Rich Lederer has kept the hot stove burning this winter at his Weekend Baseball Beat blog by conducting an entertaining series of interviews which has included Baseball Prospectus writers Will Carroll and Joe Sheehan, prominent bloggers Alex Belth, Mike Carminati, Aaron Gleeeman, and David Pinto, and Around the Majors mailing list domo Lee Sinins. To that esteemed group of what should be familiar names, Rich has added another one you’ll recognize: mine. I’m honored to be Rich’s first interview subject at his new all-baseball.com location.

In the interview (conducted via email), Rich let me fill in the blanks for those who want to know more about the Futility Infielder, from the origin of the site’s name to my all-time post-1969 team to just what the hell “The Big Book of Bitter Defeats” means. He gave me enough rope to hang myself several times over when it came to the recent Sons of Sam Horn dust-up, my views on the baseball blogosphere, and the tangled history of my rooting interests. The interview was a blast to do, and I hope it makes for as enjoyable reading for you as the rest of the series has for me.