HAPPY BIRTHDAY BYB. WE TURNED 1 BECAUSE OF YOU.

In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would actually have a Yankees blog that anyone would care about. But you readers out there are pretty damn passionate and need your Yankees news and opinion and we love it.

When we started on September 14, 2010, Bleeding Yankee Blue started as a rant page because I was tired of yelling at the TV because of another Yankee loss. Sergio Mitre, the thorn in my side was involved, so you can only imagine why I freaked out. Here’s the first post ever on Bleeding Yankee Blue titled WHY LAST NIGHT WAS IMPORTANT.

Since then we’ve posted 975 posts and we have writers who have developed into personalities and readers look for their work. Some of you think we’re the cat’s meow. Well, we know you are but what am I? This journey has been incredible. What we have built here isn’t because of any of us. It really has more to do with all of you. If you don’t read us, we write for no one. When you read, you send it to a friend who sends it to a friend. You Tweet it, you "Like" it on Facebook. Maybe Google news picks it up, or ESPN picks it up and calls us Intrepid Bloggers and some of you even send us pictures of yourself for Bleeding Yankee Blue’s Fan of the week. It’s pretty damn cool.I still remember our first "BYB Fan of the Week" on a chilly week in February. It was Robert in full Yankee gear and suddenly BYB's Fan of the Week was born. Since then we’ve had a fan of the week, well, every week and the pictures are pouring in, it’s just amazing. Keep it up by the way, just send them to mailto:Bleednyankeeblu@gmail.com

We do Yankee interviews here, many blogs do not. Our first was EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: STEVE KARSAY and since then we’ve interviewed Mickey Rivers, Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch and our favorite gal of all time, Kimberly Jones. We love her.If BYB didn't exist, we would have never got to interview Kimberly Jones. But we do and we did and we're very happy about it. We've even helped bring awareness to David Robertson's charity High Socks for Hope.
On the flip side, people like to rain on our parade too. It’s OK, but the viciuous stuff needs to be checked at the door. Don’t hate, be constructive, that’s all we ask here. Hey, bottom line, we’re still relatively new, we haven’t worked out all the kinks yet and we’re not perfect, but we’re trying our best. You want to hear a funny story? I was on a commuter train maybe a month ago looking at Bleeding Yankee Blue on my phone. Pathetic right? That's not the story though. This is... It was tight quarters. There was a guy standing next to me and said “You read them?” He was looking over my shoulder at my phone. I said “Sure.” He said “9 times out of ten, Casey nails it, every once in a while, he ticks me off.” “Totally”, I said with a smile. What am I going to do, argue with a New Yorker and Yankee fan? Hell no. It was totally bizarre and a moment I'll never forget.

The point is, today we turn 1 and at this moment I have one focus; We will keep moving forward, for you. We vow to keep getting you interesting material, news and opinion as well as personality, something some of the others lack. We’ll try and keep it fresh, we’ll try to keep it fun and the day it doesn’t become fun for me personally, I’m closing shop. But right now, it’s really fun and you make it fun... so thank you.

We’ve had some real great posts over our 1^st year. Christy Lee wrote a truly touching piece called FAMILY RIVALRY & THE LAST WORD that has received tremendous feedback. Christy's like my sis and I'm glad she's in the BYB family.

I love Jesse Schindler’s piece titled WHY ROBERTSON DESERVES MORE CREDIT. He wrote it back in May and since then David Robertson has developed into one of the greatest set up men of all time.

There’s Mikey Blue’s piece titled WHY JORGE'S HEART BEATS STRONG. In our BYB world, we love Jorge Posada and this particular post hit home. Not only did Jorge have a great game in that 9-2 victory, we saw some life from the gritty veteran.

Grant Cederquist wrote WHY THE KIDS ARE GROWING UP and has proven he's one of the best bloggers out there when it comes to the minor league guys.

Jeana Bellezza, a newcomer and my go-to-gal who wrote a piece on Derek Jeter which is my favorite by her titled WHY IT'S MORE THAN 3000, IT'S DESTINY.

Lem Allen is a friend of mine and this one of his was my favorite: WHY IT'S JUST BASEBALL SUZYN.

Will Cohen, my first writer ever wrote WHY DOESN'T CASH LIKE SPENDING CASH? This was his first piece and with it, he became published and had a new passion in life.And Me? Well, I love to write, but if I had to choose, there would be 2; WHY JETER IS EPIC FOR 1 GOOD REASON and AN OPEN LETTER TO JORGE POSADA. They are 2 of my baseball heroes, never to be forgotten.

The point is, we love what we do because you love to read it. So, do me a favor, on our first birthday, today is important to us. So comment today on our blog, use the comment section and take a moment and tell us what you think, you can even wish us a happy birthday. Just take a moment and let us know what you like and don’t like. Keep it clean and have a good time with it. Tell us what you like about our pieces, the writers, me and the site itself. After all, feedback rules and that’s how we know how to improve. You have questions? Ask, we’ll try to answer. All I ask is you keep reading and enjoy it. Also, Word of mouth is key, so if there’s something you like, tell someone about it, after all, the playoffs are right around the corner and this is what we have been writing for all year... the Quest for 28.

And a special personal note to the Bleeding Yankee Blue writers. You do a great job. You approached me and I approached you and a marriage was made. Thank you for being there and thank for you taking this ride with me.

Again, thanks to the BYB readers, it’s been swell and you guys made it happen. We couldn’t do it without you… well, we could, but we’d be 8 writers reading each other’s material and that’s no fun, right?

We received some great notes from many of you, and decided to publish some of them in this post so you can be part of our history. I couldn't get you all in here, but I hope I got most of you. Thank you all. We now move on to our "Quest for 2."

"Bleeding Yankee Blue describes exactly what it's like to be a NY Yankee Fan!"
--Brittany Canal Fulton, Ohio

"I like Bleeding Yankee Blue because it is awesome and one of the best out there, Happy Birthday to you!" --Dana Trentacost

"Happy B-day BYB!!! Keep up the great job!!!" --Kiley

"You bring me the most informative YANKEE information available!"
--Mike, Loxahatchee, Florida

"It's run by true Yankee fans who write their posts from the heart and also appreciate other peoples views." -- Charles, Sydney Australia

"Happy Birthday! Keep the blogs coming~ One year? Went fast." --Debi

"Happy Birthday BYB! Living in Seattle, WA, it's hard to stay current with Pinstripe Pals and BYB has been an awesome resource for game summaries and info on future stars and all things Yankees! Great job!" --Tom, Seattle

"I like Bleeding Yankee Blue because they are informative, honest, and are HOPELESSLY biased towards the NY Yankees!" -- Marianne

"I like Bleeding Yankee Blue because they love and support The Greatest Baseball Team ever. The New York Yankees. Sing it Frankie!" --Judith

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