With that being said, I suppose introductions are in order - my name is Alessandro, and at one point in time I was making quite the impression on the burgeoning Boston Celtics online community.
My story begins at the very dawn of the internet age ... the year was 1995, and I had just begun my college career (holycross.edu). Holy Cross was starting to offer free web space to its students, and that summer I was one of the first to make their presence felt on the World Wide Web. Among other things, I decided to create a little tribute to my favorite NBA team, and thus the "Unofficial Holy Cross Boston Celtics WWW Page" (archive.org) was born.
As you can see, it was your typical 1990s no-frills web site (we didn't call 'em blogs back then, kiddies) - nothing fancy, just some news and notes on the goings-on of the team as it struggled through the horrors of the ML Carr years (nba.com) with the hopes of landing Tim Duncan in the draft (ugh).
However, you have to remember that the interwebz wasn't the all-pervasive figure in everday life that it is now ... outside of Usenet (groups.google.com), the only other fan-generated sources of Celtics information worth noting were Jason Drisko (ics.com) and Steve Chomicz (tiac.net). Since there wasn't much competition, I was able to build a bit of a "following" (as silly as that sounds) amongst fans searching for Celtics information online, and decided to focus my HTML energies on continuing to build and improve the site.
Eventually, I had to shut down operations for a bit, since I was graduating and the free web space was going bye-bye ... actually, that's a bit of a funny story, as my website was becoming so popular that ITS (holycross.edu) called me in a couple months before graduation and basically ordered me to take down my website; apparently, out of all web traffic coming into the college (from prospective students, alumni, etc.) over 50 percent was being generated by my little ol' Celtics site! Not too shabby (although I still can't figure out why they couldn't just wait another two months, since I was going to be taking down the site and leaving school anyway).
In any event, I was still anxious to continue spewing forth my thoughts and opinions on the team, so the hunt for my own webspace began ... and the hunt didn't last particularly long, as I was contacted by the Seattle-based Rivals.Com during the summer of '99; known for their in-depth analysis of college athletics, the company was expanding into the field of pro sports, and they were interested in having me head up their Boston Celtics portal. So, a couple of signed contracts and one name-rebranding later, and "The Mean Green with Alessandro" (archive.org) was born.
Things were going along nicely at this point - I was still writing about my beloved Celtics (and getting paid to do so to boot) and was even able to finagle a press pass - like I was an actual member of the real life media! - to one of their preseason games (in hindsight, I should've taken advantage of the opportunity and tried to attend at least a few more games). Of course, this was just about the time that the infamous dot-com bubble (en.wikipedia.org) was about ready to burst, and Rivals.Com (under its then-ownership) was one of the casualities.
Out of a "job", I was again forced to look for a new address on the Information Superhighway ... I imagined that it would only take me a couple of months (at most) to set up my own domain name and webspace, so I threw together a quick 'n dirty message board (ezboard.com) that was only meant to serve as a placeholder until I could establish a more permanent base of operations.
Sadly, for reasons too numerous to mention here, it's been close to six years now and that rinky-dink little message board is still all that's left of my online Celtics "legacy" ... until now.
Call me a bandwagon-jumper if you wish (although I faithfully reported on the team through some of the worst years in franchise history) but I've decided that it's time to strike while the iron is hot - and the team is actually relevant again - and make my triumphant return to the online Boston Celtics community!
*cue trumpet flare*
*sound of crickets chirping instead*
*sound of crickets chirping instead*
Yeah, I'm sure it's been too long for anyone to still care about whether or not I start my site back up ... so that's why I've decided to start small.
I went ahead and registered the domain name parquetwishesandleprechaundreams.com - although I'm not sure how many of today's NBA fans are going to get a Robin Leach reference (imdb.com) - but instead of jumping the gun and securing a dedicated web server, I'll just get the ball rolling with a simple blog (blogger.com).
This way, I can let the "rebirth" of this website grow organically ... if enough people are interested and like what I'm doing, then I can move forward and splurge on my own webspace. However, if things don't work out the way that I've planned - and my biggest concern is that graduate school (uri.edu) will not provide me with enough free time to keep this blog updated on a fairly regular basis - then I can just decide not to renew the domain name in a year's time and I'll only be out 18 bucks (smallbusiness.yahoo.com); hey, but at least I can look myself in the mirror and say that I gave it a shot.
So then, what is this blog going to be like? Well, the mantle for fan-generated Celtics content has been taken up by more-than-capable hands in my absence (celticsblog.com), so trying to recreate some of the stuff I used to do with my website would just seem like overkill. Instead (at least for this season), I think I will be focusing on writing my detailed game reviews ... Sure, I'll throw out the occasional article or editorial - so be sure to keep checking back everyday! - but for the most part I'll be focusing on my detailed recaps. So, if you want to know when Kevin Garnett commits his first offensive foul during a Celtics home game, or which player grabbed the first rebound in the third quarter of the 47th game of the regular season, then I'm your man!
I'd also like to rebuild the strong community of Celtics fans that used to frequent my site ... As I've said, there is that message board still chugging along, but (to be honest) I'm no longer a big fan of EZBoard, and would discourage anyone reading this to sign up for an account there just on my, er, account. Instead, feel free to click the little "Post Comments" link at the end of each blog post and share your thoughts and opinions. I would very much like to (eventually) get a more professional-looking webforum up and running again, but - for now - those little comments sections will have to do.
In fact, there's no time like the present - get your typing fingers at the ready and comment on this very post to let me know that someone out there is actually reading! It's very easy; you will need a Google account to participate (sorry, no anonymous postings allowed), but - if you'll give me a second to shill here - with all of the great services that "The Google" provides besides opining on random blog posts, there's really no excuse not to have your very own Google account (google.com) right this very moment!
So, there you have it ... a little long-winded, but that's some backstory to let you all know where I'm coming from. Truthfully, I was a little apprehensive at first, but now I'm actually excited to get back into "the game" and see where the Celtics' fortunes (in good times and bad) will lead us.
Care to join me?
2 comments:
Yeah, first post!
Sorry, had to do it. Nicely done. I'll have to try getting home earlier so we can actually watch those Celtics games together.
Go C's!
Celticsblog isn't cool. You had us right up there. We were into the whole rebirth/phoenix-rising sort of thing my frined, but then you had to go and give the Delaware D-Bags the salute. Silly Silly Silly.
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