Five seasons.  Two Hall of Fame interviews.  One World Series victory (well, for Jeff at least).

And now, 1,597 posts.

Red State Blue State was born out of the fiery email exchanges between Messieurs Krause and Lung during the 2006 World Series — a World Series that saw Jeff’s Redbirds trounce Allen’s Tigers (although until his dying breath Mr. Krause will blame the pitching fielding errors over an inept offense for Detroit’s shortcoming — one that would not be their last, obviously).

Over the last five years, we have enjoyed all of the benefits of writing a hit MLBlog.  Jeff got to interview Ken Griffey, Sr., Dave Winfield and his boyhood idol, Ozzie Smith.  He also went to the 2009 All Star Game and reported on that experience.  Hell, last year he even went to the World Series! — twice — and then popped champagne as his boys brought it all home.  Allen, well, he drew particular pride from the fact that RSBS ended up getting banned by the censors in Saudi Arabia.

But it wasn’t just about the sports.  Although RSBS started life as a baseball blog, the second and equally important pillar, was a shared enjoyment of the drama and often maddening inconsistencies with the American political system.  We found a way to combine sports and politics with literary bindings, and from that we engaged in quite a few intellectual debates that strung our worlds together.  The highlight of Jeff’s political revelations had to be his Libertarian coming out party — the one that Mr. Krause so dutifully lampooned.

For Allen, the Post-Partisan Playoff Preview presented an opportunity to truly combine postseason baseball and postseason politics into an orgy of prognostication.  Sure, the only time he may have truly gotten it right was in 2008′s initial edition but he still made a valiant effort in the close but not quite there predictions of 2011 and 2010.  Allen’s political evolution may have been less dramatic than Jeff’s as he stayed continuously true to his blue state roots but this led to a moment he’ll never forget, being there for the inauguration of Barack Obama.

However, probably our finest RSBS achievements have to do with a little ditty by David Archuletta and the underground hip-hop sensation, Jesus Hates the Cubs.

Today is a day different from all the rest.  Today we publish our last post.  It is not without sadness that we do this, but, like many others experience in life, the time has come for us to move on.

If you would like to follow Allen’s post-RSBS exploits, visit him at his new blog, The Nomadic Revue, where he will continue to provide political commentary as well as entertainment and restaurant reviews.

And if you would like to follow Jeff’s sensational running career (and all the creative introspection born from that), then check out The Run Factory.

More than anything, we want to thank YOU, dear reader.  Thank you for joining us on our journey.  Thank you for all your comments, all your emails, all your Twitter love.

Thank you all very, very much.

Jeff and Allen