The Postmen bid you farewell

August 25th, 2008 | Posted by The Postmen

Today, dear reader, we have some bad news. But we also have some good news.

First: the bad. Today, Monday, August 25, 2008, will be the last official day The Postmen as you know it will operate. We started as two clueless college juniors at this thing nearly two and a half years ago, (seriously: we had no clue how to create a Web site; we thought they just magically appeared) and we learned a lot. We grew up. And crazy people actually offered us money to do what we were already loving to do for free.

As we’ve grown up, so too has the medium. Blogs are now undeniably important sports publishing medium. We had nothing to do with that. No matter what Buzz Bissinger may tell you, there are talented and amazing writers that pen them daily, and in our fair opinion offer more value to us than most newspaper columnists ever could. Blogs are a huge part of our fandom now. They’re complementary to everything we love about sports. More people are realizing that, and it’s a good thing.

We are lucky. Lucky because we feel we got in on this before the medium really exploded and you had to fight super hard for an audience. Lucky because we see great and talented friends from journalism school struggling to find good employment in an age where newspapers face an uncertain future. (Though Web startups are hardly known for their stability.)

And lastly: we are lucky because a few of you actually found your way here. Though we might not have been the most read sports blog, and nowhere near the best, we do appreciate you reading and giving a damn, even if you, in your daily stream of link surfing, immediately forgot about it. Milleseconds are still seconds, you know?

OK, so the good news: we are still going to be doing this kind of blogging (Chicago-centric with bits of national stuff). We’re just going to be doing it over at MOUTHPIECE Blog now. R got hired on at MOUTHPIECESPORTS — this capitalization is crucial, apparently  — a sports content startup, a short time ago to head the blogging operations and he’s enlisted E at his side. They’ll be blogging with incredible assistance from the considerable talents of FanHouse’s Will Brinson and Jon Bois of Dugout fame. Call it a rebrith.

We’ll still be other places too: E is still going to hit up the Dagger and FanHouse; R is still at ESPN the Mag. And Inside the Hall is still rocking and rolling as well. Also, we both have Tumblrs. We blog way too much.

We are still young dudes. We do not know where we will be in ten years or where this medium will take us eventually. But we do know this: writing as PostmanE and PostmanR here will always be in the fabric of our identities. This site has been an important part of our lives. Though it has lagged of late, it has been our baby. We are sad to see it go.

However different things may be from when we started, we will always be Postmen.