What even is this?

The 5.5 Hole is a blog about baseball. Longform, shortform, and every form in between can live here. You'll find deep statistical analysis, poetic reminiscing, and general thoughts about the game. The 5.5 Hole is a reference to the spot between shortstop and third base where Tony Gwynn loved to hit.

This site started back in 2011. My youngest son had just been born, and I was just entering the blogosphere for the first time. It was my way of talking baseball with the internet at large. I didn't expect it to mean much.

But it meant a lot.

This little site led to me writing for two of the biggest sports blogging sites out there. It led to me co-founding a sports blogging network that was later acquired by a major fantasy sports platform. It led me to realize that writing was one of the most powerful tools humans ever developed.

It is not hyperbole to say that writing has powered my entire career, even when my job doesn't seem like a writing job. The world is powered by words, and I'm so glad I decided to start a blog more than a decade ago that let me experience the power of words first-hand.

At some point, life happened. The site was dormant for years because of my other writing gigs and my "real" job. I didn't renew the domain. The site died.

But I decided to revive it as my place to talk about baseball. All these years later, I still think the original posts are top-notch, and I still have a lot to say about the game.