The Project
Over the last few months, I’ve hinted at a project that was a bit time consuming for me, but would result in something pretty awesome for Mariner fans in the spring. I officially announced this on Saturday at the USSM/LL event, but here’s the scoop for everyone who was not there.
We have partnered with Maple Street Press, a publishing company out of Massachusetts, to produce a 2010 Mariner Annual. It’s going to be 128 pages of ad free, Mariner specific goodness. Their production team is terrific, running full color, aesthetically pleasing productions that are of the highest quality. The images in the magazine come from Getty, and the entire thing comes off as a top flight press product. To give you an idea of the content that will be in this magazine:
Larry Stone: An In Depth Interview With Don Wakamatsu About Baseball Strategy.
Art Thiel: Griffey’s Return To Seattle
Jonah Keri: How Lou Gorman Built The 1977 Mariners
Geoff Baker: The Franchise Turnaround
Shannon Drayer: Ryan Rowland-Smith’s Road To The Bigs
Jeff Sullivan: The Actual Value Of Defense and Chone Figgins Is Better Than You Think
Vince Gennaro: The Secondary Value Of Defense
Dave Allen: Pitch F/x Tackles Cliff Lee
Matthew Carruth: Effects of Safeco’s Asymmetry
Derek Zumsteg: Edgar Belongs In Cooperstown and Ichiro Just Doesn’t Age
Jay Yencich: Top 10 Prospects
Jason Churchill: Dustin Ackley’s Future
Jon Shields: Catcher Of The Future (Adam Moore)
Dave Cameron: The Maturation Of Felix Hernandez
Essentially, the entire blogosphere has collaborated on this project, giving us 16 articles ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 words apiece. I hired the best baseball writers I could find, and they turned in terrific, interesting pieces on everything from the minors to how the team got started. We cover a broad spectrum of topics, and the hope is that the magazine will appeal to all Mariner fans. There’s certainly statistical analysis in there, but Jonah’s piece on Gorman and Thiel’s piece on Griffey will be enjoyed by any long time fan of the team. Shannon’s piece on Hyphen is just good reading, regardless of what kind of fan you are. And Larry’s interview with Wak is tremendous.
I’m really proud of the whole thing. It’s going to be awesome. It will be on sale at the beginning of March at local bookstores and retail outlets that sell magazines (as well as online through Maple Street’s website for those out-of-towners who want a copy), and it’s the best $12.99 you will spend this spring. It’s the blogosphere in print, previewing the 2010 team and looking at where we’ve come from. It’s going to be tremendous.
Pretty good value. Any chance an on-line store will have it for us out of area folk?
Any chance you can get it sold at the ball park?
You will be able to order it from Maple Street’s website, linked above.
The Mariners have their own magazine to sell, so no, we won’t be hawking it inside Safeco.
Sounds like a must buy! Will there be a way to get a copy if your in the far off land of Colorado?
Thanks for the answer above Dave.
Very cool. Can’t wait to read it… this is an amazing project, and no doubt will be a big hit. Thanks for putting this together – I think the whole Seattle baseball community will really enjoy your work.
Would have loved to see one or two specific additional blogosphere writers included, but I suppose there’s always next year. This magazine should be very well received, so I expect we’ll see people asking for a repeat next year (your time permitting)… which will be the perfect time to take a good thing and make it even better!
Thanks a ton – appreciate the hard work pulling the pieces of this together. It can’t have been a party, but I hope it’ll be clearly worth the time invested.
This sounds really great. How many will there be published ? and like HamNasty i would like to know if there is a possibility it can be sended across the globe (The Netherlands).
I just want to be one of the first (of many no doubt) to say that this is totally, totally cool. I can’t wait.
Wow, I’m excited…I’ll make my Yankee fan buddy read it.
Looking forward to it becoming available in stores. Will hit up Elliott Bay’s new location when the book is released.
It looks like Amazon carries at least some of their stuff too, though of course the 2010 editions aren’t listed yet (only past Red Sox annuals are on there right now, but that’s probably because only Red Sox fans are so addled by the calendar and their own self-importance that they’re still buying annuals from 2008 and 2007). So I would guess it may be available that way for out-of-towners also.
And don’t forget your local independent bookstore can order just about anything for you, too, and it’s good to keep those guys in business (having just had a scare with Elliot Bay and said a sad goodbye to Baily/Coy, this weighs on my mind).
(Hmmm, my father’s birthday is right around opening day. He’s a Blue Jay fan, but he’d probably enjoy a big chunk of this anyway…)
That’s really nifty. Sounds a hell of a lot more engaging than the usual season preview stuff in the mainstream magazines.
Am I understanding correctly: these are all new, original articles, not reprints or summaries of past work?
And how do rights work for folks employed by other news agencies – would contributions from Baker, Stone, Drayer, etc. potentially appear in their newspapers / blogs?
It’d be funny, just to bring things full circle, to see Ms bloggers write for a magazine which is then in turn available electronically… any chance of a Kindle or similar e-reader version of this as well?
Yay!
Sounds like it would also make a fabulous birthday/anniversary/Bar-Bat mitzvah/Christmas/Hanukkah/Valentine’s Day gift.
Great job! I can’t wait to buy many copies to gift my friends and get them on the USSM bandwagon.
I didn’t say this on Saturday, but holy crap this is awesome. Thanks for taking the lead on getting this thing put together.
These are all original pieces. All the writers were hired as freelancers for this project specifically, and Maple Street owns the rights to the pieces. They will not be published anywhere else.
I’m really looking forward to this. It’s impressive that so many writers, both inside and out of the mainstream, could come together and work on a project like this. It says a lot about the credibility of USS Mariner.
Despite the lack of World Series wins (or appearances for that matter), it really is a privilege to be a Mariners fan.
Wow. That is sweet. I was sold after the first description and just became more and more excited as I scrolled through the list. Thanks for your time effort!
$12.99! What a value! Sold!
That’s a hell of a lineup. This looks awesome.
I’m buying 3… or at least one. Great lineup and I’m stoked about all the features.
Way cool stuff. Excellent choice of topics and the right writers for each.
Thank You Thank You Thank You. You have no idea how hard it is to find information in NC about the mariners. cant wait
Dave,
You said “the beginning of march”. Do you have an actual release date yet?
I can only imagine what this might have looked like for the 2008 season,
Larry Stone: An In Depth Interview With John McLaren About Baseball Strategy.
Art Thiel: Griffey’s Return To Seattle
Geoff Baker: The Franchise Turnaround
Shannon Drayer: Mike Morse’s Road To The Bigs
Jeff Sullivan: The Actual Value Of Defense and Raul Ibanez Is Better Than You Think
Vince Gennaro: The Secondary Value Of a Veteran
Dave Allen: Joe’s Tracer Tackles Erik Bedard
It would all be tongue-in-cheek of course. 2010 seems like a great year to start this, if you had been thinking about it for a while. I am looking forward to it.
That’s awesome, looks like terrific value, and I hope you (and the rest of the freelancers) get paid well enough for this project that it becomes an annual thing.
I think I’ll truck on over to Maple Street and see if I can preorder now.
Update: No dice on the preorder. Sigh.
Would that there were a way to tie this in with some kind of “server contribution” to USSM — like a 25-dollar PayPal donation bringing a copy of the annual and the satisfaction of tossing a few bucks toward USSM expenses.
I checked out their selections on their website and didn’t realize they published “Sock it to ‘Em, Tigers,” which was all about the 1968 Tigers (what the 1995 Mariners season was to my son). They do a great job of getting the right editors and writers in each town, which shows a great deal of savvy. Good publishers.
I am going to let every M’s fan I know about this. 2010 is going to be great.
You have no idea how hard it is to find information in NC about the mariners.
Considering that I live in Winston-Salem, I find this comment hilarious.
It sounds like it was a fun project.
A few questions…
Was the collaboration on just the content? Or both the financial and content? Even if it was just the content, I can’t imagine you’d have a hard time selling copies this year. Hopefully, it becomes an annual project.
Did you consider accepting advertising?
Were any of the contributers tough sells?
Is Baker’s article about the 90′s turnaround or the one we’re witnessing now?
Do you have to pay extra to read Churchill’s article?
Sad there’s no contribution from Mr. MacAree, but holy smokes I can’t wait for this. Good times.
I usually lurk, but I will come out and say that this is excellent and I will be purchasing this.
This is to forestall general mocking from the USS Mariner readership, isn’t it?
I would totally buy the book this way if it were an option.
Wow, great work Dave. This looks awesome. How could you not buy one of these? I can’t wait.
I’ve seen alot of stuff in my day, but this is awesome!!!
I’ll have to order online when I can, but I’m looking forward to it – THANK YOU!
Longtime reader and a big fan of how you guys look at baseball. This is the first time I’ve been compelled to comment on a post – this project really looks tremendous- congratulations!
Thanks for putting together this great collection! I’ll be buying at least one
.
Maybe bcsimons actually lives in New Caledonia.
I’ll be ordering at least one, to distribute here in the office, in the heart of Red Sox Nation.
Looking forward to it. Congratulations on the project.
Maple Street Press seems like an interesting company. Their business model appears to be a little different than I originally thought. They also have more ownership and control of the annual than I thought they would. It appears that the annuals are always 128 pages with a very specific format.
Dave, I’m guessing they contacted you? It doesn’t seem like many teams have these yet (at least from Maple Street). Are you expecting to be involved every year? I can’t wait to see it.
I think we killed Maple Street.
Wow! You’re right! USSM must have pretty good reach.
Damn, USSM has finally managed to slashdot something other than itself?
I was just going to suggest he drive over and ring Dave’s doorbell a couple of times a week.
This sounds fantastic. I look forward to reading all of the articles.
After Dave posted his Mariners writers list on Twitter, I’d like to think that we were responsible for a few of their crashes when big moves were made.
You can always just hit the donate button up in the top left. I’m sure no one will mind the difference.
would bookstores include Barnes and Nobles and Borders?
Or am I better off ordering online?
Awesome Dave! great idea, great execution. I will definitely buy one.
I’m sure you’ve spent months thinking about Marketing and have that all dialed in, but I have to ask:
1) How about selling signed copies directly from your site, here for $25.00? We all want to support the site.
2) It’s a shame this won’t be available at the games. Would the Mariners allow you to get a vendor license to have someone hawk copies *Outside* the stadium? I’m sure you could find a hawker who would work the first month of the season on straight commission.
congrats again on a great project. I’m sure it will be very successful for you.
I want to see an annual listing of all the things that there is “no doubt about” according to the broadcasters, starting in 2011…
This is completely awesome. Absolutely love you guys and thank you so so much for all the work that went into this. I’ll be ordering a copy or two (one of the unfortunate out-of-towners) as soon as I can. Can’t say thanks enough guys.
Awesome! I’m definitely ordering this.
It looks like this isnt up yet on the Maple Street Press site. When will this be available for order?
Geez, get a room!
OK, give it up–whose picture is on the cover?
It’s even more riotous that it was posted on your M’s blog.
After reading some of these posts, I think it should be Dave.
Yes, we get it, you think people are overly effusive and find that humorous.
Sweet!….I’ll buy one.
Tango linked to the article about the Project, which undoubtedly caused every serious fan of sabermetrics to go, “Why can’t I get one of these for my team??????”
But please note the comment by NaOH at no. 6. Obviously a different model, each with its pluses and minuses. Given this content, I’ll be quite happy with hard copy.
MLB-licensed merchandise aside, what control do the Mariners have of vendors who aren’t on Safeco property? That gauntlet of vendors along Qwest field on the way to the stadium must be licensed by the city (and obviously aren’t licensed to sell things like alcohol and cigars) but if one of them wanted to hawk a random book do the M’s have any say in that?
It’s probably moot though — I don’t know how big of a print run is planned, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing is sold out by opening day. Though maybe Maple is set up to do reprints if sales go well.
I dunno about how much control of selling print material they might have, but I do know they can’t quite shut down strip clubs.
Looking forward to being able to get the 2010 Mariners Annual.
This is great, congrats!
I’m following the Mariners over from Japan, and it wasn’t quite clear on the Maple Street Press website if they shipped overseas or not. Will the 2010 Mariners Annual be available for overseas customers via Maple Street Press?
Why do you think PBS stations offer premiums (DVDs/CDs/books) during pledge drives the way they do?
You could always just buy the schwag from amazon.com and send the station a direct donation.
awe-some. really looking forward to it.
Awesome! I’m thinking of buying several of these and using them as “witnessing tracts” for my non sabermetric buddies who are M fans. Perhaps having a hard copy of it will give the sabermetric viewpoint some cred and lead to them “seeing the light”.
I like the visual of you going door to door, knocking politely, and offering your tracts.
Actually the humorous part is that they are stating it on the interwebs.
That should read “Stating how hard it is to get information.” And making that statement on the interwebs. That is where the humor is.
Edit button wouldn’t let me edit.
Does Maple Street Press hate Seattle? From the listing on the website:
Gotta love copy and paste…
“Good day Sir or Madam, do you have a couple of minutes to talk to me about my religion, Zduriencikism?”
Tried to order but was not able to. Seems like the link was broken.
Yes, the “get a customer base by giving the first issue away for free” model is appropriate for some, but I’d have to think that thanks to USSMariner, this Mariners Annual has a built-in audience. Not an audience big enough to make it a mass market success (initially at least), but we’re talking about a niche publication anyway.
Basically instead of giving away the first issue for free, their model is “sell the first issue to hardcore blogosphere fans for $12.99″. If it becomes a raging success there, mass market forays could follow.
There may be a good amount of commercial potential with this, the tricky question is how far to go with it. Dave and Derek could sell more tickets and at an even higher price and still sell out the USSMariner meetups. Should that be priced at cost, or should they collect some revenue from it (and if so, would the Mariners want a piece)? Plus there’s USSMariner.com itself, which is still free. A lot of choices and different possible models to follow.
Downloadable online copy please for those abroad. Sounds a great book.
The annual is distributed by a magazine distributor, not a book distributor, so people living in the northwest should be able to find it at newsstands and B&Ns and Borders. For those outside the Northwest, the only way to get it is through the Maple Street Press website; it will not be available at Amazon.
It is available for purchase from overseas. Over at LL, several readers from ’round the world have already reported no problem in ordering it.