Welcome to our Humble Abode
Our formal greeting to our readers
11/03/03
Phil Orr

          I thought it would only make sense for the first article of the site to welcome you, and to explain our mission. Ultimately, we're hoping to aid in the research of sabermetrics, and if we can even convince one non-believer along the way, it makes it all worth while.

          I guess a little background information isn't a bad idea. You see, my friend Thomas and I… well, we're geeks. We have baseball running through our blood. Searching my ICQ history with him, the name "Jeter" comes up 93 times. By comparison, the word "sex" only comes up 77 times. And for all those wondering, no, the two searches did not overlap. The point is we spend all our free time talking about baseball. We attend more than 50 Blue Jays games per season, and while others dream about becoming famous athletes, our dream is to be the general manager to those athletes.

          It's always been pretty obvious that we were obsessed with the game. And it became increasingly apparent that our obsession transcended the crack of the bat and the smell of the grass (When you live in Toronto, the smell of grass was never really a big part of baseball anyway). We found ourselves debating the articles of the so called experts in the Toronto media. It seemed like everywhere we looked local baseball writers were chastising J.P. Ricciardi after every move he made. More often than not, their argument was incredibly flawed. Because Jose Cruz drove in 70 runs, it means that non-tendering him is inexcusable. Because Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, the team should mirror that, regardless of if it is the best product on the field or not. This is what the citizens of Toronto are forced to swallow and it doesn't look like it will change. Most players are used to criticism when on the field, boos falling upon them from the stands. Sportswriters, however, are much less likely to be accustomed to taunting. Thus, when they're on the field before the game, it is our duty as fans who understand the game to let our voice be heard, whether it be by booing the media as they walk around the warning track, or by starting your own website, to inform people about the truth of the game rather than the myths that we're fed.

          This, of course, isn't to say that all baseball writers are inept. There are many we have tremendous respect for. Rob Neyer, Bill James, Voros McCracken, John Sickels, Will Carroll, the list goes on. These are individuals who have made great contributions to the game. The problem is despite their talent, they're still outnumbered in the baseball community. It's amazing that something that uses science and facts in sabermetrics is routinely ignored by baseball in favor of subjective analysis. This website is our small contribution to try to change that. But this is more than just a service to baseball, it's a hobby. I realized that I took great joy in doing what others would find tedious. When someone told me that Jeff Conine was great in the clutch for the Marlins down the stretch, and they wouldn't have made the playoffs without him, I knew right away how absurd a statement that was, but rather than just call the fan out on their mistake, I decided to go prove exactly why it didn't make sense. I went over every game log since Conine became a Marlin and found out that as a Marlin, in "close and late" situations, he was a whopping 1 for 13 with one walk. And that one hit was a single to lead off an inning. This took approximately an hour to do, but I didn't mind. But the moment I really decided I was on board to make this site was when I received this message regarding one of my posts on a baseball board

"I have been reading several of your posts from this weekend and wanted to let you know that they are some of the best I have ever read. Over the last month or two you have delivered some content and research that are worthy of any article at baseball primer. It probably goes over the head of the audience you're intending it for, but for me, it has been some invaluable information. Thanks for the time and effort you put forth to gather the data and present the conclusions."

          If one person took the time to tell me this, I had to assume others might find the information I post useful to some extent. So that's where the site comes in. Our goal is simply to raise the knowledge of those reading our articles so the game can be viewed through a microscope rather than a pair of beer goggles.