I've spent too many years
In a war with myself
The doctor has told me
It's no good for my health
To search for perfection
Is all very well
But to look for heaven
Is to live here in hell

Apparently, yesterday TSN did a segment on "The Greatest Jay Ever." Their list, reports here on Da Box tell us, was 1) Alomar 2) Steib 3) Delgado 4) Carter 5) Bell 6) Henke 7) Fernandez 8) Hentgen 9) Olerud and 10) Clemens. (Half were still active in 2004!) So today's rather obvious ...


Question(s) of the Day: Who bears the mantle of "Greatest Jay"? This could mean oh so many things, so clarify how you're defining it. Who will crack the Top 10 or take the title in the future?

The rumours fly about which one of Oakland's three aces Billy Beane will trade, as if it's inevitable. Barry Zito to Texas? Tim Hudson to the Yankees? Mark Mulder to the Nippon Ham Fighters? What's the best deal possibe, or is the answer "none, stand pat"? And that's today's ...

Question of the Day: Play GM for a day and structure the best deal possible -- for both sides,(e.g. no "Menechino for Zito" deals) -- involving one or more of the A's Big Three. Make sure the money works and that the talent would appeal to both (or all three or four) teams. Best (most realistic/creative) deal wins a prize!

The Jays have until midnight tonight to work out a deal with Carlos Delgado or offer him arbitration. If they cannot, then it is almost certain that Delgado will not be back next season and the Jays will not get any draft picks as compensation when Carlos signs with another club.

Today's question has its genesis in an e-mail exchange between Jordan and I. An abbreviated summary follows:

The Veterans' Committee player's ballot contains some interesting names:

Dick Allen, Bobby Bonds, Ken Boyer, Rocky Colavito, Wes Ferrell, Curt Flood, Joe Gordon, Gil Hodges, Elston Howard, Jim Kaat, Mickey Lolich, Sparky Lyle, Marty Marion, Roger Maris, Carl Mays, Minnie Minoso, Thurman Munson, Don Newcombe, Tony Oliva, Vada Pinson, Ron Santo, Luis Tiant, Joe Torre, Maury Wills, Smoky Joe Wood.

Box regular Paul D. has publicly begged in the current Hijack Central for another one of these hoops-oriented threads. He even apologized for hijacking a thread called "Hijack Central," so we'll give him a (fast) break, especially since we don't have weekend QOTD's, and pose his questions here ...

"The Raptors have just imploded and gone insane. Rafer Alston wants to quit, the coach won't start two of his starters, the players hate each other ..."

"What does it say about the Raptors that Butch Carter was the best coach they ever had?"

Since the old Hijack Central has rolled off the page, thus closing out comments (and making it damhard to hijack, natch), here's a new one.

And since Joe has added the new feature of kicking off new HC threads with movie quotes, here is an exceedingly easy one. It's only 2:25 a.m. in Toronto right now, so I'm guessing this won't take more than 10 minutes for someone to answer.

"Don't think, it can only hurt the ballclub."

A couple of interesting points suggested in threads yesterday lead to today's ...

Question of the Day: How has the frankly massive and out-of-nowhere explosion of the popularity of fantasy baseball changed the way fans view the value of individual player accomplishments in the last 20 years?

P.S. Cast your Andujar ballot today! Meet the candidates here. Voting concludes Dec. 23.

Following up on an idea raised by Coach in yesterday's QOTD ... There are lots of "what if?" stories in baseball. There are those that take the self-inflicted Doc Gooden route; there are those that take the simple inexplicable flameout route like Joe Charboneau; some fall prey to injury like Mark Fidrych or other health concerns like J.R. Richard; and of course, there are is the senseless tragedy route unfortunately followed by those like Lyman Bostock. So, as to Thursday's ..

Question of the day:Who are the most memorable players, to you, who had "greatness" stamped all over them, but who fell off the sports radar for one reason or another?

P.S. Cast your Andujar ballot today! Meet the candidates here. Voting concludes Dec. 23.

Great idea from erstwhile Box GM Jordan Furlong ... with all this talk of great players and Hall of Fame standards, let's take just a moment for a related, tangential ...

Question of the Day: Who is the most underrated player of your lifetime? Be sure to include your definition of "underrated" and an explanation of why your answer fits.

As you surely know by now (and as is being discussed on another thread, the new Hall of Fame ballot is out and the discussions have revved up around the usual suspects -- Blyleven, Sandberg, Trammell. Just one new name on the list: Wade Boggs.

Boggs, of course, made his name on stats -- seven straight 200-hit seasons, 3,010 career hits, .328 career batting average, etc. Do those numbers get him into the Hall of Fame, or if he had retired with 2,987 hits, would he be there anyway? We've looked at "number milestones and millstones" for Hall candidates before, such as in Mike Green's Hall Watch/1B: Fred McGriff thread. Which brings us to our Tuesday ...

Question of the Day: Are there any magic numbers left that "guarantee" Hall of Fame entry? Is 250 wins the new 300? Is 600 homers the new 500? Why isn't 3,000 strikeouts as sexy as 3,000 hits?(There are less than half as many pitchers with the former as hitters with the latter, 25-12). Do any career "counting stat" numbers punch the proverbial ticket to Cooperstown any more?

Dave Studenmund has a terrific article up at The Hardball Times today entitled Making The Most of What You've Got". A great article that looks at two important factors in creating runs: getting your runners into scoring position, and getting hits when those runners are there. Also Studes links to Tangotiger's "How Runs Are Really Created" which is a seminal piece of research.

After a wide variety of topics have passed through QOTD territory recently, it's time to return to a tried and true classic. Well, "return" isn't quite right; believe it or not, according to a brief search, this topic has never been properly argued on Da Box. And given this site is hosted in an American League city but features an awful lot of so-called old-school thinkers where The Great Game is concerned, I really have no clue which direction we'll go with today's ...


Question of the Day: Designated Hitter: yes or no? Do you like the DH? Should it exist? (Note that these are two separate questions for many people.) And if it's not going anywhere, just what the flark should we do about the DH in interleague and World Series play, anyway?

As the November comes to a close, and the U.S. holiday weekend bleeds into the Yule time, it's that time again ... we have just enough November left to squeeze in the Batter's Box All-November team, a squad made up entirely of players born in the month of November.

If you're waiting for the obvious choice of Hall of Famer Turkey Stearnes for this squad's mascot, forget it ...