Humble Beginnings

To paraphrase yet another Princess Bride quip, I’m often amazed at life’s little quirks. The idea of restarting another blog happened earlier this week. I’m a regular poster (a “primate”) at Baseball Think Factory for over five years now however, I was kicking around looking for a place where I could engage in a little Jays talk. Since I read blogs on a regular basis it seemed a good place as any to start.

I was enjoying myself at Drunk Jays Fans when it became apparent that my contributions were becoming unwelcome. Why? I imagine part of it is the fact that once I get going on a subject and momentum kicks in I can churn out a lot of verbiage. I’m guessing the second part is philosophical. One contributor took issue with a column I had written which they felt was suggesting that the 2007 Blue Jays become the 1985 Cardinals and guys like Frank Thomas and Troy Glaus should bunt more.

I took the time to explain where I was coming from on that topic and after an exchange where he couldn’t get me to change my mind he seemed to want me to take my heresy elsewhere. Later, on a different topic, I was explaining how folks in baseball float trial balloons through the media since they were caught up in just such an event. Somebody dropped the remark (I have a pretty good idea whom) "John Brattain, you are something else. I really get a kick out of the way you've taken to using the comments section of DJF as your own personal blog."

So now I was being accused of having my own sinister agenda rather than providing simple feedback and Jays talk which I erroneously assumed was the entire point of the comments section. I guess that section is to be used more for genuflection than discussion. Regardless, I did ask myself that since I need a place to vent and talk regularly about the Blue Jays, then why not--instead of inflicting myself on an unwilling audience--do just that and start (or more pointedly--restart) a blog? At any rate--thanks for the idea.

Don’t get the wrong idea (although it’s rapidly becoming a national pastime) and think I’m dumping on DJF. I’ll continue happily to read the blog (and link to them if they’ve written something I feel folks should check out) but if I’ve got an itch to scratch on a topic on something they’ve posted, I’ll just put it here instead. It’s win-win except for the folks reading this particular blog. I bear no ill will to any of them since it’s their blog and they’re perfectly entitled to have things the way they want them there. I’m simply an interloper and should have no say in how they develop their site. They’re Blue Jays fans after all so how can there be anything but love from my end?

I suppose I’ll handle feedback in this manner across the board. That way I can provide links to the blogs once the poor unfortunate souls stumble across this one. In addition, it’ll save them the clutter in the comments section when momentum kicks in and it’ll give me a ready-made topic for a blog post. After all, since what I wrote inspired their post it’s only fair that I use theirs as inspiration for mine.

Despite my mainstream gig, I like bloggers and view them as an invaluable resource. Due to this, I like to promote them when the opportunity arises. As I wrote yesterday, I don’t have to agree with somebody to appreciate their work/writing or to benefit from their feedback. I was ripped pretty well by Mockingbird and Maldonado Over Everything this year nevertheless I got tremendous input from them and was appreciative. Do we agree on the issue under consideration? No. Did they make their points well and provide valuable insight? Absolutely and I hope I’ll get ripped again next summer by them since, as stated once before, it’s difficult to learn new things from folks who have the same world-view as myself.

Since the whole “to bunt or not to be, that is the question” provided the genesis that lead to this, I’ll go transfer my thoughts from there to here. If folks want to engage in a discussion on the subject, they’re more than welcome to do just that.

Best Regards

John