Man, time goes way too fast.  Was it really eight months ago that I attended my first AN function?  And let me tell you, I have no idea why I was so apprehensive.  What's the worst that could have happened?  It's not like I was meeting up with perfect strangers in a lonely warehouse in downtown Oakland.  Oh, wait.

And now here it is my last game thread of the season.  Sigh.

But I have surely enjoyed the ride.  It didn't take me long to get over my fear of hanging out with random internet people.  One month after fANfest, I was on a plane with a group of AN'ers, headed to Arizona for Spring Training, where we took pictures with Ken Korach and fought over Nico's banana.  Somehow we found some time to watch baseball.

Near the end of March, a bunch of us got together for a little soul-cleansing community service before heading to the ball yard for beers and dogs and more beers.  It was there I fell in love with Brett Anderson, not so much for his pitching prowess, but for his spring uniform digits (67, duh).

(Wait, this is starting to sound like an essay on "How I spent my summer vacation."  Oh.)

After that, it seemed I couldn't go anywhere without bumping into bloggers.  AN (Opening) Night (where I was introduced to mikev's Big Ass Grill ^TM) was followed by a Saturday ball game with She Who Shall Not Be Named (gotta protect the innocent), and on the way to say hi to LongTimeFan, we stopped to chat with the DogParents.

It was on a cool May evening that I attended a contest between the A's and Mariners with OaklandSi, lynnzgal, pam5981, gigglingone, and wes7 (if I am forgetting anyone, shoot me), who all helped shake the 67M jinx (at the time I was 0-6) with a come-from-behind 4-3 win.

As the season turned sour, the threads took a different kind of turn, while OAH turned heads (bloggy-style).  Meanwhile the DLD lacked for links, and ultimately the first "D" was no longer for "daily" (more like "discontinued"). 

Who can forget when Rated-R and Lexi were all the rage?  Or more to the point, when Rated-R wasn't so, well, R-Rated?

The team would teaA'se, and the Gilmore Girls would rally the troops.  And when we won, fireworks!!  As the season wore on it became easier to keep score of Leopold Bloom's comment count (love ya, babe) than it was to follow the actual game.

So why do we call them "Game" Threads, again?

I caught up with a few AN'ers in Cooperstown (including Mr. Staturday, aka, devo) and in August, attended my first AN Day!  Lynnzgal wowed us with her shrimp and Gigglingone whipped up a batch of personalized cupcakes.  There was also a pretty awesome cake, a very large sign, and I got a picture with my fellow front-page pals: baseballgirl, Flashfire, Nico, and some cool guy named Tyler.

Hey, did you know you can comment on Athletics Nation from your phone or PDA? SB Nation has launched mobile commenting. Check it out next time you're at the game or bar and have something to say.  It's true; my niece did it from DFA's phone. 

Last month I saw a Thursday night game with the aforementioned nameless lady (killer seats), and we won!  The next night I went again- same result.  So what the hell, I decided to take my nephews on Saturday, and the G&G made it three in a row! 

67M Curse, my ass.

Somewhere along the way, me and Stomper hooked up.

Pause.

And I would have re-posted all the pics from this magical, if not successful, season, but one photo-filled post per day is all I am allowed.  It's in the contract, trust me.

So before we get to the, um, game, I just have to say (oh no, he's getting sappy) that while life surely got in the way at times, it was nice to be able to escape with a very unique group of people.  If only for three hours.

And I thank you for it.

Last road game of the season.  Make it a good one.

Ladies and gentlemen, your lineups: