Written by Two years of Knuckleballs. Who-da thunk it? 
A year ago, CapitalBabs wrote about how surprised we all were that 30,000 visited our site in our first year of existence, so you really can’t believe how shocked we are that more than 50,000 more of you people stopped by to see us during our second year!
The Twins blogging community has become an amazing place. It grew to the point where there have been literally dozens of blogs worthy of regular reading. We have blogs by the professional journalists, by people focused on the science and mathematics of baseball, by people who have devoted a good segment of their lives to studying the Twins minor league system, and by people like us who are mostly just doing this blogging thing to provide an outlet for our viewpoints and to have some fun with others in the process.
What’s great is that all of these people with very different backgrounds, talents and viewpoints all come together thanks to a common interest in the Minnesota Twins and a willingness to put themselves and their opinions out there for others to read, enjoy and, yes, often times criticize. But that’s OK. Free and open civil debate is the cornerstone of our country. The number of people willing to open themselves up and participate in that process enhances the experience of being a Twins fan.
The creation of Twins Daily by the TwinsCentric crew is a new and exciting event for Twins fans. It has the potential to be a real “game changer” for the Twins blogging community. I will admit to having a concern that it may become such an overwhelming focal point for Twins fans looking for blogging content that it makes it more difficult for the rest of us to keep our own “lesser” blogs alive. It certainly means we need to step up our game to assure our content is worth the effort for those readers willing to click a few extra keys to come see us. If we prove unable to do that, then our readership will likely drop off and we may find ourselves faced with some difficult decisions.
But that’s something for another day. Today, as we anxiously await the opening of another Twins season, we’re celebrating the fact that we’ve not only survived for two years, but by any measure of our original expectations, we’ve thrived beyond what we could have imagined.
And we have you, our readers, to thank for that. Thank you for your support and we look forward to sharing another Twins season with all of you!
- JC
Congrats, you two!
I just missed my own first anniversary a few weeks ago at Twins Fan From Afar, but I’m not sure that there’s much of a penalty for that, like there would be in my marriage!
I admit to having the same concern about TwinsDaily, but also figure that, if you just keep doing what you are doing, things will sort themselves out. Your blog is a daily source of information for me, so thanks for that!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to all my Knuckleballs colleagues! It’s been a great experience so far and I look forward to seeing what we do next.
It is weird to feel like a website is your home, especially if you don’t do anything on that website except read it and occasionally post a comment. But I feel like Knuckleballs is my home. It is the only baseball page I have bookmarked at work (I don’t even bookmark my own!). It is the place I look forward to going for game chats for every Twins game. It is where I seek wisdom from JC, and Humor from Babs. Knuckleballs is everything I ever expected from a Twins blog, and more. I’ve only been reading for about a year, but I feel at home here, with all of you Knuckleballs.
We’re very happy to have you, Eric, as well as the other friends who find their way here regularly. Not sure about the whole “wisdom from JC” thing, though!
wow, did I get off easier than JC on THAT one! LOL At least if I can’t come up with something humorous to SAY, they can always just laugh AT me and I think that should count.
JC, keep up the nice work. There is plenty of room for all the Twins blogs out there. The way I see it, the point of a blog is that you get to express your opinions whenever and however you wish to do so. There are no rules, regulations, and deadlines except those that you put on yourself. I can tell you from working at a smaller company and at a huge corporation that bigger is not always better. I wish the folks at Twins Daily well but there is always room for other opinions and view points. Congrats on staying with it for two years, I was thinking there at the end of last season that you might move on and become an Orioles blogger, glad to see you stayed with the Twins.
I got off even easier, since our readers don’t even know I exist. This Knuckle-versary has been a little sad for me, realizing that after two years I still haven’t figured out what niche I can fill. I hate to give it up, but I’m at quite a loss. Is there something besides wisdom and humor that our readers are looking for?
Congratulations folks!
I look forward to the next 20 years of knuckleballs
My goodness… can you IMAGINE what this social media world will evolve in to by two decades from now? I wonder just what technology Twins fans of 2032 will use to bitch about Liam Hendriks’ efforts to stay in the rotation well in to his 40s.
I think they’ll be debating just how many more years of catching Mauer’s knees can take, and whether that subsequent 15 year, $300 million contract for him was such a good idea after all.
Congrats! Keep up the good work!