Thank you for reading and for supporting us over the years
We realized, after 14 enjoyable but exhausting years, it's time to say goodbye to this blog. It's been fulfilling and invigorating at times, but also difficult and time-consuming. Sadly, we realized we'd lost much of the joy that came from blogging about college softball.
Bottom line: It stopped being fun.
That's a hard thing to admit, especially for a blogging team once so dedicated to the sport.
Over the past 14 years, we kept on going, without earning a penny, because we didn't want to let our readers down. And there have been tens of thousands of you. We know, because of the analytics that allow us to see the number of page views, unique viewers (visitors), each user's location, etc.
We're nearing 200,000 page views in just the past year. By most web site standards, those aren't great numbers. We know our limitations, and we realize that number may not mean a lot to a lot of people. But for a college softball blog almost entirely about Fresno State and Mountain West softball? Those are strong numbers, as far as we're concerned. It seems possible, if not likely, that we've had over a million site visits during the course of this blog, which is almost unfathomable. And we appreciate every single one of you who ever bothered to stop by.
If you've been following us for a long time, you may recall we had to turn off commenting a few years ago when numerous people decided to flood the site with mean-spirited, and downright nasty remarks. We sought to keep it a site that's been mostly light, and mostly positive even in a world that seems to be getting nastier and more mean-spirited by the day. Nasty, negative message boards - even ones specifically related to softball - are readily available all over the internet. We never wanted to become that.
In 2005, we began blogging about the Western Athletic Conference, and had what we like to call "a staff of four" working on the site in various aspects. None of us individually had the time, energy, or wealth, to be able to make it a full-time job. But as a collective group effort, it worked well. Trying to keep up with in-game updates, statistical updates, news updates, and all types of information related to numerous teams was challenging, a bit complicated, but worth it.
Over the years, things got more complex as our readers became more engaged. We've been sent scoops, behind-the-scenes information, gossip, and so much more ... on almost a daily basis. So much of what we were given, or privy to, was never posted, for a variety of reasons. We didn't want to become a TMZ-type entity, even when we were sent jaw-dropping scoops or shocking information that probably would've gotten us many more page views.
About a decade ago, we asked our readers if there were any volunteers from other WAC schools (and, eventually, other Mountain West schools) to help with the blog. We wanted fans who could volunteer to provide photos, interesting facts, or news related to their particular school that might be of interest to fans all around the conference.
While in the WAC, we immediately heard from fans at Louisiana Tech and Nevada who wanted to volunteer. And for a good while, it worked great. We had fans from those schools providing photos and details about those programs that were terrific. One particular favorite: being able to see heavy snow on the softball field in Ruston as Louisiana Tech had an early-season game snowed out one year. In the west, we don't typically think of snow in Louisiana!
Our submissions by fans of other teams around the conference slowly fell in number, and we asked why. The reason was always the same: it took too much time coming up with new ideas, new photos, and new information that hadn't been shared before.
We also tried going the interview route.
We wrote to the head softball coaches of each WAC school and asked if they'd like to do a Q&A type interview we could publish on the blog. Every coach, except for two, responded with a firm, "Yes!" What a pleasant surprise that was. So we spent hours trying to come up with the best questions we could, and tried to make them as specific to each coach and each program as possible. After each Q&A was completed, we published the interviews with the coaches and they were overwhelming hits! It was as though no one had ever thought to print interviews with college softball coaches before.
Our page views soared, and a few schools linked the interviews on their official athletic department web sites to our blog. Quite honestly, it helped everyone. It gave us some instant credibility, and also helped give the universities' softball programs and coaches some free publicity at a time when there was virtually nothing about WAC or Mountain West softball available online. (Still to this day, there isn't much.) One of our favorite responses from a coach in that interview process was then-Boise State head coach Erin Thorpe's admission that yes, she'd actually think it would be cool for the Broncos to play on a blue softball field like the school's famed football team.
Once Fresno State and its fellow WAC members moved on to the Mountain West, we decided to move the blog too. First and foremost, we were fans of the Bulldogs and legendary head coach Margie Wright. That's a fact we made public very often, and it was no secret. It would be like Hawaii fans running a Big West Volleyball Blog, or Colorado State fans running a Mountain West Volleyball Blog, or Boise State fans running a Mountain West Football Blog. It's common sense: your best programs are going to have the most informed, most dedicated fans. You won't find people invested in blogging for more than a decade in a sport where their favorite school seldom wins.
Due to work and life changes, we eventually were down to three people working on the blog and our Twitter account. One of our original bloggers lost interest in Fresno State softball completely, and apparently she wasn't alone. When we started in 2005, the Bulldogs led the nation in per-game average attendance. The decline in attendance has been very noticeable for those who've followed the program over the past 20 years. After averaging 2,557 fans per game in 1997, this year's team is averaging 1,051 per game heading into its final home weekend. While crowds are still good by MWC standards, it's a nearly 59 percent drop in per-game average attendance from the Bulldogs' glory days.
What a continuing struggle it has been trying to handle in-game updates of midweek and weekend games on Twitter, along with daily stats updates and informational updates, while trying to fit in every other aspect of our lives too. All this while we noticed the official Mountain West accounts seemed to be spending less and less time promoting the sport of softball. Sigh.
But we persisted.
One particular moment stands out from our early Twitter days during the Erica Beach coaching tenure at New Mexico. While the Lobos were playing non-conference games in a tournament in Southern California, a few games UNM was playing did not have any live stats or online video available. But we were live tweeting in-game updates for the Lobos, thanks to our connection to Bulldog fans. We had a blog team member (who happened to be there because Fresno State was in the same tournament) texting us in-game updates of New Mexico's game so we could tweet them out. We were happy to provide those updates for Lobos fans, who would've had no other way to follow live updates for their team that particular weekend. We'll never forget the official UNM Twitter account asking us how we were able to get those updates. Yes, they acknowledged us, and were thankful and appreciative.
And that's been our mission for the past 14 years. We wanted to get the word out to the public about Fresno State and Mountain West softball, and make sure people understood what a quality softball conference this is. Every chance we got, we sought to sing the praises of a league that doesn't get much national attention, but one that has become one of the better softball conferences in the nation and includes a former NCAA softball champion.
But that didn't mean we were going to be blind to pitfalls that took place, or deny sharing bad news. When Fresno State this season was run-ruled seven times - the most in a single-season in school history - we were blasted for mentioning it. But it was something important to mention. In a program with as much tradition as the Bulldog softball program, it's important to be honest with fans. Because those kinds of stats are never going to be mentioned by the school itself.
We've received a ton of compliments and well wishes over the years, and are forever grateful to those of you who sent kind words or helped and assisted us in any way. We know there are so many people who appreciated all the hard work and many long hours that went into creating this for you.
And we'd even like to thank those of you who took the time to send or post angry, purposely hurtful, nasty messages or tweets. It kept us on our toes, and displayed to us the type of negativity that we've never wanted to be associated with.
We've been told to stop mentioning when players commit errors or have prolonged slumps at the plate. We've been told we need to "be true fans," and never question coaching moves. However, part of being a fan is telling the truth. Part of being a fan is not turning a blind eye to problems within a team, a coaching staff, a program, a conference, or even an entity like the NCAA.
Blogging, by its very nature, is opinion-oriented. Box scores can easily be found on every school's web site if fans prefer to just see scores and not know what really happened during a game.
If what readers want is a 100 percent positive game story of a team that is always perfect and never stumbles, they shouldn't be reading a blog dedicated to sports. Softball and baseball are sports built on failure. Where getting a hit one-third of the time is considered great. Where errors are part of the game. Where batting averages rise and fall. Where even elite pitchers and hitters have bad streaks, and bad days.
We're proud that we've kept true to our mission all along: Be truthful. When things are going well for particular teams, say it and say it loudly. When things aren't going well, we also had an obligation to say that too.
We'd like to thank everyone who did support us over the past 14 years. To those who communicated with us privately and shared important information (and yes, even gossip), we are forever indebted to you for the support and friendship. To everyone who retweeted, clicked on, liked, read, shared, laughed about, or enjoyed what we created, we say a huge thank you.
We're going to leave up the single most visited post in our blog's history ... our 2016 interview with former Fresno State pitcher Jill Compton, the 2-time Mountain West Pitcher of the Year. And even though we're not supposed to have favorite players (or at least it's not usually cool to say so), Jill is definitely one of our favorites. And not just because she's a great player, but because she's a great person.
In the end, when everyone's blogging career or athletic career is over and done with, isn't it better to be remembered as a nice person anyway? We sure think so.
Two of our favorite stories of 2018 in Mountain West softball had little to do with game results anyway. We greatly admired first-year New Mexico head coach Paula Congleton increasing the strength of the Lobos' non-conference schedule when the easier route would've been trying to pad the slate with cupcakes during a rebuilding season. But our greatest story of the year: Colorado State and the Rams team standing up for itself and pointing out inequality. Some things are bigger than softball. And one of those things is fairness and equality, and the 2018 Rams will be remembered for taking a stand and making a difference.
So, for now, we're saying goodbye. May your favorite team - no matter which team that may be - succeed and reach new heights in the years to come.