The Hall of Very Good

You're here because you like baseball. You're also here because you have some advanced mastery of the Internet as well, which means you probably have all sorts of fancy technology that you can use to read ebooks. And you're here at The Platoon Advantage either by complete accident or because you actually like the things that we write here. 

Whatever the confluence of events that have brought you to click this link, I just wanted to bring your attention to a project that is on Kickstarter that involves some of the best writers in baseball...and for some reason the Platoon Advantage. 

The Hall of Very Good (HoVG if you're hip) is an exciting ebook project started by Marc Normandin (of SB Nation and Baseball Prospectus fame) and Sky Kalkman (ESPN, Fangraphs, The Hardball Times) and the ebook will be a collection of essays by writers about players whose careers deserve to be celebrated, but for a variety of reasons have not been. 

The Hall of Very Good is an ebook meant to celebrate the careers of those who are not celebrated. It's not a book meant to reopen arguments about who does and does not deserve Hall of Fame enshrinement; rather, it's meant to remember those who, failing entrance into Cooperstown, will unfairly be lost to history. It's for the players we grew up rooting for, the ones whose best years led to flags and memories that will fly together forever. Players like Bret Saberhagen, Will Clark, Dwight Evans, Tim Salmon, Wilbur Wood, Orel Hershiser, and literally hundreds of others. 

This is not a numbers-driven project (although our contributors lean analytical in their views). Our plan isn't to be overbearing with numbers and spreadsheets to convince you that these players are worth remembering. What we want to do, instead, is accomplish that same task through stories. Think of your favorite players growing up: they have their moments, games, seasons, quirks, personalities, and legends worth remembering and sharing. Now, combine the best of everyone's forgotten favorites, and you've got a Hall of Very Good. Ask the people who have those memories and love for these players to write essays about them, and you have a book on the same topic.

Normandin and Kalkman launched the Kickstarter and within four days they nearly doubled their goal and have since surpassed their goal of $3,000 to start the project by 244%. So, this project is definitely happening and the Kickstarter remains open for 11 more days and there are different levels of funding that get you the opportunity for many exciting things--including an advanced copy of the ebook or your name on the dedication page.

Not only does the project promise essays on some of the most under celebrated players in history, Normandin and Kalkman have assembled an All-Star cast of writers from places like Baseball Prospectus, Sports Illustrated, New York Magazine, ESPN, NBCSports, Yahoo!, The Classical, Fangraphs, and SBNation....and the Platoon Advantage?

That's right-- The Common Man, Bill Parker, Jason Wojciechowski, and Cee Angi will all have essays in the Hall of Very Good, which is just another reason to check out this project (or because you like reading things by those more professional than us like Joe Posnanski). Whatever your reason, you will want to have this collection of essays (available in PDF and EPUB formats). Period.

If you buy a copy of the Hall of Very Good, you'll get to read essays from the following celebrated writers:

• R.J. Anderson  

• Cee Angi

• Tommy Bennett
• Ted Berg
• Jon Bernhardt
• Jon Bois
• Grant Brisbee
• Dave Brown
• Craig Calcaterra
• Carson Cistulli
• Cliff Corcoran
• Chad Finn
• Steven Goldman
• Owen Good
• Jay Jaffe
• Christina Kahrl
• King Kaufman
• Matthew Kory
• Will Leitch
• Ben Lindbergh
• Sam Miller
• Rob Neyer
• Eric Nusbaum
• Bill Parker
• Jason Parks
• Jeff Passan
• Joe Posnanski
• Old Hoss Radbourn 

• David Raposa

• David Roth
• Jon Sciambi
• Emma Span
• Cecilia Tan
• The Common Man
• Wendy Thurm
• Jon Weisman
• Josh Wilker
• Jason Wojciechowski

The list of contributors continues to grow as the Kickstarter funding increases, so the more of you that support the project, the more essays about under celebrated players there will be-- but you only have 11 more days before the Kickstarter expires. So, go check out the project (there's a video!), give them your money, and wait for the magic to happen.