What is Now Taking the Field, the blog and email newsletter?
Hi everyone! Tom Stone here, author of Now Taking the Field, a baseball blog and email newsletter. I am a long time baseball writer and author of the book Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises, published in early 2019 by ACTA Sports. More on the book in a minute… but what about this blog and email newsletter?
Launched in July 2022, this Substack serves as my outlet for ongoing baseball analysis and writing. I write about a range of topics, including periodic in-season pieces on a variety of fun topics, but also including more all-time dream teams such as those for players born in each US state, players born in various countries, players born in each month, and more (see the categories at the top of the homepage). I also occassionally write fun, unique player profiles that I call “Best, Worst, Outliers, and Oddities,” and every two weeks I do a “Baseball Listicle Lineup” that includes links to a couple dozen favorite articles from other baseball Substack writers as well as MLB.com writers.
Some of my essays here—the additional dream team focused ones—will become chapters in my second book. Right now I anticipate that coming out sometime in the second half of 2025. Stay tuned!
Speaking of books, here is a bit more about my first published baseball book mentioned earlier. The result of over 20 years of research, writing, re-writing, etc., I gave my spin on the question: Who is the best at each position throughout the history of each major league baseball franchise?
Now Taking the Field provided 30-man all-time dream team rosters, selected based on Wins Above Replacement (WAR), traditional statistics, awards, and post-season accomplishments. Additional features for each all-time team chapter include starting lineups, depth charts, comparisons with numerous past authors and fan surveys, and more.
The book is over 600 pages, and did pretty well—at least for a first-time baseball book author. I appeared on MLB Now on the MLB Network in February 2019, and did over 100 radio and podcast interviews during the first 18 months after its release. Loads of fun, and you can learn more about the book at my website www.nowtakingthefield.com.
Why subscribe?
Stay up-to-date
You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every article in the newsletter goes directly to your inbox. And its FREE!
What is the paid subscription for?
I do want to eventually be able to support myself through my baseball-related writing. So right off the bat here I’ve turned on the paid subscription option to see what happens. For now, pretty much all of my articles will be available to free subscribers as I first build up an audience. I might at some point start having some articles available only for paid subscribers, but for now, the extra benefit will be that I’ll send a signed copy of my book to any paid subscriber.
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
