And Now, One Last Post Before I Go ...

Some of you may know this already, some may not, and even more probably don’t care: I’m leaving Sporting News, and thus The Sporting Blog to become Senior Editor at SB Nation. Today is my last day as your humble TSB editor/resident weak link. ↵↵Tomorrow, the keys to this well-oiled machine will be handed over to Chris Littmann, the current editor of FirstCuts. (He will continue to run FirstCuts, along with becoming the head honcho of SN’s new NBA blog, The Baseline. Pity him, for his plate overfloweth.) He and I have shared many successes and failures together here at SN, but most of all, we’ve shared the same cubicle wall. From the other side of that four-foot-tall divider I have developed a complete confidence in Littmann’s ability to continue to grow TSB into one of the premiere sports blogs on the web -- mostly because he’s smarter and more knowledgeable than me. ↵

↵↵Now, if I may, I’d just like to say how extremely proud I am of what we were able to create with TSB over the past year and a half, and what an honor it’s been to work with the surrounding cast. TSB launched back in November of ’07 and likely would’ve plummeted into a marsh of failure shortly after takeoff without the talented people who kept it soaring. Specifically, the brilliant and inspiring writers who constantly produced superior content, with extra gratitude for Spencer Hall and Bethlehem Shoals, who had the great misfortune of working with me on a daily basis (I should also mention ↵Tom Ziller, Dan Shanoff, Dave “Large” Larzelere and Eric McErlain by name); the committed SN editors who strived to promote the blog, expand the brand, and fix my mistakes; and supportive executives who saw the value in what we were building, with a special nod to Shawn Schrager, for hiring and trusting this unemployed blogger.↵

↵↵Most importantly, I wanted to thank the people who actually took the time to read this blog, or link to it from their site, or pass it along to a friend, or offer us some kind words of encouragement along the way (or tell us how much we suck -- we need to hear that sometimes, too). Your support was, and continues to be, greatly appreciated. Reluctantly, I now leave TSB behind and join your ranks as a fan from afar. But not too far. SN can take back the laptop; I’ll be keeping the stalking skills.↵

↵↵Godspeed, friends. And if you care to keep tabs on me, twitter.com/chrismottram is the place to do so. Don’t be a stranger now, ya hear? ↵

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