Newly minted sports columnist Kent Babb is leaving The Star to join the Washington Post as a sports enterprise reporter. He tweeted the news this afternoon.

Babb was named a columnist in June after covering the Chiefs, joining Sam Mellinger for what many thought would be a second edition of a powerful pair of columnists not seen since the Whitlock-Posnanski days.. He’s the latest sports staffer to leave The Star, following the retirement of Mizzou reporter Mike DeArmond and KU reporter J. Brady McCollough, who joined the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Babb’s last day at The Star is Sept. 21.

Via Twitter, he wrote:

“It is, of course, bittersweet. I love KC and the Star. Couldn’t turn this sucka down, though. I’ll still be writing through Sept. 21. One of the first texts I got was from Scott Pioli, believe it or not, offering congrats. I’ll miss my secretive old pal.”

Mellinger tweeted, “Sorry, y’all. I’m sticking around. job about to get better w/out that overgrown 12-yr-old around”

He told Bottom Line Communications why he’s leaving:

“I have wanted to work for the Washington Post since I was a teenager, and this chance really came out of nowhere,” Babb told Bottom Line. “There’s a mystique there that, as a journalist, is difficult to ignore. “But, really, it boils down to this: It’s what I want to do, where I want to do it, and I have found that it’s rare in this business to get a shot at that combination. Plus, my wife has family in DC and northern Virginia, so this makes some sense on professional and personal levels.”