This Great Game 2020: What’s New and Improved

Welcome to the upgraded This Great Game. It took us awhile, but we finally got to the place we’ve wanted to be for the last few years. The futile dream of completing this refresh internally gave way to outstanding outside help, which provided the new backend rules and consulted us toward realization of the new look. 

For mobile users who represent half of our audience, the critical tweak they’ll immediately notice is that our site is finally responsive. That means that it now “flexes” to an ideal presentation, whether you’re viewing the site on a desktop, tablet or mobile phone. No longer will mobile users see our pages as thumbnail visuals they have to maddeningly pinch in to read. This has been done with no sacrifice to our desktop or tablet users, who’ll find the updated wireframe largely familiar. 

For optimal viewing pleasure, here’s some advice for TGG’s non-desktop users: Those viewing the site by mobile phone should do so vertically, while the 5% of you using tablets should view the site horizontally. It’s a long explanation as to why—just trust us. 

Beyond the technical mumbo jumbo, there’s other elements to the upgraded TGG you’ll be interested to know: 

A new look, with a new logo/brand, more commanding typography and style contrast. 

A more engaging home page that will be updated every day with news and facts, encouraging readers to make TGG as fresh as their morning coffee.

A repurposing of the team history pages in the Teams section, with more focus on the oral portion of the page and less on the statistical, as we’ve removed the year-by-year results and numbers. There’s a good deal of other, more analytical sites where you can easily find that information—and besides, we found that more people were checking in to read the stories behind the numbers. 

Removal of the “tool tip” content in the Yearly Reader section which worked only for desktop users and caused confusion for everyone else; that content now appears as “FYI” pullouts for all to see. 

Time-dated content has been updated to be more current. 

As the upgraded TGG goes live, there’s still some reconstruction at work. The Leaders + Numbers pages, a subsection of the Yearly Reader section, is currently being reworked with more of an oral approach, purging the statistical tables in favor of more specific information, fun and factual, about the top hitters and pitchers for each season. (Look for these pages to go live circa Winter 2021.) And we’re regenerating the Comebacker archive, reducing the backlog to the start of 2015 when we switched to a monthly format. However, if we get enough ad hoc lobbyists to persuade us to revive the older posts, we’ll consider it. 

Of course, we’ll continue to add to the site, with new entries in our highly praised Ballparks section along with additions to the Lists and Opinions sections. And of course, we’ll stay up-to-date with the Yearly Reader, Comebacker and Teams sections. 

Finally, once we get the full upgrade behind us and we’re back in cruise control, look in the near future for a whole new section celebrating some of baseball’s best-known creative artists—may they be illustrators, photographers or graphic designers. Why? Because if you can’t find it elsewhere, we’ll do it. 

Enjoy the upgraded TGG, and let us know if you have any thoughts or questions.