Three-Thousand...With a Yawn

Robin Yount joined the 3000 hit club in 1992.

Derek Jeter electrified us many times, and it was no shock when his 3000th career hit came on a home run off of David Price on Jul 9, 2011.

I made a point of watching it with noted Yankees fan Sean Adams, who jumped in my arms when Jeter connected.

That is a true and cherished story.

"Three-thousand!" said Michael Kay on the YES Network. "History! With an exclamation point!"

The moment has been relived numerous times and is another part of Jeter lore.

Three-thousand came and went here at "Dogs**t Blog" Headquarters.

Maybe I should trademark that?

Anyway, I was going to note reaching three-thousand posts when I reached it. I saw I was close some time in September, achieving the "milestone" on Oct 11.

Nobody was cheering, nor should they. Hell, even I forgot.

I texted Susan a few days later and told her, as she's one of the few who would be slightly interested. Beyond that I was prepared to let it go.

But John Nash -- friend, blog co-conspirator, horse racing aficionado and owner (visit his new Twitter feed, @NNStables) -- messaged me about missing the moment.

I appreciated that he cared enough to recognize it.

Incidentally, he elected to let his Stratford Sports Scene effort lapse, and it's a shame. It's not that he doesn't want to do it. He very much does and even wanted to partner with me for broadcasting efforts (we could never quite make it happen) but, for whatever reason, there just isn't financial support.

You think about it -- HAN Network, Stratford Sports Scene, even Robcasting and other smaller media, grassroots or otherwise -- come and go, often struggling for sponsors. Sure, Game Time CT has the backing of Hearst (no further comment, your honor) but not many others can thrive around these parts.

And -- for what it's worth -- Hearst could have had "The Network" when they bought HAN, but they declined. At least that's what I was told.

I look around and see many of my peers thriving. Mike Hirn has basically said there would be games for me to call if I went to Ohio. Other parts of the country do the same.

Here? We struggle and it's very frustrating.

Further, it's a shame because people want the coverage. Teams want the coverage. Parents complain when their kids don't get the coverage.

Not to say Game Time, The Ruden Report, The Day, Hartford Courant, etc aren't doing a good job. But there can be a deeper drilldown, and that's where John's idea was great.

I fear the same of Robcasting, though it isn't specific to one region. We have headsets and we travel!

But I salute John and others who continue to believe in these ideas and hope that we can make it viable one day.

But, back to 3000 posts. In my case, it is more like 3000 at-bats. Some hits. Many misses.

A lot of words and thoughts.

I'm more of a .250 hitter that hung around long enough to reach 3000.

I didn't intend to write about it, but here I am, with thanks to John.

*****

So I'm aware of the news that broke a short time ago about the Renegades. Per JJ Cooper of Baseball America, the Hudson Valley Renegades -- the short-season Class A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays since 1996 -- are changing things.

Per the report (and JJ Cooper is an excellent reporter) the Gades will become a full-season team in 2021 and they'll change their affiliation to...

The...New...York...Yankees.

However. nothing is confirmed. I've heard nothing from the team -- officially or unofficially. So we'll just wait for more.

Obviously, I'm tentatively excited, but I'm also being guarded. I hope to pass along good news soon.