I suspect Mark is partly kidding with the words per post joke, but it’s true that I’ve been missing in action for most of this week. I can’t say if my work in general has been slacking before that; I find that the things I write that I think are best are rarely the same as the ones readers think are best.

This blog now counts as some part of my responsibilities here, but it is and always has been primarily a labor of love. And most of the time, I love writing it. But in order for the blog to be good — in my eyes, at least — I do need some time away on occasion. For one thing, hunching in front of my computer wreaks havoc on my back, and sometimes when the pain gets strong enough it’s the only thing I can think about and my writing suffers. That’s kind of what happened yesterday.

For another, sometimes I just need to think about stuff and experience stuff to try to keep creating fresh content for this site. I had conversations in Binghamton that will in part inform my writing all offseason, plus time on the road to clear my head a bit.

Truth is, my typical daily obligations here force me to spend less time than I would like on posts, but that’s why they give me a paycheck and call it work. If I were to try to write any more than I already do, you wouldn’t miss it when it was gone because it would utterly suck.

Sometimes I toy with the idea of bringing on like-minded contributors to bolster the site’s content and afford me more time to work on lengthier posts and such. But though I’m pretty sure I could find willing and talented writers, I’m not sure I could in good conscience ask someone to volunteer his or her time for a site named for me.

Dude, your standards are just way too high. I mean, I don’t know you or anything but from your Twitter feed it seems like you’re a pretty funny guy. And if you’re following me I suspect you’re extremely handsome. But you need to understand that no one’s perfect, and that someone’s annoying little quirks that keep you at bay now could become the very quirks you love about that person if you’d only give them a chance. For crying out loud, Robert, you need to take some chances here.
https://twitter.com/bagelsNrahtz/status/239025720205131776

Probably not. It’s a funny joke and one I’ve mined for material plenty of times before, but it’s only one joke and you summed up the entire joke in your Tweet: The MLB Draft has something called a “sandwich round” and sandwiches are delicious. I’m not above beating jokes to death — you can blame Carlos Beltran for that — but putting in real research by looking through past drafts just seems like too much work.