Allow me to go slightly off topic this afternoon.

I guess it’s both off topic and precisely on topic. It’s more about business than baseball, but it’s strictly about BaltimoreBaseball.

Today is the one-year anniversary of our launch at BaltimoreBaseball.com.

It was last March 31, a day before the Orioles’ exhibition game in Philadelphia, when Steve Cockey and I decided to make our idea a reality and submit our introductory blog.

It was a leap of faith, and we had no idea whether the people who read me for all those years at The Baltimore Sun would care what I had to say now that I wasn’t with the city’s newspaper of record. Let’s just say this little project of ours has surpassed all expectations in one year.

We were pleased that we had 150,000 page views in April, our first month. We tripled that in May. By July, we had hit one million in a month and by September, in the midst of a pennant race, more than two million.

In our first full year, we’ve approached nearly 14 million page views. We have gone from a partnership of two to a staff that includes four more writers, a broadcaster/podcaster, a photographer and an advertising executive.

We’ve quickly expanded our coverage from Orioles and their minor league affiliates to also include local high schools and colleges. We’re trying to become your one-stop shopping for all things baseball in the Baltimore area.

In one year, we’ve submitted nearly 700 posts. And, so far, we’ve kept it all free. The initial thought was to solicit subscriptions; in fact, I wrote about that intent in our first entry. Instead, we’re trying to make this work by landing advertising (of the Internet and local variety), so if you’re in the market to advertise your business with a growing site, well, we have a suggestion.

What we want most from you is to continue giving us a chance – whether it is reading our stories or commenting on our blogs or downloading our app or subscribing to our newsletter or listening to our podcasts or liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter or watching our videos or visiting our advertisers or advertising with us, if you have that capability. You get the point.

And, please, let other Orioles fans and baseball fans, in general, know that we exist. There are plenty of good Orioles/baseball sites around, but there’s definitely room for another. You showed us that throughout the past year.

Frankly, for us to expand on our first-year success and keep going, we need your continued support. In turn, we’ll try to keep giving you interesting and unique content.

On behalf of Steve and our other staff members, I want to thank you – our readers, listeners, viewers and advertisers – for making this first year happen.

Now, get ready for Year Two – and our second season covering the Orioles, and all things baseball in Baltimore.