The 35th Street Review was a web publication focused primarily on happenings with the Chicago White Sox, Major League Baseball, general sports, and life in Chicago itself. Our focus here was not just goings on in the game but also on happenings around the game; from 2007 to 2010, this was the fringe lit-mag of Windy City sports blogs. The 35th Street Review quickly became a mainstay of local “best of” blog roundups, and received mentions nationally at ESPN.com, Yahoo! Sports, and on The Jay Leno Show.
Published one to many times per week, usually from the home office in Chicago, The 35th Street Review was written mainly by its managing editor but with outside voices welcomed and encouraged.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Andrew Reilly holds a master’s in journalism from Columbia College Chicago and had been writing online about the Good Guys since the halcyon days of South Side Baseball. His non-sporting work has appeared in The A.V. Club, Ghost Factory, The Angler, and Jargon Chicago, to name a few, but you can read more about that on his website.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: So what was this, another Sox blog or something?
A: Yes and no. Yes in that we covered current goings-on with the Chicago White Sox, and to a lesser extent Major League Baseball and Chicago sports in general, but no in that we usually stayed away from in-depth game analysis and hardcore statistical analysis. There are plenty of other sites that cover those things far better than we could.
Q: So what am I going to find here?
A: Oh, lots of things: state of the team columns; historical looks back at players and teams past; goings on around town; musings on front-office activity; and, you know, whatever else we think needed to be talked about.
Q: What was the best thing ever published here?
A: Well, they’re all great, but the legendary piece about Javier Vazquez comes to mind, as do everything on this page.
Q: What was the most popular?
A: The now-famous 2009 Spring Training Report template by a long shot. This was the piece that put us on the map nationally, so to speak.
Q: How often was this site updated?
A: Whenever.
Q: Why did you shut it down?
A: This explains it pretty exhaustively.
RARELY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Q: Better pitcher: 1993 Jack McDowell or 2005 Mark Buehrle?
A: McDowell, no question.
Q: What was your preferred name for the park the Sox play in?
A: “Comiskey,” although “Sox Park,” “The Cell,” or “The Joan” were also acceptable.
Q: Which teams were the sworn enemies of this site?
A: In baseball terms, the Twins; in social terms, the Cubs; in econo-political terms, the Yankees; in life, all of them.
Q: What kind of guest writers did you have?
A: Most were fellow baseball bloggers, but we also invited a few fiction writers, some business folks, and posted a handful of assorted random submissions. Rest assured there were plenty of pieces we rejected, but plenty of invitations we never got a response to, either.
Q: Who is your favorite player?
A: This question became unanswerable on a number of levels the day I exceeded the average age of Major League Baseball players.
Q: Where did your column and feature ideas come from?
A: This is the internet, so they were obviously stolen.
Q: Anything else I should ask while I have you on the line?
A: Nah. But feel free to get in touch if you think of something.