Hey all. So Jeremy is about to hop a plane for Kane County, which is something he does every year, partly to enjoy some ball, partly to catch up with old friends, and partly to report back here about what’s going down with ex-Canadians players up the system.

It’s not a cheap task, and it’s something that takes a lot of his holiday time. But he does it because he takes a lot of pride in helping the Vancouver Canadians family stay in touch with its alumni.

This time around, he’s just going to enjoy some baseball, because I’m shutting the site down for a spell.

There are a few reasons, but the main one is a lack of gratitude for what the kid has been doing this past year from people who should know better.

Jeremy has had ballplayers crash on his couch. Jeremy gets to every game his school schedule will allow. He goes on the road a few times a year to follow the team. And he chases ex-players across places like Kane County and spring training. At the end of all that, he spends upwards of an hour every single night (often more) writing about what went down. He also does this in the off-season, when he tracks down players through a variety of methods to find out what’s new.

He does all of this for you guys – the fans, the families, the players, the random internet stranger. 

But what does he hear when he’s in the stands? People talking crap about this site – and him.

We’re just about the only minor league team-specific blog anywhere that covers a team 7 days a week with detailed game reports. We’re about the only blog that gets to know players and staff to the point where we can bring you true ‘inside baseball’ stuff – which players are moving on, which are having issues off the field, which are destined for greatness, etc.

In the good old days, I had the time (as a freelancer) to hit every home game and really work the connections. And the team was okay with that. The players, staff and coaches would talk to me before and after games – sometimes during – and they were happy to reveal nicknames, road trip stories, problems they had with team decisions, things they were working on, chatter on the field… Heck, I nearly got on the team bus for a road series once.

It was good. They were the salad days.

But this past year, it seems the gates are shutting on NatNotes. The coaches are off-limits, the staff are bereft of insider info, and the players are keeping their mouths shut. It’s been a noticeable shift from "hey, we love the site, keep up the good work," to "I’m a little busy, can we talk later?" 

Sure, Jeremy and I have both gone over the line a few times in recent years, revealing things that players and staff have lost their heads about, rightly or wrongly. And we’ve probably both written things about the team that, in hindsight, we were wrong to write. I know I definitely have (quiet nod to Rick Magnante).

But that’s what you get when you’re writing something worth reading. If you’re pushing up against that line often enough, eventually you’ll fall over it. 

Our view on that was always, better to screw up once in a while and give people truly solid coverage the other 99% of the time, than to just play it simple and blurt out a two paragraph game recap and knock off early.

But those we used to rely on for an inside view aren’t helping anymore, and those we used to enjoy sharing that view with aren’t respecting it when it comes.

So, okay then. NatNotes needs a redesign anyway and with Jeremy out of town for a while, seems like a good moment to shut the door and retool things. 

It’s a sad day, because The Nat has long been a huge part of my life. Heck, I met my wife at the ballpark, way back when. We envisioned this site going on forever, giving a team that has scant media coverage a means of building a relationship with the fans, while giving the players a good solid yell from the rooftops when they deserve it most.

But if the team, players, and readers aren’t down with that – so be it.

If you have a comment for what you’d like NatNotes to be, leave it below and we’ll consider all opinions as we reformulate the site. Maybe we’ll update less often, but with more insight. Maybe it’ll be smaller updates daily. Maybe we’ll go dry journo-style, and leave all the inside stuff out. Maybe we’ll go completely hammy and be damned for stats and figures.

But the one thing I know is the old Notes From The Nat ends here. NatNotes v3.0 begins next week. Maybe.