Why I Like Baseball

AN ONLINE JOURNAL OF BASEBALL ENTHUSIASM, by CECILIA TAN

  • An American Holiday in Texas

    (This is the story of my trip from July 3rd 2002 to Arlington, Texas.) If you ever want to take a patriotic vacation, I have a suggestion. See a ballgame on July 4th in Texas. Seeing any contest of our national pastime on Independence Day will make your blood run a little red, white, and…

  • December 18 2002 : Perfect(ly) Average

    An indoor softball season is six games. At maximum that would be twenty four at bats. Unfortunately, I had to miss one game because of a business trip. And in most games (which are played in under an hour) a person would get only three at bats. Then there was the game where I locked…

  • November 18 2002 : Oh For Two On The Year

    6:06 pm–I pack my batting gloves, glove, contact lens solution, and wallet into a tote bag, my spikes into a plastic grocery bag, and put my “61*” cap on my head. I am ready for my first game of softball, ever. (I’ve decided to try indoor winter softball as a way to stay in shape…

  • May 1 2002 : One-Tool Player? (Player Diary)

    April 19, 2002 Outdoor tryouts were last night and I am happy to report that I arrived home without a black eye. (See previous entry for how I got quite a shiner.) I caught exactly one ball in the outfield and fielded two at shortstop, two at second base, and made one good throw from…

  • April 11 2002 : Trying To Make The Team (Player Diary)

    The March 2002 entries of my baseball player diary. March 5 My arm hurts. Not from throwing — it has been too damn cold here lately. Last night it got down into the teens and we have had a bitter wind. I have not had the chance to go to the cage in over a…

  • February 28 2002: My Own Spring Training

    Those of you who have been following WILBB for a while now, know that I’m hoping to play baseball this year with the New England Women’s Baseball League (NEWBL). I’ve been keeping a diary of my progress as I gear up for the season and try to get myself in shape. Here’s how February went:…

Welcome to “Why I Like Baseball”

“Why I Like Baseball” is the one of the oldest baseball blogs on the Internet, dating back to before the word “blog” existed. (I think it’s slightly older than Jay Jaffe’s “Futility Infielder,” and was slightly preceded by Geoff Young’s “Ducksnorts.”) I first hand-coded the site in HTML 1.0 at some point in 1998-99. (Most of the pre-2000 content has been lost to bit rot.) I had been away from baseball for much of my adult life, but the McGwire-Sosa home run race caught my attention I was underemployed at the time, had just published my first book of short stories with a major publisher, and was taking freelance writing gigs as I could find them, but what I really wanted to write about was baseball. So I took it upon myself to create a website. Back then, the Internet was smaller and less populated, and I soon discovered my little passion project was being read by folks like the editors of ESPN: The Magazine, who published a surprise shout-out to me. My writings eventually led to me writing a book on the Yankees, editing the Yankees Annual, writing for Gotham Baseball, and at one point even creating online content directly for the Yankees themselves.

Author Cecilia Tan with Babe Ruth

Cecilia Tan

Writer