Happy 1000th post!

Holy crap.

When we started this little dog and monkey show more than two years ago by misspelling the name of our patron saint (I before E, damnit!), we figured that like most other things in our life, we'd fart around with it for a while before getting bored with it and letting it wither on the vine.

In fact, if you'd asked us back then what the over-under on the total number of posts we'd we'd have before we gave up and walked away from this, it probably would have been about 50.

And yet, here we are: 1,000 posts.

Obviously, we didn't do this all by ourselves. Many thanks are due to our fellow contributors: The Ack, who gave the blog a much needed shot in the arm last year when we were starting to run out of gas, and Shortwaveboy, who encouraged us from the get-go.

And we'd be remiss if we didn't recognize the contributions of the commenters and fellow Blue Jays bloggers, who inspire and inform us daily. We learn something new from all of you just about every day, and frankly, that's just about the highest compliment we can pay.

In the end, we're a much better baseball fan now than we were before we started the blog. We've learned a lot from you all, as you've provided a nice amount of context and perspective in the down times, and you've shared the excitement in good times.

(Although we still don't have the first fucking clue what UZR really means. So it's hard to use it as a club with which to beat Vernon Wells.)

Thank you all once again for your continued patronage, and for coming back here daily. Here's to the next thousand posts.

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.