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What is the schedule for the delivery
of the column? What Email format does the
column follow? How much does a subscription
cost and what forms of payment are accepted? As a subscriber,
what copyright restrictions are there in my reproducing the text version? Is my
subscription transferable to another email address? Why don’t you write more
stuff suitable to Fantasy Baseball? That’s where the big audience is. Would you ever work in
baseball again? |
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What is the schedule for the delivery of
the column? Schedule?
What schedule? Seriously, what would be the purpose of a schedule for a
column like this? There is no need to stay in step with a larger periodical.
Part of the charm of The Diamond Appraised column is its unforced nature
which, I believe, raises the quality of expression. I understand that some
new readers will want a sense of what he is getting, and so I offer this as
the absolute minimum, one-hundred and twenty pages a year, and it will really
be much more than that. But 120 pages is more than
your average weekly newspaper columnist, and text-wise, that’s the estimated
output of A Page from Baseball’s Past, which has the same
subscription rate. But what should really matter is that my goal has nothing
to do with pages but with giving the average reader more than their money’s
worth. [click here to return to the top] What
Email format does the column follow? There
are severe limitations in formatting choices that will work across the wide
array of email programs, and the only fool-proof method is to avoid sending
it “inline” and to instead send it as an email attachment in PDF format,
which is a common fixed format that is read easily across the various
operating systems. Most
computer users already have a PDF reader installed on their system, and if
not, there are many free PDF readers available online. A PDF document not
only avoids the formatting mistranslations between email programs when
writing “inline” emails, it makes it makes it easier to format in a picture
or a chart that will enhance the story. The PDF format also makes it a breeze
for the subscriber to save a column to read off-line or to print out a hard
copy. PDF
stands for Portable Document Format. Adobe’s free PDF readers are the most popular and can be
downloaded at the following site for all the main operating systems (Windows,
Mac, Linux).
[click here to return to the top] How
much does a subscription cost and what forms of payment are accepted? Thanks to the economy of
electronic mail (email) the cost of a one-year subscription is just $21 for
one year. That slight increase from our first year is completely to cover the
rise in costs to process orders. For example, the cost of online processing
charges for credit cards through Google Checkout™ and PayPal are quite high for small businesses like ours. In less than a
year’s time, Google Checkout™ raised the
processing rate on our 1-year subscription by 52%. Credit Card payments are
accepted online through both Google Checkout™ and PayPal. If you are a PayPal user, you can of course also
send payment from funds in a PayPal account or any linked bank
account. There is also a mail-in form for payment by check or money order. [click here to return to the top] As a
subscriber, what copyright restrictions are there in reproducing the column? The attached document you
receive by email has copyright protection, but like you I’ve never gotten
around to reading U.S. Copyright Law {Title 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq.,
Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2319}. My business philosophy is: I’m more interested in making things easier for the honest
than to make things difficult for the dishonest. I have chosen to go with a very trusting
form of distribution that provides the greatest convenience to subscribers.
I’m not going to ask you to learn yet another username and password and read
it online, which also makes it difficult to save or print out a column. I
want to make it as positive an experience as I can for the subscribers. That
includes the column simply appearing in their email box - hopefully eliciting
a smile of anticipation - and all they have to do is click on the attachment
to have the column unfold before them in their PDF reader. I know copyright law has some
problems with unauthorized reproduction through the forwarding of email. I
will tell you as the author what my hope is, that subscribers will limit the
forwarding of their subscribed copy to the following: 1) For
their own personal convenience, that is, that they are the intended recipient 2) To
share a column that is of singular interest to the recipient 3) To
serve as a sample that will inspire the recipient to subscribe I’m not naive. I know there are going to
be situations where readers are tempted into playing a little loose with
their subscription. For example, someone will have a neighbor that they know
would love these stories and like to subscribe but they are not computer
literate, and, so, the subscriber will decide to print out copies from their
subscription and give them to that fan. That’s why the subscription page has
a “bonus” option where a subscriber can slip us a bonus of $10 or $20 as
their conscience might dictate. And if you think the stories are great, the
service impeccable, and you want to send us a tip, more power to you. [click here to return to the top] Is my
subscription transferable to another email address? Yes,
that option is part of the Contact
Us page. We ask that you do it only when truly necessary. It
requires the same amount of hands-on involvement as a new order, and you
don’t want to overwhelm our small operation with a lot of short-term changes
in email addresses. If you are going to be on the move a lot, we encourage
you to use a web-based email address for your subscription. [click here to return to the top] If I
leave feedback on a column, or a comment on a general baseball topic, will
you actually read it? That you can absolutely count
on. You can do that via the appropriate form on the Contact
Us page or simply replying to any of the emails delivering your
subscription. Those messages will end up being routed directly to me. I
particularly enjoy hearing what readers are wondering about. If I have
something to say on that topic, those emails are often the impetus for it
going into a column. [click here to return to the top] Why
don’t you write more stuff suitable to Fantasy Baseball? That’s where the big
audience is. Let’s set aside for the
moment that that kind of content is already being done to death all over the
web. I do appreciate the enthusiasm of the Fantasy Baseball crowd and the
fact that they are having fun. But the format of the most popular fantasy
games deals with the game of baseball in such an unrealistic way that it
teaches things about the game that aren’t true. To write well about Fantasy
Baseball, I would have to invest time in learning to think in the false
parameters of the fantasy game, and I don’t have that kind of time or
interest. I am not trying to exclude the Fantasy Baseball enthusiasts from my
audience, and there are times they will learn things that would help them in
their Fantasy Baseball League. But it is true I am not targeting them, and
they generally will come to this column out of being baseball fans rather
than fantasy leaguers. That being said, I want to
acknowledge a debt I owe to “Fantasy Baseball.” When I was young I learned a
lot about the game by playing APBA Baseball. But it was precisely because of
the realism of that game that it was helpful to me. I actually do have a
vision of a baseball game that would blend wonderful realism with what I see
as the appeal of the popular Fantasy Baseball Leagues. The “team owners”
would actually be learning real truths about the game through their
participation rather than misguided values that move them away from
understanding the game. It is probably about #89 on the list of things I’d
like to do, and I expect I’d have to live well past 100 to ever get down that
far, but at least it lets you know I am not one of those guys who sneer at
Fantasy Baseballers. The game is meant to be
enjoyed, and I say more power to you in whatever form suits you best. [click here to return to the top] Would
you ever work in baseball again? Never
say never, but it would be very unlikely. I’m living in the only place
I’ve ever wanted to live. I could not see accepting any job where I could not
live in Montana and do most of my work from here. I have very firmly and
consistently told inquiring teams that. I also see myself retired from the
kind of work I did before. There really is only one area of work in MLB that
would really interest me. I have a distinct vision of where things should go
from here in the application of the science of baseball within major
league baseball. If a team wanted to explore that vision and decided they
wanted my help in bringing it to life – that would certainly catch my
attention. But understand that I’ve had the opportunity to share that vision
with a handful of teams, including some that are very progressive in their
thinking, and it was still too radical or too expensive or some other “too”
for them to consider. Progress is relentless, and I do not doubt the day is
coming where that vision will become acceptable to some team ready to break
from the pack, but that is not the same as saying it would happen fast enough
for me to be a part of it. All in all, “very unlikely” is the right answer. [click here to return to the top] |
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The Diamond Appraised baseball column is dedicated to
Eddie Robinson |
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