Area man leaves sports website

Hello. Stu here, letting you know that this is my last post for Twinkie Town. Rumors that I’m retiring now that Joe Mauer has called it a career are inaccurate, but I am taking a much-needed break from trying to wring laffs out of Chris Parmelee’s name and Drew Butera’s fictional arson career.

I need to thank some people:

• Jon Marthaler. The Voice of Minnesota Soccer asked me if I’d like to write for this site ten years ago, because they needed someone who was home on Friday nights, and he knew I had young kids and couldn’t afford to do anything else but watch the Twins on cable. If Jon doesn’t do this, a lot of other cool things that happened to me down the line likely don’t. Thank you, Marth.
• Jesse Lund. My first editor here and the site’s founder. He told me not to swear in the headlines and otherwise let me write whatever I wanted. Now, some might say that letting me write a month’s worth of content from the perspective of Carl Pavano’s mustache is a poor editorial decision, but that’s neither here nor there. Thank you, Jesse. Pip pip cheerio or whatever they say on that godforsaken island.
• Maija Varda. Jesse’s successor and fellow editor emeritus was equally supportive and made sure I didn’t faceplant writing about a serious subject like, say, when the team’s best power hitter was credibly accused of sexual harassment. Thank you, Maija. I hope Joe Mauer gets in the Hall of Fame, too.
• Aaron Gleeman and John Bonnes. I couldn’t ask for two more supportive friends in local baseball media. They’d amplify things I wrote here to a local and national audience, such that my friend Josh would text, “Hey, Joe Posnanski just linked to your Nick Punto Oral History,” and I’d know that one of them had signal-boosted my dumb jokes.
• My family. They had to watch a lot of bad Twins baseball on Friday nights, people. Kevin Correia starts. Jason Tyner batting 5th. Telly Hughes in the stands talking about free peanuts. My god. They’ve heard the phrase “downward plane” 10000 times, I bet.
• You. Thank you for reading this.

Go Twins.