Hot Corner Harbor's 10th Anniversary! A Retired Number Series Retrospective

June 2nd is Hot Corner Harbor’s anniversary, and this year in particular represents ten years since I started it, so I wanted to do something special. Part of the reason I started this site was to host my Retired Numbers Series, which was something I hadn’t seen anywhere else and felt like it needed its own place. I took a month or so to practice before starting it initially, and obviously kept writing here after the main series wrapped up, but it’s still closely tied to the creation of Hot Corner Harbor, so I figured revisiting it in some way would be an apt anniversary celebration.

So join me now, as I reflect on all of my observations and predictions from over the course of the Retired Number Series, and compare them to how the last decade of new retired numbers has shaken out, from 2011 to present. First, let’s look at the teams that have retired a number in that span:

Happy Anniversary!

Yes, it was exactly one year ago, June 2nd, 2011, that I started Hot Corner Harbor. And I would say it’s been a great year. That first day, I asked whether the Cardinals needed to make any trade deadline moves. Since then, I’ve made 121 more posts (counting this one), started a series (becoming obsessed with retired numbers in the process), re-run another series, joined the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, released a whole bunch of Sporcle quizes, voted on a few things, and even been sarcastic on occasion.

I wanted to write something really profound and moving about how it’s changed me, but I don’t think it has too much. I’m still a huge fan of baseball, I just happen to write about it more often than I used to. And it’s been really fun writing about it, too. I suppose I’m slightly more responsible, in that I actually have to stop what I’m doing (usually procrastinating) and take time to write (granted, the writing itself is sometimes procrastination, but I’ll leave that issue for another time).

Thank you to everyone who’s been reading over the past twelve months! It means a lot to me, and I hope you all continue to visit. 

And now, as some additional trivia, the most-read posts of the first year of Hot Corner Harbor:

1) NL Central Predictions, or: How Not to Make Projections

2) Retired Numbers Series: Boston Red Sox

3) Paul Konerko, 500 Home Runs, and the Hall of Fame

4) 50 Best Players Not in the Hall of Fame Ballot Explanations, Part 1

5) Comparison: Ken Griffey, Jr. vs. Chipper Jones

6) Retired Numbers Series: Los Angeles Dodgers

7) A Post in Which I Try and Emulate Ken Tremendous

8) Retired Numbers Series: Detroit Tigers

9) 50 Best Players Not in the Hall of Fame Ballot Explanations, Part 2

10) Pitchers, the MVP, and the Hank Aaron Award