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Now that the season has finally ended, leaving us in the best of all possible worlds—the one where the Red Sox have won the World Series—we will have plenty of opportunities to look back at what an amazing experience this 2013 season has been. There are already lots of plans for stories and analysis underway, and of course we'll bring you myriad highlights, retrospective analyses, and reminiscences. However, before we get too far into our plans, I wanted to take a moment to give thanks.
First, of course, thanks to SBNation for making this incredible network, without which Over the Monster might not even be around.
After that, thanks, and congratulations, to Ben and Marc, our stalwart site managers, who have put in countless hours over the course of the season, offering up their own contributions—which probably amount to a Moby Dick or more, just on this one season!—while still finding time to corral a writing staff that at times bears more than a passing resemblance to a passel of ADHD-afflicted kittens wired on grade-A catnip.
And thanks to those felicitous feline fellows, who have helped make the coverage so outstanding, in GIFs and in audio, in prose and in verse.
But most of all, thanks must go to you, our audience. Just like the 2013 Red Sox season was the team giving back to the Fenway faithful, working on this blog has been as much about our site members as our love of the Sox.
Thank you for your insightfulness and knowledge of baseball and the Sox, which has been apparent from my very first comment on this board way back in 2009, and has continued unabated until now.
Thank you for your wicked senses of humor—and I mean that both in the Boston sense and in the "wow, that's really twisted" variety. The willingness to run a joke into the ground, and still have it be blisteringly hilarious long after it should have had viewing hours and donations to charity, is a rare talent indeed. Combine that with the aforementioned knowledge base, and you have a singular experience not found anywhere else I've been in the sports part of the interwebs.
Thank you for your dedication in sticking with the Sox throughout the grind of a long season. Thank you for being here through rain delays and through time zone differentials that should make us question our sanity.
Thank you for being willing to stick it through to the final out, for gutting it through when all hope seemed lost, but still not wanting to give up on our Sox.
So thank you for being here through each heartrending loss and for every walkoff win.
Thank you for being unflinching and uncompromising in the fights against the Evil Empire and the scourge of Raycism.
Thank you for staring into the eyes of the abyss and the darkest timeline, and not running away screaming into the night. (ACEVES also sends his thanks).
Thanks for engaging in spirited argument and debate on just about every topic, from the consequential to the absolutely trivial, from who should start in left field to who has the best beard, from the playoff rotation to which walk off win was best.
Thank you for being here for the debuts of all our new baby Sox, who will lead a new generation into the annual fray of 162 battles (and then hopefully another dozen or so victories after that!)
Thank you for welcoming the new members of our community, however much hazing may be involved, and greeting our revenants with the same gusto.
Thank you for putting up with your friendly OTM writing staff, our neuroses and hang-ups, our delusions of grandeur, and our occasional schisms and heresies (with acts of penitence soon to come).
Thank you for joining us all on this wild and magical ride, as we laughed and joked and bounced our way with a band of castoffs and misfits all the way from spring training through to the World Series. And thanks in advance for sticking around for all the fun we hope to have in the years to come.
And, finally, thank you for proving that you don't need to go to St. Louis to find the best fans in baseball; instead, all you have to do is visit Over the Monster.