2020 was a tough year.
There is no doubt about it. For anyone in the business of covering Minor League Baseball or in the world in general. The pandemic has forced me to take a deep look at what I was doing with my life and if this was a path that I wanted to continue to walk. I spent much of the year going back and forth with that.
Suffice to say, when I look towards my future. I no longer see one where I will be a fixture at the ballpark covering games. I wish I could say that this was because of the actions of MLB in the contraction of Minor League Baseball, but it is not. The truth is, I have not been happy for a while professionally. While I wanted Pinstriped Prospects to become my full-time job, it has become increasingly clear that it would not happen. The drastic loss of ad revenue before the pandemic hit forced us to move to a paywall model, the pandemic made it worse. Now we do not even cover our very basic bills and 2021 may be our very last if we do not hit 150 annual subscribers.
All those factors lead me to reevaluate what I wanted to do with my life and what makes me happy. That being said, I ultimately decided to go back to school for a second bachelor’s degree and ultimately leading to a career change for me in a few years. Taking on the added work and expense of school means I will no longer be able to contribute regularly to Pinstriped Prospects like I once did. I will probably continue to go to a handful of games in 2021 to capture photos and video, that will likely be the extent of my involvement.
That does not mean Pinstriped Prospects won’t be in trusted hands. The team including Matt Kardos, Ricky Keeler, Alex Kielar, Taylor Carroll, Devontae Davis, Matt Jarrell, Robert Coles, Alexis Farinacci, Michael Marino will be joined by newcomer Steve Alhona in covering the organization. They will all bring you Yankees MiLB coverage. Ricky Keeler will be leading Pinstriped Prospects as our new Managing Editor, I will help him as much as I can.
My plan is to still stay up to date on everything, and if possible, I would love to head down to the complex again in 2021 even if it is just for a weekend. With everything on my plate, I just cannot devote the time to it I wish I could and feel it will be better for everyone if I take a step back and let all of them take the step forward.
This is tough for me, as Pinstriped Prospects has been my baby since I founded it in 2014. But there comes a time when you have to let go.
This is not goodbye, this is “see you later”.
Rob Pimpsner
Founder, Pinstriped Prospects
You must be logged in to post a comment.