Welcome to the New Athletics Nation!

Good morning, everyone, and Happy Tuesday! I'm pretending like this is a WHOLE NEW SEASON! Hey, did you hear about the new season? It's simply made up of 9 games; 6 against Texas and 3 against Seattle, and we're spotted a two-game lead against the Angels to start things off. Isn't that cool?! How much fun will this week BE!? And did you hear? We even got a new AN, JUST FOR THIS SEASON!

I'm baseballgirl, your tour guide, and I will be showing off Athletics Nation today. As you can see, while you were sleeping, we have had a pretty cool facelift. Hang with us as we navigate our new system, but the one thing I can promise you is Game Threads for the last 9 days of the exciting 2012 A's baseball season!

Before we begin, go read the official introduction from SB Nation. It will explain lots and lots.

Basically, AN now functions as somewhat of a magazine layout, which is much cooler than a simple blog, where only one story at a time can be shown; instead, we now have a vehicle through which multiple stories can be highlighted at once. The front page will change to best reflect that day's content and to highlight breaking news, when needed.

Game threads will now be streamlined into StoryStreams, which will make it easy to find and comment as the game progresses. Don't worry, hang in there with us, and we'll all grow to love the new site. Honestly, I like the look and the idea of this a lot more. It really opens up AN to multiple stories at the same times; it really keeps us from "one day, one writer" blocks, and I think you will like it too. Plus, I can share stories from other SB Nation sites with the push of a button, so AN truly is your one-stop-shop for all things A's related, even as we vomit green and gold in disgust of last season. Hey, new 9 game season; we're ready for you!

Thanks for bearing with us, and enjoy the new look!

The game thread will be somewhere at 4:30. Have a great day!