I’m overwhelmed by the kind words from my colleagues and by the continued popularity of our little hobby. Batter’s Box was intended as a place for a few Jays fans to talk baseball and amuse ourselves. I’m no visionary; there was no plan. When strangers began to leave comments and send e-mails, I was pleasantly surprised. The best evidence of my modest expectations was the original hit counter, installed with four digits, because I figured we’d never have ten thousand visitors. To my amazement, a few months later, we get that many every week.
There have been plenty of other milestones in our first season. Exchanging e-mails with Keith Law led to three of us having lunch with him last winter. That’s where I met Jordan and Craig for the first time, and I can’t recall a better baseball conversation. Meeting J.P. the day before the season began, and hearing his praise for the site, was quite a thrill for this fan. My first media pass (many thanks to the Blue Jays for acknowledging a mere blog) hangs on my desk, reminding me that sitting in the dugout to interview the coaches and Reed Johnson was a dream come true. Best of all was my sitdown with J.P., made even more memorable by being invited into the private box during a game. Along the way, we’ve swung and missed a few times, but a pretty good percentage of these 1,000 threads have been fun to read, and we’ve knocked a few out of the park.
I’m getting way too much credit for a truly collaborative effort. Baseball Primer indirectly begat this site. Reading comments there by “Gideon” and “Craig B.” inspired the idea of a chorus of voices instead of a soloist. They made me think and made me laugh, sometimes in the same post. It was obvious we viewed the Jays –- and the game –- from similar perspectives. Becoming friends is one of the many fringe benefits I’ve enjoyed. Da Box uses the same software engine as Primer, and I’m grateful to Sean Forman for sharing some of his technical tricks. Of course, they were far over my head and impossible to implement, until our technical guru Gwyn Price offered his services.
In 2002, I admired (and learned from) two veteran fantasy correspondents on ESPN.com; Mick Doherty and John Gizzi, great writers who obviously loved baseball, encouraged a rookie. As BB developed a loyal audience, I wondered if they wanted to be occasional contributors, adding some non-Jays material and a non-Canadian outlook. Fortunately, they did. I’m in awe of Robert Dudek’s analytical skills, and a huge fan of Dave Till’s prose. Mike Denyszyn and John Neary are talented newcomers whose enthusiasm for advance scouting the majors and the farm system is tremendous. Everyone is a role player on this team, even the old Coach.
Two “silent partners” should take a bow. Leslie, my better half and best friend, has supported this project since its inception. She knows better than anyone how therapeutic baseball (and writing about it) is for me, even if she is amused that we take grown men playing a kids’ game so seriously. Thank you, my love. Then there’s the best assistant coach a guy could ever have, who has been listening patiently to my baseball rants for years. He encouraged me to learn Web design and became my first client; as practice for modifying his site, I put up a home page to archive my ESPN columns, which evolved to this. He even “hosted” Batter’s Box on his bookstore’s server space before we got our own domain. I owe you, Billy.
The greatest reward for me has been the response from our readers. The regulars who post, the “special guests” who have dropped by and the lurkers I've "met" by e-mail are all as much a part of Da Box as the authors. I'm looking forward to meeting more of you at the Pizza Feed next weekend. Thanks for making this an incredible experience.
Baseball is more than a hobby for me, more than a passion. Playing and/or coaching for 45 years may have literally saved my life, and has certainly enhanced it. A timely hit, a perfect pitch, a spectacular defensive play and many other miracles can occur at a peewee tournament, on a high school field or in a big league stadium. I have tried to share my love of the game with my children and the young people it has been my privilege to coach; maybe that seeps through on these pages from time to time. I can't wait to read the next 1,000 threads, and I hope everyone feels the same way.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030919061702999