Loving AN...a celebration of everything that is right with this site

You’re passionate, knowledgeable and damn clever. My in-game companions at home are beer, the dogs, and AN game-threaders.

I appreciate the front-pagers for all they do. But the game threads make not being there so much more fun, I miss it when I’m actually at the games.

All my sympathies on your tragedy, OP. Here’s to a better New Year for all of us.

You’re seriously one of my favorite people on this site and one of the reasons I keep coming back. I hope you have a happy new year.

Oh and for teaching me about Whoa Ba

Speaking of which, email me your address as we’d like to add you to the old Christmas card list ;-)

And I am only guessing at what is happening in your real life, but still – I really, really wish all is well with you, or at least as well as well can be.

Hugs.

After a rough start(to say the least), I have come to think of many here as friends. Good friends. I am thankful to have been taught a lot about things I never knew existed. I’ve also seen how so many, from such diverse backgrounds, can join together to rave about OUR favorite team, the Oakland(soon to be San Jose) A’s. This is the true blessing this site gives. No relationship is easy, but they are worth working out the problems. Thanks to all my friends here, and stay safe at the end of this year. Thanks to all who made and continue to make AN possible. Happy New Year ANers!

Lots to love on this site. Very well put.

((((Hugs)))))

PS: send me your address — apparently the one I had was not complete, since the card I sent got returned…. ;)

ElCro, you rock. Gigs and BBG, nothing but LOVE for the two of you. Blez, you have been an awesome blessing to me all year. AN….I love you!

is the wonderful friends I have made, some of whom I even live with in the same house. And of course, people like OP here, who make the hardships of caring about a franchise that sometimes doesn’t appear to care about itself all the more palatable with their great parties and even better friendship.

and since they both posted here I’m pretty sure that means this is the coolest fanpost ever.

I love AN even when I don’t and the only reason that’s true is the great people on this site.

Thank you to all the folks who keep the machine running.

And thanks Blez and all the mods, writers, regular posters, etc… that make AN so informative and, well, entertaining.

Before I discovered AN I thought I knew alot about the A’s and baseball… Now I know that I don’t know crap about the A’s and baseball. But I am learning. Thanks AN for making me less stupid.

The drama will happen. But at the end of the day we all still love the A’s. That’s what AN is all about.

and thank you mods and authors. We will need all the optimism we can get in 2012.

because without it, I would probably only know about Daric Barton’s butt instead of pretending I only know about Daric Barton’s butt.

Without AN I may have never realized how much I like to talk about baseball and the A’s. Without AN I may have never realized I want to do that exact thing for the rest of my life. Let’s all remember why we are here in the first place…

What a thing it has become — one of the hearts of sports blogging and recently relegating AOL’s Engadget to a second-tier tech blog with The Verge.

Because i figured it would be a site with friendly people who love the team I do and who I can talk baseball with and get away from a country where it’s “all soccer, all the time” and where hardly anyone knows anything about baseball. This is a fantastic site, and a great community, and it’s what I’ve always needed. Thanks to the mods and to everyone else who made this site what it is. Thanks to Blez for creating a site where the giants are only mentioned in an outrageously derogatory way. Getting frustrated with the A’s happens a lot these days, but we still love ‘em and it’s still baseball.

I like them. Also, tailgates with goodies wrapped in bacon.

My list of the folks I have come to care about here at AN and at the tailgates and road trips and the ballgames is long indeed. I have new and dear friends and can be Mom/Auntie to several of you and your kids. It is a joy to watch them grow up. Makes me smile just thinking about it.
I don’t post much anymore, but I look forward to reading A’s news here. Hoping the end of the year drama is resolved, soon.
Here’s to a healthy, happy and safe 2012 to us all…and remember, you never know what you will see at the ballpark! I look forward to seeing many of you there, often, next season.
GO A’s!

I try to schedule a post for tomorrow but screw up the date and get this message:

Your Story couldn’t be published.
You can’t schedule a post to be published in the past. (Time travel is not supported in this version of the platform.)

Awesome. Thx Blez, Nico all my fellow FPers, all the people who comment, those of you who agree with me, those of you who disagree with me, those of you that make me change my mind and those of you that cement my belief. This is an awesome community and a great home for a NRAF. I live in SoCal now, so I WILL make my way up to Oakland for an AN tailgate and I look forward to meeting you all in person up there or down here in Anaheim!

GO A’S!

I’m so glad I found my way here to what has remained, through all the ups and downs of the team and its fanbase, still the most interesting and intelligent place to talk about the A’s.

I love OP and Elcroata’s insight. I love Nico’s humor and BBG’s – hmmm . . . I want to say BBG’s smile, but of course I’ve never seen her smile. I just know she’s smiling when she posts, though. I learn SO much from PT, and so many others I could mention.

How valuable is this site? Well, as a longtime NRAF who wasn’t paying close attention to the stats, I thought Bobby Crosby was a good player until I started hanging out here from time to time. Disabusing me of that notion was truly a service to humanity.

What this site really means to me is that, at the end of a long hard day on the east coast, I can check in here knowing I’ll almost always get a laugh, learn something, and feel connected to my old home.

Thank you all for all you do!

Steven Tyler, Alice Cooper and Weird Al sing Come Together last night in Hawaii:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX63mUW0-B0

I’ve met some really great people here. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve had fun. I’ve made a fool of myself. I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience.

As Hawaii has no team to claim a true regional affiliation, I began as a (baseball) nerd who became interested in the A’s from the 2001 season. This was only because my older sister (= remote controller) was a huge Barry Zito fan. The A’s from then on was “the team I root for.”

It wasn’t until I discovered the original Athletics Nation (ironically from an ESPN.com post) about in 2004/5 in which I read all of the thoughtful writing of Blez and the collective users of AN where I truly became a “hardcore” fan. As someone who likes to soak up as much as I can about my interests, this site filled that void. As SB Nation came about, other sports interests were given a similar (but not quite the same) portal.

With the formation of “The Verge” (crazy all-star team of tech writers) and now upon hearing the forthcoming “Vox Gaming” (with it’s own all-star team of contributors), I find most of my time is spent reading direct or indirect spawns of Blez’s creation.

It’s amazing how much of an impact a Bleszinski (CliffyB ruined mornings as I played GOW3 late into the night) had on my digital lifestyle in 2011. Thanks Blez for helping change the internet culture for news/media and satisfying my information cravings!

If you are ever in Hawaii, or should we be able to cross paths on the mainland, I would gladly buy you a beer or 4.

Brett

for trying to keep the dream alive. I appreciate it.

and if they stay gone the site will suffer for it big time.