My First Baseball Season on Twitter - A Thank You

I joined the wonderful world of Twitter a year ago, but in March of this year, I signed back on to try to find some interesting people to follow and have cantankerous discussions with. Needless to say, I got more than I bargained for. After having waded my way through Spring Training with the Yankees and Twitter folk, I found myself having conversations with two women more and more. If you follow me on Twitter, you know who I am talking about, it's no secret. I'll call them S & M for the purpose of mild anonymity (and anyone who knows them will get a kick out of the nickname). S & M have become surprising good friends of mine (yes, in real life) and I constantly am surprised by their wit, humor and good-natured debaucherous personalities. Through these two, I have attached myself to many of their followers and have developed a nice little "TwitterFam" and could not be happier with the new friends I surround myself with and converse with on a daily basis.

Other things I have realized this season is the availability of media personalities on Twitter. I have had a chance to comment, converse and banter with some of the beat writers that I would normally only read about and wonder what they are like. This also goes for on-air personalities and behind the scene minions (no disrespect guys!). The access that Twitter has allowed me to have to these people has really changed the way that I watch the game and my beloved Yankees.

On the other hand though, I have to admit that I was a hypocrite when it comes to the belief that everyone should have the ability to speak your mind and post your opinion. I believe that whatever you have to say should be said, because no one has the right to tell you what to do. But then I went ahead and unfollowed people who did nothing but claim gloom and doom were in store for the entire season. For that, I apologize, because I see now that I judged where I shouldn't have.

While the regular season was fun, especially having Twitter to entertain me while I was on boring business trips and getting advice from S & M when it came to personal decisions, the playoffs were another story. This is where I saw the true heart of the Yankees fans I've been chatting with all year really emerge. "Tweetups" during the season were lots and lots of fun, because nothing cements a friendship like singing in bars, taking trips to Atlantic City, meeting up at games and visiting my favorite Yankees Stadium usher every time I went to a game. But the "Tweetup" we had during the post season was fantastic. Some new friends and some old friends were there and fun was had by all. But again, the outpouring of love for "our" team was rampant and totally uplifting.

And yes, as we all know, the Yankees did not win it all this year. It was a bitter disappointment, but not anything shocking or completely unimaginable. I now find myself suffering through my normal "off-season depression". But believe it or not, Twitter makes it a hell of a lot easier. So this is my "Thank You" to all my followers and those I follow, because this was one hell of a season. Even if the Yankees didn't take the Championship.

But hey, there's always next year...