Columnist comes clean, says his goodbyes

Writing this column for a handful of years has taught me quite a bit about myself and all of you local fans out there. From your sheer Yankees' hatred, to your iffy-ness about the St. Louis Rams, to the odd disliking of UT-Knoxville athletics, I must say I've seen or heard it all. At the top of my list however, is the passionate love you all share for the St. Louis Cardinals.

I've learned what to and not to say in column material over the past few years, for sake of my life and my sanity. I'm still here, so I must have stepped off of your toes just in the nick of time huh?

For what it's worth, I must come clean of one thing before I continue blabbing in my final column at the Standard Democrat. To fill you all in, I'll be changing occupations and joining staff at Fellowship Baptist here in town, so the crazy Florida hat will be no more, and the ever-changing profile pictures week-in and week-out, they'll be gone as well.

As for clearing the air between us, I must admit, I'm not really a closet Cardinal fan, I'm a true-blue (well, red) St. Louis fan. The Yankees get-up has been a lot of fun, and even though I like the Yankees (and their 27 championships) my heart really does belong to good old St. Louis. You see, I have family members that just can't understand my 'Yankees' love' as they call it, and therefore it pushed me to continue the display all the way up to this point.

I still own New York apparel and hats, as a matter of fact I'm wearing a Bronx Bombers shirt right now -- don't get me wrong, I still like them -- but if the two teams had met in the World Series, I would've pulled for the Cardinals. I own St. Louis apparel too, Pujols' jersey, World Series jersey, hats, etc. Don't you suddenly feel better about me? Glad we cleared that up.

As for the rest of my time here at the sports department, I can say it's been pretty solid fun, despite some long nights fighting to stay awake to describe some often times not-so-good competition. From our fondness of some hilarious YouTube singers to theme songs for each co-worker that walks in the door to my glass-shattering golf swing, it's been fun. In case you missed out on the golf swinging column, well, let's just say that a stock-length driver, short ceilings and fluorescent bulbs don't exactly go hand-in-hand. I cleaned up for a long time that night.

We've shared 'kick-offs launched,' all kinds of crazy adjectives that we really don't know what they mean (at least we sound smart sometimes), and our oh-so-famous Wall O' Quotes. The 'kick-offs launched' started with part-timer Andrew Powell and we attempted to sneak it in here or there in the last few seasons -- needless to say, it didn't work. As for the adjectives, well, that was Matt, aka 'Matthew' Bain's big puppy. He made us feel rather tiny in our grammar at times with his 'big words' as I called them.

The Wall O' Quotes you may wonder, well, let's just say that if you're a head coach and come up with something witty in an interview, you're more than likely on the Wall O' Quotes. Also on this wall are crazy predictions that each of us have made at some point in time, usually later in the evening than not. On a side note, I totally called the Yankees' and Lakers' championships on this wall last season, I'm just saying. Hold the applause.

Needless to say, I'll miss the sports desk and the memories made there, but the time is right to move on in my case. The fellas alongside me have been quite entertaining to say the least, and I'm sure we'll continue friendships that will at times take us to the golf course, where we're all pretty much awful. Maybe my skill level will increase before the next time we all join up.

As for the teams I've covered, it's been fun, for the most part, and yes, at times very ugly. I've laughed, you've probably cried. I've seen some of the area's best and will continue hitting up the local sports scene even though I won't get in free or get paid to watch it anymore. So, to all of the local teams, good luck the rest of the season as well as the spring season, and look for me and my Cardinals' hat. It's been fun, see you around.