Introducing the Starting IX Weekly “Newsletter”

If you are anything like me, your daily inbox is stuffed to the gills with the newsletters of excellent sports writers who have decided to branch off from the (mostly unpaid) world of sports writing into their own little universe, supported by loyal readers.

As a fledgling sports writer for almost the last decade now, I love this trend, and try to support it as much as I can. I also would love to join this trend, albeit without any sort of financial requests.

The goal here is to have a fun weekly column (eventually arriving in inboxes) with a handful of different sections to pique the interest of any reader. I will lay out in further depth in this introduction just exactly what to expect each week. It’s focus will be baseball — most specifically baseball history and statistics — but there will also be pop culture commentary, a collection of diverse links to the best reads on the interwebs, and excerpts from both of the books I have written.

My first book was self-published and can be found on Amazon, but I wanted to be able to share some of my favorite sections with readers for the price of “on the house”. I also wanted to share some excerpts from my second book, which is in its final draft but has plenty of sections ready to be let out into the light. Along with those two excerpt sections, here’s an overview of what to expect each week.

Pleas share any feedback on sections you think could go, or potential ones that could be added! Hope you enjoy!

OOTP Year-by-Year Re-Simulation

I’m super excited for this section. For any of you who have never played Out of the Park Baseball, you’re really missing out. It’s easily the best baseball computer simulation game in existence — it’s so accurate that it is used in multiple MLB Front Offices. One of the (many, many) features/modes in the game is an ability to go to any year in baseball history and, with the same rosters and managers, re-simulate the season. Are you curious if the Miracle Mets would win the title in 1969 if the season were simulated all over again? I know I am! Do you ever catch yourself wondering whether if, in an alternate universe, Jimmie Foxx was able to top Ruth’s single-season home record just five years after it was set? I know I do!

What this section will do is each week take a new season from baseball’s history — starting with what I tend to call modern MLB history in 1901 — and re-simulate it, with a discussion of what happened. Sharing the top players by WAR and all other notable stats in each league, looking at who won the simulated World Series (we’ll go ahead and give the league a World Series in 1901, 1902, 1904, and 1994 anyways), and which teams did the best during the regular season. Any other crazy happenings around the league will be highlighted as well.

I was doing this on my own anyways before I thought about writing about it, and it was super fun and will lend itself well to a short-form writeup each week.

“Starting IX” Excerpt

This is the first book, the one that has been self-published already. The premise here is the best player at each position in each MLB franchise’s history. So who would start at first base for the Chicago White Sox based on the success the player had while at the ball club. (The Big Hurt, of course!)

I’ll pick excerpts that I either particularly enjoyed writing, or ones that simply focus on a super interesting person, or I may even go with a general theme for the newsletter in a given week (i.e. the MVP of that week’s OOTP re-sim).

Fun Stat of the Week

Baseball has stats. And stats. And stats. And stats. Many of them are fun. Some are fun because they blow your mind. Some are fun because they are funny. And some are fun because of the absurd level of qualifiers needed to make them “fun”. Sometimes these will be of my own discovery, but sometimes they will come from this little boutique website I just discovered called Twitter.

“One Final Imagination of the Baseball Hall of Fame” Excerpt

This is the second (and far longer-titled) book. This one is in final draft mode, but it has plenty of sections ready to be dropped in for the reader’s (hopeful) enjoyment.

The premise here is also pretty straightforward. I’m stealing Bill Simmons’ Basketball Hall of Fame pyramid and moving it to baseball. For the uninitiated, basically the idea is a six-floor museum to replace the current Baseball Hall of Fame (referred to henceforth as the “Old Baseball Hall of Fame” because, as Barney Stinson is fond of saying: New. Is. Always. Better.) in which the players get better and more historically significant as you go higher and higher in the museum.

The first floor is open to any ballplayer who even so much as gets a cup of tea. The second floor is a bunch of random players you kind of forgot about. The third floor is a collection of could-have-been-stars and What If players who need recognition. The fourth floor is a Battle Royale for players who are currently in the Old Baseball Hall of Fame vs. those who desperately want in. The fifth floor is the legends of the game. The sixth, and top, floor is filled with the gods of the game.

The book is a collection of player profiles as we go higher and higher in the museum, and as such, the style of excerpt will be similar to the Starting IX excerpt section, just with a different set of players and a different tone (hopefully… I tend to fallback into my pretty go-to tone).

Player Quiz

I show you some stats without a name; you have to guess the player. The answer will come at the end of the newsletter.

Weekly Best Reads

I waste farrrrrr too much time reading article after article after article. Let me at least say I’m putting all that time to use by selecting the best half dozen or so a week to share with you. I’ll try to have at least one legitimately great long-form suggestion per week (not necessarily from that week), seeing as those are my personal faves. There will be some baseball articles, but mostly just the best things I think need sharing.

Article Idea I’m Too Lazy to Write

I’m also too lazy to describe what this section entails…

Pop Culture Recommendation of the Week

Both of my books and almost all my writing anywhere involve a cadre of pop culture references sprinkled throughout. Verrrrrry basic bitch, I know. But I do think pop culture can have a lot to say, so whether it’s the latest new show on HBO, or me going back to re-read Richard Wright’s Native Son, I’ll always have a recommendation or two that I have to get off my chest. Think of this as my unloading zone so I don’t attempt to shove my pop culture recs down other people’s throats at gatherings (remember gatherings!).

Keep You On Your Toes

To wrap up the newsletter each week, I want to shine a light on any non-baseball things I feel need a light. This will be very social justice heavy, so if you find that off-putting, first of all you need to think a little more about why that is, but second of all: I’m sorry, but it’s going to happen here. (Also: If you don’t like it, you’ll probably be annoyed by my books, as well, as some oh-so-friendly readers have noted in reviews and emails to me personally.) Whether it’s an initiative you can support, a player who deserves the spotlight for good work in the community, or just a moment of brief self-reflection, this will be the most important part of the newsletter.

So that’s the layout. If you’re interested, follow along here on Medium for the first few months where I want to hold myself accountable before actually moving to the newsletter format.

Here’s one more link to my first book, and feel free to reach out to me at jim.turvey21@gmail.com for any feedback or inquiries.