Living life on The Ledge
A look back at what got me here, and why it's time to change.
“The Ledge” (TheLedgeSports.com) was born in an Endicott College dorm room 11 years ago. Actually, it was originally called “Beantown Buzz,” but I prefer to pretend that never happened.
Like most 18-year-olds, I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew I wanted to combine my love for sports and my passion for writing into a career. It was a pipe dream at the time. There were “friends” who scoffed at the idea that I would ever make a living by writing about sports.
I knew it was a long shot, but nothing has ever motivated me more than people telling me what I can’t do. Sometimes I think the only reason I continued to pursue a career in sports media was to shut those “friends” up. I really do believe I’m working in sports today not because of passion, but because I spent my life trying to prove people wrong. Mission accomplished, I guess?
Back to how we got here…
At Endicott, a small private school in Beverly, Mass., 120-hour internships were required for our freshman and sophomore years. Our junior year was spent searching for a semester-long internship that could be completed either that spring or in the fall of our senior year.
I created TheLedgeSports.com as a way to separate myself from the pack in the hunt for internship opportunities. One would think it would be easy to acquire an UNPAID internship — something that should never have even been legal, by the way — but it was an unexpected challenge.
After several annoying e-mails and LinkedIn messages, I landed my first internship at Comcast SportsNet New England (now known as NBC Sports Boston). I was the first-ever intern for the “Felger & Mazz” radio simulcast. Not a writing gig, but an incredibly rewarding one nonetheless.
Meanwhile, I kept on writing. As much as The Ledge helped in acquiring internships, that no longer was the reason for its existence. It was a hobby, an outlet, and something I thought one day could evolve into something special.
I added podcasts to my repertoire in 2013 when they were relatively new. I grew to love podcasting maybe even more than writing. The hosting, the production, all of it. I started my own baseball show — I don’t even think it had a name — and didn’t care how many listens it got. It was just another tool to add to the toolbox.
The Ledge continued to be my No. 1 priority after college. Sure, it would help me get a full-time job in sports media, but it wasn’t really about that anymore. I wanted to see it grow.
I assembled a small staff of writers and podcast hosts. The Ledge amassed approximately 200,000 page views in 2015, 2016, and again in 2017. The podcasts had hundreds of listeners. Not enormous numbers, but I was proud of what it was becoming. There was potential.
I started my own podcasting network with Tater Talk (baseball podcast with myself and two former The Ledge writers), Anything Goes (pop culture podcast with my best friend), and more. It was fun and rewarding until it wasn’t.
As time went on, I became discouraged. I wanted to continue to grow the site, but I also wanted to move out of my parents’ house. I wanted to dedicate my time to blogging and podcasting, but I was $130,000 deep in student loan debt and needed money fast. The Ledge wasn’t making it, and my job as a barback put me in a state of depression and doubt. I grew desperate and had to make some regrettable — although probably necessary — decisions.
I quit the podcasts. I continued to write, but not nearly as much. The staff followed my lead, leaving The Ledge to focus on their day jobs. They no longer had the motivation to contribute, and that was my fault. I quit on myself and quit on them in the process. Who knows what would have happened if I stayed the course? I think that every single day when I see all of these podcasts and blogs that have blown up since then.
I did end up landing a full-time job in sports media, so The Ledge served its original purpose. It helped to prove those idiots wrong and I don’t feel miserable on a daily basis when I go to work. I’m lucky.
But every time I look at TheLedgeSports.com, it’s bittersweet. It’s a reminder of how far I’ve come but also what could have been. While I still write a blog here and there, that passion for it I had long ago is gone. I’m still chasing that 2015, 2016, 2017 feeling and it’s time to realize that is never coming back.
All of this, I suppose, can be considered an obituary for TheLedgeSports.com. It’s like a dog that has been sick for a while, but it took me until now to realize that it’s time to put it down. Time to move on.
Although TheLedgeSports.com might be dead, The Ledge will live on. I want to start something fresh and Substack seems like the ideal place to do that. I want to regain my passion for blogging and podcasting, and I think the first step to doing so is creating content for people who want to consume it it rather than creating content for many people to consume it. If I start by doing that, perhaps one day I’ll get the best of both worlds.
With this newsletter, you will get everything I would write on TheLedgeSports.com and much more. There will be blogs, long-form articles and podcast episodes on sports, media, culture, and quite frankly whatever the hell else I want to talk about. Contrary to most of today’s media, the focus won’t be on cheap page views. It will be on creating quality content worthy of your attention.
I hope you join me in living life on The Ledge.