The End.

Since I started this blog over two and a half years ago, I’ve really enjoyed some of the things it brought me. First and foremost of those was the opportunity to interact with other Twins fans and bloggers. And, unfortunately, that’s what I’ll miss most about this blog: the platform it gave me to engage the conversation in more than 140 characters and in more depth than I could in the comments section of other blogs. This is, in all likelihood, the last post on Call to the ‘Pen (and yes, I’m insisting on using the apostrophe all the way to the bitter end).

When I published the first post on Call to the ‘Pen, a diatribe about why I dislike Manny Ramirez, I had just finished my first year of law school. I was working as a research assistant for a professor who mostly wanted me to update her website. I had been married for just over 11 months and had lived in the DC area for the same amount of time. I couldn’t believe Al Franken was seriously running for Senate. But most importantly, I though I had something somewhat important to say about the Twins.

Some things don’t change, though. I’m still married, but now I know that my wife has the patience of a saint to put up with a law student and then an unemployed lawyer. I’m out here in DC for at least a while longer. I’m still a huge Twins fan. I still can’t believe Al Franken is a Senator. But in a good way.

Most of that has changed now. I graduated from Georgetown Law in May 2010, and passed the Virginia bar exam just about two months later. I’ve struggled through the job market; I’m on my third job since then, and even it will end in September.  I’m currently employed as a law clerk, and I work an average of 12 hours a day. I don’t update any websites anymore. I have a dog, which prompted a couple posts. I don’t have any more free time; I haven’t watched a full Twins game yet this season. I didn’t make it up to Baltimore when the Twins were there. But, most importantly for the purposes of this site, I don’t feel like I have anything important to add to the Twins discussion.

There are a few things that led to the decision to shut down the blog. I’ll lay them out below in pleasing bullet-point format:

• I haven’t posted since last August 9, and at no point during that time did I feel like I wanted to post.
• I feel like somehow the Twins blogosphere has gotten more petty, more jerky. I don’t know if I’ve had anything to do with that, but I’ve definitely had it affect me.
• I have a wife and a dog that I like a whole lot, and I see little enough of them without feeling like I need to watch a baseball game so I can either write or tweet about it later.
• No time – I haven’t set a lineup on either of my fantasy teams in two weeks; I haven’t done much of anything for fun in nearly as long.
• The Twins, as a team, have done a whole lot of things to piss me off in the last six months, not the least of which was the recent release of Pat Neshek. While I haven’t stopped liking the Twins and the recent month of poor play isn’t a driving factor in my decision (Hell, I’ve been working so many hours I don’t have the slightest idea what their record is or who’s pitching on a given day), I don’t feel much desire to invest in a team that seems to be motivated to get rid of every player I enjoy watching (starting with Craig Breslow a year ago). Petty, but true.

So, that’s that. I will miss the times this blog has brought me, as well as the great people it put me in contact with. I’ll miss messing with the interwebs, like I did regarding the great Joe Mauer’s Beard escapade a season ago, and I’ll almost miss the constant hate mail I got from people whenever I (constructively) criticized Joe Nathan or Joesus himself. But all good things must come to an end.

I’ll still be around, and, who knows, maybe I’ll kidnap someone and take over their blog for a day guest post somewhere else if I feel I have something to say, but this is the end for this blog.

I’ll still be on Twitter and Facebook, but don’t be shocked if my Twitter handle changes at some point in the future because I won’t have the connection with this blog anymore. If anyone I’ve interacted with over the years of this blog’s existence is ever in the DC area, consider this a standing invitation to get together for dinner or a drink.

So, thanks, everyone. Thanks for accepting me into your community, and pretending my half-baked ideas had some merit, even though I flat-out refused to engage in real statistical analysis. Thanks for the comments, the criticism, and 30,000 visitors, most from people I have never met. Thanks, basically, for being awesome.

Peace out… and Win Twins.