“Do You Go to FanGraphs at All?”
If you’re a regular reader of the site, you probably heard this phrase, uttered the day after All-Star rosters were announced. In case you’re not, or you simply forgot about it, Daniel Murphy was upset that his teammate, Anthony Rendon, didn’t land a spot on the National League All-Star team. Someone asked him why. This was his response.
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 16, 2017
Ou en GIF, si vous préférez?
The hilarity of this was not lost on us. Up until that point, the most ubiquitous catchphrase associated with FanGraphs was when Tony Reali (who at the time, ironically, was mostly known as “Stat Boy”) proclaimed, in response to the mere mention of FanGraphs by Pardon The Interruption co-host Tony Kornheiser, “We’re all gonna go dateless!”
A small quantity of t-shirts with this catchphrase were printed and given out to staff members at the time. I wasn’t privileged enough to receive one myself, but I have seen them in the wild.
Back to the present, you can imagine how the “Do you go to FanGraphs at all?” line was received on social media. Michelle Jay, who is tasked with coordinating and tracking our social media exploits (among other things), was agog over it. And then, the suggestion — should we make a t-shirt out of this public mention of the site? Why yes, yes we should. Behold:
Like our other recent t-shirt creations, this shirt is a Canvas Jersey T-shirt, and as you can see, it comes in black. The black, to me, is notable, as we’ve never made a black t-shirt before. The shirt, also like our other recent t-shirt creations, was designed by Aaron Gershman of Creative Sentencing. You should definitely hire Aaron for your next design project.
If creating our first black t-shirt wasn’t cool enough, these t-shirts are also now available for purchase, just in time for the postseason! Truly this is the most wonderful time of the year!
To recap, Daniel Murphy mentioned FanGraphs in public, and now we’ve made t-shirts commemorating this occasion, and we would like you to purchase them. Have a great day!
Paul Swydan used to be the managing editor of The Hardball Times, a writer and editor for FanGraphs and a writer for Boston.com and The Boston Globe. Now, he owns The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Acton, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @Swydan. Follow the store @SilUnicornActon.
Stick a Bible verse at the end condemning homosexuality and you get mass appeal.
One battle at a time, friend.
I thought he just wanted to make a “mass” joke.