Interview w/ Jared Carrabis of SoxSpace

With baseball season creeping up just around the corner, I'll be doing some interviews over the next couple of weeks with some sports insiders as the beginning of the season come closer. Today, we do an interview with Jared Carrabis, founder and editor in chief of SoxSpace. If you're not familiar with SoxSpace, it's the most indepth source of information about the World Champion Boston Red Sox on the planet, with Jared's immense likability and humor injected into every single article that portrays stories better than they do on the afternoon sports talk radio shows. Jared took some time out of his increasingly busy schedule as SoxSpace returned after a brief hiatus to talk about the site's beginnings, his thoughts about the Red Sox going into this year, and a few music related questions thrown in for good measure. Here is the transcript from our chat:

Give us your name and your role at Soxspace?

My name is Jared Carrabis, and I am the founder and Editor-in-Chief at SoxSpace. I’m in charge of all of the content that goes on the site, and I manage the staff of writers.

When was your earliest recollection of becoming interested in baseball?

I’ve loved baseball for as long as I can remember. It was the only sport I played my whole life. I played from tee-ball, all the way until I was in my early 20’s. It was all I cared about when I was little and obviously that hasn’t changed much.

How old were you when you attended your first Sox game and what kind of impression did that leave on you?

It was July of 1997 against the Florida Marlins. They went on to win the World Series that year, so not a bad first opponent to see, either. I was eight years old, and I just remember being in awe of how huge the Green Monster was in real life. I had seen it on TV a million times, but you don’t really realize how big it is until you see it in person. And when you’re a little kid, everything seems ten times bigger than it actually is. I became addicted to the atmosphere and I’ve been going back for my fix ever since.

What inspired you to start Soxspace and how did it evolve over time?

It all happened by chance. I had a MySpace decked out in Red Sox pictures, and I got a message from a guy who had a MySpace page with a couple thousand “friends” and they were all Red Sox fans. He said he didn’t have the time to do anything with it and that he thought I would do a better job with it. I changed the name of the page to SoxSpace, applied my makeshift HTML skills to decorate it a little bit and started writing original blogs, and it took off. We went from around 2,000 friends when I took it over to over 100,000 in two years.

When MySpace started going downhill, I didn’t want the ride to be over, so I made a deal with Sully’s Brand that if they designed me a website that I would give them free advertising. That’s how the first site came to be. Then a few years later, I got picked up by the New England Baseball Journal, but I hated that. I can be Jared and write for print or another online media outlet with no issues, but I didn’t like being SoxSpace and having to answer to someone. If I don’t have complete creative control over SoxSpace then it’s not SoxSpace. After a year of hosting SoxSpace with Sports Reel Boston in 2013, I decided to launch SoxSpace independently again, and I launched SoxSpaceBoston.com in February.

Describe the experience attending the Sox World Series clinching game and the roller coaster surrounding the team from the year prior?

It was one of the most emotional nights of my life. I honestly felt like I was living in a movie that night. It’s one of those things that you always hope and dream that you’ll get to be a part of, but you never actually think it will happen. I obviously put my experience that night into greater detail on SoxSpace later that night, but it was just a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget and always appreciate.

Talk about the relaunch of Soxspace and why you took a break from it for awhile?

The relaunch of SoxSpace has been a dream come true for me. A lot of fan blogs that started out on MySpace went down with the ship, so to still be doing this in 2014 is an accomplishment in its own right. But I am extremely proud of what we’ve come up with for a new website this time around. And this is also the first time that SoxSpace will be operating with a full staff of writers. I must admit, it is a little weird for me right now to see someone other than me be saying, “Check out my post on SoxSpace,” but it is a welcomed change.

I walked away from the whole writing thing for a little bit because I had to reprioritize things. When I started SoxSpace at the age of 16, I kind of put all of my eggs into one basket. I was going to write for a living, and there was no Plan B. But around the time that I turned 24, I realized that it wasn’t a lifestyle that I wanted to live. A lot of these big-name writers are on the road and away from their families for significant periods of time and living in and out of hotels, living off of airport food, and that’s just not the life I wanted to live. I was also extremely bitter because of the way that I was treated by several people within the industry and thought it would be best to step away for a little while and finish college.

What kinds of music (artists & genres) do you listen to on a regular basis?

I was actually just talking about this today, how ridiculously random my taste in music is. I am a huge, huge, huge Pink Floyd and Beatles fan. I’ve seen Roger Waters twice, and I’ve seen both Australian Pink Floyd and Brit Floyd in concert. I love John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, Metallica, Oasis, and Yellowcard. As far as the local music scene goes, I love Mojo Kick, and the Red Star Super Giant EP has been in my car’s CD player for months.

If you were up at bat in a Sox game, what would your walk up song be?

This is a great question, and the answer changes all the time. As of right this second, I would have to say that my walk-up song would be “Special Op” by Jim Johnston. I’m a huge WWE fan, and that’s the entrance team for a faction by the name of The Shield. Gets me amped up.

Where can everyone check out your articles and contact you via social media?

All of my articles can be found at SoxSpaceBoston.com, and I’m on Twitter @Jared_Carrabis and on Facebook at Facebook.com/SoxSpace

Lastly, how big of a role has music and/or sports had in your development as a person today?  

I’d be nothing without both of those things. Depending on what you like, music is just one of those things that make you feel so alive. There is absolutely nothing like going to see your favorite band play your favorite album live. Now, for me, there is nothing like seeing your favorite artist play your favorite song in your favorite place in the world, and that’s what I got to experience when I saw Paul McCartney at Fenway Park. So I guess there’s your cross between the two. As far as sports goes, that was how you made friends. Your friends were your teammates. Beyond that, sports have given me something to be passionate about. I think everyone needs something to be passionate about, and sports and music are it for me.

Thanks once again to my friend Jared Carrabis for taking some time out of his busy schedule to do this interview. I've had the opportunity and pleasure of meeting him in person at a couple of Red Star Super Giant shows, and he is probably the most driven, dedicated, and passionate individual I've ever met. His relentless pursuit of maintaining his writing career and transforming it into something that goes way beyond the confines of anything he's ever imagined has inspired me and countless others. Definitely take the time to check out Jared's site and his social media links as they were mentioned above.