Bleeding Yankee Blue: SIX YEARS GRATEFUL. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BYB!

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

SIX YEARS GRATEFUL. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BYB!

"Great moments are born with great opportunity"

--Herb Brooks

Birthdays can be fun. They can also seem a bit strange. I mean, I'm here writing about the birthday of Bleeding Yankee Blue today. Crazy.

6 years ago I wrote WHY LAST NIGHT WAS IMPORTANT and my whole world changed. It's crazy to think about, because back then it was just a quick article about my frustrations about a specific game the Yankees should have won. But when Sergio Mitre came in in relief, that didn't happen.

The Yankees that night were playing to win every game. "Every game counts", I remember Joe Girardi saying, and I remember looking at Sergio out there and thinking, "Joe's full of shit, because if every game counted, he wouldn't be out there!" The Yankees lost, and my blood was boiling, and so, I wrote that piece.

Since then we have written 7902 stories on Bleeding Yankee Blue for you all to enjoy. There is no other way of saying this; we are blessed, our audience is loved, and my writers are probably some of the best on the web. They take time out of their busy schedule and lives to bring you articles, some harsh and pointed, some complimentary, but always with that fan flare, because after all, this site was built on emotion and hard work. I remember days of writing until 1 am just so I could go to bed, wake up at 6am, and write some more. Back then it was me and only me, and I was aiming to put up at least 3 stories a day. It was two fold. To teach myself how to become a better writer, but to prove that there was an alternative to those stat nerd websites. There was no blog six year ago built on passion. Not one. Now there is... Bleeding Yankee Blue. And since then, now there are more.

When my writers came in, we molded them, and I trusted their passion, tweaking ever so slightly as to not take away from the integrity of their pieces. After all, it was THEIR PASSION and on a Yankee fan site, all opinions are important, and while I have 1, my writers have theirs. And so, we moved forward together bonding and building and smiling and sweating through games and articles for the past several years. Bottom line, you know when something clicks. We found our click.

It's a passion of mine to write and I love the New York Yankees. I even look at my own writing and know that I've improved into a smarter writer. While we are not perfect here, we have never claimed to be. There are haters out there that once in a while will break our chops on grammar or misspelling and a missed stat. To that I say 'bring it.' How often do you read professional publications that do the same. We are human beings. We do this for free. We do this for you. It's another outlet, a place to get Yankee news, baseball news, and life lessons along the way.

My writers and I have built a family here. We do not all agree with each other, and we all have different lives in different locations in the country. But when we need to come together, we do. They are wonderful, wonderful people, full of energy and excitement and I am so glad to know these people. They are essentially my extended family.

And then... there's our readers...

Our readers are amazing. You keep the dialog rolling. You never disappoint, and even on those dark, dark Yankee losses, when some of you want to fire Girardi and bench Alex Rodriguez... we still maintain a cool, calm conversation.

There is no hate up in here... and if there is, I quickly remove you from our conversation. In this day and age, I will not tolerate that. I don't when my own children misbehave. What makes you think you should slide?

This Bleeding Yankee Blue post is #7903. It's our birthday post on BYB. We are at a point in our career where we'd be considered a veteran. We share the same space with sites that told me to "take a hike" because were amateurs back then. Not anymore... I told you. I do not quit. I never have, and luckily for us, my writers are more passionate than ever. We will not go away... we don't appreciate doubt, but if you dish it, we'll consume it and beat you with it. To those bloggers that consider themselves "the top"... you will topple, because what you've forgotten is when you were busy blasting us for not being "good enough", we were busy working. Now we're side by side with you... you haven't grown. You're fools, and you know who you are. My old man once told me a long time ago to never get complacent, because when you do, someone else will pass you by.

Guess who's passing who?

I want to thank you all for reading Bleeding Yankee Blue. We are 6 years old today. We have almost 5 million people who have clicked on and read the content on this website, and we have readers all over the world, not just in the United States. Our fans and casual readers are some of the smartest folks I know. That's because we don't write articles and disappear. We have a dialog with you and find out what makes our readers tick. We challenge each other and end up smiling when it's all said and done. You guys are good people. Bottom line though, we as the writers of Bleeding Yankee Blue actually give a crap about what you say. We don't just act like we have all the answers. We care about what we put on paper, and we care about what you have to say about it.

It's been a ride. We're not perfect... but we never claimed to be. We arrived because we were passionate and emotional about a little baseball game in September 2010 and we never looked back. If that's not passion... I don't know what is.

Thank you all for always reading and keeping it real. You are a wonderful, smart and passionate fan base... the exact group of folks we always wanted in our corner.

Keep grinding and never stop believing in goals.

The day you do, is the day you die.