A few of my favorite things

So, we've managed to sneak away for a moment from massively self-serving discussions of strategic directivity and other such conference talking notes ("look-in-awe-at-my-PowerPoint-and-tell-me-I'm-pretty!") to catch up with you crazy kids.

So how's it going, anyways? Any news?

Even though our spirit-crushing work schedule has us in the dumps, there is redemption just hours away. We're getting ready to head to warmer climes tomorrow for a week, and that's a good thing. Not just for us, you understand, but for all Jays fans. Because, if the tradition holds, the second we leave the country and check out of the baseball info-grid for a few days, the Jays will do something stupendous. Stupendously awesome? Stupendously awful? Who knows? But know that something is coming. (Maybe you can start building the stencil for the Johnny Damon Blue Jays t-shirt stencil right now...)

Beyond the possibilities of some major move being made (and the Ack hopefully showing up to work on time to comment about it in our absence), we have other reasons for the raised spirits.

For instance: Did you know that a drunken rant, when put forth in the presence of an excellent Jays blogger, can be the germ of great post? Because somehow, Drew at GRoF wove our angry old man routine about stats nerds ruining the world into a golden post on the dilemma of Aaron Hill. (Believe!!!1) It's like we wrote an awesome post, without even having to write it!

Another reason for a little sunshine and happiness in our world is the stellar grade we received from the Drunk Jays Fans in their annual report card on the media and bloggeratti. An A! We got an A! Just think what we would have had if we we we didn't use we we we all the time. WE!

(Confession time: I kinda hate the "we" thing, and had intended to drop it at the turn of the decade, but a friend told me that the blog would totally lose its voice if I did. And even if I didn't believe it, I didn't feel like I could take the chance. "We" it is.)

A final reason for some joy: A very deserving man will be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. We were thrilled to see the news that Allan Roth, one of the true innovators in the statistical analysis of baseball, will be inducted into the hall in St. Mary's Ontario this summer. Alan Schwarz talks a lot in his book The Numbers Game about Roth's role in evolving the way that numbers are used to understand the game. Mazel!

A One-Sentence Post on...The Happiest Dreams Ever

Last night we fell asleep with the game on, woke up just in time to see Lyle Overbay's eighth inning three-run blast, then rolled over to have the happiest dreams ever about pennants (!!!1) and the postseason (!!!1).

Happy belated birthday to us

We can't believe we missed this, but yesterday marked one full year of the Tao of Stieb.

And from such modest beginnings, we have grown from a time waster for one lonely Blue Jays fan to a full blown movement which helps to kill the productivity levels of hundreds of Blue Jays fans everyday. It's a modest achievement, but one that we're proud of.

We've got to admit that when we started the blog, we figured that we'd fart about with it for a few weeks and then get bored and move on to something else. But here we are, 367 days later, and we're still finding minutiae to kvetch about.

Mostly, we keep on keepin' on because you keep coming back to read our crayon scribblings every day, and for that, we thank you immensely.

Also, thanks and praise to all of you who have linked to our blog over the past year, and who have sent folks in our direction. There's a whole wide world of weblogs out there, but we are grateful to belong to a community of Blue Jays bloggers who bring their unique and distinct views and talents to help push the level of discourse on our beloved team upwards. We thank all of you for your contributions.

We'd especially like to thank Neate Sager at Out of Left Field, who was an early champion of our blog and who continues to grace us with links and his witty repartee in the comments section.

Praise and thanks also goes to all of the Drunk Jays Fans, who prove everyday that they are smarter, funnier, and way more drunk than we are. You gentlemen are the gold standard, and we strive everyday to keep pace with you.

Thanks also to Will at Deadspin for the link early on last year that helped put us on the map; to Art Martone of the Providence Journal's Sox Blog for sending members of the Red Sox Nation in our direction so that we can heap scorn upon them; to 'Duk of Yahoo's Big League Stew for the link and the opportunity to peddle our wares on his blog; to our co-conspirator Shortwaveboy, whose contributions to the blog are greater than the sum of his blog posts; to Blairsy, Globe Junior, Cathal, Bastian and Wilner for giving us something to chew on every day; and to the men who put on the uniform every day, because what you do is infinitely more challenging than any of us give you credit for.

And last but not least, to Mrs. Tao, for not only tolerating our blogging pursuits, but for encouraging us along the way.

God bless you all for your continued patronage.

C`mon, get happy!

So here we are, leg wrapped up and iced down, thoroughly disappointed in the quality of the painkillers we've received.

But we're not gonna let it get us down.

When we started this blog, we had notions that it would track our building elation as the Blue Jays rose beyond expectations and into a playoff birth. We had fantasies that we would run to our laptop, soaked with champagne sometime in late October, and send out a missive that the dozens of loyal readers, who would then print it out and have it framed and hung on their walls.

Clearly, we were out of our mind.

But our point here is that we never intended for the Tao of Stieb to be about venting and whingeing and moaning, and getting John Gibbons fired to the exclusion of everything else.

So, starting tonight, we're gonna turn over a new leaf. We're gonna accentuate the positive. We're gonna cheer this team on, stop focusing on all of the negatives.

We're gonna make it a happy place.

(However, we reserve the right to grab the wheel and veer completely back into the negative. If we so please.)