Everyone around the baseball blogosphere has been writing thank you posts for Rob Neyer, who announced this week he was leaving ESPN.com and joining SB Nation, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t add something as well. But before I thank Neyer, I should thank Joe Posnanski. Or ESPN.com. Or Twitter.

In September, Posnanski granted me an interview that went for one of the greatest hours of my writing life. I’d have been okay if the Sports Illustrated writer, blogger, and busy family man had offered five halfhearted minutes. Posnanski was one of the best subjects I’ve ever encountered. And I say this as someone who’s interviewed Rollie Fingers (who was dull), Jose Canseco (who subtly asked me if I’d read Vindicated– I hadn’t), and Ozzie Smith (who was the commencement speaker at my college my sophomore year and was wonderful.) If I ever make it as a baseball writer, I hope I’m half as humble as Posnanski.

Within hours of me posting the interview, it was up on Baseball Think Factory, and they referred a heavy amount of traffic by their standards (500 unique visitors– I’m happy to get 100-200 from them.) A few days later, a visitor commented that he’d seen my article up on Neyer’s ESPN blog, the Sweet Spot. That was the day my blog got almost 2,000 unique visitors, which was the record here until Neyer linked again in December and gave me so much traffic the server crashed. It remains my high water mark as a blogger, and friends give me high fives when I tell them about the server crash. I hear it’s called being aneyerated.

One other cool thing happened after Neyer linked to me: I got an email saying he was following me on Twitter. I thought it was a joke at first, and then after checking his page, seeing it was a Verified Account and that he had 300 people he was following and more than 15,000 followers, it just seemed surreal. Every other big name sportswriter has ignored me on Twitter. Even Posnanski. I keep worrying that Neyer will get sick of my random Sacramento Kings Tweets (a man has to rep his hometown) and attempts at humor, or that I’ll sneeze and he’ll unfollow me, but it hasn’t happened yet. He’s even linked to me a couple more times because of Twitter.

I wish Neyer well in his new endeavor and applaud him for trying something new. After reading his inaugural SB Nation post today, I Tweeted that Neyer had made the boldest move in sports journalism so far this year. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope to eventually write for ESPN or SI or most any other major publication that would have me. But maybe Neyer has the right idea, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes out better for it, with the media landscape continuing to change. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s set a great example for an up-and-comer like me. I just hope he does a link post in his new space.

A week and a half ago, my boss said he would have to cut my hours for June. I was bummed but also grateful to still have a job, and I figured things would be alright.

I’ve worked 16 hours since, and it turns out my new free time has been largely consumed by this site. I’ve written thousands of words, done several interviews and even covered a baseball-themed art show. To any fellow bloggers looking to improve traffic, I found that by doing extra footwork recently, I got immediate results. In the past five days, I’ve had more visitors than I used to get in entire months.

(By the way, before I go any further, I should say I’ve tried to steer this site away from personal posts of this nature. This post is mostly for friends, regular readers and fellow bloggers. To others: Monday will be business as usual here with a review of a book about a Deadball Era pitcher.)

More and more, I’m believing that Search Engine Optimization, at least for blogging, isn’t about fancy coding or high tech maneuvering. I think it’s about putting in long hours, doing work others in the blogosphere can’t or won’t do, making an original contribution.

Monday epitomized this. Here’s what transpired:

12:00 AM: The beginning of Monday morning finds me still awake, not having to work until Tuesday, finalizing my post on forgotten Negro League/semi-pro great John Donaldson. Having done three interviews the Thursday before, including an hour-and-twenty-minute session with Donaldson’s lead researcher Peter Gorton, I know I’ve been given a good story.

2:00 AM: I post my story, email David Pinto of Baseball Musings in hopes of getting a link and go to bed.

7:00 AM: I awaken as my roommate gets ready for work, check online, and see that Pinto has linked to me. Excited, I submit the story to another big site, Baseball Think Factory and email Gorton and my two other interview sources for the story.

7:44 AM: Since Donaldson played in Minnesota, I message a blogger there, Sooze of Babes Loves Baseball.

7:52 AM: Gorton emails positive feedback and suggests I submit the story for SABRgraphs, the Society for American Baseball Research’s weekly email of the best baseball writing from around the Internet.

8:05 AM: I email the person in charge of submissions for SABRgraphs, thinking her name is Robin.

8:11 AM: Actually, her name is Rebecca. But she says she will include my story. I cannot lose this morning.

8:23 AM: I email Gorton that the story is also up on Baseball Think Factory, telling him June 7 is officially Blogger Christmas for me (Baseball Prospectus will pick up the story, too, after SABRgraphs goes out on Thursday, and I’ll work out to contribute to a major baseball site, Seamheads.com.)

9:00 AM: Heading to a 9:30 personal appointment, I stop at the post office for a DVD from George Case III, whose dad, George Case, played in the majors from 1937-1947 and shot color footage there.

10:30 AM: I take my car to the shop for a tire rotation and oil change, since the place does a two-for-one deal and is walking distance from my apartment.

11:00 AM: I watch Case’s documentary. As I will write later for Friday, I think it’s good.

3:15 PM: The shop manager calls to say one of my tires needs to be repaired. I decide to take the car to Costco, since I have a warranty there and don’t want to spend more money. The only catch: It’s a long trek, by foot and BART, back to my apartment, and I have a 5:30 interview with Case III. Also, though I don’t realize it at the time, my only cell phone charger is in my car, since my cat chewed through my wall one, and my battery’s low.

5:31 PM: I return to my apartment just in time and call Case III. We have a good long talk until–

6:02 PM: My battery dies.

6:06 PM: I email Case III to arrange a follow-up for Tuesday. I also see a message from Sooze that she will link to the Donaldson story in a blog she does for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Somewhere in all this, I also finalized my post about if Don Mattingly belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Needless to say, I don’t have days like this very often, but I’d welcome another.

Just a quick post to say Happy Memorial Day and that it’s looking like it will be a good week for Baseball: Past and Present.

Two new regular features will be debuting here, “Does he belong in the Hall of Fame?” which will run Tuesdays and “Different player/Different era” for Thursdays which will look at how certain players would have done in different eras. I wrote the first two pieces this morning, and I’m excited to see how they’re received.

It also looks like this week could mark the appearance of a first-ever guest post here, as I’ve been talking with a fellow who’s eager to write something. This blog has largely been a personal vehicle for me, so far, and while I want to maintain my creative freedom, I’d also like to have the occasional different voice here. In addition, I’m looking to ramp up the amount of content I have, from a few posts a week to one every weekday, and I may need help on this, since my day job sometimes consumes me.

Thus, I would encourage anyone who’s interested in writing a guest post here to shoot me an email. I have high standards as to what goes up here, as should hopefully be apparent, though the former newspaper editor in me is happy to help anyone step up to the challenge.

I got detailed, constructive feedback on this site today from an acquaintance at the San Francisco Chronicle. He started by saying, “The site looks great,” but proceeded to offer a number of solid suggestions. Among these tips: Try to post every weekday, and consider having regular ongoing series. Thus, starting next week, I am going to debut a couple of weekly features:

• Tuesdays: Does he belong in the Hall of Fame?
• Thursdays: Ballplayers who would have done well in a different era

I’ve been thinking about the Tuesday idea for awhile, since some time after the first occasion I made a list of 10 great players not in the Hall of Fame a year ago. Since then, I’ve written about the Hall of Fame several times and can now probably name 50 or 100 players who inspire debate, some who belong in Cooperstown, many more who probably do not but are at least worthy of discussion.

My acquaintance had the Thursday idea, and I ran with it. I like the idea of taking contemporary players like Ichiro Suzuki or Curtis Granderson and imagining how they would have cleaned up in the Deadball Era, and I’m also intrigued by learning more about certain Negro League greats who never got a chance to play in the big leagues and seeing what might have been.

My acquaintance also suggested I provide more news, like on deaths of former players. I will be on the lookout, though I encourage family members of old ballplayers (both big league and otherwise) to seek me out if they’d like something written. I check the email address listed on this site pretty much every day and am always in need of new, compelling material here.

I of course welcome feedback on either of the new features that will be debuting as well as anything else people would like to see here. Thank you to everyone who reads.

I have been looking for new ways to promote this site, since I get a relatively small amount of traffic, have an Alexa rank that depresses me and a Google page rank of 2 (which relegates me to the Internet Kids Table, so to speak.) On this note, anyone who reads regularly may have noticed that I have expanded my baseball writing beyond this site. Today, I’m pleased to announce my guest post for the Baseball in Wartime blog. My topic: A Starting Line-up of Combat Veterans.

Lots of ballplayers have served in the military during war-time, most accepting non-combat playing assignments, as Ken Burns noted, “helping to raise funds for the war effort and boosting the morale of their fellow servicemen.” While Major League Baseball struggled to find players, particularly for the minor leagues, the army was stacked with stars like Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, and Pee Wee Reese. The waste appalls me, but I don’t know if a better alternative would have been involuntary combat duty. I wouldn’t have wanted responsibility for sending the Yankee Clipper to his death.

With that said, I am fascinated by the smaller number of players who elected for combat duty, particularly veterans who were already established and may have opted for lighter duty. With Memorial Day approaching, I thought a dream line-up of these players might be timely and interesting. As always, feedback is appreciated.