A quick goodbye to the Devil Ball readers

Years ago, when I was a kid, I thought a bit different. Sure, I played baseball and soccer and basketball and golf, but while the other 8-year-olds were talking about being astronauts or playing first base for the Braves, I had a different dream.

I wanted to talk sports on television.

Still in the house I grew up in are tapes of old Keith Jackson broadcasts of National Championship games that I recorded so I could listen to the way he spoke and the way he described a game in a way that made it romantic. The best broadcasters in the world go away in a sense. They disappear, allowing you to see and hear everything in unison and take in whatever sport you’re using as a getaway from real life.

I’m telling you all this because this will be my last day with Yahoo Sports. My next stop is that chance, an opportunity to talk about this great game in your living rooms.

The Back9Network is allowing me that opportunity, putting me in front of millions of homes to talk about the game I love (and it’s on DIRECTV, so if you don’t have it, change that now), and I couldn't be more excited to have such an opportunity and get to do something I always wanted to do.

None of this would have ever happened without the people at Yahoo. This platform has allowed me to speak my mind, post stories, videos, and Tiger, Tiger, Tiger to all of you, the readers, throughout the year. I wanted to thank all of you, even the ones that send me the pointed e-mails or use the comment section as a new-age Hate Book, because this wouldn’t have been possible without any of you.

(I was going over some of the pieces I enjoyed writing the most over the years at Devil Ball, and while it's hard to pick just one, I enjoyed writing this piece about Michelle Wie before her great run this season when she got into contention at the Kraft Nabisco Championship a lot, and feel like it ended up working out the way it should have when she finally was able to win the U.S. Open later in the season.)

Now, as I move to something new, the one constant will be my love for golf, and I hope you all continue to enjoy the game, because it really is the greatest sport on the planet.

Golf has brought me so many things that I never thought were possible, and being able to work around this game is really a blessing. No other sport allows father, son, grandfather and uncle to go out and compete. No other sport is played on plots of land like Pebble Beach, Cabot Links and Kingsbarns. No other sport allows people to actually improve as they get older, and nothing like golf can give someone a single positive moment in a sea of frustration that keeps bringing them back like golf does.

I love it, I hate it, and I love it again, all on the same hole, and that happens each day, during each round, with everyone.

I thank you one last time for listening to me for the years I’ve been here, and hope that we can continue to banter in the future.

From my 7-iron to yours,
Shane Bacon

(And if you want to keep up with what is happening, you can always follow me on Twitter at @shanebacon)