Yes, I’m back. Back in New York City after a week and a half in Salt Lake. Back to the high-bandwidth connection rather than a 56K modem I need to armwrestle my brother to access. Back to worrying about the health of my surgically-repaired right shoulder (more on that after the inevitable MRI). And with my various writing obligations more or less fulfilled — except for a chronic, across-the-board 30 percent surplus of verbage that dogs everything I’ve submitted lately, likely leading certain editors to curse my very name — hopefully back to a more orderly presence here at FI.
As I look back at 2005, I’m amazed at how far this site and its pilot came in a year. I found myself on TV and radio, turned up in an undergrad syllabus at Tufts, where I guest lectured, ran as the Hot Dog in the Miller Park Sausage Race, was published in not one but two books, as well as the New York Sun and Salon, and my name — not always spelled correctly — made its way into newspapers in Denver, Boston, and Pittsburgh. I celebrated ten years in the Big Apple and completed my first full year as a Baseball Prospectus author having created a successful, occasionally controversial, weekly feature in the Prospectus Hit List. I continued beating the DIPS, JAWS, Claussen and Stottlemyre war horses, and found myself with some legitimate paying work at year’s end.
Oh, and somewhere in all of this I found time to marry a wonderful little gal who never fails to make me smile. The rest of the world may be going to hell in a handbasket (though the times, they are a-changin’), but it was a very good year here, and I want to thank everybody — my readers, colleagues, editors, friends and family (y’all know who you are) — who helped make it so special.
As I look to 2006, I’m struck by the fact that this site will celebrate its fifth birthday in April, a milestone that I suppose I’ll mark in some fashion when the time comes. I’m not quite sure what the coming year will bring — more than 71 wins for the Dodgers and a mixed reception for Johnny Damon in both Boston and New York is about all I’m prepared to wager on — but if it’s anywhere near as interesting as the last one, it should be worth a look here, so I hope you’ll join the fun. Best wishes for happiness and health to all of you!