. . . and the part you have played in my annual decision to resubscribe, Salon in my opinion needs to cover sports. Are you listening, Salon management? You can't have a department called "Life" and omit sports.

I suppose your colleagues have crunched the numbers and Camille Paglia gets more hits than you. If so, these are dark times.

Good luck and have fun. I was just going to snark that we wouldn't be subjected to your inane posturings regarding bicycle racing but I won't hold my breath. I do have a piece of advice that Salon and Joan are greatly in need of. To wit: journalism is not a sporting event, a gladiatorial contest that needs to have foes pitted against one another with classic rivalries and etc. In other words, Salon does not need David Horowitz, Paglia and Rush apologists to make news and analysis "exciting" and "interesting" and so forth. I say that as a charter premium subscriber who is probably quitting because of that crap.

I know you don't want a lovefest King, but I for one will miss you. You were routinely the best thing on Salon.

The direction Salon is going in (Camille Paglia, the idiotic Ask a Wingnut column) is IMHO going to guarantee you lose your jobs. Maybe it's unavoidable anyway with so much free content out there, but as I've stated before, I'm not paying for Camille and with the end of your column, I'm even less inclined to pay anything for Salon.

Just one more datapoint for your new role. I thoroughly enjoyed your no-nonsense approach to sports and it will be missed. Keep that in mind too.

Thank you, for the work that you've done here. I've never commented on anything that you've written because I don't know much about sports, but I'm writing now because I have been a grateful consumer of your writing. I hope I find your work in its next incarnation.

I'm with both of you.

King's column is what brought me to Salon in the first place. Even though King showed an open disdain for one of my favorite sports, college football, I still looked forward to King's unique perspective of the rest of the sports world.

I don't know if I'll spend as much time on Salon if nobody here is at least occasionally writing about sports.

King, I will never forget a "strategy meeting" that I had with you in a crowded, seedy Mission-district coffeehouse in [I think it was] 1997... Mind you, we were simply brainstorming about a "project" that actually had nothing to do with sports or journalism...

I was so impressed by your intelligence, resourcefulness, and downright evangelical fervor... It was clear that no matter what came your way, you would turn it into a win. It's been great to be an armchair observer to your trajectory over these past [oh lord] ten-plus years, and I have no doubt that whatever comes next will see you similarly victorious. Best of luck, and yes... we will all be looking to see what the future holds for you.

Onward!

J.

just so you know .. that old video where you asked people about their fantasy baseball team and then immediately walked away, because it's sooooo boring to here anyone talk about their fantasy sports team ... well, it still makes me laugh

I swear just yesterday I was thinking, "Where has King Kaufman been?" I just suddenly realized that I missed reading your column daily. I preferred the old-old incarnation of one column per day (give or take). But I always enjoyed it.

Thanks for the entertainment. Good luck.

I dropped into Salon now and again during the Alan Barra era. But it wasn't until you started your sports daily that I became an everyday reader. For me, you galvanized the connection between life, politics and sports just by being there and being yourself. As I've said in the past, it was only Jim Murray who ever captured my imagination in the same way.

I'm not kidding when I say that you are the only sports columnist I've ever read with any regularity. Thank you for your consistently excellent work, and good luck translating your talent into some Thinky stuff. I hope for all of our sakes that you come up with something.

and it appears we have struck out with the bases loaded. You were the reason I started reading Salon so many years ago and as a result of the demotion of your column to part time, my enjoyment from this magazine has dwindled. I am sick of left vs right, conservatives vs liberals and all the self righteousness which embodies it. Once a week reading about the 49ers vs Giants or the Blue Jays vs Twins was the perfect antidote.

You are a better writer than you think you are. I wish you much success.

I'm another of many who will definitely miss your writing, even more so now that it's really gone (how's that for a Yogism?) I've lost track of how many times I've chimed in a conversation with "As the Salon sports guy said..." I'll miss your trenchant facts and analysis that made me seem smart. Also, as others have said, even though your writing is irreplaceable, I hope for Salon's sake there is more sports writing here, outside the ESPN monolith. All the best, King.

Anyone not board with then Glenn Greenwald crazy train gets thrown to the sharks. Six months tops this place becomes Teflon coated runway off the lunatic fringe.

Wait, so there's some vague things I think I missed. Are you leaving Salon as an employee (not just columnist but also editor)? Or you're moving to independent status? Or what's this mean exactly?

Of course I'll miss the sports writing, but if your byline's going to show up again, I really don't feel sad.

Thanks, King, for the great column - truly one of my all-time faves on Salon, and certainly right up there in all of sports opinion. You'll be missed.

Best wishes to ya on wherever the road takes you.