Opening Day Reflections

I was a freshman in college when Mr. Mosvick and I launched this little Twins blog experiment. Three years later, I find myself about six weeks away from graduating, and I'm pretty amazed the blog has lasted this long. Despite the obligations of everyday life, I manage to make time for this little hobby of mine just about every night, and the interaction with other fans and writers has rendered the entire experience worthwhile. It's been a little bit more difficult to keep up with things over the past six months or so since Mosvick left to go to law school and effectively ceased being a contributor, but I think I've done a decent job of maintaining the update schedule and covering all the big stories.

I feel like this blog has grown with me over the past three years. My writing skills have steadily increased during my time in the School of Journalism here at the U, and I like to think that's reflected in my work here on the blog. I don't purport to be a great writer by any means, but when I go back and look at some of the content from this blog's early days... yeesh. I also think that interacting with all the great baseball minds who comment on this site and send me e-mails has vastly increased my knowledge and appreciation of the game in a lot of ways. My philosophy when it comes to baseball is one that mixes the new-age Sabermetric style with a respect for the traditional values of the game, so I can respect arguments made by both sides as long as they're based in logic.

From a personal standpoint, I don't really know where I'm headed once I finish up with school in mid-May. During the summer, I'm hoping to continue working my two current part-time jobs, and it appears I'll also be doing some work with Rotoworld (thanks to AG for the hook-up on that one). It is also likely that I will be once again be heavily involved with GameDay Magazine, the independently owned and operated program sold outside of the Metrodome before home games. If you aren't picking this mag up nearly every time you attend a Twins game, you really should. I say this not just because of my involvement with the publication and my friendship with the Editor in Chief, John Bonnes; it is a really great program which I bought regularly even before I ever wrote a word for them. If you are a reader of Twins blogs like this one, there is little question that GameDay will have a great deal to offer to you.

Incidentally, I served as guest editor for the April issue, so I'll encourage everyone even more strongly to pick up a copy (or two, or three!) if you make it out to tonight's season opener or any game this month. The issue features articles by renowned bloggers such as Twins Geek, Jesse Lund from Twinkie Town, Seth Stohs and myself (not that I'm "renowned" by anyone other than my mom).

Anyway, I'll keep doing the part-time stuff this summer and should continue to fire out daily updates on this blog. In the fall it will probably be time to start thinking about getting on with my life and joining the full-time work force. I want to tell myself that that's a long ways away yet, but then I think about how quickly these past three years have gone by and I'm reminded that the summer will be gone much more quickly than I'd like to believe.

But, I'll deal with that hurdle when it comes. In any case, I just want to thank everyone who has stopped by this blog regularly and chimed in with your thoughts. I find that even those who generally tend to disagree with me (tt, I'm looking in your direction) almost always bring well-reasoned arguments and help create quality discourse.

After a long winter, Opening Day is finally here. Enjoy tonight's game. As always, you can stop by tomorrow morning to read all my inane thoughts on it.

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And now, a Nick Mosvick update from Virginia:

As many of you know, in late August last year I departed for the University of Virginia School of Law. Many people left nice comments and plenty of suggestions upon my posting of a goodbye message. Not all of it came true of course. However, poster J. Lichty's comments were certainly insightful, as using five different colored highlighters became not a strategy in order to frighten others or be "gunnerish," but rather was a genuine by-product of my overt indolence. Of course, the University of Virginia School of Law is, in so many ways, completely different from any other law school. A lot of the other comments dealt with having fun and balancing time, but the fact is that going to law school here in many ways does that for you unless you absolutely have a unquenchable desire to make work for yourself.

That, in the end, is the real reason why I have had so little time to even consider posting on this blog. From organizations to get together to a collegiate atmosphere in general, it has felt since the day I arrived here that I almost always had something to do if I wanted. Obviously, it will sound to most that read this that I am big promoter of the school and they would be right. I love the decision that I made and the people that I have meet have been by in large fantastic. With that said, I still miss blogging as much as I was able to in undergrad and in no real tangible way have I actually lost my appetite for all things baseball.

With that said, when the horrible time that is finals comes to an end in early May and I settle into my summer job here in Virginia, I should have time to watch games on MLB TV and return to more regular blogging. Otherwise, I'll be cheering vicariously through all of my friends in Minnesota and will have to allow box scores and the minimal highlights on ESPN suffice for the time. Now lets go Twins!