As our friends south of the border celebrate Thanksgiving, several clubs have plenty for which to be thankful. The Minnesota Twins organization, having won three straight division crowns on a limited budget, likely offers thanks on a daily basis for the rapid development of its young, inexpensive stars -- and foremost among them is surely the winner of the 2004 AL Cy Young Award, Johan Santana.

Question Of The Day: With the benefit of hindsight, who was right in the Great Johan Santana Debate? Before I remind you of the dispute, consider these numbers:

Blogger, Hardball Times impresario and occasional Batter's Box contributor Aaron Gleeman has a must-read piece today about the intersection of the blogosphere with the sporting press.

An open thread to discuss various and sundry basketball matters.

Trivia question : the Baseball Hall of Fame doesn't have anyone who is best-known as a statistician, but the Basketball Hall of Fame does. Who is he?

Box regular Marc pinch-hits and offers us his view of some of the prospects available in next month's Rule 5 draft. Thanks, and take it away, Marc.

Just for fun, I decided to create a generic "interview with an ex-Jay" article. It's inspired by Al Jaffee's old "Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions", which used to appear in MAD magazine back when I was a kid (which, let's face it, was a heck of a long time ago). Enjoy!

You may have noticed news reports commemorating yesterday's 20th anniversary of the Hail Flutie touchdown pass. So that raises this related ...

Question of the Day: What's the single most "miraculous" thing to occur on a MLB diamond? Not over the course of a full season -- sorry, '69 Mets -- or even over the course of a short series -- sorry, '04 Red Sox -- but in a single game? The (on one side) joy-inducing, elation-producing (and on the other side) gut-wrenching, sucker-punching event that equals the Flutie-to-Phelan pass in 1984?

Yeah, yeah, "touch 'em all Joe, you'll never hit a bigger one" ... what else?

Let’s move on to the current Hall 2nd base contenders.

Forget the strains of "Welcome Back" streaming from MLB loudspeakers next year ... muscle mag cover boy Gabe "Kotter" Kaplan has left the Red Sox and signed with the Giants ... the Yomiuri Giants, that is. We all know the story of former Jay farmhand Cecil Fielder, who left Toronto, ate up Japan, and returned to hit 51 homers for the Tigers in his inaugural season back in the states. That leads us to the multiple ...

Question(s) of the Day: What are the best U.S.-to-Japan and Japan-to-U.S. baseball stories? Does this topic interest you? Why or why not? Who's over there now that you want to see in a Jays uniform (U.S. expatriates and otherwise)? And most importantly, for Kapler anyway, how will the Gabe fare in the breaking-ball-first environment that awaits him?

As all three of the second base contenders for the Hall of Fame are into their late 30s, I decided to explore the question of which second baseman have been admitted to the Hall a bit before talking about each of them.

An annual tradition continues this year as we invite you (and all baseball fans) to vote on the Batter's Box Blue Jay Players of the Year.

Here is the place for Winter League news.

Battersbox regular Jabonoso brought to our attention good news on Ismael Ramirez. He's pitching very well in Venezuela- 23.1 innings, 14 hits, 1 homer, 3 earned runs, 5 walks and 22 strikeouts. He made front page news on the league's website. Check out the photo of him!

Okay, so former University of Michigan quarterback Drew Henson -- he started at UM ahead of a fellow named Tom Brady -- made his NFL debut yesterday and gave desperate Dallas Cowboy fans a glimmer of hope for the future. Henson, as most of you know, is the former New York Yankee "third baseman of the future," who concluded his career in pinstripes 1-for-9 with three strikeouts and a career OPS+ of -40. At the same time -- and in the same metropolitan area, no less -- 6'10" RHP Chris Young signed a multi-million dollar extension with the Texas Rangers, who had to outbid the Sacramento Kings for the former Princeton center. Which brings us to our ...

Question of the Day: Who is the most memorable multiple-sport athlete of the last century, and more importantly, why? (Note: "most memorable" doesn't always equate with "best" or even "most talented.") Who didn't play multiple sports who should have, or in retrospect, chose the wrong sport?

The prior Hijack thread is past its due date. So, a brand new shiny one for your posting pleasure is here.

It's been a slow baseball news day. The Expos were officially renamed the Washington Nationals. With their early free agent signings, the Nationals are not off to a stellar start. It makes one long for the Senators.

According to his agent, Matt Clement is the Blue Jays' top priority this offseason.

An open thread to talk basketball of all kinds. We're going to try this again and see how it goes.