Notice: Trying to get property 'display_name' of non-object in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/generators/schema/article.php on line 52
keyboard_arrow_uptop

I thought I might begin today’s entry with a fancy introduction involving Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, General Crowder, Pete Rose, a rogue elephant, a malfunctioning burglar alarm, and Richard Nixon, but the appropriate anecdote that draws those elements together escapes me, and instead I will cut right to the chase: Today marks the end of my tenure at Baseball Prospectus.

My first column for Baseball Prospectus appeared on June 20, 2003. Today, almost nine years later, I present my last. With great sadness, but also great excitement for the future, I have resigned as Editor-in-Chief. On March 19, I will undertake a new challenge, joining Bleacher Report as one of two lead baseball writers, contributing both my usual long-form pieces as well as quicker bits in which I get to indulge my inner hit-and-run commentator.

There is so much I want to tell you about my time here, about the many adventures I have had and the people I have known, many of whom you have read and enjoyed, but it’s hard to single out any one story. This “inside” tale from early in my tenure keeps coming to mind. It was approximately July 2005. In those days, BP’s principals had a yearly meeting someplace fun, like Palm Springs, Las Vegas, or Monte Carlo. I believe we stopped doing those because given the lack of entertainment options available at these remote, arid locations, the guys just got too much work done and were overly fatigued from all of their productivity once they got home.

I was merely an “author,” not a board member, so I wasn’t invited to this particular romp. Still, I had business before the committee: I had been nominated to join Christina Kahrl in editing our annual, and I had to audition to win the role. Christina told me that I would be called via speakerphone on Saturday afternoon. At the appointed time, I waited. No call. My tension was rising—I really wanted my chance to impress these guys and had made pages of notes. I waited longer, checking the phone to make sure I hadn’t somehow missed the call despite hovering over it the entire day. I called Christina’s cell. No answer. Day turned to night. Eventually, I slept.

The next morning, still having difficulty waiting, knowing they were in a different time zone and wouldn’t be calling for hours, I attempted to relax by heading off to the local bookstore for a cup of coffee and a good browse. I had just sat down at a table with my java and a couple of magazines when my phone buzzed. I did a spit take and looked at the ID; it was Christina. The dialogue that follows is approximate, the exact words lost to the shifting sands of memory. “Are you ready?”

Swallowing hard, I agreed, then waited until they transferred me to speaker. I imagined them all arrayed around a table: Christina, Nate Silver, Will Carroll, Jonah Keri, Joe Sheehan, Clay Davenport, Keith Woolner, all sitting in judgment of me, glowering, arms folded. I was going to knock their socks off with my ideas for making the book even more successful than it already had been. Clicks. Beeps. Nate speaking at last. “You there, Steve?”

“Yes, sir!” I said in my most confident nervous voice.

“Steve, what is your plan for streamlining the book’s production schedule?”

“Well, I think the first step has to be to set earlier writing deadlines, because—”

I was cut off by a full-throated exclamation of rage, Joe erupting. “What? Are you insane? You can’t—” Multiple shouts. Chairs being pushed away. Objects falling. The speakerphone was jostled, and I could no longer make out what Joe was saying, but he was still shouting. I held the phone away from my ear. “Aaargghle barrgle raggle raggle rah!” There were other voices shouting back, and a crashing sound that might have been furniture toppling. A click. A beep. Christina back on the line now, no longer on speakerphone, close to my ear. “Steve?”

“Yes?”

“We’ll have to call you back.” Click.

They never did.

Joe was always adamant that earlier deadlines would mean out-of-date information, hence his outburst. We were actually in agreement about that; I just didn’t get to explain my workaround that day. Somehow, I got the job anyway. Thus began a career in which I contributed as writer or editor to a dozen Baseball Prospectus books, not counting our recently-issued best-of.

The reason I have fixated on this story today is that it exemplifies what I loved best about BP: everyone was focused on quality, on doing the highest-level job that we possibly could, to getting it right. We didn’t always, of course, and we often disagreed on the best way to achieve that goal, but from then until now, present members included, I have never met a group of people who cared so much about upholding a standard, about raising a banner and honoring it. I will take that ethic with me wherever I go.

It is extremely difficult to leave a task at which you have spent so many years and have come to care so much about, as well as colleagues and friends who are not only fine writers but great people as well. I depart feeling that I have not done all I set out to do for BP. Yet, I was 32 then, 41 now. I had one child, now I have two. I had no books, now I have 15. Conversely, I had two eyes, now I have one. More importantly, I am not who I was then, in part because of the experiences I have undergone here.

There is a great story about George Washington, an important one: Late in the Revolutionary War, Congress had not gotten around to paying the soldiers, and some were thinking about turning their guns on the government. That would have been the end of American democracy before it had even gotten started. The General was somehow tipped off and convened a meeting. Here is how James Thomas Flexner described it in his terrific biography of the Father of Our etc, etc:

Washington had come to the end of his prepared speech but his audience did not seem truly moved. He clearly had not achieved his end. He remembered he had brought with him a reassuring letter from a Congressman. He would read it. He pulled the paper from his pocket, and then something seemed to go wrong. The General seemed confused; he stared at the paper helplessly. The officers leaned in, their hearts contracting with anxiety. Washington pulled from his pocket something only his intimates had seen him wear: a pair of eyeglasses. “Gentlemen,” he said, “you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.” …The hardened soldiers wept.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have grown not only gray but almost blind in the service of my website. It is time for me to move on and undertake new challenges.

Before I depart these pages, a few words about some others who have meant so much to me in my days here. To offer encomiums to them all would push this farewell beyond acceptable lengths and paralyze me with emotion, so I hope both you and they will understand that brevity does not equal disregard but is actually a measure of my devotion: Keith Law scouted me with his usual perspicacity and gave me his hard-sought stamp of approval. Christina Kahrl, Jonah Keri, and Gary Huckabay brought me here and believed in me. Christina became my advocate and mentored an older pupil who didn’t always believe he needed mentoring with patience, good humor, an innate understanding of what makes good writing, and oh so many talks about history, each better than a semester with a great professor. Jonah and his brilliant, lovely wife Angele became instant friends, confidants, and supporters, and have rarely been out of my thoughts since.

I had the great fortune to be in frequent or daily contact with Nate Silver, Keith Woolner, Clay Davenport, and Colin Wyers, all of whom gave me the privilege of learning from good people of off-the-scale intelligence.

I would not be shocked if ten years from now Jason Parks will be known as a novelist first and a baseball writer second. Getting to know someone who is as passionate a seeker as Jason is has been one of the highlights of my short administration. One of my many regrets in leaving is that I will no longer get to be the first reader of his explorations, but I am pleased to have a friend, one whose work I will be watching from close by.

From the day I got my foot in the door, I was telling anyone who would listen about the brilliant Jay Jaffe, already highly esteemed by me as a friend and baseball mind. Others picked up the cry, and soon he arrived like Venus emerging from the ocean spray. I can take no credit for anything he has accomplished since; all I can say is I am not in the least surprised. Keep an eye on this guy: He’s not yet done rising, and if you have the high honor that I do, of calling him your good friend, you have achieved something worth bragging about.

Because so many people said wonderful things about him, I knew Kevin Goldstein was a formidably intelligent and kind person before we ever met. In the years since, I have come to treasure his passionate feelings, deeply held opinions, many interests, and steadfast loyalty to his friends. Kevin’s unique charm derives from being someone who doesn’t want you to agree with him too easily, but rather to stake out a position, hold it, and thereby earn his respect. I know that many years from now, I will still be calling Kevin for advice—not just on the best prospects, but about everything—and that’s even though he’s still wrong about the Beatles.

Ben Lindbergh presented himself as an intern whose intelligence and ability was so apparent that everyone who came into contact with him knew that he wouldn’t be an intern for long. I am pleased to call him my friend and seatmate at many a classic rock concert. I can only hope that our association has been as educational for him as it has been for me. Ben is still young and has many possible destinies in front of him. The only limit on his progress is the breadth of his imagination, and I look forward to seeing what path he takes.

Another writer who came to us young and grew up before my eyes was Marc Normandin. I have missed seeing his indefatigable energy applied here every day since he left, but I still get a hearty good morning from him each day, and I look forward to hearing what new mountain he has climbed. Marc has developed from a phumphering kid who could barely make himself heard in the library atmosphere of a book signing to an assured young man with whom I have done television and radio and now hosts his own video podcast. If I thought I could take the tiniest bit of credit for that, I would be proud indeed. He’s a good man and he works, which for me is as high a compliment as I can give a fellow writer.

Most of you haven’t gotten to see as much of Stephani Bee as I have, as most of the work she has done for us over the last four years has been behind the scenes. It is entirely to my regret that I couldn’t get her out on stage more, because you really have missed something. She is still only 22, and yet has accomplished so much at an age at which I was still learning how to tie my shoes, a realization which constantly puts me to shame. I have never known anyone who was as much a self-starter, who cared so passionately about doing the right thing in all situations, in her work, by her students, and those who are fortunate enough to number among her friends. She has been an impossibly valuable colleague and confidant, tolerating my many eccentricities with the patience of one much older. A recurring theme: I cannot wait to see what she does next, but already I could not be more proud.

There were so many others over the last nine years, all of whom it was my privilege to know and work with: Maury Brown, Will Carroll, Derek Carty, James Click, Corey Dawkins, Neil deMause, John Erhardt, Mike Fast, Ken Funck, Larry Granillo, Rany Jazayerli, David Laurila, Rob McQuown Ben Murphy, Dayn Perry, John Perrotto, Joe Sheehan, Emma Span, Ryan Wilkins, Derek Zumsteg. If I have left any off this list, I only wish that I had had the chance to know you better. It is entirely my loss.

Finally, I would like to thank Kevin, Dave Pease, and Joe Hamrahi for giving me the opportunity to play with this marvelous toy, for their patience and strong opinions, and for carrying on. I know some of their plans for the future, and it is my loss that I won’t be among the musicians in the orchestra playing their new tune.

I am not disappearing entirely, of course; I will be back here periodically to see to the launch of Extra Innings, I will be at our New York and Washington events next week, the Pinstriped Bible rolls on with my good friend Rebecca Glass and myself, I remain reachable at Twitter and via my BP email address as well as my Wholesome Reading address, and I hope you will come visit me at my new home, where I will be among the vanguard of a new wave of (humbly) top-flight writers. And you never know what else may happen: as I said to Keith Law at the winter meetings, once a BPer always a BPer, and this place will never be far from my thoughts.

I would like to thank you for reading me all of these years, and for making all of my chances possible. Without you, I’m nothing. All of those inscribed here: Each in your own way, I will remember you all for as long as I live. See you soon.

Nulla dies sine linea,

Steve

Steven Goldman
Editor-in-Chief of Baseball Prospectus, retired.

Thank you for reading

This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.

Subscribe now
You need to be logged in to comment. Login or Subscribe
Chiefsnark
3/02
Thanks, Steve, for years of well-written and thoughtful articles. Best of luck in your future endeavors.
jpbaker64
3/02
+1. Many thanks.
amcg01
3/02
Sorry to see you go.

Andy (Dublin).
jj0501
3/02
"Thank you for the days" indeed. What a wonderful choice for a sendoff song. I will miss your musical intelligence.
Who else will unearth references to John Cale ?
bobbygrace
3/02
I'll miss seeing your passion about the living game and its living history on these pages. Thank you.
bcat31
3/04
Sorry 'bout that bobbygrace. Mouse clicking accident.
k3o3r9n0
3/02
When posted this on Twitter, I thought it was a joke. Unfortunately, not. Thank you for your time here. Your columns always taught me something new about baseball history, and I'll miss that perspective on BP.
mhmosher
3/02
All the best Steve.
MattBishoff
3/02
Congrats Steven, best of luck at Bleacher Report
lemppi
3/02
Goodbye. Farewell.
srhoads629
3/02
rest in peace
Scartore
3/02
He's not dying! ;)
pieman1121
3/02
Good luck, Steven. As with Sheehan before you, you held the mantle of the first click of the day when I saw your by-line. You will be missed here, but we'll read you elsewhere also!
ctt8410
3/02
Congrats! What's your first slideshow?
KelleyDawson
3/02
Congratulations, Steve, and thank you!
randolph3030
3/02
I will very much miss the baseball history lessons. They were always fascinating. BTW, the soccer coverage on Bleacher Report is appallingly poor; it reads as if it was written by a high school junior.
Scartore
3/02
Good Luck Steven!
bflicker
3/02
Thanks for years of interesting and insightful writing, Steve, and best of luck in your new endeavor. By the way, you will instantly raise the level of professionalism at BR by a factor of about 10.
operatic
3/02
(My goodness, all the names from the past; have we all really been here this long?)

Best of luck to you, and thanks for everything! :)
SaberTJ
3/02
Good Luck and Farewell. I hope KG lets you guest host the podcast again if Jason is unable to make it sometime.
jrmayne
3/02
Dammit.

Good luck.

I've enjoyed your tenure; hope the ride of rest of your life goes well.
beeker99
3/02
Steven, thank you for all of the quality commentary here, and for all the thoughtful responses to questions. And congratulations on the new gig!
biteme
3/02
Thanks and goodbye, Steve. You were at your best when you intermingled baseball history with the subject at hand. Baseball is a tradition, and you kept the memories alive. Good luck.
meanwhoogean
3/02
Good luck. You're well written pieces were a nice compliment to the dense baseball analysis.
Deadheadbrewer
3/02
My best to you, Steve. Thank you for all the great thinking and writing.
hotstatrat
3/02
Good luck with your endeavours, Steve. I will greatly miss you here. Loved you historical pieces and thought your A.L. Central reports this week with Ben were even more entertaining than Jason's A.L. West reports! Way to leave with us wanting so much more!
Dodger300
3/02
Normal attrition is to be expected, but the brain drain here has become enormous.

I dunno, but perhaps BP needs to pay its people better so they'll stay? Anyway, something should be changed.

Good luck Steven. You'll be missed.

P.S. Please get rid of all of those annoying slideshows at Bleacher Report. They take forever to load! When I am tricked by an interesting headline into opening one up, I immediately shut it right back down.
BillJohnson
3/03
Seconded, and I'd up my subscription fee a buck or two to help pay for them.

We'll miss you.
dpease
3/05
Shoot. Our plan to pay our people better included monetization of traffic via annoying slideshows.
alangreene
3/02
Boo. Thanks for being one of my favorite writers on this site. You will be missed.

Hopefully, you can begin to make Bleacher Report something worthwhile, rather than a collection of random people who post more for controversy and hits than anything interesting. I can't say you'll fit in, but maybe you can bring up the level of both analysis and writing there.
Oleoay
3/02
Wish you the best Steve!
buckgunn
3/02
Thank you, Steven, for all you wonderful thoughts and stories over the years. Best of luck to you...
Yatchisin
3/02
Words fail me but they never failed you--thanks, Steve, for always being a writer first, a baseball writer second, and I mean that as a huge compliment. Onward and bleacherward, I guess. You will be missed, but no doubt my work productivity and that of many others will increase.

P.S. BP, you need to hire a Goldberg so people on chats will still have someone to confuse with Kevin Goldstein....
BrewersTT
3/02
I will miss your articles here terribly. The historical perspective you brought to current events and questions, not to mention the stories from the past themselves and the occasional literary reference, was just about my favorite thing about BP. Still a lot to love here, but you can bet I will seek out what you write at your new endeavor as well. Best of luck.
gklarsen
3/02
Thanks for everything, Mr. Goldman. Your work here at BP has meant a lot to me and although I'm sad to see you leave, I'll certainly follow your work at BR and elsewhere. If I could offer up one compliment, it's that reading your work makes me want to genuinely commit myself to writing which is otherwise too rare a feeling. Thanks for that. Good luck with everything.
fgreenagel2
3/02
Brutal loss for BP.

You'll be missed Steve. Your writing over the past 14 months was especially outstanding. Pedro-esque. Good luck.
Behemoth
3/02
Thanks for all you've written here. I think the site has really picked up in the last year or so, and you will be missed. Please make sure your replacement can also do regular liberal diatribes to irritate dodgerken.
frampton
3/02
Best wishes for success, Steven. Have greatly enjoyed your writing here and elsewhere, and will definitely make the effort to read your stuff in the future.
fawcettb
3/02
Good luck, and don't ever use the word "indefatigable" in your new life. There's just no way of sorting out what it means. Try "fatigueless" if the urge recurs.

Marycontardi
3/02
Good luck with your future endeavors, Steve. You will be missed but never forgotten.

I feel like my next door neighbor's oldest is moving to Asia or something...weird feeling.

Read ya soon!
Clemente
3/02
Thank you very much, and good luck!
mattymatty2000
3/02
Steven, you have been an inspiration to me as a writer and, in my unfortunately limited contact with you, as a person. Your writing here at BP and elsewhere has not only been a pleasure to read but it has challenged the way I think about baseball, the world, and right and wrong. If I can become a tenth of the writer you are in my entire career I'll stop people on the street to boast about what a success I've become.

I humbly offer my congratulations on your success here at BP and look forward to reading your work, no matter the URL.
jhardman
3/02
Good luck, Steven. I've enjoyed your writing here and wish you the best of luck.
Lawnchairfan
3/02
I'd just like to say to any newer visitors on this site that they should check out Steven's 'You Could Look It Up' articles in the archives. I'll miss that great stuff. May you write a large book with that type of material throughout it someday. Best of luck to you.
hjw099
3/02
You will be missed. Maybe you can bring some credibility to Bleacher Report.
Benjamin
3/02
Wow, I'm a bit sad, for I do love BP. I am happy for you though. And now to on to bookmark Bleacher Report.

Thank you, Steven. I truly enjoyed your work here.

Benjamin
devine
3/03
Thanks, Steven! I'll be reading you elsewhere, and will look forward to the writers who will be stepping up to fill your column-inches here, if not your shoes.
ScottBehson
3/03
BP must pay like crap. Everyone keeps leaving, but everyone who leaves (except Will Carroll) says it was the best workplace and best coworkers they ever had.
mhmosher
3/03
The pay must be at least a factor. I've been a subscriber for 8 years and I've never seen as many longtime writers leaving like they have in the past year.
joechris96
3/05
I'm curious...who are all the long-time writers that left this past year? Christina left at the end of March 2011 and Steve is leaving at the beginning of March 2012. I don't know if I would categorize that as many long-time writers leaving in the past year. This is an organization that has been around for 15 years. We're going to lose a few people every year. It's no different from any other company. The perception that people are bailing out of here left and right is wrong.
mhmosher
3/05
Well Sheehan, Silver, Goldman, Normandin and Carroll all left in the past few years. I guess I should have broadened the scope. You guys can counter all day, but the roster at BP is mostly new people. Some of the readers just wonder why.
joechris96
3/05
Counter? I don't need to counter anything. I'm very comfortable with the talent we have and the talent we continue to recruit. I'm just telling you the facts. Nate left around 4 years ago because he found a new career in political forecasting and received a huge book deal. Joe left around 3 years ago because he wanted to do other things. In fact, we even paid Joe an advance and offered him a deal for a book he still hasn't written. Christina left because she got a rare opportunity from ESPN. Marc was offered a position to become an editor of fantasy baseball content at SB Nation. Etc., etc. You guys can speculate all YOU want, but your presumptions are wrong. In fact, there's a level of pride I (we) take in the fact that places like Major League Baseball (and the Indians, Astros, Rays, Pirates, etc.) and industry forces such as ESPN continue to look to Baseball Prospectus for talent. What's important is that we're able to replace great people with even more great people. Will the next person we hire be Steven Goldman? Probably not, but it doesn't mean that he or she won't be a star in his or her own right so like many others that came before.
mhmosher
3/06
Well then its the level of compensation obviously. BP won't admit that of course, but its safe to assume.
joechris96
3/06
That's a hell of a leap, but ok, whatever you say.
mhmosher
3/06
Not that BP pays badly, but that other venues pay more. Otherwise, why would these folks leave. Its only an assumption, which is all the readers have. BP has never once addressed why all these writers have left.
joechris96
3/06
I just gave you a handful of reasons why people left. I can tell you for a fact that baseball teams don't pay that well. You can make your own inferences from that. You never heard of people leaving jobs at companies to do something new or explore some longer term possibilities or opportunities? And why are people so concerned about the reasons people leave anyway? Do we not continue to bring in exceptional talent and provide quality content? I don't get it. It's really not anyone else's business, but I'm providing you reasons anyway. If you choose not to believe them, there's nothing I can do about that.
mhmosher
3/06
Ok...thanks.
rawagman
3/03
As with most quality writing, there should be a takeaway. You should be able to red the piece and walk away with something. What differentiates BP (and we strive for this at HP) is to imbue all columns with a takeaway. With Steven, the takeaway was always that much larger, weaving historical significance into his thoughts, creating context for a forest where a lesser mind would only have provided trees.

Mr. Goldman, to your health, happiness and continued success. At BR, at home and anywhere you might roam. Thank you for years of enlightenment.
brandonwarne52
3/03
Aptly named, as I'm sure this broadsided just about everyone.
timoseppa
3/03
I was thinking a Horatio Nelson reference would have worked here.

Anyway, good luck, Steve. And see you Monday night.
sordfish
3/03
God save Steven. God save the Kinks too while he's at it.
dethwurm
3/03
Incredibly sad to see you go, Steven. On top of general talent and thoughtfulness, your historical story-telling perspective is pretty unique in online baseball discourse.

Best of luck in your new ventures!
villapalomares
3/04
adding bleacher report to my favorites.
triebs2
3/05
Sorry to see you go, I sincerely hope you can turn that place around. If not, be sure to split your articles up into 20 parts to artificially inflate the site's clicks and views for advertising purposes.
Kongos
3/05
Guess I have to bookmark Bleacher Report now, eh?

Thanks for the Davies clip. Not to mention all those great articles.
jjaffe
3/05
While I thank Steven for the kind words and wish him nothing but the happiest of trails, I can say - contrary to what he writes above - that he deserves at least a bit of the credit for much of the good work that has come out of my pen (so to speak) over the years.

Steven edited my work on Mind Game, It Ain't Over, the forthcoming Extra Innings, and several annuals, always spurring me to work a little harder and to dig a little deeper in the service of whatever it was that I was trying to get across, and occasionally protecting me from my bad writing habits and excesses if not actually beating them out of me (he did some of that, too - I start one sentence every two months with the word "But" instead of one every 10 minutes, and I'm always aware of why I'm doing it). I have learned a tremendous amount from him as a colleague and even more as a friend, so I am elated that if I can't have it both ways, I at least get the latter.
mbrown
3/05
I wish to second Jay's comments. While there has been a gap in-between my stints here, Steven edited my very technical pieces as part of the back-of-the-book essays for the 2006 Annual. He made is far, far better than what I submitted.

I also am glad to say that he, KG, and Ferrin are (were?) the best time on the radio. Steven needled me this last Friday when I (as I have been known to do) wasn't exactly concise on answering a question about added revenues for the league with the added playoff teams this year. It got a good chuckle out of all of us. Was glad that I got to do a segment on MLB Network Radio with the three at the Winter Meetings, as well. I'm sad in knowing that I wished I had had the opportunity to do that face-to-face with Steven sooner. Best of luck.
dpease
3/05
Thank you for all the excellent things you have done for BP, Steve, and best of luck on your future endeavours.
sjfore
3/06
Crap. My fave BP author (the one with a sense of history), and a good editor, too.

Good fortune.