Bit dramatic, ain’t it?

I’d like to think that the announcement by Bugs & Cranks’ Dave Chalk that he is quitting the baseball blogging business is dry humor, and that his leaving B&C is occasioned by another offer or a lack of free time or something as opposed to truly being disgusted with the sport. If not, it’s simply baffling. He’s been blogging about baseball for less than three years. None of the factors he cites — high payroll teams having advantages, steroids — came onto the scene anew during that period.

If he is being straight-up about it, it just reinforces what I’ve always told people who ask me about blogging: I don’t care if it’s baseball or politics or tech or sitcoms or the self-indulgent, overrated novels of Susan Sontag. If you’re going to seriously blog about something, you had better love the subject matter or at the very least find your peace with its flaws, because you’re going to be living and breathing it.

Good luck with whatever you’re moving on to, David.


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michael standish
14 years ago

Do you know this guy? If so, could you put in a good word for me? I’d like some of his drugs.

MatthewA
14 years ago

In David’s defense (and admittedly, it’s a tenuous one at best), following baseball and blogging about baseball are two different things. I’m pretty sure he’s just burnt out from a time-consuming and (presumably) unpaid hobby that virtually requires the resources of a full time job.

David certainly could’ve exited more gracefully than a scorched-earth, “pro baseball is dead to me” post, but it’s no easy feat for a blogger to keep up with the jonses with life going on around him. I’m sure we’ll hear from him again one day when the batteries are recharged.

Matt M
14 years ago

I’ve never read him before, but I’m sad I didn’t. That was entertaining.

He hates baseball because A-Rod used steroids. He hates baseball because Barry Bonds was blacklisted for allegedly using steroids. He doesn’t hate the 07 Red Sox for allegedly using steroids.

That loud noise you heard was Ken Tremendous’ head exploding while fisking that article in a snarky email to Dak. Damn, I miss those guys.

Jason @ IIATMS
14 years ago

I liked Chalk’s work.  For him to leave like this is just, I dunno, odd.  flimsy.  wimpy.  sad.

whatever.  Onward we go.

Aaron Moreno
14 years ago

I bet he was the guy who moved to Canada when Bush was re-elected.

alittleblackegg
14 years ago

If that is all earnest sentiment, I think you’re going a little easy on this deeply moral blogger.

TC
14 years ago

Matt M: that boggled my mind, also.  Yankees are bad because of Pettite and Rodriguez.  Phils bad because of Romero.  Red Sox good.  Cardinals bad because, uh, bad?  And EVERYBODY is bad because Barry Bonds (bad) isn’t in the league (also bad). 

I don’t get it. 

Matt A: I don’t know if that’s burnout, there.  Lots of bloggers have gone under due to the heavy time commitment, but I’ve never seen one try to take the sport with him, so to speak. 

Honestly, I’m not sure what he’s trying to do here.  The post seems ill thought-out.  He’s quitting because he’s disappointed in the way steroids and big money have affected the sport.  I get that, I guess, but I wonder: why erupt like that?  His reasons for quitting have been prevalent for so long that it seems odd that he’d be outraged Right.  Now. 

Good luck to him, I guess.

lar
14 years ago

I like Chalk well enough, but I can never understand his thought process. Or, for that matter, when he’s serious or not. He wrote a fairly similar piece about quitting because of all the complainers, etc that he gets, but that was on April’s Fools Day. This doesn’t actually sound all that different. So, is he kidding or not? He sounds earnest enough. Maybe he bet someone that he would “quit” blogging if the Yanks won again, so he has to pretend to do it, at least for a day. Who knows?

As for the Bonds/steroids thing: he’s railed against people’s treatment of Bonds for years now. I suspect that the reasons he give are his way of showing the hypocrisy of everybody’s attitudes towards Bonds: Bonds is effectively ostracized from the sport for *supposedly* using steroids (no proof, etc), while the admitted/convicted users (A-Rod, Pettitte, Romero, etc) are praised/hailed/celebrated on the world’s biggest stage. (At least, that’s how I interpret his beliefs)

I can’t, for the life of me, explain what Chalk is doing here, but that’s the little insight that I can bring to it. Obviously, it doesn’t help much…

Detroit Michael
14 years ago

How can a Rays fan become that discouraged?  What an exciting young team he is blessed with!

Wells
14 years ago

That guy seems like a loon, or maybe just a person who doesn’t like to think critically. Yeah, he complains about payroll and steroids and holds the Red Sox up as valid champions. I mean really. Also, he links to an earlier post where he claims the NY Giants weren’t true champions because he… doesn’t think they were very good?

The world of blogging doesn’t seem like it’s losing much of a star here.

Wells
14 years ago

using steroids (no proof, etc), while the admitted/convicted users (A-Rod, Pettitte, Romero, etc)

Not-so-minor quibble here. Bonds is widely believed to have used steorids. Pettitte used HGH. They are not the same thing at all. In fact, HGH is commonly prescribed medicine that in all likelihood will someday soon be used in professional sports.

YankeesfanLen
14 years ago

I come to blogs for info and amusement.  Looks like if I had stumbled upon this guy’s I would have quickly found it neither and moved on promptly.

Ken Arneson
14 years ago

As someone who recently retired from blogging about baseball, I can certainly testify that it’s tempting, as with any sort of break up, to blame some other selfish, cheatin’ bastard for your sudden increase in leisure time, instead of yourself. 

But even if there was a small amount of truth to that, I tried to take the high road and say to baseball, “it’s me, not you.  Can we still be friends?”

Craig, I advise you do the same when you break up with a-lawyerin’.  It just makes things easier going forward.  Good luck in your new pursuits!

Pylon
14 years ago

I’m guessing he was depressed at having to share the title of “baseball writer” with you.  You’re such a crap writer and a disgrace that you are driving people away.

He doesn’t owe you an explanation of why he’s leaving, and while I’m sure you’ve got LOTS of people asking you about blogging, your advice is just more self-indulgent tripe.

Diesel
14 years ago

The second anyone refers to him/herself as a “deeply moral person,” one should begin scanning for exit doors.

Diesel
14 years ago

@ Pylon

Lecturing people about self-indulgence and worthlessness whilst trolling and leaving invective-filled comments on blogs amounts to a symphony of irony. I hope your streak of bad days at works ends soon, sir.

Chris Purvis
14 years ago

seriously, I read two articles by that guy: the one you linked to Craig and the one he linked to himself about the 07 Giants being ‘unworthy’.  I am a Yankees fan, but not a Giants fan, but the Yankees-fandom means that maybe my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.  that said, the guy comes off horribly in his writing.

“A deeply moral person like me, Cosell…”

what kind of person writes about themselves as ‘deeply moral’??????? I mean, really.

obsessivegiantscompulsive
14 years ago

According to the Baseball Economist’s website, HGH provides no performance benefits to a baseball player, PLUS, it would cause enlarged internal organs (see Andre the Giant for an example) that causes that large stomach bulge (as your organs spill out of your chest cavity), which I would think would hamper any player’s ability to move around as easily as before he took HGH.  He spoke to sports physiologists at his college to learn that.

The operator of Only Baseball Matters recently swore off his fanaticism for the SF Giants, so there appears to be some extreme reactions to the 2009 season.

I’m also feeling the strain of blogging because the Giants finished off a great season and yet people are reacting like it’s the end of the world, which I think is plain sad.  It was a great season and I think there is more to come.

Oh, and congrats on your new gig and lifestyle, wish you all the best on your new adventure!