Happenings Down South: Forever Grateful

This is a weird thing for me to write. I’m not good at this type of sentiment.

Over the last several days I really went back and forth about whether to write this column or not. I finally decided last night that I’d do it.

After I hit the “publish” button at the end of this piece, aside from the few pieces in the pipeline for our VEB projections series, this may be the last normal column I write for the site.

The cause is nothing malicious, it’s actually because of an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

Starting with the Battle of the Birds exhibition taking place in Memphis on March 25th, I will be the new Public Address Announcer for all Memphis Redbirds home games for the 2019 season (and beyond, hopefully). Also part of the gig is the same job but with the brand-new soccer club, Memphis 901 FC, which also plays its home games in AutoZone Park and starts March 9th.

My new bosses have not made it clear as of yet what I can or cannot do in regards to my writing now that I’m an employee of a team within the Cardinals organization. I should know within the next few days whether I can continue to write about the team in this venue.

But in case they tell me that I’m done immediately, I wanted to thank you.

Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my sometimes inaccurate, misspelled, or otherwise wrong opinions on the Cardinals, Redbirds, and baseball in general. Thanks as well to all of the amazingly talented writers here and throughout the other SB Nation MLB sites. I couldn’t be happier with the relationships I’ve cultivated during my time at VEB. All I ever wanted to do as little kid in Illinois was to be a baseball writer or work for a professional baseball team.

As a kid I spent my summer afternoons watching and listening to Harry Caray and Hawk Harrelson broadcasting games on WGN TV. When I’d leave the house, the small Walkman in my pocket would be turned to whatever game I could get on the radio, which was either the Cubs or White Sox usually. The nights in my backyard catching pop ups off the roof I’d have on the big console stereo in my garage that could pick up Bob Uecker in Milwaukee and on good nights I could hear Mike Shannon on KMOX.

Baseball was my life then, and it will continue to be.

Again, I thank you for all the encouragement and criticism and just plain welcoming me into the family here on the site. I’ll forever be grateful for the opportunity I’ve had here.

Perhaps this column will be pointless, and I’ll be back here like normal next week. In case I’m not, it’s been a hell of a ride.

Thank you.