The Time Has Come, the Walrus Said

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things."

"Of shoes and ships and sealing wax"

"Of cabbages and kings"

"And why the sea is boiling hot"

"And whether pigs have wings"

-- Lewis Carroll

I never know how to begin articles of a personal nature. With the exception of a few mentions of friends and roommates and perhaps rambling about baseball with my dad, I generally keep talk of a personal nature to a minimum in articles. The podcast is another beast altogether, and if you regularly listen to my rambling on there, well, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

So, I figured that something poetic and vaguely meaningful or wistful or something would have to do.

I toyed with how to write today's Rockpile for awhile. I first thought about writing 500 words on why Chris Iannetta is amazing and we didn't deserve him. I thought about cracking back out the statsheets and boring everybody with some sort of swing analysis on Jordan Pacheco. I thought about just posting a bunch of gifs and pretending I'd written something of value.

I thought about writing about my favorite moments in my recollection of Purple Row, such as when Jhoulys Chacin was called up from AA Tulsa and people were up all night debating on whether he was getting the callup or whether Colorado was about to somehow magically land Roy Halladay without having to part with Alan Johnson. That might have been one of the coolest moments in Purple Row. Or maybe it was the day the Rockies clinched the 2009 NL Wild Card against Manny Parra and the Brewers - which I was actually at, but I was also with Purple Row friends for the game. Maybe it was the time when Craig Calcaterra poked fun at the Rockies when I wrote one of those "we might be losing, but baseball is beautiful" style articles in June of 2010, or when Troy Renck or Dave Krieger, among other Denver Media names, mentioned Purple Row in their articles or broadcasts. It's hard to not take pride in moments like that.

When myself along with Bryan, Fisher, and Jeff all came on board in 2009, we were still students, or at least people with time, ambition, and that infuriating confidence that only somebody who's freshly learning something that has shaken their paradigms can truly embrace, espouse, and then attempt to proselytize to the masses. Since then, times have changed. We've gotten career-type jobs, families, obligations... lives, you know? As a result, it's been harder and harder to really devote the necessary time to really write with the passion and fervor that I started out with on Purple Row.

So, as a result, it's time to make a change.

I am hereby stepping down as the managing editor of Purple Row.

It's been a fun ride these past 4 years, the past 2 being the dude in charge of everything. I've learned so much more about baseball than I ever thought possible, and I've also learned a lot about... well, learning.

The Great Catcher Wars of 2009 were simultaneously awesome and awful. You all got to read articles written by people who had just recently begun to understand the world of statistical analysis, wOBA, FIP, BABIP, and of course, the least controversial encompassing metric ever, WAR. There was a lot of knowledge being shared, and a lot of traditional knowledge being completely eschewed. I probably owe a lot of people apologies over that whole fiasco still.

"Sorry."

-- Andrew Martin

The fact of the matter is that no matter how many good times we all had together, after awhile, it becomes a grind. Writing pieces has become more of an obligation than a joy, and when my heart' isn't fully behind what I'm writing, the piece comes out lacking, and frankly, that's a disservice to all of you. Simply put, I don't want to do it anymore, and it's time to move on to a point where baseball is something I can just enjoy without having to think about how I'm going to write about what I'm watching the next day. Hobbies are hobbies, but when a hobby becomes a job, it becomes work, and I don't like work. I like fun.

And no, 2012 wasn't the season that broke me, this has been in the works since before Spring Training for the above mentioned reasons.

Finally, I'd like to thank you all for the past 4 years. It's been fun, it's been frustrating, it's been awesome, it's been obnoxious. It's been thrilling, and it's been heartbreaking. It's been basically everything baseball fandom is supposed to be. It's been good to know that there are people out there as absurdly passionate about this team as I've been, and even those who make me look casual. Thank you all.

My only remaining hope is that the Rockies are so shaken up by me leaving Purple Row that they put a jersey in the clubhouse with my name on it or something and go out and win 95 next season.

So without further ado, allow me to introduce the poor sap who gets to take over my position as being the person in charge of Purple Row. Some of you knew him once as "Jabberwocky", back in the days when TheOldGrizzlyBear, PoseidonsFist, and RockiesMagicNumber roamed the earth.

Many of you will know him better, however, as Jeff Aberle.

Jeff has been on board Purple Row since 2009, faithfully writing Rockpiles, Gamethreads and Wraps, and most noteworthy, the encyclopedic article series known as Purple Row Academy.

I have complete confidence that Jeff is going to continue to grow this site and continue to bring Rockies fans the best Rockies analysis available on the internets.

In conclusion, thank you all again.

Thank you to the Denver Post writers as well as Thomas Harding from MLB.com, Tracy Ringolsby from ROOT Sports, Dave Krieger from 850 KOA, and many other media members who I've forgotten to mention, for providing us with excellent reporting on our team so that we have something to digest here on Purple Row.

Thank you to SB Nation for giving me the opportunity to write for this site, and to all of the other blog managers for being excellent resources and comrades-in-arms (specific shoutouts to Eric Simon and Blez for listening to me whine about things, Stacey Long and raygu for humoring my attempts at humor, and JBopp for covering all of them there breaking news items that we couldn't, and the rest of the NL West managers for having been on the podcast).

Thank you to Rox Girl for first offering me the writing gig with Counting Rocks, and Russ for being Russ.

Thank you to the rest of the Purple Row staff: Andrew Fisher, Bryan Kilpatrick, Jeff Aberle, RhodeIslandRoxFan, Greg Stanwood, holly96, Craig Baker, and of course, Rafael Rojas Cremonesi. You've all been an absolute pleasure to work with, and we've had a lot of fun. Or whatever we call 2011-2012 Rockies Baseball.

Again, to you, the reader, thank you most of all. Nothing we do here would have any point if you weren't here to read it.