losttaya.blogg.se

Yes, I am retiring from baseball blogging, as well. Mark Donohue (Bad Altitude, Western Homes), Big Western Flavor.Ken Arneson (Catfish Stew), Ken Arneson's blog.Scott Long (The Juice Blog), Scott Long's Blog.Bob Timmermann (The Griddle), LA Observed.Phil Bencomo (Cub Town), The Baseball Chronicle.Ember Nickel (Humbug), Lipogram Scorecard.Josh Wilker (Cardboard Gods), Cardboard Gods.Cliff Corcoran (Bronx Banter), Pinstriped Bible.Alex Belth (Bronx Banter), Bronx Banter.Jon Weisman (Dodger Thoughts, Screen Jam), Dodger Thoughts.Will Carroll (The Juice Blog), Sports Illustrated.Here's a list of where the Toastmasters are scattering to: The only thing I can think to say that would differ from a typical sports retirement speech is, "Bite me, Russian spammers." We've been through deaths and births and triumphs and disappointments together-you've been like a family to me. The cliches that baseball players spew when they retire are all true and appropriate here. The Toaster will then be left here, frozen in time, a snapshot of an era that has passed, until it one day finally rusts away. A few days after that, we will close up comments.

But after tomorrow, we will cease publishing new blog entries. We'll leave the casing intact-the archives for the blogs that are not being redirected elsewhere will remain online here indefinitely. Today, with the largest part of our engine leaving to join the Los Angeles Times, we are officially sending the Toaster to the scrap heap.

If you've been paying attention lately, you've noticed that Baseball Toaster has had a bunch of its knobs and switches and dials and wires fall off in recent months. I'm going down, and I'm taking Moby Dick with me. Today, my adventure as a baseball blogger ends. Load the harpoons, gentlemen, it is showdown time. Would Herman Melville have succeeded if he had tried to write his masterpiece without ever once mentioning Ahab's peg leg, the scar that drives his obsession? If you face the Truth, it hurts you but if you look away, it punishes you. If I have failed as a blogger, it is because I lacked the willpower to bring myself to tell this story, to confront the core pain of my mission. My goal in starting the Catfish Stew blog was not, like so many other baseball blogs, to second-guess The Management, but to express what it feels like to be an Oakland A's fan. I have never been able to tame it or capture it. It has been my nemesis since the genesis of this blog. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.