In this hobby, loss of material is a constant battle we face. For years, we've been fighting against the elements: fire, water, dust in the destruction of rare prints or footage of game broadcasts. Once we lose these precious resources, they are gone forever.
However, in today's world of technology, we face a new adversary: data loss. In that battle, I lost. A little personal backstory: Since 2006, I've been a nearly rabid collector of St. Louis Cardinals complete game broadcast. There were, up until a few weeks ago, only a handful of games from the 2006-2010 seasons that I didn't have. With this being a hobby and not the entirety of my life, recordings don't get edited right away, drives get filled, things don't always get done in a timely fashion. Not to mention, my collecting/recording was not limited to the Cardinals. Some NFL, PGA and the Cleveland Cavaliers also kept the personal collection going year round.
Then data loss hits. A combination of Cavaliers games, Cardinals games (2009-2010) and the reason this blog hasn't been updated: my classic game recordings all were lost. Now, that doesn't mean all my classic game material is gone. Hard copies were made, some games and footage were already transferred to portable drives.
None of this is an excuse for going dark. It just sucked the joy out of the hobby. A lot of stress and work went into maintaining free space and manipulating a personal schedule to acquire those games only to see them disappear in a nanosecond. Anytime I even thought about writing, it was a reminder of the games I lost that I doubted I'd ever get back. It was also a reminder of my own personal failings in falling behind in my editing and cataloging of materials. With that, the totality of the data loss will never be truly known.
Hopefully, with a return to some normalcy I'll begin to try to go out into the community and fill in the missing holes I have from my collection. For someone that was very specific in how he recorded the games and how he maintained quality on them, that will be a challenge. With that, though, I will hopefully begin to update this blog again as the off-season clip shows and rebroadcasts begin to pop-up on schedules.
To those who have contacted me over the last few weeks, I appreciate the words and the interest. Those who I had arrangements with, those will be coming soon.
Thanks to all for your patience and BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!!
