Born to blog
The Opening Day starter for the Boston Red Sox, Curt Schilling, now has a blog. In his first week, he’s already moved down the learning curve, following David Pinto’s advice and introducing much-needed line breaks into his posts. Sports fans love or hate Schilling. To the haters, he’s an egomaniac who cannot and will not ...
The Opening Day starter for the Boston Red Sox, Curt Schilling, now has a blog. In his first week, he's already moved down the learning curve, following David Pinto's advice and introducing much-needed line breaks into his posts. Sports fans love or hate Schilling. To the haters, he's an egomaniac who cannot and will not shut up -- particularly if he's talking about himself. To the admirers, Schilling has always walked the walk (see: sock, bloody) in pressure situations, a very rare commodity in professional sports. Perusing his posts to date, I would advise non-sports fans and even casual sports fans to ignore it. However, for baseball fanatics, there's lots of good stuff. From his first post, I have a hunch that Schilling intuitively gets the blog thing: I?ve never been a yes/no kind of guy, which probably hasn?t been received well by some. I don?t know that I?ll be changing my style, but I do know that getting ripped for something I say here will be getting ripped for something I actually said?with the entire contents of my comments included. That?s not to say I?ll be preaching from the pulpit?far from it. Being a major league baseball player does not give me keen insight into politics, education, or anything else for that matter. It does give me insight and knowledge about baseball, about being part of a team, about excelling at something not many people can. Beyond that my thoughts and beliefs are my own and for the most part pretty normal. The truth is, I?ve been wrong as many times, if not more, than I?ve been right in my life. I guess that?s part of the human package, something that makes me every bit as prone to mistakes as anyone. Like every other male on the planet I think I?m well informed on a lot of things, which usually lasts until I run into someone else who thinks he?s well informed but has a different opinion. Fortunately, I have zero problems being wrong. I don?t intend to make mistakes but it happens, which is part of the learning curve of life. I?m prone to having quick reactions which, in the world of baseball and media coverage?even when you might be right?can make you wrong.Unless you're willing to be wrong -- really, badly wrong -- you'll never make it as a blogger. UPDATE: Seth Mnookin also thinks Schilling has the chops to blog.
The Opening Day starter for the Boston Red Sox, Curt Schilling, now has a blog. In his first week, he’s already moved down the learning curve, following David Pinto’s advice and introducing much-needed line breaks into his posts. Sports fans love or hate Schilling. To the haters, he’s an egomaniac who cannot and will not shut up — particularly if he’s talking about himself. To the admirers, Schilling has always walked the walk (see: sock, bloody) in pressure situations, a very rare commodity in professional sports. Perusing his posts to date, I would advise non-sports fans and even casual sports fans to ignore it. However, for baseball fanatics, there’s lots of good stuff. From his first post, I have a hunch that Schilling intuitively gets the blog thing:
I?ve never been a yes/no kind of guy, which probably hasn?t been received well by some. I don?t know that I?ll be changing my style, but I do know that getting ripped for something I say here will be getting ripped for something I actually said?with the entire contents of my comments included. That?s not to say I?ll be preaching from the pulpit?far from it. Being a major league baseball player does not give me keen insight into politics, education, or anything else for that matter. It does give me insight and knowledge about baseball, about being part of a team, about excelling at something not many people can. Beyond that my thoughts and beliefs are my own and for the most part pretty normal. The truth is, I?ve been wrong as many times, if not more, than I?ve been right in my life. I guess that?s part of the human package, something that makes me every bit as prone to mistakes as anyone. Like every other male on the planet I think I?m well informed on a lot of things, which usually lasts until I run into someone else who thinks he?s well informed but has a different opinion. Fortunately, I have zero problems being wrong. I don?t intend to make mistakes but it happens, which is part of the learning curve of life. I?m prone to having quick reactions which, in the world of baseball and media coverage?even when you might be right?can make you wrong.
Unless you’re willing to be wrong — really, badly wrong — you’ll never make it as a blogger. UPDATE: Seth Mnookin also thinks Schilling has the chops to blog.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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