R.I.P. Rob Neyer

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?

I'll get this out of the way up front: Rob Neyer isn't actually dead or anything.  But until earlier this week, he wrote for espn.com, where he'd been since 1996, and now that's over, and I'll probably never really read him again.  He's at SB Nation now, which, I mean, there are a couple of SB Nation sites I go to pretty well on the reg, but there's no point going there for baseball even with Neyer now, is there?  I am open to correction on this point.  But consider what little SB Nation has to offer a man in my position: Bluebird Banter, which is actually even less awesome than the name would imply.  The great thing about Neyer at espn.com was that there you were, just getting box scores or skimming headlines or whatever and you'd be like "oh yeah what's Neyer saying?"  And there you were.   


But in all honesty I've only really been reading Neyer out of habit for the last . . . really the last couple of years, I guess. He's never been much of a prose stylist -- his not-so-shit-hot first post at SB Nation only serves to underscore that fact -- and really his posts had become, for me anyway, useful only as a reminder to go to FanGraphs.  But he was actually a pretty important figure in the dissemination of the statistical newfangledness that we all so admire. Especially in those early years at espn.com, he did some fantastic work as the lone dissenting voice against the inane Joe Morganesque received wisdom that was then not just ascendant but ubiquitous, and which was then, and remains today, kind of dumb.  Even ten years ago, nobody else on any of the big sites was going to let you know about the new Bill James book, for example, or introduce you to the strange notion of DIPS, or so tenderly, thoroughly, and consistently fellate Billy Beane.  But Neyer did all of those things, which was cool of him.


Also, when he's on the radio, doesn't he seem nice?  


In the couple of days since Neyer's surprise announcement that he was leaving espn.com (which came right at the end of a post about Bo Jackson, which is the way I hope to leave this world, in all honesty), they've filled his "Sweet Spot" blog space with two absolute pieces of the worst kind of garbage you're ever going to read.  Just awful, awful stuff.  There's really nothing worth reading over there for free anymore except for Keith Law chat transcripts.  End of an era.  


KS