http://www.bluejayway.ca/features/exclusives/cpleinessqa.php
hijack...

Matthew Elmslie must be too humble to refer to it here, so I'll do it for him. BlueJayWay.ca has an interview with Chad Pleiness. COMN to see it.

Great work, Matthew! For those who aren't aware, BlueJayWay has a number of exclusive items: in addition to the Pleiness interview, there's an interview with current Jay catcher Kevin Cash and well-known Jays VP Keith Law. Terrific stuff, and more evidence that few other clubs have fans who collectively produce top-quality news and analysis online -- only Minnesota (Aaron Gleeman) and Texas (Jamey Newberg) spring to mind.

http://www.bluejayway.ca/features/me/melist.php
The praise, while certainly deserved, is misdirected at me. That interview wasn't mine. I just write columns; the heavy lifting on Blue Jay Way is done by other people.

I also enjoyed Griffin's article this morning.

Looking forward to the interview; glad it went well.

I enjoyed Griffin's column, and am looking forward to the interviews with the Star writers. I suppose that I, too, will have to learn to be more civil when discussing the media in Da Box (especially since I guess we sort of are part of the media). After all, Sportswriters Are People Too. But being a grownup is less fun. :-)

A couple of comments on the column:

As a journalist, you are advised to forget about emotion when covering your sport. You are told, "No cheering in the press box." You are advised to have no favourites. It's all about maintaining objectivity.

Which is why I never, never, never, want to be a baseball writer (unless they allow me to be subjective). I don't think I could write about the Jays without rooting for them.

Oakville boasted the best 10-year-old starter in the province, but he was pitching 14 innings in 50 hours.

Ouch! Paging Dr. Jobe!

Dave, the odd thing about being a columnist, as opposed to being a beat writer, is that you have more flexibility -- not to mention different legal rights, as well. Basically, Griffin can be subjective about the Blue Jays, and it's pretty obvious he does so. It's a little different than covering the Jays and giving summaries of the game and saying, "Chris Woodward, the worst defensive SS in the majors, minors, or Little League, made an error in the fourth, costing the team six runs. He's a useless player, and J.P. would be wise to give Mike Bordick the job next year too."

As for the legal mumbo-jumbo, I can say in a column, for instance, that George W. Bush is a friggin' weak-punk-ass liar twenty-five times in four sentences and get away with it, while if I made the claim as a reporter I would lose my job and cost my paper millions of dollars in legal fees. Granted, I would be telling the truth in either format, but you get my drift.

Having read the transcripts of the Griffin/Baker interviews, and knowing Mick's status as Second Best Batter's Box Writer, I can say that the BB crowd will enjoy them. Kudos to Coach for setting it up, and kudos to Griffin and Baker for agreeing to do it.

http://www.bluejayway.ca
Thanks for the nice plug on the interviews guys.

Also congrats to you guys here at the Box on an excellent interview with JP. Its great to see so many fine resources for Jays fans on the net.