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May
How This Blog Got Its Name
Yesterday, MLBlogosphere got into the subject of blog names. Mark Newman asked:
"What are your favorite blog names here and around the blogosphere, and what was the thinking behind your own?"
Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes, the short title, was listed on the graphic panel accompanying the post, so I thought I ought to answer. This morning I decided to post here what I wrote in the comment section there, only this time, I will add some links.
"Some Favorite Blog Names (by no means a comprehensive list): Kyle Farnsworth is My Bodyguard, Deep Fried Fish, Daddy Raised a Cardinals Fan, DiamondHacks, Obviously, You’re Not a Golfer, and Some Ballyard.
I was one of many who recommended to Dan Haren that he keep Haren’s Heat.
And obviously, I like my blog name also. The full title is Down the Left Field Line: Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes.
I have two raglan (baseball style) shirts, one in Baltimore colors and one in Arizona colors, designed especially for me by a graphic artist friend, that have the title and URL on them.
I think I was the first MLBlogger to put the name of an active player in the title.
The Down The Left Field Line part refers to three things: 1) Byrnesie was playing left field when I started the blog in August 2005. (He’s now back to his natural position at CF, which is very exciting). 2) Byrnesie is a right-handed hitter who pulls many of his well-known doubles (8 now this year) "down the left field line". (Though I’m glad to see he is using more of the field this year). 3) Politically, I am proud to be a leftist and while I try to keep politics out of the blog, there is a link from the blog to my journalism site, where my politics are obvious. And every now and then, politics shows up in baseball, e.g. the U.S. gov’t’s attempt to keep Cuba out of the WBC. So my politics are and will be obvious in a few of my entries.
While the much underestimated and underappreciated Eric Byrnes is my favorite topic, I never intended for the blog to be solely a fan shrine to one player. So "Baseball" is part of the title, to denote the fact that I discuss other baseball topics and players, e.g. what I wrote about the World Series, my opinions on the position of "closer", and the clutchness of Pujols and Ortiz.
Baseball is at once our "National Pastime," i.e. our escape from the cares of the everyday world, and a part of that everyday world itself. The word "Life" appears in my title to denote the other things that are a part of and apart from the game between the white lines and the people who play it. Whether it’s birth (babies for Brandon and Alicia Webb and Casey Daigle and Jennifer Finch), death (Steve Howe), illness and injury (the DL), or the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and MLB’s responses to it, I’ve tried to acknowledge some of those issues, insofar as I have had the time.
So there you have it:
Down the Left Field Line: Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes.
A long explanation for a long title, but by now, you know to expect that from me!"
K.R.
P.S. Mark later confirmed that I was the first MLBlogger to include the name of an active player in my title.
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