Enter the Florida Marlins' spring training facility press conference area. After having received notice of an important Florida Marlins announcement, a throng of reporters was seated and looking around confusedly. One Miami Herald reporter in the second row turned to his colleague and whispered “is confusedly a word?” “I don’t know,” the response came, “but if it isn’t, it should be, because it’s definitely the manner in which I’m looking around right now.”

Craig Burley asked for it, so his wish is our command: "You know, Scott Cassidy just retired too, and I don't see anyone composing paeans to his memory. Hmph."

Saturday, Matt Holliday homered off Cassidy in a frame in which "Butch" surrendered four runs in one-third of an inning. Yesterday, he retired.

Your thoughts and "paeans to his memory"?

We've written about Baseball Withdrawal here before, a grim topic to be sure. The first week of March, however, represents the tantalizing near-end of the anticipation, the sun's teasing peak from behind the cloud, that here-comes-the-waiter-and-I-think-that's-my-Reuben-sandwich-he's-carrying feeling. This is the post-adjustment, pre-resolution stage of Baseball Withdrawal Syndrome. I freakin' love this part.

As noted in another thread recently, Shawn Green has retired  ... and that doesn't seem to be getting much attention 'round these parts.

So let's take just a moment to reflect on the impact of the seven-year Jay, who spent his final season in TO (1999) putting together a .309/42/133 season that ended with a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove -- nice combination, that, in retrospect, was probably worth more than Raul Mondesi the ensuing off-season!

His career comparables lists include Canadian heroes like Andre Dawson, Dave Winfield and Vernon Wells, as well as some guy named Bonds. Oh wait, that's Bobby Bonds. Please share your favorite Blue (Jay) and Green moment(s) here ...

The BBFL has spoken and it said 'No'

Jays dropped their Grapefruit League opener yesterday.  The season is doomed!

It's long past time for my first Data Table of 2008, no?

This an exercise we went through last spring. This is last year's Predictions Thread! Not this Year's

Anyway, how did we do?

Saw this linked at BTF and thought Bauxites might be interested, if they haven't heard this story already on Travis Snider.  Jordan Bastian at MLB.com had a similar article a couple weeks ago.

We have some rule proposals to vote on and lots of owner movement.

The Jays signed Shannon Stewart to a minor league contract.

At the bottom of this Jeff Blair column there's a blurb that Dustin McGowan put on some muscle this offseason and now has a routine down to deal with diabetes.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced today that Dave Niehaus, the voice of the Seattle Mariners for all 31 seasons of the team's existence, has been named the 2008 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for major contributions to baseball broadcasting. Niehaus will be honored with the award during Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies on Sunday, July 27, in Cooperstown, N.Y. The news came to Niehaus on his 73rd birthday.

Read the full press release here.

Happy Wednesday, everyone. Anything going on?

QOTD: What other ballplayers can you name, Blue Jays or otherwise (past or oresent) who can be given a TV character moniker? (Yes, yes, the creepy little girl Wednesday's name was "Addams" with two d's ... what, you want extra "D" from Russ?)

And what else is happening?

The world's politest fantasy league returns.

Update - Feb 21st:
Existing Owners, please reply to me ASAP if you haven't let me know if you'll be returning. I want to get this years ownership list finalised this weekend, and I really don't want to drop anyone without hearing from them. Even if you're not coming back just drop me a line to let me know, thanks to all owners who have responded, there are five I'm still waiting to hear from.

Update2 :
I forgot that Opening Day is officially March 25th. Therefore I don't think yahoo is going to let us draft on March 27th. Let's schedule March 20th at 9pm as our preferred draft time. We'll have to shorten the trading window a little. I'll post an updated timetable at the weekend.