that another part of the reason I think they went stale is the fact that, in the last year or so, they began talking about other sports in what had been a baseball-specific blog. They began posting just as many if not more posts related to basketball/football/the olympics as they did baseball.

They’re jealous of Nate Silver’s success – their Bob Barr fixation got them nowhere. His click-through rates were too low.

im sad to see it go. im hoping that joe/others will make some particularly egregious comment or write a terrible article and leave the FJM guys no choice but to critique.

FJM was also one of my favorite sites….I would still check in every few days only to find the posts getting rarer and rarer to my dismay. I wonder why call it quits, I mean, you can just post seldomly whenever you have the desire opposed to shutting it down, unless it costs that much to operate that site (?).

All he ever said was I !!!!!!!!! good bye to that ego.

The primary goal of FJM was to be humorous, which I think it was very successful at. However, I think the overall subject needs to be taken more seriously. Certain media outlets (ABC, Fox, NBC, CBS, ESPN) have taken over sports. Virtually all sports. The result is hideous presentations and sports that lack entertainment. I often get more enjoyment out of games from putting my TV on mute. This should never happen. Ever. Millions of dollars are spent on broadcasts that totally suck. Joe Buck.. Kevin Kennedy.. these guys are absolutely horrible.

Why?

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that most baseball fans have little to no knowledge of baseball. These are the people who think Ken Griffey Jr. was a great pick up by the White Sox, or that David Eckstein was an extremely valuable player to the Cardinals because of “grit” and “heart”. They think Jason Varitek is a hall of fame catcher merely because of his ability to “call a game”. Remember when Scott Rolen was voted into the ASG in 2005 despite the fact that he only played in a handful of games that year before injuring his shoulder? Thank you, baseball fans.

We may not notice it because we surround ourselves with informed, like-minded people. Speaking from personal experience, I had trouble understanding voter behavior while I was studying Poli Sci in undergrad because I was informed about politicians, the issues, etc. A large percentage of the voter population is not very well informed. At all. I overlooked this because I was surrounded by other well-informed Poli Sci majors/grads. The point is, there are a lot of people out there who don’t know very much about baseball, and so broadcasts are catered to the least common denominator.

On another note: It’s incredibly embarrassing when a guy like Joe Buck says something like “Why doesn’t he swing on 3-0? If that was me I’d be swinging.” That’s why you don’t play baseball, Joe.