Why Is Off The Bench Doing Pokemon Week?
The really short answer to the question posed in the title is: Why the hell not? Casting aside the Hillary Duff logic for a moment, running a Pokemon Week is at the heart of this (mostly) baseball blog. Simply, this is our identity; it’s the type of thing that we do because we enjoy it.
Sure, we enjoy coming up with new baseball stats (xSLGBB and SPP), ranking all baseball things, breaking down biomechanics, and even providing an informed perspective on the current MLB news of the hour. But we also have a long and storied history of providing our readers with material loosely based on baseball:
- The Star Wars Guide to the MLB
- A Baseball Fan’s Guide to the 2012 Presidential Election
- The Baseball Player Political Cabinet
- The All-Time Baseball Movie Team
- Book Reviews and a Circus Review that I will never let our editor forget about
The point is that we’ve been doing weird stuff for a long time, and dedicating a full week to Pokemon feels like it might just be the pinnacle of our blog.
Our blog is run by former college baseball players, all in our mid-20s, whose formative years were informed by the glory of Ashe’s stroll around the world of Pokemon (Kanto, in the world of Pokemon Red and Blue). Pokemon rose to prominence from 1995-1999, which you might remember is the same period of time when baseball was recovering from the strike and then enthralled by the home run chase. Pokemon may not be linked to
Pokemon may not be linked to baseball in the minds of many, but 7 year old Sean had two great loves: baseball and Pokemon. My mom would add Power Rangers to that list, but 26-year-old Sean doesn’t think she knows what she’s talking about.
So why are we running a full week dedicated to Pokemon on our baseball blog? Because I shouldn’t have a blog if I don’t occasionally do things that would make 7 year old Sean very happy.
Also, I happen to have fun ideas for posts. Here’s the schedule for the week:
- Today: A Pokemon Fan’s Guide to the MLB
- Tuesday: Pokemon Evolve, MLB Players do too
- Wednesday: Making a Baseball Team Out of Pokemon
- Thursday: Whatever Max comes up with
- Friday: The Full Pokemon/MLB Player Index
Enjoy!
-Sean Morash
