Still can't get over this. It really is sad. Truly one of the all-time greats.

First Richie Sexson, now this. Haven't Mariners fans suffered enough?

Haven't Mariners fans suffered enough?

I'm just waiting for Felix to blow out his elbow. That'll be the capper. Ugh.

Jeff had seemed burned out for the past year or two, so this was pretty much inevitable. But yeah, it's kind of sad. LL was where he did all of his best writing, some of it genuinely profound. I hope he's able to find a real career; if I remember right, he was educated as a chemist, and either has a master's degree or has a few years' experience as a lab tech, so he may be able to get a job with a pharmaceutical company or something if he wants.

Jeff had seemed burned out for the past year or two, so this was pretty much inevitable.

Yeah, I've been reading and commenting at LL since 2006 or so and it was impossible not to notice. I wish him happiness and freedom -- and he actually discusses this specific issue if you RTFA.

Jeff had seemed burned out for the past year or two, so this was pretty much inevitable.

I agree. I used to read archives of Jeff's posts and the older ones were generally a lot better (no knock on Jeff, this happens with essentially every artist, musician, director, etc.), so it was only a matter of time.

He's still writing for FanGraphs, right? That probably pays better than SBNation anyway.

I wish him happiness and freedom -- and he actually discusses this specific issue if you RTFA.

I RTFA'd before commenting. He said he was going to keep his day job (I assume he means FanGraphs), and he referred to applying to a job at a brewery, but he wasn't clear about whether that was going anywhere. What I meant was his post-blogging career, because I highly doubt he'll want to stick around at FG for more than a couple of years.

FTA:

I'm not going to abandon Mariners writing entirely. I don't think I'm capable of that -- the Mariners are still my favorite team. I'm just going to do less of it, and beginning at some point in the future, I'm going to be doing it at USS Mariner instead. By cutting back, I think it might start to feel like a hobby again, and it was USSM that inspired me to start blogging in the first place. I'm sure I had the option of cutting back and staying here, but I didn't want to take a reduced role on my own site. I'll write about the Mariners at USS Mariner, and I just won't write as much. I won't write recaps unless I actually feel inspired. And I'll focus more on my day job, and on other pursuits.

And his work will continue to appear at Fangraphs.

Sullivan's great.

I can definitely see where Jeff is coming from. What he says about the intermingling of hobby and job, while having some terrific positives, does have a downside as well, as it can really change how you look at and feel about your hobby. I'm lucky to have a schedule that is flexible and the ability to write about a vast assortment of baseball-related things - doing stuff like recaps for a specific team's games, day-in, day-out, can really end up being a marathon of a grind. As tough as it is for him to walk away, not having to worry about LL may very well, in the long run, make his other baseball writing more enjoyable for him and easier to write.

I started reading Jeff Sullivan because I thought he was funny (with that weird article on baseball players as represented by volcanoes), and I keep reading him because his analysis is great. Super smart and talented guy. His stuff on Fangraphs steals the site.

doing stuff like recaps for a specific team's games, day-in, day-out, can really end up being a marathon of a grind.

The one time I tried that, I lasted three weeks, and I was only doing a game a week or so. From what folks are saying here, I should try and read some SUllivan. I'm sure I read a thing or two of his in the past, but I don't recall.

From what folks are saying here, I should try and read some SUllivan. I'm sure I read a thing or two of his in the past, but I don't recall.

There's a reason I used "Hall of Fame" as one of my tags. I'm not kidding when I say that Jeff Sullivan is/was my single favorite baseball writer on the planet. Thoughtful, observant, quirky, extremely witty, and a great stylist. The most impressive thing is that, even though he had a certain perceptible "schtick" (i.e. a set of tropes and or writing tics that consistently popped up in his work), they never got old. I think the key was that, while he normally operated on a level of ironic/sarcastic distance, he was also perfectly capable of shifting into moving sincerity at the blink of an eye.

The DFW of baseball bloggers, and that's literally the highest conceivable compliment I could ever pay to anyone in this field.

love the last paragraph

Dallas-Fort Worth is the highest possible compliment in the field of sportswriting?

Sayonara, Jeff. Brought me back to the Mariners after many years in the wilderness.

Gonna be literal...
DFW = David foster Wallace, though I imagine hw meant from the excerpt or tfa, I could be mistaken.
If you haven't read DFW, do so - then come back to Sullivan.

HW is almost certainly referring to Jeff's final paragraph in TFA, about King Felix's at-bat against Johan Santana back in 2008.

I'd be curious to see some of Sullivan's DFWish writing. I've been reading him on Fangraphs this offseason - I think he's terrific, very clever, but I wouldn't have thought to compare him to someone like DFW.

Jeff Sullivan is a gentleman and a scholar, but he smells like burning hair.

(I'm sad I won't get to read him on the Mariners every day, but he'll still write for USS Mariner occasionally, so I wouldn't say "retired." Doing a post on the same team 700 times a year or so is an unexpected grind, and I'm surprised he lasted this long. He's one of my favorite writers and people.)

Yeah, Derek planned to occasionally post on USS Mariner after "retiring" as well. Other than a short stint when Dave was ill, I don't think he's done it more than once or twice.

Sometimes, you move on. Maybe it's novel-writing time?

Vox Media's losing a great writer/blogger/whatever he calls himself. It's their loss.

How much does Fangraphs or SB Nation pay anyway? I don't see any ads on Fangraphs so doubt they have much money to throw around. No clue about SB Nation.

You must be using AdBlock, because FanGraphs certainly does have ads, although they're not very intrusive. I don't think anybody except the people involved has a good idea of how much the writers are paid, but I would guess it's not a lot more than the equivalent of minimum wage (perhaps $20k/year for a full-time writer).

When Jeff said he was quitting his LL job, SBN would have been incredibly stupid if they didn't offer him a large raise. He's got to be worth way more than his salary.