May he rest in peace. It could be said that with the passing of Karl Ehrhardt, blog heaven receives the original blogger as its initial resident. Who is Karl Ehrhardt and why do I think of him as the original blogger?

For those of you who are (1) baseball fans, (2) old enough and (3) from the New York City area, or a Mets fans for some reason that is known by only you and your therapist, then you might know him as the Sign Man of Shea Stadium.

For almost two decades from the Mets's earliest days, Sign Man used his box seat near third base to post short, almost instantaneous, highly-poignant, and often-humorous opinions about what just occurred on the field. And with the Mets, that could be just about anything from absurd to amazing.

In the pre-Internet age, Frank used his advertising agency background to conceive and create simple block-letter signs, which he held above his head with both arms extended high for all within the stadium to see.

Eventually, as television gained a bigger role in disseminating baseball games, Sign Man's opinions were broadcast nationwide; globally during those few Miracle Mets championship seasons. The TV cameramen knew to focus on him after any significant moment in a game, so his opinions eventually became as much a part of the flavor of games at Shea as the hot dogs and beer.

Perhaps because of their instantaneous and brief nature, his messages might be considered more akin to Twittering than blogging, but if I just wrote about Twitter, or the main topic of this search engine optimization blog, then I would not be able to take advantage of the keywords "blog," "blogger," and "blogging."

So, a memorial virtual toast and tip of a Mets cap go out to the innovative Frank Ehrhardt, a familiar face and spokesperson from my past, and one of the founding fathers of Internet Age - a world where everyone's opinion matters in the global conversation that connects us all.  We'll miss you, Sign Man, and we'll see you someday in blog heaven.