Moving into the New Year

By Josh:

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game — it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.” Terrence Mann (played by James Earl Jones) – Field of Dreams

It has been 10 years since I started 9 Inning Know It All (July of 2011). So much has happened and changed during that time. The site initially started as just a way for me to rant and discuss the local minor league team I was connected with. I never really thought it would be much more than that.

It was just over a year ago that I thought I would have to completely shut down 9 Inning Know It All and walk away from covering baseball. I wasn’t able to cover any games for almost a year and was ready to just toss in the towel and move on with life. 

Now here I am amazed at what all there is in the 9 Inning Know It All media group. Along with the 9 Inning Know It All site I now have two regional sites up and running and two more in the works (to be honest I have more than two I want to get up and running but I need more writers across the country). I have a podcast that has been going for almost 2 years and had guests from all over the country and all levels of baseball. I have a site dedicated to my sports photography. The 9 Inning site has gone from mainly me writing to now having tons of amazing guest writers (most found and recruited by Kelly), which allows me to focus a majority of my time to the regional sites.

This past year, and even more so the past 3 months, has come with tons of changes. Last spring I started NW Baseball Report and found a niche that I fell in love with. Then in October, after a full summer of covering baseball something happened I never expected. My wife and I both got jobs at the same college, in Bismarck, ND. 

We have moved to North Dakota and with that I started the Great Plains Baseball Report. I honestly thought that moving would really limit my ability to cover baseball. Instead it has grown it in ways I never expected.

Now today with the start of 2022 I will be not only renewing all of the sites for another year, but for three more years.

The players, coaches and fans of the game that I have met through the sites I run have been one of the coolest things in my life. The baseball community is so amazing and I’m proud to be a part of it in my own way.

Life is full of changes, the country faces challenges both new and old, but through it all Baseball remains. 

I hope you all have a great 2022 and that no matter what happens we can come together to enjoy the greatest game in the world.