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Our InspirationThe idea to create a web site is described in detail in my history section and it is very different from the inspiration that helped me to create The Baseball Cube in its current form. After a seemingly infinite number of iterations in designing, building and deploying this site, I think I have finally found the intended format for TBC and the inspiration for these sites needs to be credited.The technology for web sites has changed over time from pure HTML to all sorts of funky scripting and graphics programs. The problem is that there is always a processing premium attached to scripting and graphics as the processing must occur upon loading the page and this slows things down. Luckily, we have higher speed connections available for the Internet and though it is a great thing for sites that can use this technology, I have come to realize that for an information site such as TBC, there is no need for high overhead on script processing and there's definitely no need to complicated the serving of the HTML pages and so that is the main reason for the change in technology for the site. The inspiration is evident in places and not so obvious in others. Here is a list of web sites who have helped to inspire The Baseball Cube over time: Baseball-Reference.Com - If I can get my site to be at least half as incredible as the BR site, I will be ecstatic. This is an incredible site that is not only informative, accurate and fun but its super fast and has virtually no advertising! BR has done a great job at supporting itself through Page Sponsorships, something that TBC has tried to implement as well. BR understands that if you are providing a site consisting of data that the faster the site goes, the more useful it will be and they have inspired a large portion of the site. I do not consider my site a competitor to BR as they are in a league of their own when it comes to MLB data. I'll also never be able to provide a site with as little advertising as BR but I've tried in this version of the site, to limit the intrusiveness of the ads and to keep the data on the page as clean as possible. I think I've done a better job than in the past. Retrosheet.Org - Another baseball web site out there that is out of this world. Retrosheet is similar to BR but its actually even faster! Sometimes it seems the next page of data is even loaded before you click on a link. Retrosheet has no advertising and as far as I know, turns away search engine spiders so you won't find many links through Google or any other engine and it seems as though it is a site that only wants real fans to stop by. The site has boxscores for almost every game throughout the history of the game and so much more. Its not so different from BR in a lot of ways but its pure and its for baseball fanatics, not just fans. Coupled with BR, these are the 2 sites that have driven TBC's development over the last year or so especially. Internet Hockey Database - Though this is a hockey site, IHDB has had a hand in the progress of this site over the last few years. The inspiration for minor league stats originated from this super database site which also adheres to the rule that if you want a successful data web site, it has to be fast. The part of this site that inspired me was the vast amount of minor league information with respect to hockey players at all levels besides pro. And though the site had advertising, it is placed well and it is barely noticed unless you are looking for it. Though there aren't a lot of statistics on the site, there certainly are a lot of players and that was what I wanted to have on TBC. The sites above provided about 85% of the technological/content inspiration however, the other 20% of the inspiration for this site is my childhood. Growing up around baseball, studying the almanacs, the guides, I had always wanted to create my own almanac with my own spin on the content. I remember the long walks home from my friends house, dreaming up possible ideas before my 12th birthday. Taking pen to paper and charting out exactly how I would build my almanac. And many times I actually began until the enormity of the project set in and I surrendered to the weight. Eventually, the Internet allowed me to realize this inspiration and turn it into a drive which has helped propel me to the site I have today with the content I always wanted. And I earn a decent part of my living doing it, even supporting a family. (Its not a lot of money but its not money I would turn away either). Just goes to show that if you have a dream, no matter how silly or strange it is, that you may be able to make your life out of it. Who woulda thought. |
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