Bat Cats Central turns one!

On Tuesday morning, I woke up to a notification in my Substack app: Bat Cats Central had climbed to No. 13 in the “rising” category in the “Bestsellers in Sports” section.

I thought maybe this was a case of a new algorithm being wonky, but being listed in the top 15 of a list with people like Marc Stein is incredibly cool and a little bit surreal if I’m being honest.

But it’s only possible because of the people who have supported this newsletter over the past year.

As Bat Cats Central1 turns one this week, it seems like a good time for reflection and an update to subscribers on the state of the business. I use the word business intentionally because last month I paid $40 to the state of Kentucky to make Bat Cats Central an LLC. I even have an accountant who I talk to outside of tax season.

In 15 years of writing about sports, this past year has been the most fun and fulfilling. I brought this newsletter back because I believed there was a gap in UK baseball coverage and that I was the right person to fill it. I’m proud of what’s been built and am excited to see where it goes next.

But most of all, I’m grateful to the subscribers who took a chance when it was just an idea. There was no proof of concept to base your decision on in the beginning, but many of you jumped on board anyway. I will always be appreciative of that. Some of you reached out to share that you enjoyed the stories. Some said they were just happy that something like this exists. Whatever it might’ve been, the messages were encouraging and affirmed that building a Kentucky baseball community is worth doing.

With that said, I spent the last few weeks doing a self-evaluation of what Bat Cats Central is now and what I want it to be in the future.

Highlights from year one

• I believe Bat Cats Central established itself as a legitimate publication capable of being a leading source for Kentucky baseball fans. Head coach Nick Mingione’s new contract extension, 2024 postseason hero Nolan McCarthy’s intention to enter the transfer portal and the incoming transfer decisions of Luke Lawrence, Shaun Montoya and Raphael Pelletier were just some of the stories that originated at Bat Cats Central.
• Recruiting coverage as a whole was strong. I believe this is an area that can still improve, but there was a concerted effort to make recruiting a focal point. The high school recruiting and roster tracker pages are free because I want it to be easy for everyone to learn about who’s coming and going from the program. But paywalled stories about Kentucky’s transfer targets and different high school recruiting notebooks consistently performed well.
• Some general feature stories offered different perspectives and provided a deeper look at some topics. Examples include how Kentucky built its first College World Series roster, former coach and current Auburn AD John Cohen discussed his emotions watching Kentucky reach Omaha for the first time and a retrospective of Mingione’s first press conference as Kentucky’s coach.

What can be better in year two?

• Since this is not my full-time job, I knew that game coverage could be a challenge. Games sometimes begin before I’m even off the clock early in the season, and covering all three games of a weekend series is a little tougher to do when it’s not your primary job. But I just didn’t do a good enough job this season. There were good features on this team that could’ve been written that I didn’t get to. I knew I wouldn’t be able to cover it like a beat reporter, but this is an area that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about for next year.
• Even though Bat Cats Central is a year in, I still feel like it’s in its infancy. I’m still learning what works, what doesn’t, what can be tinkered with, etc. I want to keep coming up with story ideas and maybe even series that are unique to Bat Cats Central. Although I’m happy with the past year, it’s far from a finished product and I anticipate that the newsletter will keep improving over time.

What changes are coming?

• Along the lines of the previous section, I want Bat Cats Central to have a better presence on the beat. I have existing limitations, but I wrote last year that I wanted this newsletter to provide all-encompassing coverage of the program. It can’t be that without more in-depth team coverage throughout the spring. I will be at more games next year, but I’m also planning to hire seasonal help. Nothing is finalized, but I’m expecting to utilize the University of Kentucky’s internship program for a beat writer. I like the mentorship angle as a small way to give back to the journalism program I graduated from, but this will bring expanded coverage for subscribers, thus bringing more value to your subscription. I truly believe it will be an excellent opportunity for a young writer looking to get reps covering a beat.

• This is bolded because it’s important. Current subscribers are not affected by the next bullet point. Any current paying subscriber (either $5 a month or $40 for an annual subscription) is grandfathered in with that price and will keep that rate. I’m happy it’s this way by default through Substack because I didn’t want to change the price for the people who are currently supporting Bat Cats Central.

• Hiring seasonal help and expanding the coverage the way that I want (like covering postseason events myself or finding a freelancer) costs money. Because of that, I’m changing the rate for new subscribers to $6 a month and $60 annually, effective July 1. I will send reminders of this leading up to July 1, but I encourage anyone who has been on the fence about joining to sign up before then and take advantage of the current rate.

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• I’m a consumer myself, so I get annoyed when I receive emails from streaming services saying they’re raising prices. But I set the prices where I did last year because there were a lot of unknowns. I didn’t know how many people would subscribe, how much Substack and Stripe’s fees would eat into a subscription or how much tax I’d have to pay. I had an idea of it, but now that I’ve seen it in practice for a year, I’m much more equipped to make decisions. Making this move will allow me to allocate money throughout the business to establish a freelance and staff budget moving forward.

Again, I want to thank all of the people who have supported Bat Cats Central to this point. I believe the best is yet to come.

— Derek Terry