Why are you guys so hell-bent on getting Joe Morgan fired? Oh. Well, the thing is, we’re not.
Here’s what happened. A group of friends thought it would be fun to post some of the ridiculous things that they heard and read from sports journalists in one place.
So in April of 2005, dak founded FJM as a way for him and some of his buds to keep track of everything they came across. Joe Morgan, because of his penchant for ignorantly slamming Michael Lewis’s “Moneyball,” seemed like a good figurehead to use in the title of the site, but “Fire Joe Morgan” shouldn’t be taken as much more than a name.
We’ve also never been singularly devoted to picking on Joe. You might notice that the first post ever was about Sean McAdam. I think you have to take “Fire Joe Morgan” as an overall attitude towards conventional wisdom and poor journalism in baseball, rather than a hostile attack on one old dude who refuses to read certain books.
Basically, our goal has always been simply to entertain ourselves (and over time, the growing number of people who read the site); our goal has never been to launch any sort of legitimate campaign to get Joe Morgan fired.
Now, don’t get us wrong. We hate Joe Morgan. We do think he should be fired. But that’s probably never going to happen, and after all, the dude’s a grandfather. We certainly don’t wish him any serious harm.
A recent poll of FJM editors confirmed that Joe Morgan is in fact our least favorite broadcaster / commentator / journalist, but he was followed very closely by John Kruk and Tim McCarver. (Others receiving votes included Dan Shaughnessy, Chris Berman, Stephen A. Smith, Rob Dibble and yes, Hat Guy.)
Why are you guys such total dicks?Good question.
At times we might seem truly mean-spirited, and yeah, sometimes we might regret our tone a little. Ask any of our moms, though, and they’ll tell you we’re good people.
Try to picture us just sort of smiling and laughing a little as we’re posting; no one’s typing away furiously, thinking to himself, “Take that Mike Celizic!”
The site looks terrible. Don’t you know anything about web design?No, we do not. If we knew anything about web design we’d be blogging about our least favorite web designers.
Why can’t I leave a comment on your site?Sorry dudes. We’re not trying to be misanthropic here. We just like to keep it tight. Like we said, this site was intended for a small audience. If other people want to read it, that’s very flattering to us and makes us weirdly happy. Comments from everyone just don’t feel right.
Now, e-mailing us might not give you the instant gratification of seeing your post on the site, but we enjoy getting e-mails. As you may have noticed, we’re not hesitant to post great e-mails from members of the FJM army neither.
Are you all Red Sox fans? Pretty much. Sorry.
Why don’t you blog about other sports? We’ve dabbled in football. It’s just not as fun. I mean, really – who doesn’t like baseball? Not to mention: the long schedule, and the complex nature of baseball itself, and the weird way in which baseball writing is steeped in old-timey mythology and tradition and ignorance and distrust of modern analysis, all mean that there is a lot more bad writing about baseball than there is about other sports.
How do I become a member?Again, sorry, but membership isn’t a possibility right now. If and when we ever decide to open the doors to the literally tens of people who are clamoring to join us in our quest to root out bad writing wheresoever we shall find it, we promise, we will let you know.
I have, like, sixteen dollars that are just eating a hole in my pocket. Why can’t I buy a FJM t-shirt, or a FJM bib for my dog or whatever? You can. Check out the Merch link at the top of the site.
Love,
FJM