DON'T UNDO WHAT WAS BUILT BEFORE YOU

I believe in respect.  I believe in giving it and getting it.  I believe that when a friend needs a hand, you do your best to help out, no matter how small, just to let them know you're in their corner.  It's important to be kind no matter what. It's the way I was raised... it's what I teach my kids as well.

When I started Bleeding Yankee Blue in September 2010, never did I ever think this far ahead.  I wish I did, because it's pretty incredible.  Truth be told... all I was thinking about then was putting some dialog out there to be read.  I wanted to voice an opinion of the Yankees, because looking around out there, there were other great blogs that inspired me, but they all kind of said the same thing.  I wanted to do something different, and so I did.

I brought along some writers, most of them novice like myself and through the years, through solid friendships and a passion for the New York Yankees and many, many drafts and working hard with them to find the right flair that worked,  we built a pretty great thing here.

There were haters along the way. There still are.  Folks that wanted to try and knock us down a peg here and there... telling us we were "dumb" or we write horrible stuff and we "suck".  Even the other day, literally nearly 6 years later, we got this comment:

I had to respond.  I had to back my writers. That was totally juvenile and unneeded.  BYB is built on amateur writers and we have a huge following because of our realness and passion for being honest and loving or hating our team on any given day.  Bottom line.  The criticism, while allowed, was not necessary.   We're not professionals, we never claim to be and that's exactly what our fan base loves about us.

Because of that, we're approachable, and people now wear our shirts and model them for us.  We love this part of the job!

We love our BYB Freaks very much!

 

 We've sold hoodies, tank tops and regular t-shirts over the years, and it's been truly amazing to see the support and love.
 

We've even build friendships by breaking barriers and actually reaching out to other blogs.  In the Blog world, there is a respect, or at least that's how I feel.  Bottom line, while there are blogs out there that reek arrogance, you still need to respect the medium and all the hard work they put into their projects.  BYB was inspired by Bergen Record writer Pete Caldera and then, LoHud writer Pete Abraham and also because of a blogger named Rob Abruzzese from Bronx Baseball Daily.  Rob was one of the guys that help guide me and helped me answer questions when I was trying to figure out just how to do this blog thing.  I will forever be grateful to Rob, because he knew just how hard it was and gave me a few pointers in the process.

Me, in turn paid it forward and decided to create a "one stop shop" called the BYB Hub a place where anyone can go to read a bunch of blogs in one shot.  I got to know guys like Daniel Burch, who I now consider a friend over at Greedy Pinstripes. They were even nice enough to interview me a while back. (Read that HERE)

I reached out to Section 36, a Red Sox blog... to Jen Rainwater at Bullpen, Baseball & Sock Talk, an Oakland A's blog and I let them know that I not only admire new writers, I encourage and appreciate them just as much as I do my own writers at BYB.

We collected a great group of young, eager, newbie writers to create the BYB Hub, including recently adding 2 chicks known as the Traveling Baseball Babes.  The point is, while the Hub is slowly gaining steam and isn't perfect, we did something great here.  The respect is real and we are all working together as a unit to back each other up, support each other, and help each other in our quest to not only get read, but to one day be great.

It's a team effort and it goes back to respect.  My writers are the most respectful folks around.  They may be into discussions with their critics, but we always keep it on the level. We never hide behind our words... we are all approachable and will talk at any time.  Me included, although, as many of you know... when Poppa bear gets poked, and my writers get unnecessarily attacked... you will deal with me directly.  That goes for the other blogs as well. We get each other's backs, because respect runs deep.  Again, we work together because we are all after the same nut, and let me tell you something... there are many nuts out there... our plan is to get them all one day.

So what's this all about?  It's about the haters.  It's about the ones who don't get it.  It's about the newbies who reek entitlement like they've accomplished something, but actually have done nothing.  It's about the ones who just don't understand the goal, and have no concept of all the hard work, sweat and tears it took to get here.  Bottom line, Bleeding Yankee Blue, and every single blog on the BYB Hub has worked our tails off to not only one day become writers in the blog world, but to be relevant and appointments in the blog world.

I love knowing that you guys go to Bleeding Yankee Blue each morning on any given Sunday and click on BYB to read about your Yankees or some other feature we put out there.  We love that you ask us "Where are you?" if we don't post early in the morning.  Bottom line, you know we're probably dealing with kids or work or something... but you miss us, because for the past 6 years we have always been there for you.  We are part of your routine and ritual... and you respect that about us... like we respect all of you. I kind of like that.

Be nice to each other. Be nice to us. Be nice to my BYB Hub friends.  Understand the grind.  Know how hard this is, and applaud what we have accomplished here... and if you can't understand it, just stay on your side of the street and don't say anything. Because I have news for you... if you don't get it by now, you never will.

If you've never been in the grind, you don't know what sitting at your computer at 3am to post a story is like, just so you can go to bed for a few hours sleep and get up again and post another one at 7am.

You don't know what it's like to get press credentials so we can cover important news stories in Trenton or in Staten Island because our audience deserves it.

We don't do it because you have to... but because we LOVE it, and you love reading it.  This isn't about being the greatest blog of all-time for us... this is passion.  A passion for writing and the love of putting our words on paper.

This is what BYB is.  I have friends, I have very good friends that span all of you readers, to my writers, to fellow bloggers, to New York Yankees current and past... to even folks at the YES Network. You know what else I have?  I have mad respect.  Why? Well... it's simple. It's because for the past 6 years we have respected every single one of you and now we get it back.

I believe in respect.  I believe in giving it and getting it.  I believe that when a friend needs a hand, you do your best to help out, no matter how small, just to let them know you're in their corner.  It's important to be kind no matter what.

Bottom line.