Baseball Blogging Veterans Launch All-New Writing-Focused Humor Site
The Spitter Offers Unique, Irreverent Views on the National Pastime. San Slideshows.
Baltimore, MD, March 31, 2016 --(PR.com)-- After eight weeks of spring training tune-up that yielded nearly 80 diverse posts, the editors of The Spitter announced they're ready for the 2016 season, and will be officially launching on April 3, 2016 – MLB Opening Day.
Launched by co-founders Patrick Smith and Brad Bortone, The Spitter is a writing-first site aimed at baseball fans who want more than box scores and game recaps. Featuring a regular mix of hilarity, strong opinions and heartfelt essays, The Spitter harkens back to classic editorial, with a finger firmly on the pulse of modern sports writing.
A decade-long lineage of viral sports blogging
Though The Spitter is an all-new platform, the site rose from the ashes of Bugs & Cranks, a forward-thinking baseball outlet founded in 2006, which launched the writing careers of several journalists, and outlived a wealth of bigger sites occupying the same sports/humor territories.
However, as web sharing moved toward an influx of lists, galleries and repurposed, “me too” content, Bugs writers remained steadfast in their approach, which led to some slower traffic.
In 2015, Smith and Bortone decided the time was right to reboot the property because today’s readers seem to be … well … reading again. The Spitter will meet that need, with rich, unique content that differs from the glut of “quick hit” joke sites out there today.
Bringing sports writing full circle
“Bugs & Cranks was years ahead of the sports humor curve,” opines Bortone, a 10-year veteran of that site’s staff. “Our early days were hugely successful, with many of our pieces going viral before ‘viral’ was a household term. Though Bugs lost some of that momentum over time, we feel the web’s climate is right to recapture that lightning with The Spitter.”
Featuring everything from wisecracks to deep-dive statistics to social media trends, The Spitter will pick up where its predecessor left off, while also producing podcasts, increasing social media engagement, and loosening the restrictions on what many feel a “baseball site” should be.
“There are no limits to what our writers can publish,” Bortone adds. “During our soft-launch, we covered baseball, basketball, beer and bad movies, all with equal fervor. At our core, we’re a baseball site. But The Spitter represents the diverse interests of our writers, and of baseball fans in any market.”
About that name
“The name ‘The Spitter’ was the subject of a lot of debate, especially considering how some web users might interpret it,” Smith jokes. “But we feel ‘spitter’ – a reference to the classic spitball -- perfectly represents our style, which is off-the-cuff, unpredictable, and often controversial.”
Originality is always “on-deck”
During MLB’s opening week, The Spitter is set to publish a wide range of content, including several regular columns, the latest entry in a series of historical team failures, and an exciting take on Cleveland’s continued use of a questionable mascot.
To the latter, Smith adds, “This painstakingly researched essay urges Clevelanders to call the city's non-emergency police line every time the Indians take the field, to report a hate crime. It’s writing like this that excites our staff, and what we feel will make The Spitter stand out in 2016 and beyond.”
To learn more about The Spitter, visit thespitter.com, or check out The Spitter Facebook page.
Launched by co-founders Patrick Smith and Brad Bortone, The Spitter is a writing-first site aimed at baseball fans who want more than box scores and game recaps. Featuring a regular mix of hilarity, strong opinions and heartfelt essays, The Spitter harkens back to classic editorial, with a finger firmly on the pulse of modern sports writing.
A decade-long lineage of viral sports blogging
Though The Spitter is an all-new platform, the site rose from the ashes of Bugs & Cranks, a forward-thinking baseball outlet founded in 2006, which launched the writing careers of several journalists, and outlived a wealth of bigger sites occupying the same sports/humor territories.
However, as web sharing moved toward an influx of lists, galleries and repurposed, “me too” content, Bugs writers remained steadfast in their approach, which led to some slower traffic.
In 2015, Smith and Bortone decided the time was right to reboot the property because today’s readers seem to be … well … reading again. The Spitter will meet that need, with rich, unique content that differs from the glut of “quick hit” joke sites out there today.
Bringing sports writing full circle
“Bugs & Cranks was years ahead of the sports humor curve,” opines Bortone, a 10-year veteran of that site’s staff. “Our early days were hugely successful, with many of our pieces going viral before ‘viral’ was a household term. Though Bugs lost some of that momentum over time, we feel the web’s climate is right to recapture that lightning with The Spitter.”
Featuring everything from wisecracks to deep-dive statistics to social media trends, The Spitter will pick up where its predecessor left off, while also producing podcasts, increasing social media engagement, and loosening the restrictions on what many feel a “baseball site” should be.
“There are no limits to what our writers can publish,” Bortone adds. “During our soft-launch, we covered baseball, basketball, beer and bad movies, all with equal fervor. At our core, we’re a baseball site. But The Spitter represents the diverse interests of our writers, and of baseball fans in any market.”
About that name
“The name ‘The Spitter’ was the subject of a lot of debate, especially considering how some web users might interpret it,” Smith jokes. “But we feel ‘spitter’ – a reference to the classic spitball -- perfectly represents our style, which is off-the-cuff, unpredictable, and often controversial.”
Originality is always “on-deck”
During MLB’s opening week, The Spitter is set to publish a wide range of content, including several regular columns, the latest entry in a series of historical team failures, and an exciting take on Cleveland’s continued use of a questionable mascot.
To the latter, Smith adds, “This painstakingly researched essay urges Clevelanders to call the city's non-emergency police line every time the Indians take the field, to report a hate crime. It’s writing like this that excites our staff, and what we feel will make The Spitter stand out in 2016 and beyond.”
To learn more about The Spitter, visit thespitter.com, or check out The Spitter Facebook page.
Contact
The Spitter - Baseball Humor Website
Patrick Smith
410-608-4025
thespitter.com
Patrick Smith
410-608-4025
thespitter.com
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