Saturday, April 28, 2012

A two-sentence post on... the ups and downs of baseball

(note: yeah, I guess I'm totally ripping off my old 2-sentence post shtick from days past, but this is the kind of hacktastic nonsense the Tao has abandoned, leaving for the dregs of blogging society... ie: this guy.  So there you go.  Carry on...)

Sometimes, after especially difficult losses such as last night's giveaway game to the Seattle Ichiros, you feel like throwing your laptop through the damn TV before lighting fire to all the team merch you once loved and cherished. 

Then you wake up the next morning, and the sun is shining, and you're checking the guide (on the same TV you chose not to smash) to see when the next one is on, and curse the hours leading up because you can't hardly wait... and that is why I love baseball.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Apologies in Advance


I figure before the Blue Jays lose even one more game, I need to do one of two things: quit twitter altogether, or apologize in advance to those I'm about to lose my shit on.

You see... quitting twitter isn't really an option, since I enjoy the interaction with fellow fans and friends, and in this day and age of instant information, it's a source I just couldn't do without.  So that leaves me with no other choice....

I'm sorry, friends and fellow Blue Jay "fans", for any hurtful, insulting, or demeaning words I may throw your way in the days and weeks ahead.  I mean no long-term offence, and I'm sure you're not just a mindless, mouth-breathing, keyboard warrior bandwagon jumping doucher.  I'd like to think that I'm typically a pretty pleasant & agreeable dude, and we'd probably get along famously in "real life" should our paths ever cross, but you see, I'm getting tired.  Frustrated.  Borderline maddened (if there is such a word, and if not, may I coin the phrase?).

Maybe it's because I'm getting older (mid-30's, FRIG OFF).  Maybe it's because I'm raising two kids and was forced to learn that valuable life lesson: "patience is a virtue".  Maybe it's because I tell my 5 year old daughter that things don't always go your way, and that's life.

Or maybe it's because I have more than an ounce of damn sense in my head and am able to realize that it's ridiculous to make lunatic judgments and assertions based on one shitty - albeit extremely shitty - series early on in baseball's 162 game schedule.

Yunel Escobar has not proven that Atlanta was smart to trade him.  This latest bout of petulance was not a welcome addition to his lost hitting stroke to start the year, on this we agree - but give your heads a shake if you think the Jays are better off without him and BRING BACK THE PMoD.

Jose Bautista has not turned into a baseball pumpkin overnight.  Are his usually "must-see" plate appearance a little hard to watch right now?  Yeah, they are a little painful.  But guys in their prime and coming off back-to-back .995/1.056 OPS seasons don't forget how to be good baseball players over the course of a Dominican winter.  Oh, and that "terrible" 2nd half he endured last season?  .896 OPS.  Not so terrible.

And can we please leave Eric Thames alone, since we're here and talking about things?  I understand the whole Team Snider dynamic - I get that, I really do... meats don't clash baby, and I want him rocking that beautiful new/old Blue Jay uniform set too... but the pendulum seems to have swung so far in the pro-Snider camp that we're in anti-Thames territory, hoping for him to fail, which is just a touch counter intuitive to bemoaning the team's recent struggles, don't you think?

I could go on, but I think we've reached the point in this here little rant where I'm just banging the drum for the sake of noise.

So, I'm sorry.  I really am.  I expect we'll be able to be friends again when the Jays rip off any semblance of a winning streak. 

Win-win.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

So... here I am again



I'll ask the question before you get a chance... why exactly am I doing this again?  And why should anyone care?

The second question is the easier of the two to answer, and quite simply & honestly, I don't know that anyone will.  I won't pretend to play it super cool and say "...and it doesn't matter to me anyway", because let's be honest here - I could just start an old fashioned pen & paper diary if I wasn't looking for at least some interaction.

To answer the first is, well, difficult.  I would assume it's safe to say that if you've found this post, you follow me on twitter, and you're probably following me on twitter because I used to blog (weekend party host, baby) for this little page called the Tao of Stieb.  I gave up that gig because the pay sucked and Tao was an unruly tyrant, ever more demanding of my valuable time.   Jokes!  I kid, Tao, I kid!

But in all seriousness now, friends, Tao moved on to bigger and better things (you may have seen his name splashed across Jays broadcasts, and published in that little thing called Sportsnet Magazine), and to be honest, I was content to fade into the background and, basically, not fuck it all up.  I quite simply do not aspire to be anything more than I am, an honest dude with a career and a family "in real life" with a bit of a Blue Jay obsession, only now I'm finding I have things I want to say again.

So what can I promise you with this blog?  Not much in the way of hard and fast guarantees, I'm afraid.  No fixed posting schedule.  No minimum posts/week guarantees.  No advanced sabremetrics (I'm borderline dumb that way).  No gifs (pronounced hard-g, by the way), and zero photoshop skills.

I can tell you I'll blog about the Blue Jays, my takes and feelings, not always supported by empirical evidence, and very likely to often leave myself open for ridicule.  But again, with the honesty... I don't really give a damn there either, because I'm nothing more than an unabashed fan of the team - of the game - and it's pretty probable that is how I'll come across.  I think I'm at my best (humblebrag loser) when I'm "writing" (feels awkward to say that) with more emotion than reason, so that's what you might see. 

Honestly, the last thing I felt good about posting on the damned internet might not have even been a Tao post, but rather this take on my beloved Winnipeg Jets (thanks Nav).  Or the weepy Roy Halladay stuff I bared my soul with (still luv u, Doc).

So read along and comment away, if you're so inclined.  Let's have some fun and be total Blue Jay homers together, with a sprinkle of reasonable opinion mixed in.  It might take some time but with practice, we'll find just the right balance of rational sense and blind optimism.

(Except when it comes to the Red Sox, because fuck those guys, y'know?)

Next blog post will be about baseball, I promise.

(Oh, and I spent literally five (5) minutes customizing the template, as you can all plainly see if you have any semblance of eyesight whatsoever.  I'll get around to cleaning that shit up to make it more visually appealing, add a blogroll, all the niceties you would see on any halfway decent blog.  Eventually.  Probably.  Hey - I've got kids man, what do you want from me - blood?)

Peace,
Ack.