IBWAA Co-Director Steps Down, Two Others Move Into His Place

Daniel R. Epstein is stepping away from his role as co-director of the IBWAA, with Elizabeth Muratore and Ben Chase taking over from him.

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Pregame Pepper: Dan Epstein Says Goodbye

I have decided to step down from my leadership position with the IBWAA. My partner for the last four years, Jonathan Becker, will remain in his same role, and I’m exceptionally pleased to announce that Ben Chase and Elizabeth Muratore will step into mine.

Serving as Co-Director of the IBWAA since May 2020 has been a great privilege. I have gotten to know so many incredible baseball writers and content creators, and I’ve made some wonderful friends. I strived to uphold our mission of promoting and uplifting the baseball writing community. The act of writing and publishing one’s words is a deeply personal endeavor. Whether you write professionally at a major publication or occasionally for your own blog, you’re revealing a piece of your soul to the world, and I’m honored to have helped shine light on the souls of our 835 members.

My philosophy when Howard Cole first entrusted us to take his place four years ago was that it’s better to try 10 things and succeed with five of them than to try two things and succeed with both. We’ve had a lot of different initiatives over the years; some of them flopped, some were great for a little while, and others still endure. All the while, the IBWAA has grown significantly, and we’ve strived to demonstrate integrity and a welcoming spirit. I’m very proud of that.

This isn’t an easy decision, but I believe it’s time for fresh ideas. I’ve known and worked with Ben, Elizabeth, and Jonathan for years, and they have my unwavering faith and support. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t step aside. I’ll let them introduce themselves to you in the near future, but I’m thrilled and excited for what’s next for the IBWAA.

As for my own future, it’s going to look similar to my present. I still write regularly at Baseball Prospectus and Forbes SportsMoney as well as a few other places here and there. I'll probably keep writing at Here's the Pitch from time to time—I founded it and I'm still an IBWAA member, so why not? I look forward to having a bit more time and bandwidth to be a parent/husband/elementary special education teacher/7,000-member labor union president/campaign organizer/baseball writer/musician instead of a parent/husband/elementary special education teacher/7,000-member labor union president/campaign organizer/baseball writer/musician/IBWAA director.

I have too many people to thank, and this message is already too wordy, but I have to express my gratitude to Jonathan Becker. This all started when he called me one night during the quarantine in the spring of 2020 and suggested that we travel down this road together. He has been an outstanding partner and friend, and the only person who can inadvertently manage a tanking Strat-O-Matic team into the playoffs. I couldn’t have done any of this without him.

You can reach me at depstein1983@yahoo.com and @depstein1983 on Bluesky from now on. You can still use the ibwaa2020@gmail.com email address to reach the new IBWAA leadership. I will remain a proud member of the IBWAA, just as I hope you are. I look forward to seeing what you create and to continuing to be part of this wonderful community.

Keep Batting Around,

Daniel R. Epstein

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Leading Off

When I first joined the IBWAA over four years ago, shortly after Dan and Jonathan took over, I never envisioned that I would one day be in Dan’s shoes. I have been an avid baseball fan since I was 9 years old, and I am extremely grateful for all the opportunities this sport has given me, including discovering this wonderful organization. 

I am very excited to be moving into the Co-Director role with my fellow HtP editor, Ben Chase. We look forward to continuing the initiatives that have become part of the fabric of the IBWAA, such as Here’s the Pitch and the annual awards and Hall of Fame voting. We also plan to try out some new ideas over the next few months in order to keep moving the organization forward and continue fostering a strong connection between IBWAA members.

It has been a pleasure and an honor editing the Here’s the Pitch newsletter for the past four years. I have gotten the privilege to read so much wonderful baseball writing every week and learn about a variety of baseball topics, past and present. The expertise and enthusiasm that the IBWAA members have for baseball is truly inspiring and has deepened my love for the sport even more than I ever thought possible.

As part of this organizational transition, we will be looking to bring on a new Here’s the Pitch editor so that Ben and I can focus on other aspects of the IBWAA. We will be sending out an application form to IBWAA members in the coming days in our next organizational update email.

Looking forward to this new chapter with all of you!

– Elizabeth

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When my great-grandma first began instilling the love of baseball into preschool-aged Ben, I’m sure she had little idea that it’d become a lifelong passion that has served as an outlet (and even my primary income at times) throughout my life.

I’ve been part of IBWAA for more than a decade now and in that time, I’ve written on many blogs, message boards, and Discord servers about the game before taking on actual writing jobs about baseball that allowed me to cover so many great moments in the game over the last decade-plus and meet players, coaches, and fans that have similar passion for the future of baseball as I have.

My day job is as a newspaper reporter in rural South Dakota, and I noted that this past summer, I wrote more than 50 articles about baseball just covering the local team. There are many, many more people who COULD be part of this wonderful organization due to the work they do to promote the game in their work, and we want to be able to reach out to all of them.

That’s where you come in! I was honored when Dan contacted me about the potential to work with Elizabeth as a co-director going forward, but honestly, my next thought after that wore off was how to help best represent and serve YOU, the members of IBWAA.

Dan mentioned in his goodbye letter that he was always willing to give something a try and see what stuck, and we will certainly be willing to hear all of your ideas as well! I’m available to reach on most social media platforms under biggentleben, or you can email me at biggentleben@hotmail.com. I look forward to this opportunity to continue the work of IBWAA into the future!

– Ben