This is no time to bury the lead so here goes. It's true. I'm leaving. This is my final column for AL.com.
Please hold your applause till the end.
I'm not dead or dying, although Joe Goodman's humbling column and Laura Goldman's heartstrings video may have given that impression, and I do like to wear black, even when I'm not going to a funeral between the hedges in 2008.
I'm not moving, either, as much as I value my roots in Pottsville, Pa., home of the shoulda been 1925 NFL champion Pottsville Maroons.