04/05: Interviewing the Yankees Blogosphere: Derek Jacques, The Weblog That Derek Built
Posted by: Patrick
Our next victim is Derek Jacques of The Weblog That Derek Built.
When you aren't doing something related to or depending on the Yankees, what are you up to?
Writing, mostly. I write about baseball (not specifically the Yanks, like on my blog or in the Bombers Broadside annual) at the Baseball Prospectus website, where I do columns about statistics and legal issues, and in books like the Baseball Prospectus annual. My wife and I also run an editorial services company as our "day jobs," so there's more writing there. Some evenings, when I'm not writing, you can find me shooting pool downtown.
This may be obvious, but I wanted to ask anyway: Can you explain why you named your blog "The Weblog That Derek Built" and how you arrived at that title?
I was originally going to call it simply the Derek Jacques Weblog, but when I mocked up a page using that title, it looked too much like Aaron Gleeman's old blog design for comfort. At the time, plans for the new Yankee Stadium had been in the news, and I'd joked among friends that a new Yankee Stadium would be the House That Derek Jeter Built - so I appropriated that double meaning for my blog.
How long have you been blogging about the Yankees?
I'd done a small-scale mailing list off and on since about 1999 called "To My Yankee Fan Brothers." Joe Sheehan suggested during the 2003 holidays that I should channel that work into a blog, so the WTDB was born in January 2004.
What's the best and worst part of blogging?
The best part is having friends I hadn't talked to in years notice the blog and look me up. It's a phenomenal way to get re-introduced to someone you've lost track of. The worst part of blogging is that you never know what thing you write is going to grab people's attention. I'll sometimes put a lot of thought and research and work into a post, and it will generate no reaction whatsoever. Then, the off-hand glib comment you just dashed off without much thought will get picked up by BTF and you find yourself in an escalating war of insults with a writer from Esquire Magazine and a few hundred Cleveland Indians fans.
Besides your own, what are your favorite Yankees blogs?
Bronx Banter is my favorite among the traditional blogs, followed by Futility Infielder and Was Watching. As far as the mainstream media blogs go, Pete Abraham's LoHud Yankees Blog is head and shoulders above the rest. Abraham understands the medium so well - many writers seem to think that a blog is just their column with lower quality control, but Abraham strips down the stuff that goes into the newspaper to its core, and delivers it in a completely different voice than he uses in print.
What are some of your earliest memories of the Yankees?
I remember watching the 1978 World Series in the Dominican Republic. I'd always assumed (and I was seven at the time, so please forgive the assumption) that because so many Dominicans lived in New York, everyone would be rooting for the Yanks. But the Dodgers had a big scouting presence in DR and so my brother and I were in the minority rooting for the Yanks.
Did you grow up rooting for the Yanks? Was someone in your family influential in making sure you pulled for the Yankees?
Yes, I grew up rooting for the Yankees. I'm the rare kid who caught the baseball bug from the women in his family, particularly my grandmother. She was a big baseball fan - her dad had been one of the founding members of the first Dominican pro ball club. She came to the States in Mickey Mantle's heyday and settled in New York, so she was a Yankee fan.
Who is your all-time - past or present - favorite Yankee and why?
Don Mattingly. He was just amazing to watch. It felt like he went through fifty different batting stances per season and he was just unbelievably graceful at first base. Keith Hernandez was a better fielder than Donnie baseball, but he didn't have half as much style.
Do you admire anyone (doesn't need to be a player) in the Yankee organization?
I guess I can't say Joe Torre anymore... I admire Mariano Rivera, because he seems to have such a sense of perspective. Win or lose, he's the same pitcher the next day and the same person.
Brian Cashman's also inspirational, in the sense of going from basically being a gopher to running a billion-dollar business in the space of about a decade. Cashman's one of those guys who could have been tagged with the "Moneyball" label, but he seems to have every one's respect because he came up from the bottom and isn't an Ivy Leaguer. So the feeling is that no one "handed" his success to him, as opposed to some of the other young general managers in the game right now, who're resented for their youth and for not paying their dues.
How often do you make it to the stadium to see a game?
My brother and I have the Sunday ticket plan, so I only get to twenty or so games per season at the Stadium. Sometimes I miss the way Yankee Stadium was when I was a teenager, where on a slow night, you could spontaneously decide to go to the ballpark and pick up a ticket for under ten dollars. These days a Stadium outing is something you have to plan (and pay for) in advance.
Who is one Yankee that fans will be surprised to see make a positive impact this season?
I wish I could say Carl Pavano with a straight face. I mean, that would be the ultimate story, wouldn't it? Pavano stepping into the rotation in mid-July after three years off and having one of those 1987 Doyle Alexander half-seasons, just in time for free agency. But getting back to reality, I fully expect that he'll be called up at some point this season, then almost immediately suffer a traumatic injury while waxing his surf board or flossing his teeth or something.
Seriously, Giambi should be motivated to play hard in a walk year, so he might come up big. Humberto Sanchez could surprise everybody by coming back from elbow surgery quickly. He's one of the young arms who's gotten lost in the shuffle with Hughes and Joba and Kennedy all at the major league level.
Joba aside, who do you think is most likely to thrive in the setup man role?
I'd love to see Mark Melancon or Sanchez seize that role. I like Ross Ohlendorf, also, but I'd like to see him in that bullpen role the Yanks haven't really filled since Ramiro Mendoza - that Super-Swing Man middle relief/long relief/spot starter role.
Out of all current Yankee hitters, if you need someone to make something happen, who do you want?
I'm going to say Alex Rodriguez. Not so much because I'm certain he'll come through, but because I really want to see him come up big here. I don't think I've been so personally invested in a player's individual success or failure since back when Bernie Williams first came up to the majors. I felt like every time Bernie made an out, he was in danger of being traded by George Steinbrenner, who really wasn't a fan prior to the Howie Spira suspension. I was just desperate for Bernie to succeed in Pinstripes so he wouldn't become the next Jay Buhner.
It's a little bit like that with Alex, and the crew of fans and media who love to see him fail. I'd love to see what Lupica has to say after Alex going absolutely nuts in a postseason series. Would he claim that Rodriguez had suddenly grown some guts, or would he claim that it was just luck?
When you aren't doing something related to or depending on the Yankees, what are you up to?
Writing, mostly. I write about baseball (not specifically the Yanks, like on my blog or in the Bombers Broadside annual) at the Baseball Prospectus website, where I do columns about statistics and legal issues, and in books like the Baseball Prospectus annual. My wife and I also run an editorial services company as our "day jobs," so there's more writing there. Some evenings, when I'm not writing, you can find me shooting pool downtown.
This may be obvious, but I wanted to ask anyway: Can you explain why you named your blog "The Weblog That Derek Built" and how you arrived at that title?
I was originally going to call it simply the Derek Jacques Weblog, but when I mocked up a page using that title, it looked too much like Aaron Gleeman's old blog design for comfort. At the time, plans for the new Yankee Stadium had been in the news, and I'd joked among friends that a new Yankee Stadium would be the House That Derek Jeter Built - so I appropriated that double meaning for my blog.
How long have you been blogging about the Yankees?
I'd done a small-scale mailing list off and on since about 1999 called "To My Yankee Fan Brothers." Joe Sheehan suggested during the 2003 holidays that I should channel that work into a blog, so the WTDB was born in January 2004.
What's the best and worst part of blogging?
The best part is having friends I hadn't talked to in years notice the blog and look me up. It's a phenomenal way to get re-introduced to someone you've lost track of. The worst part of blogging is that you never know what thing you write is going to grab people's attention. I'll sometimes put a lot of thought and research and work into a post, and it will generate no reaction whatsoever. Then, the off-hand glib comment you just dashed off without much thought will get picked up by BTF and you find yourself in an escalating war of insults with a writer from Esquire Magazine and a few hundred Cleveland Indians fans.
Besides your own, what are your favorite Yankees blogs?
Bronx Banter is my favorite among the traditional blogs, followed by Futility Infielder and Was Watching. As far as the mainstream media blogs go, Pete Abraham's LoHud Yankees Blog is head and shoulders above the rest. Abraham understands the medium so well - many writers seem to think that a blog is just their column with lower quality control, but Abraham strips down the stuff that goes into the newspaper to its core, and delivers it in a completely different voice than he uses in print.
What are some of your earliest memories of the Yankees?
I remember watching the 1978 World Series in the Dominican Republic. I'd always assumed (and I was seven at the time, so please forgive the assumption) that because so many Dominicans lived in New York, everyone would be rooting for the Yanks. But the Dodgers had a big scouting presence in DR and so my brother and I were in the minority rooting for the Yanks.
Did you grow up rooting for the Yanks? Was someone in your family influential in making sure you pulled for the Yankees?
Yes, I grew up rooting for the Yankees. I'm the rare kid who caught the baseball bug from the women in his family, particularly my grandmother. She was a big baseball fan - her dad had been one of the founding members of the first Dominican pro ball club. She came to the States in Mickey Mantle's heyday and settled in New York, so she was a Yankee fan.
Who is your all-time - past or present - favorite Yankee and why?
Don Mattingly. He was just amazing to watch. It felt like he went through fifty different batting stances per season and he was just unbelievably graceful at first base. Keith Hernandez was a better fielder than Donnie baseball, but he didn't have half as much style.
Do you admire anyone (doesn't need to be a player) in the Yankee organization?
I guess I can't say Joe Torre anymore... I admire Mariano Rivera, because he seems to have such a sense of perspective. Win or lose, he's the same pitcher the next day and the same person.
Brian Cashman's also inspirational, in the sense of going from basically being a gopher to running a billion-dollar business in the space of about a decade. Cashman's one of those guys who could have been tagged with the "Moneyball" label, but he seems to have every one's respect because he came up from the bottom and isn't an Ivy Leaguer. So the feeling is that no one "handed" his success to him, as opposed to some of the other young general managers in the game right now, who're resented for their youth and for not paying their dues.
How often do you make it to the stadium to see a game?
My brother and I have the Sunday ticket plan, so I only get to twenty or so games per season at the Stadium. Sometimes I miss the way Yankee Stadium was when I was a teenager, where on a slow night, you could spontaneously decide to go to the ballpark and pick up a ticket for under ten dollars. These days a Stadium outing is something you have to plan (and pay for) in advance.
Who is one Yankee that fans will be surprised to see make a positive impact this season?
I wish I could say Carl Pavano with a straight face. I mean, that would be the ultimate story, wouldn't it? Pavano stepping into the rotation in mid-July after three years off and having one of those 1987 Doyle Alexander half-seasons, just in time for free agency. But getting back to reality, I fully expect that he'll be called up at some point this season, then almost immediately suffer a traumatic injury while waxing his surf board or flossing his teeth or something.
Seriously, Giambi should be motivated to play hard in a walk year, so he might come up big. Humberto Sanchez could surprise everybody by coming back from elbow surgery quickly. He's one of the young arms who's gotten lost in the shuffle with Hughes and Joba and Kennedy all at the major league level.
Joba aside, who do you think is most likely to thrive in the setup man role?
I'd love to see Mark Melancon or Sanchez seize that role. I like Ross Ohlendorf, also, but I'd like to see him in that bullpen role the Yanks haven't really filled since Ramiro Mendoza - that Super-Swing Man middle relief/long relief/spot starter role.
Out of all current Yankee hitters, if you need someone to make something happen, who do you want?
I'm going to say Alex Rodriguez. Not so much because I'm certain he'll come through, but because I really want to see him come up big here. I don't think I've been so personally invested in a player's individual success or failure since back when Bernie Williams first came up to the majors. I felt like every time Bernie made an out, he was in danger of being traded by George Steinbrenner, who really wasn't a fan prior to the Howie Spira suspension. I was just desperate for Bernie to succeed in Pinstripes so he wouldn't become the next Jay Buhner.
It's a little bit like that with Alex, and the crew of fans and media who love to see him fail. I'd love to see what Lupica has to say after Alex going absolutely nuts in a postseason series. Would he claim that Rodriguez had suddenly grown some guts, or would he claim that it was just luck?
