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Good morning, everyone! Today I want to give a shout-out to my friend and colleague at SBNation, Ashley MacLennan, who has a new YouTube channel called “90 Feet From Home” that will be launching soon, where she will be making baseball more accessible for fans who may not have the inside information on lingo, stats, history, etc. Basically all of the things one needs to know if they want to get to know the game better or introduce it to friends to get them to love it as much as you do!
This is such a great idea, considering those in charge of baseball can’t seem to figure out how to grow the sport and make it more accessible. At least not without throwing darts at a wall of ridiculous ideas about how to fundamentally, and for the most part unnecessarily, change the game.
So even if you are already a baseball expert, maybe give Ashley a follow and see if there’s anything she has to say that might interest you, or help you inform fledgling baseball fans that you might encounter. Here’s her introduction video:
Additionally, since I am pre-writing this on Wednesday afternoon, I’m going to go ahead and assume the Giants signed Bryce Harper about ten seconds before this published. In which case, yay us!
However, if I’m wrong, help bide your time by reading this great piece by Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle about Mac Williamson and Brandon Belt’s struggles with recent concussions, diving into some of they psychological side effects that often get overlooked during the recovery process.
Belt opened up about his struggles in a piece with The Athletic last year, so it seems a little surprising that Williamson did not heed Belt’s advice about taking his time with the recovery process. However, as Schulman points out, there’s a difference between taking your time when you have a guaranteed contract vs. when you are an older prospect who is running out of options.