Last Thursday I headed down to Atlanta for Hank Aaron's 75th Birthday Gala. It really was an impressive event with the main focus being on Hank's Chasing the Dream Foundation. The Chasing the Dream Foundation's foucus is on helping kids pursue their interests..whether it be music, writing, science, dance..anything. There is information on it on the Braves website as well a few other places online. There were over twenty speakers there (not to mention an exceptional video piece from Tom Brokaw) including Bill Clinton, Bob Costas, Bud Selig and Jim Doyle. Check out the below photo of me with Ted Turner and Brandon Steiner. I hope to be talking a lot more about the foundation over the next few months.

First and foremost Happy New Year (about a month too late). I am assuming you have all been wondering where I have been as it has been over a month since my last post (after assuring you all that the blog would be back up and running shortly after January 1st). While this past January was not nearly as exciting as last years (can thank #17 for that) there were a still a decent number of signings. We did a few Rangers appearances as well as a tremendous meet and great/appearance/private signing with Knicks stars Nate Robinson and Wilson Chandler. Before I get into the new (and hopefully improved) direction that this forum will be going in I must talk about the Rangers and Knicks for a second. Since the extinction of Dead shows (which are soon to be resurrected this spring) I only find myself at Madison Square Garden once or twice a year. Usually it is for Knicks/Lakers and, to be quite honest, the building has been eerily emotionless these past few years. There has definitely been a bit of a shift in the energy over these past few months. The Rangers are one of the top teams in the conference and the Knicks, rather than nail it in in hopes of a lottery pick, have been playing competitive basketball(especially at the Garden). Last night was the first time I have been there this year and, aside from witnessing Kobe's historic performance (61 in 36 minutes...20-20 FT..MSG record..), was extremely happy to see firsthand that there was excitement in that building once again. Hopefully it is there to stay.
Anyway, back to why I have not been writing the blog ...and where I intend to go with it. I have actually started writing posts several times since January 1 and have not liked the sound of any of them...truthfully it was boring me...and if it was boring me it must have/would have bored all of you. After three years of writing in the same format I figure it is time for a change...truthfully I am a little embarrassed of the last 10-12 posts as they are pretty much a carbon copy of each other with a few interchangeable names (kind of like any Springsteen show from the past three years...and that is coming from a huge Bruce fan and show veteran)...so when you couple that with the fact that the majority of people prefer visual and audio over old fashioned reading ..I am going to switch this over to more of a video format. There will still be a few still pictures as well as maybe a brief synopsis of an event or signing but it is going to be all about showing you the process. This is a work in progress (and not very technologically gifted so may have a hard time at first) but it will be underway within the next few days. I plan on running a few contests (like we used to way back in 2005) and even doing some short player interviews where you guys can email questions.
I am extremely excited about switching things up on here as I hope you all will be too...the long strange trip continues Thursday in Atlanta.