Cleaning Out The Locker for 2009

This was indeed a fantastic year for the game.

I already looked back at the games I attended - which turned out to be quite a year in the game. Overall, I was pleased with how everything held its own with the return of the New York Yankees to championship prominence to the amazing start of the season for Zach Greinke of the Kansas City Royals. It was also the year of Manny Ramirez's suspension due to a prescribed medication considered illegal by the Commissioner's Office and the growing groundswell to review the quality of umpiring as well as the oversight and governance of the game's officiating.

Well, I hope they can address the latter during the meetings over the off-season.

Is this the end for the Heirloom? There's the major awards coming up and who knows what the hot stove will serve up before March? I might go to TwinsFest, scheduled at the end of January at the Metrodome. It appears they will not sell single game tickets at this one as well - stinks, doesn't it?

I do want to share something that has come out of this second season as a MLBlogger: I was asked to become part of a book project. I can't divulge too much here at this time, but I always considered if a book would be in the offing on this subject. Well - my answer came.

In closing, I wanted to thank my fellow MLBloggers for raising the bar for me to try to accomplish a level of writing that is unique to the game. Mark (MLBlogosphere) has been encouraging and supportive these two years. Jane (Confessions of a She-Fan) is a fun writer that I support wholeheartedly! I just finished her book - and loved it! There's Julia (Julia's Rants), Red State/Blue State, Pittsburgh Peas, More Cowbell, Plunking Gomez, Tribe With Ted...you all provide excellent context to this game we all love whether we write on our favorite team or widen our scope to include even the lowest leagues in the game.

To the Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and St. Cloud River Bats, thank you for opening your doors to this fan and enjoy the game as intended. I look forward to waking through the gates of Target Field next year and adding a few more stops along the way.

To my friends who support the blog and my writing, a huge thank you. Whenever I doubt my abilities to write at the highest level or to justify writing about a subject not stereotypically acceptable in the culture I live in, you guys made it clear that I no longer need to apologize for my writing whatsoever! To Scott and Michael in Duluth, Chris in Chicago, Don in Toronto, Eric in Los Angeles, Fred and Jason in Madison, Bill in San Francisco and to pretty much everyone surrounding me in the Twin Cities, thank you very, very much!

Finally, to my brother Matthew. Thank you for your continued support of this blog and to show that our family still hasn't lost the love our mother gave us of the game. Between our paths was that little girl our grandfather gave a few coins to so she can see baseball down the street at Crosley Field in the late 1930's. That's the Heirloom at its genesis - she isn't done with us, yet!

Until next year!