Looking Back on Seven Years of Baseballot

Isn't it weird how, when people say they have "some personal news," they really mean they have some professional news? Anyway, I have some personal and/or professional news that you may have already seen me announce on Twitter: I'm joining FiveThirtyEight (where I've been freelancing since last year) full-time as its new elections writer. I've read FiveThirtyEight almost since back when Nate Silver was still Poblano, and much of my own writing was informed and inspired by his revolutionary strain of political data journalism. At the same time, I struck up a Twitter friendship with Nate's right-hand man, Micah Cohen, who gave Baseballot its first readership outside my family by including some of my posts in FiveThirtyEight's weekly "Reads and Reactions" feature. To work with them is a dream come true.

But it also means changes, one of which is that you're probably going to see a lot fewer posts here on Baseballot. This isn't goodbye, exactly (for one thing, I hope that you'll keep reading me over at FiveThirtyEight); this isn't some big pronouncement that this is going to be the FINAL BASEBALLOT POST EVER!!, or even that the blog is going dormant for a while. It's just a public acknowledgment that, yeah, updates are going to be infrequent from here on out because I have a real job now and my new bosses are going to want to publish most of what I tend to write. Occasionally there may be a musing missive in this space about an obscure election, or a post that's not about politics or baseball at all. This blog has been a big part of my life for the last seven (!) years, and I'm not quite ready to give it up for good. But things are going to get quieter around here.

Inspired by one of my favorite writers, I started this blog in 2011 because my first couple years of working in a real-world office were not as stimulating as I had hoped. I decided to scratch my writing itch first as a hobby. Eventually, it got more serious: I developed quasi-professional relationships on Twitter, my writing and research got stronger, and my pageviews increased. In 2015, I gained the confidence to start freelance-writing online full-time, and, with the exposure that came from that volume, my work caught the eye of my wonderful now-former colleagues at Inside Elections and ultimately FiveThirtyEight. It all started with this blog and those of you who read it along the way.

To other aspiring writers/bloggers/reporters/pundits, allow me to be that writer who inspires you to join the fray: start a blog, pitch articles to Newsweek on the weekends, start a (smart, respectful) conversation on Twitter. Patience and hard work can pay off. To everyone else: thanks for reading Baseballot, and thank you for all the support over the years. I couldn't have done it without your encouragement, your sharing of my articles, and the community you created where I finally felt at home.

Reflections on the 2017 Congressional Baseball Game

I always look forward to the Congressional Baseball Game; it's the platonic ideal of my two main interests combined. Usually, it's a fun and intimate affair—me and 10,000 of my closest friends watching the sloppiest All-Star Game of all time—but that all changed this year when a gunman opened fire on a Republican baseball practice the day before the game.

Although, thankfully, no one was killed, the tragedy completely reshaped our fun little tradition. Heavy security and solemn pregame ceremonies changed how I covered the game this year. A flood of interest in the Congressional Baseball Game suddenly meant lots of people were asking me about my experience covering the game and my research into its history. It was, frankly, a blur of activity that I even had trouble sorting through as I was living it. However, for you, my dear reader, I will attempt to make sense of it all. Here are all the articles and quotes I contributed to coverage of this year's Congressional Baseball Game.

• My statistical preview of the game. As you may know, I keep a totally unnecessary Google spreadsheet of representatives' batting and pitching statistics in the Congressional Baseball Game since 2009. This year, for the first time, I used the stats to preview the game in Roll Call's official game program. The article isn't online yet, but I'll link to it here when it's up.
• My dispatch from covering the game in person. I was originally expecting my recap for The Hardball Times to focus on the baseball game, but it ended up mostly a play-by-play of the pregame ceremonies and the bipartisanship that pervaded Nationals Park.
• My statistical recap of the game. This follow-up to my first Roll Call article looks at who actually racked up the numbers in this year's game.
• The Washington Post walked through the history of the Congressional Baseball Game, from 1909 to today. I'm quoted about the purpose of the game and why it was organized in the first place. The article also comes with some snazzy maps and a timeline of the game's historical results.
• CBS This Morning interviewed me about the history of the game. My national TV debut! A brief overview of how the game was founded, Steve Scalise's gritty play, and why the game is so valuable to members like Linda Sánchez. 
• Dave Montero of the Los Angeles Times wrote about baseball's power to unite. I contributed a few quotes, but Dave's writing really drives this beautiful piece. Former Congressional Baseball Game player Marty Russo talks about the thrill of playing on a major-league field, Dave walks through the most important moments when baseball and politics have intersected (such as President Bush's first pitch after 9/11), and baseball is treated as a metaphor for our political system.
• The Los Angeles Times also wrote about how California's eight congressional ballplayers did. Reporter Sarah D. Wire contacted me for the box score from the game; while the official box score isn't released by the game's scorekeepers until weeks later, I shared the play-by-play that I scrawled down on my own personal scorecard.

Last Wednesday's shooting was, without question, the biggest story in the 108-year history of the Congressional Baseball Game. Without the heroism of the three Capitol Police officers stationed at the practice, it could have been the bloodiest assassination incident in American history. Extremely fortunately, it was not that, but instead evolved into a moment of national unity, bringing awareness to a truly good-hearted charity tradition that did not deserve to be sullied in such a way but absolutely deserves the warm embrace it received from the nation on Thursday night. A full 24,959 spectators attended the game, more than double its previous record attendance; over $1.5 million were raised for charity, another record; and six million people (!) watched the game as it was livestreamed on Facebook. Out of a horrible attack, I was thrilled to see some true goodness emerge.

A #CBG2015 Roundup

This blog has been taking a little Christmas vacation—Christmas for baseball-and-politics lovers, of course, being the June Congressional Baseball Game. As you've hopefully noticed from following my Twitter feed, I would never go dark during such a critical period—I've just been active elsewhere. For those who may have missed it, though, here's a recap of my Congressional Baseball writing out there in actual, respected publishing outlets:

• To bore everyone to tears get everyone psyched in advance of the game, I wrote a sabermetric scouting report for the game over at FanGraphs, whose meticulous and intelligent number-crunching has inspired me, for the past few years, to keep a similar record of advanced statistics for the Congressional Baseball Game. In developments that may or may not have made me squee, the piece (and my database of stats) were picked up by the likes of the New York Times and FOX Sports.
• Don't worry, old school readers, I poked my nose outside my spreadsheet long enough to watch the game too, which I attended and covered for The New Yorker. I talked to a Republican player you may have heard of—Rand Paul—and President Obama showed up to the game as well, giving me the opportunity to write about presidential figures throughout the history of the game.

Democrats ended up winning this year's tilt, 5–2, extending their seven-game winning streak but by a narrower margin than their superstar-studded team is used to. Despite the loss, Republicans should feel really good about their standing going into next year, as they've finally found a pitcher good enough to keep them in games (Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina). I learned a ton writing about the game this year, as I do every year; it seems like there's an infinite amount of information, history, and fun angles surrounding the game. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I did writing about it.

Link-O-Rama: Some Recent Outside Blog Posts

Baseballot has been relatively quiet this month, but never fear, it's not from a lack of writing. I've had a few pieces published by other outlets that are also worth highlighting here:

In Grantland last week, I shared my musings and recap of the Congressional Baseball Game. In case you missed it, the Democrats won big (22–0) despite some good Republican smack talk before the game. I was able to visit with the players in their clubhouses and on the field and got some good color for the game.

On The Atlas Project blog, Karyn Bruggeman and I preview the Massachusetts Senate special election. Our conclusion? Anyone holding onto the notion that Gabriel Gómez can win is kidding themselves. We dig deeper into the data than just looking at polls to prove it. (This follows on the heels of my Massachusetts Senate primary preview in The Atlantic back in April.)

Please click through and enjoy! I'll get back to posting in this space soon.

Post 1: The First Post

Welcome to Baseballot!

Whew, that felt good to get off my chest. See, I'm kind of new (read: lime green) to this blogging thing. Now that I've actually taken the step of creating one, I feel like I need to set forth the reasoning behind this blog—a mission statement, if you will.

This blog is written for the sorriest species that roams this lonely internet, the nerdiest of the nerds: political junkies who happen also to be rabid baseball fans. I was inspired to start a blog on this subject because (a) I'm a writer who hasn't written in a while and that tends to cause people to explode and (b) I seem to have company as a member of this politics/baseball crossbreed. As one Washingtonian put it, "Baseball's the perfect sport for nerds. It doesn't require a huge amount of athletic ability to play, and it's got this cerebral component that appeals to people." The overlap is amazing when you think about it: Presidential first pitches. Congressional baseball games. Baseball is America's pastime, and America's politicians have to get with the program. As early as 1889, a New York newspaper wrote, "all statesmen of any aspirations for the future to consider that if they have not yet recorded themselves as lovers of our national game or some other sporting interest, they should do so immediately." The second commissioner of baseball, Happy Chandler, was first a senator from Kentucky. Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning, after his retirement from the game, moved on to a second career—as, um, a senator from Kentucky. Justice Sam Alito went to Phillies fantasy camp. President Bush used to own the Rangers. White House press secretary Jay Carney and CNN anchor John King are rabid Red Sox fans. The list goes on.

The overlap isn't lost on fellow bloggers, either. In fact, if this is going to be Baseballot's mission statement, it only seems fair that I reveal my inspirations and influences as well. For baseball blogging, my first stop is HardballTalk, whose chief blogger Craig Calcaterra also seems to enjoy indulging in political commentary from time to time. The political blog I most admire is FiveThirtyEight, whose Nate Silver was famously first a writer and accomplished statistician for Baseball Prospectus. You can expect to see a little bit of both Craig and Nate in here, as well as a whole lot of myself and, hopefully, a more even balance between the ballgame and the ballot game.

Now, there are blogs about politics. There are blogs about baseball. How is this one going to be different? Well, first off, it's going to be about BOTH politics AND baseball; haven't you been listening? Seriously, though, I do want to add something that the internet doesn't already have. To that end, this blog will focus on a few specifics:

• Delivering data-driven and scientific-method-inspired analysis of both politics and baseball, and applying "sabermetrics" (the philosophy thereof, not necessarily xFIP itself) to the myth-filled world of politics and campaigns.
• Considering the role of language in both politics and baseball.
• Giving special attention to local political and baseball-ian news stories that the national media tend to pass over.

Of course, having said this, I'm now sure that I'll veer off course and write about whatever tickles my fancy. But I've got a couple ideas already that fit pretty nicely into these categories, so for now, away we go! Thanks for coming along for the ride!