Somebody asked earlier in the year about some folks writing up a little bit about the history of the BaseVols forum. I've thought about this for a bit, here goes.
I joined VN on December 18, 2007, 10 days after my son was born. The writing was on the wall, I was gonna be a stay at home dad. I missed the Todd Raleigh coaching search and to be honest I didn't care much about college baseball at that time, but i was about to have some spare time on my hands.
I was mostly getting an education on how to post in the FF. Looking back on it now, it was a lot like the first time ya ride a bike, or a skate board, or ride a Big Wheel down, what seems, like a steep hill. It seems huge at the time, but you drive by once you get older to show yer kid where you grew up and you realize...it's just not that steep after all. It is through that lens I type the rest.
That time period was a very turbulent time in the UTAD. Long time coach Delmonico had been fired and it was about to happen to Fulmer too in 2008. Lane Kiffin will leave in the middle of the night next year. Before moving on...
To me VN seemed like the posting wild west. Maybe I feel that way because I WAS THE VERY DEFINITION OF A NOOB. Maybe, it really was that wild, or maybe something in between, like me on the hill when I was a kid. It sure seems to me you could get away with a lot more, it seemed less moderated, etc..
I knew nothing. I think it took me a year to figure out what, just to name a few...FWIW, TLDR (feel free), SIAP etc...even meant. I was scared to look stupid. This is where it gets a little cloudy for me. Things could be be very contentious, that's being polite. I was the very definition of consistent. I was consistently getting my teeth kicked in posting on here. I actually admire some of those guys, I learned lots from them regarding debating on a message board, not the least of which was an economy of words (which I'm failing miserably at right now). I also learned what kind of poster I did not wanna be too. That took a while.
In the four year period that was the Raleigh era, I found the baseball forum and there was not very much going on TBH(didn't know that one either). When Raleigh was fired, I made the coaching search thread. Believe me, at that time it was a bold move because I knew very little about college baseball and I certainly didn't have an opinion about who we should hire. I was simply managing the thread and learning where obscure places regarding baseball were. It was the first time I realized I could start a thread and take everyone's opinion into account and be civil even if I disagreed, not that they're weren't moments where I faltered.
We hired Serrano from Cal State Fullerton and after, I felt obligated to stay and see that through to the end. Six years later I had to eat crow. Somewhere in all that time I looked at buying season tix to football, no way. I became a diehard baseball fan because that's what we could afford.
The cool thing now is there are sooooo many people helping out with game day threads, Pick Em, Recruiting(miss ya Burger), standings, etc... none of that really existed back then. So I just wanna say thanks to all you folks for making this a great hang!
GBO!!!