It was entirely by accident that I became a blogger.  I had been a reader of blogs – those often obsessive online journals that cover the breadth of human experience in excruciating detail – for several years.I had come across blogs jammed with impenetrable interior monologues that had to be decoded rather than read, most of which were as interesting to me as cell phone text messaging between teens at the local mall. But I also tapped into other, more engaging material and found myself ensnared by the passions of people using their blogs to craft personalized journalism, writing  actually meant to be read by people outside the blogger’s inner circle.

One day not long ago, intending only to leave an observation on one of these strangers’ sites, I clicked on “Comments,” and instead of offering me a blank window in which to type my tirade, the site program seemed to suggest that to submit a comment I first had to, gasp, create my own blog.

I’ve since realized this was an addle-brained misinterpretation-- all that was actually required was a simple log-in name and password. But at the time I just sat there staring at the screen, frozen, intimidated by the implications of undertaking such a project. I’d written for 30 years in one form or another but almost never for an audience other than myself.   I wasn’t sure I had the nerve to go public, to actually put myself on the line in that way.  I wasn’t sure I had anything of value to say.  And maybe this was just a rationalization, but as a married, working father of two toddlers, I wasn’t sure I could commit to the time it would take.

But then, on the other hand, why not start my own blog?

As a lifelong film buff with some experience as a newspaper reviewer -- not to mention a bachelor of arts degree in film studies -- my first thought was that I could write about the movies. But did I really want to add to the snowballing fan-boy Internet culture of movie sites devoted to flame-fueled dissections of the latest Michael Bay movie? Did I care about publicity-driven scoops on breathlessly anticipated upcoming releases? The answers I came up with to these questions, as my cursor hovered over the big, red “Create Your Own Blog” button were, of course, “no.”

Just as swiftly came my next thought: I didn’t have to create that kind of blog.

I didn’t have to join that part of the blogosphere that featured self-indulgent tripe.  I could create one of those hybrid blogs, the kind that, while devoted to creating alternative journalism and showcasing personal voice, are also engaged in a battle to raise the profile and respectability of the blogging format.  These blogs are both forums for the dissemination of information and platforms for an author’s quirkiness.  I knew these blogs:  Dodger Thoughts, the author’s outlet for “dealing psychologically with the Los Angeles Dodgers and baseball;” The Secret Life of Shoes, current events from the fashionable footwear perspective; Andy Kaufman Returns, in which the apparently alive comedian details life since his faked death. 

Where would my own obsessions fit in the world of blogging?  I’m interested in real information, but I am also driven by two passions: movies and, since I saw the remarkable 18-hour Ken Burns documentary, baseball. I could, I thought, write on both separately.  But then the idea struck me:  Was there a place where these two subjects might occasionally intersect? What place did the movies have in the history of the sport? Were there films that could be said to have captured the essence, the meaning, the historical significance of the sport, even films that might not have baseball as their actual subject? And just how good an actor was Babe Ruth?

But an idea is one thing; execution is another.  I needed to get comfortable with the blog format and its technical aspects. But more importantly, I’d need to reacquaint myself with the discipline of writing regularly and with what a friend quite rightly described as “the terror of writing.”