Celebrating Two Years Of The Steele Sports Bar!

I'm actually late to the party on this anniversary, but I wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude for all your support and for helping make the newsletter what it is today...

🎨 - Robby Waldrop

I’m not one to overly celebrate my own achievements. I see my birthday as just another day on the calendar. And anyway, the older you get the less you actually want to bring attention to it.

Therefore, you probably won’t be surprised that I totally missed the second anniversary of this very newsletter.

February 2025 marked two years since I took the plunge and decided to go out on my own.

As is surely the case with most life-altering decisions, I remember it vividly. I was trapped in a dark, lonely corner, stuck in a never-ending cycle of doing things to serve and make other people happy, as opposed to putting myself first and chasing the dreams and goals that made me feel alive.

Every person has a tipping point, and mine was reached at the beginning of of 2023. Feeling incredibly lost and bankrupt when it comes to the currency of hope, I decided to do something about it and create my own little sliver of hope. I opted to finally practice what I had been preaching to so many others for so many years. I took the deep, scary plunge and trusted my own gut to go out on my own and launch a website devoted to writing about sports every single day.

It made all the sense in the world and, once I decided to take that leap of faith, I then began to question myself as to why I didn’t make that brave decision sooner. After all, writing and sports have always been my two biggest passions - the two things that help to drag me out of bed every morning. So why wouldn’t I want to give everything I had towards ensuring I could do this for a living?

And, so here we are two years later. While the official two-year anniversary of this newsletter / website fell on Feb. 13, I didn’t want to let it pass without at least marking the occasion in some small way.

It has certainly been a journey. Just shy of the one-year anniversary, I opted to change the look and direction of the site. Gone was the original ‘Blogs Of Steele’ name (what was I thinking?!), and in came The Steele Sports Bar - a name and vision that more accurately represents what I want to build and achieve with this newsletter. I always dreamt of creating a place where covering sports the old-fashioned way could rule the day.

My heroes include the legendary Peter King and the incredible

Tyler Dunne

- two long-form writers who belong in the Hall of Fame and who cover their chosen sport with incredible care, passion and depth. They deeply care about old school sports writing and the way it should be done. I had those two in mind when I decided to go out on my own, and both Peter and Tyler continue to serve as my guiding lights every single day.

I’m also living out my dream on a daily basis. I grew up writing stories about sports, and I knew from the age of eight that I wanted to be a sports writer when I was older. So the fact that I am now living out that childhood dream is beyond cool, and it is something I will never take for granted.

I run into new lessons every single day and I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the past two years. I’ve not been nearly as consistent as I would have liked, and sometimes my own eagerness and excitement can get the better of me. At times, the newsletter has felt like a lost ship - floating out on its own in the middle of the ocean with no real direction or purpose. And, of course, life has tended to get in the way, be it the various health issues I’ve had over the last year, or just the standard everyday issues that tend to drain your energy and time.

However, as I write this, I feel more confident and excited about the future of this site and newsletter than ever before. I have finally realized that leaning into my strengths as a baseball writer and focusing on the sport I love the most is the right way to go. I’m sure I’ll drop in the occasional thought on other things but, for the most part, baseball will be what drives the newsletter going forward.

All that is left to be said is thank you. And that’s really why I wanted to mark the two-year anniversary of the newsletter nearly two months after the fact. I wanted to take the opportunity to issue a heartfelt thank you to each and every single one of you.

Your support and encouragement from day one has been mind-blowing. Despite the change in name, the shift in direction, the lack of consistency and all the many mistakes I’ve made, you’ve stuck by me and the website has seen continual growth over the last two years.

Together, we are starting to build something really special here and I really do believe that the best is yet to come. I feel incredibly confident that the newsletter will continue to go from strength-to-strength in 2025, and I am confident that the baseball content I have planned will open up new exciting avenues this year and beyond.

Getting the opportunity to write about baseball and talk sports with you all every day has been the biggest thrill of my life. I truly am the luckiest guy alive. And none of this would be possible without your support. As such, I want to keep getting better for you and I am constantly looking at ways to improve so I can make your support well worth it.

I will be implementing a new video feature to the newsletter soon, including a monthly - or twice-monthly, depending on demand - video mailbag where I answer your questions. There will even be an opportunity to come on and talk baseball with me, if that’s something that would float your boat. And, of course, all content will remain absolutely free. I don’t feel right in charging money for content given the slew of options available out there, not to mention the fact that everything seems to be skyrocketing in price these days.

Instead, spreading the word about The Steele Sports Bar will always be hugely appreciated. And, if you do have some money to spare, paid subscriptions are optional and will help support the growth of the newsletter. I’m currently running a special offer to mark the return of baseball:

You can also support my work by making a one-off pledge via Buy Me A Coffee. You won’t be locked into a long-term commitment that way, and you will be supporting the newsletter while keeping me caffeinated. A win-win all round!

Thank you so much again, and here’s to a monster year ahead.