A Hopefully Graceful Exit

As I mentioned earlier today at Restrictor Plate This in the comments area of the open thread for today’s NASCAR race at Atlanta, I’ve given thirty days notice at SportsBlogs Nation that I’ll be leaving next month.  Indulge me as I explain why.

First off, my leaving SBN is in no way due to any dissatisfaction with the organization or the people involved.  I have nothing but praise and appreciation for Tyler, Trei, Jim, and Markos along with everyone else at SBN.  They have been unfailingly supportive and appreciative from the first time I heard from Tyler back in late March of last year when he graciously extended an offer to join the network.  Not once has there been so much as a whisper of complaint, criticism, or censorship in any fashion.  Not once.

SBN is assembling the absolute finest group of sports bloggers on the planet.  To a one they are the best of the best.  I was and am honored to be considered worthy to be one of them, and I will always be proud of my association with SBN.  I am especially proud to have had some part in bringing John Butchko, who writes the Jets blog at SBN, on board so his superb quality writing can enjoy the wider audience it deserves.

So why am I leaving?

In recent months it has become increasingly apparent to me that the need to communicate about Christ has become paramount in my blogging.  In the NASCAR blog I had from August of 2003 until I joined SBN in April of last year I often wandered off on tangents which although occasionally entering the realms of politics or pop culture mostly focused on spiritual matters.  The need to return to such a manner of writing has been weighing heavily on me, with the weight growing ever greater as time has gone by.

SBN is an inappropriate venue for such writing.  Again I stress that not once has anyone involved with SBN raised a single word of disapproval to anything I have written there.  However, it would be disrespectful to SBN to start writing in the manner I once wrote and in which I feel led to resume writing.  That is the sole reason why I am leaving.

I can say with confidence that SBN will become a major force in not only sports blogging, but sports writing period.  It is a network with both a clear vision as to where it wants to go and an intelligent, properly executed business plan designed to get it there.  I wish it and all its bloggers nothing but the best, for this is what they deserve.  I will be cheering them on every step of the way, and I will always be proud to be an alumnus of the best sports blogging network there is.  Also, I have no doubt whatsoever that those who will be taking over for me at my NASCAR blog Restrictor Plate This and my San Jose Sharks blog Fear The Fin will embody the quality for which SBN is deservedly known.

As to me, my plan is to dust off The Diecast Dude’s (Mostly) NASCAR Blah Blah Blog in time for the start of the 2009 NASCAR season.  A tremendous amount of work needs to be done porting over five plus years worth of entries, and I can only hope to be done in time for next year’s Daytona 500.  I still have much work to do here in bringing over all the posts from the old location, so if you find me huddled in a corner somewhere mumbling something about font formatting and re-setting the publish date I hope you’ll understand!

I will always be grateful to SBN for the opportunity it provided, and I will always cherish my time with it.  But I must move on by moving back, as it were.  In the meanwhile I will be here on a regular basis, so please stop by once in a while and say hi.  When the brand new old digs are ready I’ll let you know.  Hopefully I’ll see you there.

And maybe — just maybe — there’ll be a polar bear there waiting to say hello.