As of last Friday I am no longer site manager at Let's Go Tribe. Jason Lukehart is the new site manager, and I will remain on board as a front page author.
There are several reasons why I decided to hand over the reins to someone else, but foremost among them are upcoming changes to my professional life. To this point I have managed to satisfy both work and site requirements, but I can no longer guarantee that. It would not be fair to the readers or to the other front page contributors during those times when I'd be out several days at a time.
Furthermore, this move allows me to still write about the Indians. Jason has graciously allowed me to stay on and continue to write here, which takes me back to the beginning of my blogging career. When I started blogging about the Indians in 2003, the only thing I had to do was to type something, press post, and hope 10 people would read it. What was at the time just a hobby for baseball fans has turned into a legitimate industry, and although writing is still a big part of what you do as a site manager, there's a lot of other things behind the scenes that you have to do. Well, now I'm returning to my roots. Now I'm just a writer again.
One of the best decisions I've made in my eight years here has been bringing Jason on board. He's only been here a year, but in that short time he's gained the trust of the LGT community, and I have absolutely no qualms about handing the keys over to him. And I think you'll agree. Jason will talk tomorrow about what his plans are for the site, so I'm not going to steal his thunder, but suffice to say you'll be excited about what's next for Let's Go Tribe.
I don't want this to feel like a goodbye post, because I'm not going away, but I'd like to publicly thank many people while I have the chance, for without them I wouldn't be here. Many thanks to Tyler Bleszinksi, who gave me the opportunity to write for the best blog network on the Internet, to Jay Levin, who was here practically from the beginning and who was responsible for much of the growth of this site, and to Adam Van Arsdale (APV) and Andrew Humphries (afh4), whose quality writing elevated the site beyond just a normal baseball blog. Thanks also go out to the current front page staff (Jason, talonk, westbrook, woodsmeister) for helping make 2013 such a successful season, to Evan Dawson for his fantastic interviews, to Joel D for making Soylent Green a weekly must-read, and to YoDaddyWags for his countless bon mots. Thanks to Eric Simon and Justin Bopp for their faith in me during some difficult times. And last, but certainly not least, thanks go out to you, the readers, for making this site the best Cleveland Indians community on the Internet.