Programming note: Watching baseball with people you like

I'm out at Viva El Birdos. Not right now—I'll be around through this month, probably—and not entirely, because I'll almost definitely still hang around the gamethreads. But the analysis (is that what I do? whatever I do) is going to be someone else's job.

I got fired. Not enough traffic or posts, and underneath that a fundamental disagreement about whether there's four posts worth of baseball news worth hearing every day, or even most days. No hard feelings; I don't make any sense on a site like that (and I couldn't afford to do it without a salary), and it's been a pleasure to have the keys for five years, which is an unnervingly long time. I'll enjoy reading whoever comes next, and I'm glad I'll still have the chance to talk about Harry Potter fanfiction and boat shoes with you (though I may have less of a free hand plugging my book.)

As for baseball, I hope you'll follow me @mademdashes and read my new Cardinals blog, which will also be called Mad Em-Dashes. (I should have something ugly but functional up by the end of the week.) In the meantime, I'll be filling in around here until they find Birdo No. III. (You can also find me @danup.)

Thanks to Larry Borowsky, who enjoyed my previous blog against his and SB Nation's better judgment and asked me to step in back in 2008. Thanks to azruavatar, Tom, the Red Baron, bgh, chuck b, and everybody else who wrote for all of us every week for $0. Thanks to SB Nation's developers for the infrastructure that fosters communities like this one.

But thanks, more than that, to you guys. Ad-supported sportsblogging is a commodity; everybody's replacement level, basically, and everybody's paid as such. What makes it bearable, after you get over yourself enough to realize that your opinion is not important—that Joe Morgan's opinion isn't important, either—is that it takes what's great about being a baseball fan and amplifies it. I love baseball for all kinds of reasons, but I love being a baseball fan because it's an excuse to sit under the lights, quiet and content, and enjoy the company of friends for a few hours. Thanks for sitting with me.

Regards
Dan Moore