I probably should just send him a fruit basket

I’m going to go out there and say something that’s not too earth shattering.

I never really expected much from this site.  Just a place where I could keep idle thoughts and my computer rankings.  Well, those, and the drinking games.  It all started with Joe Morgan back when I was in college, when a friend of mine and I finally wrote down the Joe Morgan Drinking Game rules, available here.  This was distributed to a few friends throughout the country, and then years later, I ended up slapping it up on here.  Unsurprisingly, it got a fair amount of attention every Sunday, but beyond that, there was little traffic to the site beyond that and a small group of friends.

Then, after watching the 2009 World Series, I had had enough of Mr. Joe Buck.  I threw together the Joe Buck Drinking Game.  I didn’t do much about it, it was after baseball season and frankly, he’s not really too terrible for football (perhaps due to being accompanied by perennial snooze-inducer Troy Aikman), and my cathartic “write out how terrible he is so I can laugh at it next year” cycle had completed itself.

So I posted it with little fanfare.  I’m not even sure I tweeted it out (@AMSTS, of course).  In fact, I’m fairly confident that very few people cared and/or saw it.  That was a few years ago, and I just left it sitting there, thinking it wasn’t getting much attention, though I’d noticed it was one of the better performing pages on the site, especially on Sundays in the fall.

Fast forward to this fall, and boy have I hit the jackpot.  Views and unique visits are both up over 1000% (from a surprisingly high base) on nights that Joe Buck has called a game on Fox. In fact, on the days in which there is a game on Fox, the pinnacle of traffic is exactly in the 30 minutes between Buck coming on air pre-game and the game’s first pitch.

I’m surprised that this many have been brought in simply by Joe Buck’s tepid announcing.  Is it people angry about a lack of emotion?  People angry about an excess of nepotism?  Anger at an organization that has relegated one who may perhaps be sports’ best play by play guy (Gus Johnson) to Soccer?  I theorize the answer is: Yes.

Truly Joe Buck is uniting force, perhaps for all of the wrong reasons.  It’s only appropriate, for most of us fans of sports, as many of us feel that he’s the number one play by play guy at Fox for all the wrong reasons.

That being said, I guess I owe Mr. Buck a thank you.  Thank you for everything you do, that drives so many (I’m guessing) young college-aged males to binge drinking.

We truly couldn’t do it without you.  Look us up next time you’re in town.

Best regards for a lengthy career,

Your friends at AMSTS