Spitball Magazine Extends Special Thanks to Long Time Supporters

October 31, 2008

Some years ago, after Spitball Magazine was well underway, I came across a reference to a different periodical’s “life span,” and it hit me that magazines, like people, aren’t destined to live forever. I guess that seems axiomatic, but when your magazine is in its youth you aren’t thinking about its eventual demise, which will come one day for every periodical as surely as it comes for every person. Spitball, which began in 1981, is no longer a rookie, but we aren’t ready to retire yet, despite the times which are making everything worth doing harder to do.

We did face a crisis of survival this summer … yet another crisis as those of you who have been with us for a while well know … but we seem to have survived again, and I begin my blog, the first of four planned blogs to operate on our new website, by acknowledging and thanking the two people who refused to let Spitball go quietly back to the dugout for the last time: longtime Fiction Editor Mark Schraf and his wife Jeanne. Most of you don’t know Mark and Jeanne personally, but you would be blessed if you did. People as fine as they are are very hard to find. Mark, as loyal Spitball readers know, is a terrific writer and very knowledgeable, of course, about the game we all love. He has done more than I can say here to keep me and Spitball going all these years. Jeanne’s role in the past consisted of giving all Mark’s efforts (and our annual treks to Cooperstown every summer) her blessings. This was no small thing, and I have always been grateful for her support. Now, however, Jeanne has stepped up to the plate swinging a big bat, as she is the driving force behind the new and improved and still-developing Spitball website. Now with Mark and me in the supporting roles, she is creating a vehicle that we all hope will take the Magazine to a new level and help ensure its survival for a very long time.

If you are reading this, I hope that you like what we are doing and that you will continue to support Spitball. I also hope you will visit this new website regularly to see what’s new with the Magazine, to stay up with all the new baseball books continually being released, to read the reviews of books we post on the site, to read the Editors’ blogs, and to post your own brief baseball book reviews and comments. This new website is going to make Spitball Magazine more fun than ever. Join us, and please tip your cap to Mark and Jeanne Schraf.