I-70 Baseball

For the past three months or so, I have been cheating on you, Henry Wiggen Blog. I'm having an affair with another website.

I've been writing about the Kansas City Royals at the new site I-70 Baseball. And in the short time the site has been "live," I've also become the co-host of a weekly radio show and the content editor for the site. It's taking up a lot of time, but it's been fulfilling, and I think the website has a strong future.

I-70 Baseball, an affiliate site of BaseballDigest.com, covers both the Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals, which fills a niche missing in the online world - especially since many people in this part of the country are fans of both teams. However, even if you're just a fan of one or the other, there's something new on the site about each team every single day.

To help fulfill that goal, I've enlisted the help of the other half of the Henry Wiggen Blog, Mr. John Lofflin. John's first article will appear on Saturday. Be sure to check it out. He writes a terrific, in-depth piece about Royals Hall of Famer Frank White.

I am forever grateful to John for giving us a helping hand. I know his presence will make the site more popular and much stronger.

Check out I-70 Baseball when you get a chance. I think you'll like it.

But remember, Henry Wiggen Blog, I still love you.

-- Matt Kelsey

Here's a great Web site for writers

If anybody's interested, my query letter for my recently-completed but yet-to-be-published novel, "The Rough on the Diamond," has been uploaded onto The Public Query Slushpile.

The Slushpile is a great Web site for aspiring novelists. It's a place where query letters (basically, the pitch letter novelists use to entice literary agents) are posted, and other novelists and interested readers can make comments and criticisms.

I've already received several very insightful and helpful comments, but I could always use more - so log on and comment away!

--Matt Kelsey

Henry Waugh ain't so crazy after all

I haven't had much time to blog lately. Fortunately, John's posts have been timely and insightful as usual.

What's been keeping me away from the blog is my novel-in-progress, which I've mentioned in passing. I've been working on this thing for over six months now, but only since mid-June have I actually been writing the book. If that doesn't make any sense, I'm not surprised. It didn't make much sense to me either at first, but I'm glad I spent those first several months researching, taking notes and just plain ol' thinkin'.

By mid-June I felt I was ready to actually start with Chapter 1. And all my pre-research and notetaking has helped me fly through it so far. I've tried to keep myself on a fairly regimented schedule of writing at least 1,000 words a day, and on August 2 I started keeping a log to chart my progress. Looking back on that log, I only missed my goal twice, once when I had out-of-town family visiting and I didn't write at all.

Here's a peek at my book log:

Sunday, Aug. 2: 1,163 words.
Monday, Aug. 3: 1,980 words.
Tuesday, Aug. 4: 958 words.
Wednesday, Aug. 5: 2,122 words.
Thurdsay, Aug. 6: 1,060 words.
Friday, Aug. 7: 1,222 words.
Saturday, Aug. 8: No work done.
Sunday, Aug. 9: 1,334 words.
Monday, Aug. 10: 1,932 words.
Tuesday, Aug. 11: 1,384 words.
Wednesday, Aug. 12: 1,648 words.
Thursday, Aug. 13: 1,102 words.
Friday, Aug. 14: 1,130 words.

When I started keeping the log at the beginning of August, I had written 10,473 words in my novel. Today, two weeks later, my count is 27,508.

My goal for the book is between 40,000 and 50,000 words. That means I'm on the downhill slide, and I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

But a strange thing has happened to my subconscous since mid-June when I pretty much made myself a full-time novelist. The characters I created have started to become real to me. I think about them all the time. The other night I had a dream about one of them (he was inexplicably talking on the phone with Pete Rose!). I've run across numerous situations in my writing when I say to myself, "No, that character wouldn't do that."

I'm beginning to understand Henry Waugh a little better. Waugh is the title character of "The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop." His life revolves around a fictional baseball game he's created. Eventually, the game takes over his mind.

A review will be forthcoming, I promise. But I'm gonna keep plugging away at this book. If I can keep to my goal of 1,000 words per day, I think I can have a first draft completed by my birthday, Sept. 15 (which happens to be a milestone for me - 30 - and a damn sore subject now because my wife keeps picking on me about it). But I've given myself a little bit of leeway for unexpected circumstances. My ultimate goal for having a first draft finished is Oct. 17, which is my wife's birthday (she won't be turning 30).

If the characters in my head don't take over, I'll try to post again as soon as I can.

--Matt Kelsey

Check out this Royals blog

My much-older brother, a middle school teacher, told me about this blog created by one of his former students, a young woman named Raegan. She's only in the eighth or ninth grade, my brother says, but don't let that fool you - she's extremely knowledgeable about baseball. And she's a good writer, too.

Check it out.

--Matt Kelsey

Manny the chemist? A grassy knoll appears on the MLB horizon this morning

OK, let me see if I have this right...

No, let's start over. This will be one of the strangest blogs you've read on this site. I'm wondering if someone spiked my Starbucks this morning.

I used to think I could read.

Buster Olney wrote a provocative little piece this morning about Manny's troubles. Buster Olney may be the best sportswriter in America. If you haven't read "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," you must.

But, I could not make heads nor tails of his column on ESPN.com this morning.

Fortunately, he sent me to the LA Times for the original reporting on the latest Manny development. Here it is. See if you can figure it out. I can't.

It made me even more dizzy.

I'd like to explain this supposedly explosive development to you, but I can't. It has something to do with the complicated interplay of drugs and MLB rules affecting this case. Apparently, this interplay argues strongly Manny is lying about what got him in trouble and what he's been doing.

If you can figure it out, let us know.

While you're puzzling, two disturbing things do seem clear:

1) Olney's conclusion appears sound. Manny juiced up for the big payday and the fans, the owner, the team, all the players who came before him and the record books, were cheated. Manny didn't cheat AT the sport, he cheated the sport.

2) It is a good guess Manny did not act alone. The grassy knoll just appeared on the horizon. Manny is a hitter and a character, Manny is Manny, but Manny is not a chemist. And, if it takes a chemist to unravel the scheme, Manny did not concoct the scheme.

Who did? Maybe I've watched one too many NCIS reruns, or I'm remembering Deepthroat's advise to The Boys, but the first question you have to ask is who stands to gain the most from a $45 million Manny Ramirez contract?

This is, I think, a question somebody in Bud Selig's office needs to be asking.

--Lofflin

Great blog: 'Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf'

Here's a wonderful blog that's dedicated to baseball in literature. It's a lot of fun checking out Ron Kaplan's site to see what's new on the baseball book market.

Kaplan also did a great writeup on the book reviews we do here at the Henry Wiggen Blog. Ron's a prolific blogger; the post about our reviews was made three days ago, and since then he's made over a dozen posts.

Speaking of those reviews, watch for a review of "The Southpaw" by Mark Harris (starring Henry Wiggen!) in the coming days.

--Matt Kelsey

We're making waves on the Internet

A big thank-you to John Lansberg, who runs the popular local journalism Web site, Bottom Line Communications. He did a nice writeup about the Henry Wiggen Blog recently on his site. So if you’re visiting here from Bottom Line, have a look around and let us know what you think.

If you’re looking for Kansas City-area journalism news, scoops and rumors, www.bottomlinecom.com is the best source.

We’ve also been mentioned on this blog and on this blog in recent weeks.

--Matt Kelsey