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Thanks to valued baseball scribe Tom Tango's excellent The Book website for this head's up ... Rob Neyer, the finest feature writer/columnist ESPN.com has ever had, will be leaving his long-time home tomorrow for a new venture TBA. It's not precisely "Pujols to leave Cardinals" level news, but for baseball web-writers everywhere, it's durn close!

Neyer's note to fans and readers follows. Tango's note is here

A Quick Programming Note ...
By Rob Neyer




Fifteen years ago, I moved to Seattle to work for a company called Starwave. The company did a lot of things, but I was hired -- and this might surprise you -- mostly to edit fantasy-related content for a website called ESPNet.SportsZone.com; a few years later, we became the ESPN.com that everyone knows and loves so well.

Frankly, it's a minor miracle that I've been here ever since. I was the new guy, didn't know how I was supposed to behave, and somewhat routinely ran afoul of my bosses and their bosses. I owe a great deal to their good graces, and I'm sorry I can't thank everyone who's allowed me to do what I love for so long. I will toss extra hosannas to Geoff Reiss, David Schoenfield, and David Kull, for reasons they know only too well. Collectively, they're No. 2 on the all-time list.

You're No. 1.

Whether you've been reading my ramblings since 1996 or just since last week, you have my profound, impossible-to-express-in-words gratitude. There is not a working writer on Earth who's more grateful than I for his readers. Without you, I would have nothing.

Today, I hand off this space to whoever's next. I don't know yet who is next, but I'm highly confident that this blog and the SweetSpot Network will soon be in excellent hands.

Meanwhile, I'll be around. The kids tell me it's all about search these days. You won't have to search real hard to find me, if you want.

Happy trails, until we meet again.
Neyer Leaving ESPN.com | 13 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Magpie - Monday, January 31 2011 @ 04:26 PM EST (#229864) #
In today's edition of Sweet Spot, Neyer has his D'OH! moment and adds the most obvious member of his Hall of the Amazing: Bo Jackson.

Which I would heartily second. If there wasn't so much actual video evidence demonstrating that these amazing things actually happened, Bo would be as mythic a figure as Paul Bunyan. I remember him hitting a homer at the old Ex, and in the immortal words of Leo Durocher "I never saw a f*****g ball get out of a f*****g park so f*****g fast in my f*****g life." It didn't even look a guy hitting a baseball - the ball took off like a golf ball off a strong tee shot, and was just gone, instantly. I've never seen anything even remotely like it.

Then I saw him hit a routinr grounder for a base hit to Moseby in centre, never stop running, and easily beat the throw into second...

He was hard to believe.
Chuck - Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 09:26 AM EST (#229869) #

Some of us, myself included, are old enough to have enjoyed our sabermetrics indoctrination in real time, starting in the late 70's and early 80's via Bill James' Baseball Abstracts, Pete Palmer's The Hidden Game of Baseball and Craig Wright's The Diamond Appraised. There are a few at this site older than me and they might even recall Earnshaw Cook's obscure Percentage Baseball, written in the 60's (a very interesting read in hindsight, especially considering the timing of when it was written).

When I discovered Rob Neyer in the 90's, I was pleased to see what appeared to be the mainstreaming of a very niche way of looking at baseball. As a researcher for Bill James, he was well armed to start spreading the gospel to the internet generation. And his writing was very good, something you wouldn't necessary guess now given the nature of his link-heavy columns.

For many younger baseball fans -- younger than me anyway -- Rob Neyer was their gateway into the world of sabermetrics. He helped paved the way for likes of the Baseball Prospectus bunch to enjoy a larger audience than they might have 5 or 10 years earlier.

And now, sabermetrics is a language spoken freely and widely, if not always terribly fluently. And Rob Neyer deserves a great deal of credit for his role in all this. I don't know what's next for him and frankly, I'm not sure that he has much new to add to the conversation. I hope he lands somewhere where his writing skills are once again leveraged.

AWeb - Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 09:41 AM EST (#229872) #

Neyer on the old espnet...wow, it's been a looong time since I started reading him there. In recent years, I've found Neyer has (probably correctly) felt overshadowed when it came to stats-oriented baseball analysis. He was never the mathematician-type who was going to find groundbreaking material those linear weights or 20 years of minor league data, he was the most prominent voice pointing out how dumb some basic stuff everyone took for granted was. Hugely important sabermetrics guy, even if he didn't exactly add any groundbreaking insights of his own. His strength remains in bringing out how important the work of others' is.

On a side note, with new restrictions on monthly bandwidth making their way to Canadian internet (if you don't know what I'm referencing, search for news from the last few days), is there any point to looking into MLB TV? Anyone know how many GB watching 10-15 hours a month of baseball on that service is?

Jonny German - Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 11:50 AM EST (#229875) #
For many younger baseball fans -- younger than me anyway -- Rob Neyer was their gateway into the world of sabermetrics

Present!

Chuck makes a good point about Neyer's writing being very good back in the day. He wasn't the gateway to sabermetrics for many of us simply because he happened to work for The Worldwide Leader, it was also because he was interesting to read.
John Northey - Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 12:03 PM EST (#229876) #
Not sure about MLB but Netflix says on their site that they use 1GB per hour for standard, 2GB per hour for high def. So 10-15 hours would be fine normally.

Bell caps at 25 GB for their $32 program, for $52 you get up to 75 GB. Rogers is 175 GB for $99, 15 GB for $36. Or you can go with a smaller company like Acanac.ca where for $34 you get unlimited downloads. Other small companies offer similar.

It is crazy how Bell & Rogers & Cogeco & Shaw try to rip off consumers with the bandwidth caps though. In Japan there are ISP's that have a 30 GB cap but that is PER DAY not per month.
Chuck - Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 01:10 PM EST (#229877) #
Rob Neyer's new gig.
Mike Green - Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 02:05 PM EST (#229878) #
That sounds good.  I haven't read much of him the last few years, but I will try to now. 
fozzy - Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 02:21 PM EST (#229879) #
John,

Keep in mind that Acanac DSL will be affected by the same 25gb cap, as all the other smaller re-sellers are beginning March 1. Cable internet is expected to follow suit some time this summer.

vw_fan17 - Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 02:35 PM EST (#229880) #
Man, I feel for you guys with the UBB (metered internet) crap. Wow, here's hoping it fizzles out quickly..

Definitely one more thing to keep in mind about "considering returning to Canada someday"...

John Northey - Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 02:52 PM EST (#229881) #
Good point fozzy. Could really screw over our business as we do everything online and the price is right at the moment but if they hit us on a per GB basis it could get very expensive very fast.

The CRTC is very much a 'captured' organization where it does what the industry leaders want it to do, not what is best for the public anymore (if it ever did do what was best). I wonder if the Conservatives will do something now that the Liberals are trying to make it their issue (politicians always do what it takes to get votes).
Rich - Thursday, February 03 2011 @ 10:33 PM EST (#229934) #
I've always been a fan and I was really disappointed when ESPN started charging for his column (I suspect against his desires).  As much as I enjoyed his work there was just too much good, free content around to be a paid subscriber.  His Sweet Spot blog has been fun to read and I'm glad he's finally out from behind the ESPN Insider walls.
Paul D - Friday, February 04 2011 @ 02:27 PM EST (#229954) #

His Sweet Spot blog has been fun to read and I'm glad he's finally out from behind the ESPN Insider walls.

He hasn't been Insider for over 2 years.

Original Ryan - Friday, February 04 2011 @ 06:00 PM EST (#229963) #
Frank Catalanotto is now retired and looking for a broadcasting gig.  Hopefully he'll land somewhere.
Neyer Leaving ESPN.com | 13 comments | Create New Account
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