey (@BleednYankeeBlu) February 8, 2014

But then something happened… you bought them, you support us!  I thought I overshot… but we’ve built a true family.  Thank you all for your support. I am blessed.

This isn’t anything more than a thank you and a look back on all we accomplished. Friendships and support and an amazing bond.

Thanks to Charles & Joey Moses for a solid friendship, to Lisa and Shane Varga and TJ Jorgensen.  New comers to BYB in 2014, but friends for life. You guys are great individuals.  Thanks for the support.

To Becki, Jessica, Nicole, Mel, Iris, Steph, Joan, Laurie Donna, Danny, Beth, Jamie, Doug, Kathy, Evelyn, Debi, Deborah, Larry, Trey, Chad, Rudy, Dan, Mikal, Joe, John, Fox, Scott, Jared, Vic, Sydney, Phil, Tara, Bryan, Thom, Christy, David...

Lisa, Luigi, Lou, Tate, Brendan, Anthony, Jennifer, Natalia, Karl, Will, Keith, Donald, Joe, Dean, Rasheeda, Debbie, Corey, Daniel, Beata, Lisa, Linda, Clint, Maria, Rose, Frank, Randy, Ron, Bud, Jasiel, Alan, Kalind, Mike, Joanie...

Holly, Jesse, Bob, Toni, Fred, Christina, Kurt, Tony, Cody, Geo, Kevin, Shawn, Mary, Sidney, Chris, Jessica, Giuseppe, Gary, Craig... Even you Rosemari!  I'd love for you to come back and read us! You're missed.

I know I forgot someone and I apologize in advance.  The point is, this is BYB's core and you show up every day to check in and we truly appreciate it.

This is a Thank you to my readers, and to my writers, but most importantly to my own personal family.  There is no question that BYB has gotten in the way sometimes. There are many times that the computer is in the wrong area of the house at the wrong time… and I’ll get yelled at, or the kids will get a hold of it and there’s some type of breaking Yankee news.  I yell when the kids are playing all around me and I need to get something out there for all of you. It can be frustrating because… there is no question that as much as I love our audience… you can be a distraction in my personal life. That's just honest.  But I feel like I’m balancing pretty good lately.  Although, some days are better than others.

But now we’re past the infant stages of BYB and maybe now, all that hard work early on has paid off.  Maybe now we can relax a bit.  After all, we’ve established ourselves as the place to come for not just news, but for different opinions and creative ideas. We don’t have to be first… we do however have to keep being creative, and that's always been part of what we designed here.  We want you to come to us. We want you to laugh alittle, maybe even cry… maybe even learn something.  That’s BYB.  If you want hard stats and stale opinion… don’t come to us.  We don’t provide that.

To Jeana, Erica, Suzie, Ike, Mike, Steve, Alexis and newcomer Wolfie… You’re each wonderful and unique individuals in your own way.  Your writing styles are different. You are each incredibly smart and I personally know you work your tails off to deal with your own personal lives and then find time to write a story for people to enjoy.  “It’s the grind,” I will tell you on occasion and you know what? Sometimes when you’re in it and there is a ton of stuff going on, the last thing we want to do is write a story by deadline.  But then something happens… when the smoke clears.... We think about the BYB audience… OUR family here, and it flows from the pen with a passion like no other.  Not because it’s a Yankee story… but because we know you want it and you’ll appreciate it. We feed you because you like us. It’s kindness and it’s worked here on BYB since day 1.  The writers we have on BYB are some of the best on the web. I'll take that to the bank, and I thank them every single day. Job well done... always.  Bravo.

And finally to our BYB audience. You have done something incredible. You’ve managed  to make a 43 year old man who has been a fan of Ron Guidry since his 18 strikeout game in the 70’s the happiest man alive.

In addition to the Yankees, I have always had a passion for writing.  While I was never considered the best, I’d find the time throughout my life to sit and write a story, or take a creative writing class, or just write a note to someone to make them laugh.  There was always a flair to it because I enjoyed doing it.  After yelling at Sergio Mitre in September 2010… I did something else… I wrote about it on a really bad looking version of BYB.  It opened my mind in ways you can never imagine, and since then, the passion has expanded.  3 million visitors later, I can tell you that we appreciate the support we’ve received by you, our audience, our family.  You’ve inspired us here to never stop… or at least go as long as we can. Why? Because you like us here… thank you. Your support is never forgotten, ever.

I saw this on Facebook a few days ago and I want you to check it out:

Post by Robert Casey.

Nice right? I got chills the first time I saw this. Sounds silly, but those chills are what I created from scratch.  That's me and all of you coming together.  Pretty wild.

With BYB, all is right with the world at this moment.  We appreciate all of you.  We've managed to create a pretty significant and important family and website. With that family and support comes that "will" and "want" to push harder and be better.

It reminds me of a sentence I read in Derek Jeter's new book Unfiltered.  Derek wrote:

"It's simple. I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for my family. You have to have a good support group, regardless of your profession." 

That goes for my initial family.  But that goes for my BYB Family as well.

We did it...

Next up... 4 million.

Thank you all for your support.

--Casey








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