1,000!!!

Yay! This is the 1,000th post! Yay!

Hey, that’s actually a big deal.  How about this instead…

Or if you’d prefer something more celebratory…

Maybe something more colorful.

Or explosive.

Is retro cool more your thing?

For those of you who would like a celebrity endorsement.

And of course some eye catching graphical goodness

There we go.  Now it’s truly special.  Or it’s taking an annoyingly long time to load.  Either way, it doesn’t seem possible that I’ve done 1,000 of these.  In less than two years even.  Wow!  But then again, there is a lot to write about.  Now I’m not gonna drift off in the “Back when I started this” mode.  And I haven’t amassed enough material for a book yet.  So let’s just go to some fun and obligatory stats.

• Total number of visits: 61,109
• Highest number of visits in a day: 686 on March 19, 2009
• Number of unique visitors: 29,379
• Total number of pageviews: 184, 612
• Highest number of pageviews in a day: 2,504 on March 19, 2009
• Visits from Missouri: 45,440
• Top 10 cities in Missouri
  1. Springfield
  2. Branson
  3. Joplin
  4. Jefferson City
  5. St. Louis
  6. Columbia
  7. Bolivar
  8. Nixa
  9. Ozark
  10. Kansas City
• Top 5 states other than Missouri.
  1. California
  2. New York
  3. Texas
  4. Arkansas
  5. Kansas
• Countries reached: 83
• Visits from U.S.: 59,914
• Top 5 countries other than the U.S.
  1. Germany
  2. Canada
  3. United Kingdom
  4. France
  5. Spain
• Top 10 athlete searches
  1. Garrett Gladden
  2. Caleb Schaffitzel
  3. Tate Unruh
  4. Dietrick Sooter
  5. Ethan Mather
  6. Trey Laveroni
  7. Kaitlin Jaeger
  8. Kayla Davidson
  9. Jed Owen
  10. Beau Bounous
• Top 10 referring sites
  1. MoSports
  2. OzarkSportsZone
  3. The Scoreboard Guy
  4. Springfield Soccer
  5. Barry County Sports
  6. SCA Sports
  7. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  8. Bearmania
  9. Seventh Third Time
  10. Maxpreps

Here’s what blows my mind.  It took me about 11 and 1/2 months to reach my 500th post.  It’s taken me just under 11 months to do the second 500.  Here are some of the stats from my 500th post with the same stat from now in parentheses.

• Total hits – 11,596  (61,109)
• Unique visitors – 6,714  (29,379)
• Total pageviews – 31,249  (184,612)
• Visits from Missouri – 8,341  (45,440)
• Countries reached – 48  (83)
• Visits from U.S. – 11,426  (59,914)

Somethin’ done blowed up.  Those numbers are through the roof.  But I can tell you, the roof must be getting raised because they all continue to increase even more each month.  I take this to mean that you all enjoy what I do, and that makes me happy.  That so many people have read what I write makes me humble.  And that a good number of you return & return makes me thankful.  I wouldn’t have even began to dream of this little website reaching so far or giving me so many experiences in such a short time.  But since it has, I’m going to keep on doing it as long as it’s fun.  The only thing I see doing different is that I am going to have to make a little bit of money here.  My wife is starting to frown on the amount I’m spending.  But she’s a wonderful woman so as long as I can break even, I’ll be around a long time.

Thanks for everything.  And you all know exactly what I mean.  Coaches, players, parents, friends.  You all have made this something I love.  Hopefully I’ll see you all at post 2,500 sometime in February of 2011.