About Batter's Box
Pop quiz: Batter's Box is:
- an interactive online magazine of baseball commentary and analysis
- a source of daily original insight into Blue Jay major- and minor-league clubs
- a peña or marketplace of intelligent and literate discussion about baseball
- a propaganda front for Global Petrochemical & Armaments Corporation.
The answer, of course, is: all of the above!* Batter's Box is a place where dedicated baseball fans gather to share their views, insights and analyses of the baseball world, with a particular emphasis on the Toronto Blue Jays. Although most of our writers are based in Canada, we have contributors in the United States, and we don't limit our horizons to Canadian baseball events. We have sent accredited writers and photographers to cover both major- and minor-league baseball games, and we think the insights we offer rival or exceed much of the excellent work available in several major media outlets.
Batter's Box was founded in 2001 as a one-man blog by the legendary Kent Williams, Toronto high-school baseball coach and all-round baseball raconteur. Kent's excellent and incisive commentary wasn't restricted to that early Box; he also made regular appearances in threads at Baseball Primer, particularly the Jays-related discussions. It was at Primer that he ran into Ottawa magazine editor Jordan Furlong and Toronto lawyer Craig Burley, both of whom eventually joined the Coach on the newly formed Batter's Box Roster. Their number grew to seven, then a dozen, and today there are no fewer than a dozen Rosterites breaking the news and sharing their views on The Pastime. Some detailed information about the Batter's Box Roster is available.
We all participate in Batter's Box on a volunteer basis, and for one main reason: we're fans who love talking intelligent baseball. There are any number of places on the Internet where you can go to gossip or complain about your favourite team. We've visited these sites, and we wish them well; our project, especially in our latest incarnation, is different. We strive to provide a detailed level of baseball commentary from a wide array of angles - analytical and statistical, toolsy and sabrmetric - while still being fun and (more than occasionally) irreverent. We write our own material and defend our positions. We are beholden to no sponsors, no front offices, no special interests. And we're the only site on the Internet to award cuttlefish as prizes for trivia contests. We're not all things to all people, and we're not everyone's cup of tea - but we're our cup of tea, and we think we can be yours, too.
In short, Batter's Box aims to be a place for smart, literate, congenial, well-researched, insightful and original baseball commentary. We're very glad you visited, and we hope you'll stay.
Last Updated Tuesday, November 01 2011 @ 11:11 AM EDT 