Baseball is pretty quiet every year at this time, which is great because it forces me to hit pause on what can at times be an obsession that borders on mania. For those who don’t already know, this is a side hustle for me. I’ve got a full-time job, which makes it difficult to keep up with breaking news and other time-sensitive posts. Same for the other folks who help us keep the lights on here, Cubs Insider is and always has been a passion project.

It’s probably more accurate to call it a labor of love because there have been plenty of times when the work is just barely outweighed by the desire to do it. I’ve found myself on more than one occasion wondering whether it’d be better to have someone buy us out and allow me to step back into more traditional fandom. Then I realize that — and I know how this sounds, but I say it as humbly as possible — that there is no CI if I’m not here.

The same is true of Jon and Michael and Sean and so many others who are with us now or who’ve come through our virtual doors over the years. A lot of little birdies have flown from our nest to do bigger and better things, which I think is pretty cool.

But none of that matters without you, whether you’re a loyal reader or someone who had a post thrust upon them by Facebook’s all-knowing algorithm and called me an idiot because you only read the title. You make this worthwhile because we’re doing it for you. I mean, yeah, I suppose there’s a measure of…