Happy 11th Anniversary, Gaslamp Ball!!

Every year on February 14th my heart is so full of love. Not because it's Valentine's Day, but because it's the anniversary of the day jbox and Dex started blogging about the Padres on their blog, Padres Fans Since 76. That fledgling blog later became Gaslamp Ball, and today we celebrate its 11 years of existence. While I haven't been around for all 11 years, it's hard for me to imagine my life without GLB now.

I'm pretty sure I've told this story before, but I first came upon Gaslamp Ball in August of 2009 when I was googling the Pad Squad. One of the links that came up in my search led me to a Gaslamp Ball interview of one of the Pad Squadders. I read it, laughed, and wanted to read more. That night I spent hours looking at blog posts and reading comments, and convincing myself that fate had led me to this magical website.

Over the next few months, I immersed myself in the Gaslamp Ball world, hanging out in open threads and getting to know the wonderful people who populated the comments section. Little did I know the impact that some of these people would have in my life. Some of my most important friendships started out right here on GLB.

I remember my first time meeting Dex and jbox, at Padres FanFest 2010. It was as awkward as you could imagine. I remember taking a group picture with Dex and some other Padres bloggers. I wasn't a blogger myself at the time and I remember feeling out of place in the picture, but maybe fate had once again led me there. A few months later Dex tweeted that he was going to be speaking at SDSU so I rode my bike over and caught the very end of his speech. I hung out and talked to him and jbox for a little while before heading back home. It felt kind of weird to me at the time that I would go out of my way to see these guys that I knew only from the internet and a brief meeting at FanFest. But they were kind of my heroes so I guess it wasn't that weird.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. I guess I just feel really lucky to be at the place I am right now. All those random little moments, the interactions with Dex and jbox and every other Gaslamp Baller along the way, all the relationships formed and bonds created through this blog... I don't know where I would be without any of it. I started out as a commenter here, and now, somehow, I'm up there on the masthead with jbox and Dex and this group of awesome bloggers who have helped Gaslamp Ball grow and thrive for eleven whole years. I owe my life to this place, and to everyone who has kept us going all these years by reading and commenting on our silly blog posts and sticking by us through the roughest of Padres seasons. I hope we have a lot of happy baseball moments to celebrate together this season and beyond.

Happy Anniversary to ALL the Gaslamp Ballers. And GO PADRES!!