Site news: Dan Connolly leaving BaltimoreBaseball.com; Rich Dubroff taking over as lead Orioles writer

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• Congrats Dan and Rich, though Dan, you'll most certainly be missed. I hope Rich will be able to keep up the "Jersey of the Day" feature, as well as I look forward to Dan's daily grades of the National Anthem renditions. If Dan is going where I think he may be going, hopefully my subscription to that entity is already active. My only question is if Rich will be honoring the many various drink chips I've accumulated?

  Cheers fellows!

  • Thanks 09. I don’t think Rich realized how many free drink chips are out there. Enough to board up the joint. However, in my new spot we will reopen the Tap Room and honor it all. And the fake leaky toilet will finally be fixed.

  • Yes, Creatively09, "Jersey of the Game" continues!

• So you're retiring then! Congrats and enjoy your leisure time whilst you enthrall us with more precise verbiage as the long summer comes to a fitting conclusion. I look forward to the improved product and Rich's continued excellent work here! Have fun during the All Star Break! Bahamas?

  So when does Paul Folk get a promotion? ;-)

  • I tried to retire. At times I look — and feel — retirement age. But my birth certificate doesn’t lie. And my wife and kids don’t like me that much. And my golf game sucks. So back to the grind very soon.

• Yeah Dan - Wow congrats and all the best. You, personally, are why I am here. I do enjoy Rich's tweets and occasional appearances on the radio so I won't abandon ship. I too will badly miss the National Anthem critiques. Do fill us in when you can! Good luck always!

  • Hold tight Boss. Will be News soon and hopefully you’ll want to join me in the new gig and stay loyal here.

    • If it is The Athletic, as I have long suspected, I already am a paid subscriber (and you are welcome). Make Ken Rosenthal hate the O's less, OK? His negativism sometimes taints his reporting I feel.

      And I will be along to critique Anthem performers?!?!

• Thanks, Dan. I'll miss you on this site, one of my daily obsessions. Do please announce where you're headed when you can so that I can bookmark another mandatory O's site. Thanks again.

  • Absolutely will. Hope a lot of people here join me — and also continue to come back here, too. The content will be varied enough for readers to do both.

• Hopefully it won't be at MASN State Run Media LOL.

  • Yeah, I don’t think they’d want me.

• Good luck. I really enjoyed the way you managed the format. You interacted with posters and reigned in a few along the way. Also, provided a lot of information about the minors and MD baseball. Take care.

  • Thank you Grand Stand. Hope you stick with both entities when the dust settles. Your opinions were always welcomed and reasoned even if we didn’t agree 100 percent of the time.

• This was a fun experience and I really appreciated the interaction with your readers. Enjoy a great transitions and I will try to follow you at The Atheletic.

  • Thank you. No comment. Sounds good.

• Congratulations Dan, I hope we will still be able to interact with you. I have read Rich on occasion and I am sure he will be just fine. Welcome Rich!

  • Thanks DB. Always appreciated your comments. And the interaction component is definitely something I want to continue.

• Will def follow to your new gig - I sincerely hope it's not MASN

  • Hope you do. And no worries there.

• Congratulations to both Dan and Rich. I just relatively recently discovered this site and it’s already become a part of my daily Orioles experience, so I’m sorry to see that your leaving Dan. Hopefully I’ll have access to your landing spot, of which I think I may have an idea, and if that’s so, it would most certainly be a great thing.

  I also agree with the earlier commenter about a promotion for Paul, yet with his current ‘divided commitment’ it’s nice to find him in two spots during my daily trek around the Orioles blogosphere.

  • I’m glad you found us and keep coming around daily and commenting. And check my new gig out when it becomes official.

• sad to see you go Dan that Rich is a sneaky son of a gun. He once told me the Orioles would call Rubber Arm Warren but guess what I never got a call. Goodluck in your future Dan

  • Thanks Wade. Not going far. Keep tabs on me. Always appreciate your passion.

  • hey Dan Serously we need to have a few Yuengling's sometime

  • If I ever slow down. Between work and the kids I can’t tell ya the last time I went out with a friend for beers.

• Dan: thanks for building such a great site. Will you still have the radio show?

  • Good question, Goose. Yes I will. Even keeping the name for now. You’ll be able I hear it on WOYK’s website if you aren’t in York. And working on the possibility of podcasts.

• Wishing you the best of success in your new endeavor, Dan. This site has been a godsend, due in large part to your writing talents as well as those of other contributors. You've managed to attract a legion of articulate, insightful and respectful fans, a rarity in any social medium. I will continue to patronize this site and look forward to reading your columns/essays/articles at the new job. I hope you'll continue hosting the Hot Stove Talk in York in January or February. Cheers!

  • Thanks so much. And absolutely still planning for the Hot Stove Talk.

• Interested to see what kind of prospect haul we get back from the Connolly deal. His athleticism has faded a bit but he's has been the face of the franchise for years, and any number of contending sites could use his veteran presence. Just look at the mentoring he has done for Folkemer and Jones. It's a shame, everyone really wanted to see him retire with BaltimoreBaseball.com but hey, the business side of baseball (websites) is never fun. We'll just have to content ourselves with memories of his biggest moments. I mean, who can forget the "JUST SIGN JON JAY FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!!" campaign of 2018. That was a big league performer getting it done with his back against the wall. I look forward to attending the ceremony when his byline is retired and placed out in left field.

  • You crack me up, Richie. I hope you’ll continue to follow both places. There will be plenty of great and varied content to go around.

  • That's funny stuff. Couldn't agree more. I'm even willing to forgive (but not forget) Dan's prediction a few months before the start of the 2017 season that Ubaldo Jimenez was going to have a good year.

  • My legacy: Ubaldo and Jon Jay. Seriously, guys, really appreciate all the feedback. The Tap Room won’t be the same if the Stache doesn’t drop in.

• Will miss you Dan but have faith Rich and Paul will continue to feed us beleaguered wOes fans great content.
  All the best on your new endeavor.

  • Thanks, DP. And I agree with your assessment. Should still be a great site.

• Really happy to hear you aren't leaving the beat, Dan! Love the site and have always loved your writing. Good luck in the next endeavor!

  • Thanks PJ. You haven’t gotten rid of me yet — unless you all want to be, of course.

• Dan: Sorry to see you leave the site but I know you are leaving it in good hands. I have always enjoyed your writing dating back to your days at the Sunpapers. You "told it like it was" and continued that here. Good luck with the new endeavor.

  • Thanks Spin. Much appreciated.

• Dan: Key is... as long as it's better for you and you are happy with the decision. All the best in your new job...

  • I am. But it will be hard to beat this job. Two great choices for me.

• Congrats Dan and Rich! I echo many of the previous sentiments. Living in Texas isn’t easy for an Orioles fan but checking in with Dan and BB everyday made it immensely easier. Most people would be jumping to a front runner (pick a team - any team) but true to character it doesn’t sound like you’re abandoning ship entirely. Best of luck in your new endeavors.

  • Thanks Tex. Have always liked the give-and-take with you. My pleasure.

• Sorry to see you go Dan. You were a fixture. Thanks for the insight,humor,history,AND letting me pick your brain. Good luck,will be looking for you in your new venture.

  • Has been a pleasure O. Always great convos — agree or disagree. Hope we don’t lost that.

• Goodbye and keep the faith. I often did not agree with you or you with me but it was a lot of fun hearing your opinions.

  • 54: I loved my interactions with you. We certainly didn’t always agree. But that’s what makes this fun. I enjoyed your insight. Hope I’ll get more of it at some point.

• Dan! You can't leave, all the plants are going to die!

  Sorry, I watched "Stripes" the other day.

  Loved lurking here & finally getting on board to comment. Looking forward to seeing what you have to say next, wherever that may be. And if it *is* that paywall site everyone is mentioning, well you might just be enough to convince me to pony up.

  Now, how to explain the charge on the credit card to the wife...

  • Arrr: Great Stripes reference. Maybe you should be Big Toe when you follow me to that other land. I’ll write your wife a note excusing you for the credit card charge.

• Dan, thanks for everything with your site. with the team struggling, I am sure it has been difficult for you to come up with fresh ideas. Good luck.

  • Thank you. Always enjoyed your comments too.

• Dan, hello and good-bye. I just joined the tap room recently and have enjoyed it immensely. Good writing is so hard to find. I eagerly await your new landing spot. All best luck.

  • Thanks Big Bird: glad you found this site. Would love to have ya expand further, too.

• Good luck on your new opportunity, I'm sure it will work out well. Thanks for your insight these past few years, it's been fun to watch as the site has taken shape. Well done! On another note, getting to know you ... just a little, reminds me of what a good judge of character your co-creator is, but I've known that for about 32 years.

  • Really good man. We were both cynical and we both took a chance. Worked out great. He must’ve been raised well.

• Damn. Now you’re going to make me go to 2 different sites to get O’s news. See you on the other side, Dan. Thanks for your work here.

  • Thank you, Mau. We’ll try to make it worth your while to go to two.

• I ran across this news on Twitter and actually felt upset. But reading the comments here have reassured me that this is a win-win situation. Rich is a good writer, and a good dude. And it’s time to buy into that subscription site. More content and more viewpoints, along with access to national voices, is a good thing. Congratulations, Dan! I’m sure taking the severance offer from The Sun and launching this site was not the easiest road, and yet you’ve built a loyal following that will immediately result in a subscriber boost in your new gig. Well done, sir. By the way, just for the record, I’ve not once been awarded a drink chip.

  • Thanks EE. And it is mind-blowing you never got a drink chip. Would’ve thought you’d be one of the leaders. We’ll have to rectify that.

• Dude I never was able to garner a drink chip hit me with a gimme before you go!

  • Blows my mind you never got one either. Hold that thought. Will be more opportunities.

• Damn Dan! I've really enjoyed your columns and the way you take care to respond to each and every poster. Nobody in the business does that.

  Trade Rumors has you going with Manny to the Phils for Eflin, De Los Santos, and retired Camden Courier sportswriter, Dave Tucker. Is that right?

  Good luck, Rich! Dan's set the bar pretty high.

• Too both of you, I wish you success. To say I am surprised is putting it mildly since I sat next to one of you and in front of the other on Sunday without a word. I look forward to sitting in front/next to or in the same building with either or both you in just two weeks. JJO