I’m blogging (again)

Welcome to my new blog!

This is the first post, where I’m supposed to explain my reasons for launching the blog.  I know this because I’m kind of experienced.  You see, this is the fourth different personal blog I’ve launched.

My first blog, An Incaviglia Truth, chronicled my 2007 trip to all 30 MLB stadiums in one summer.  The blog ended when I ran out of stadiums.

In April 2009 I started a Phillies blog, posting my thoughts on the defending champions at The Team To Beat (which amazingly had a URL and Twitter handle available two years after Jimmy Rollins laid claim to the phrase).

In June 2010 I created yet another blog to celebrate moving into my first apartment.  Really it was a blog kept to secretly document my hyper-organized, Type A coworker/roommate’s quirks to share with our mutual friends.  The blog had only three posts, but they were highly-acclaimed and remained online for three years before we told him about them.

All three blogs shared two things in common— they started with a burst of excitement and ended after a fit of anxiety.  I liked the idea but stopped enjoying the process.  I dreaded the burden of needing to post more than I enjoyed the satisfaction from actually posting.

In 2011, I landed a couple freelance opportunities, set some new career goals and convinced myself that pulling out of the daily blogging business wasn’t a mark of failure.

Many writers have launched successful careers thanks to well-maintained blogs with frequent posts and communities of commenters.  I decided three or four pieces published by established media outlets would be more valuable in my portfolio than an entire year’s worth of my blog posts.

I still feel that way about where my career was in 2011.

Yet with all this in mind, here I am three years later launching a new blog.

My new personal website is more of a portfolio than a daily content channel, but I’m happy to have a blog here.  The key distinction is I’m starting it with different expectations.  I won’t waste energy stressing about how often I’ve posted, or publish something I’m not proud of just to hit a quota.

So don’t expect daily thoughts about the previous night’s Phillies game, or monthly columns about fixing the NBA’s tanking problem.

But I do plan to write.

During my year of grad school at Northwestern, multiple events made me wish I had a blog.

Last fall I worked for FOX during two NFL games at Soldier Field.  I spent one working in the broadcast booth, where I got a cool look at what goes on behind the scenes.  I also saw Joe Buck wear a puffy jacket and do the Apache dance with Troy Aikman’s daughters.

In December I spent my second game in the production truck, tracking stats for the crew to use on the air.  When Buck tells you how many completions, attempts and yards have been allowed by a certain cornerback, the information doesn’t come from a computer.  It comes from a guy like me with a piece of scratch paper.

Then in February I interviewed Northwestern’s head football coach Pat Fitzgerald in front of a crowd at Movie Night with Coach Fitz.

The interview was supposed to be mostly about Remember the Titans.  But in the days leading up to the event, the faculty had a debate about journalism, ethics and whether or not it was appropriate for me to ask him about the National Labor Relations Board hearings, at which he had testified the week before.  The discussion, the decision and his masterful sidestepping of my carefully-worded question would have made for another good story.

I didn’t write about FOX or Fitz, mostly because I didn’t have an appropriate place to post anything.

My focus moving forward will still be on publishing stories elsewhere, either as a freelancer or in a more permanent role.  And it may be a while before I have anything worth writing here.

But I think it’ll be fun to have an outlet to write about interesting things happening in my life and career.

Just probably not every day.

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