The Most Popular Articles In BBTiA History

While digging around in Google Analytics last night, I got curious as far as what the most popular content in BBTiA history (that is, history going as far back as the November 2008 relaunch here, when Parks and I went independent of MVN), so here's the list of the 10 most trafficked articles in BBTiA history:

1. Report: Josh Hamilton "Relapses" After Drinking At DFW-Area Bar

2. The Delusional Nutjob And His Enablers (MJH on Michael Young)

3. Rangers: "Can Dirk Throw Out The First Pitch?" MLB: "No."

4. The Morning After The Fall (the Shannon Stone article)

5. Goodbye, New Camera Angle (me carping about the FSNSW cameras)

6. If Texas Doesn't Trade Michael Young: The Four Scenarios

7. Tom Grieve's Epic Layout

8. Highest Ceilings In The Rangers System: Jurickson Profar (via Jason)

9. The Failed ALCS Postponement

10. Yu Darvish, The Win Curve, And The Genius Of The Contract

So, there you go. I will say that among these listed pieces, the ones I personally authored that I enjoy the most after the fact (that is, the ones where I feel I really did the subject matter justice -- I certainly didn't enjoy anything about the Shannon Stone incident) are, as I mentioned, the Stone piece, the ALCS postponement piece, and the more media-heavy pieces on the FSNSW camera angle and last fall's bizarre TAG/Barnett incident. 

I'm not surprised that the Josh Hamilton piece is No. 1 all time, because, while Gerry Fraley was the first to report that, I noticed his post on the DMN blog pop up, threw a quick post up of my own, and I recall being the first person to hit Twitter/Facebook with it, so that's my sordid little story of blogosphere opportunism right there. I'm also not surprised that MJH's fury-laced MY piece is No. 2, and I kind of wonder to this day how many people never visited BBTiA again after that piece ... and, on the other hand, how many people discovered BBTiA because of that piece.

I'd also like to say this: You're looking at the golden age of Rangers blogging right now with LSB/NMLR/BBTiA, and, on the minor league side, with guys like Scott and Parks and Cole. I have no doubt there are some hungry young upstarts out there ready to make their own run, and I invite that, because while I think all of the aforementioned authors/sites are friendly with each other, there's always going to be a sort of friendly competition, and competition brings out the best in everyone. 

Maybe Jamey and Adam and Scott and the Jasons and I will continue to do this forever. But I wouldn't count on it, and, with that in mind, it is my sincere hope that people out there fully appreciate what the Rangers blogosphere has churned out for them over these years, because the reality is that we're not all going to be around to do this forever.

If you're having trouble appreciating that, try imagining a world where the closest things to opinionated Rangers writers are Randy Galloway and Richie Whitt. Ah, see? There you go.