A Digressionary Digression

It's easy, when caught up in the day-to-day grind of baseball season, to lose focus on what's important. On what really matters to me and why I started doing this in the first place. My inborn nerditry sends me diving headlong into the numerical abyss, searching for truth or falsehood or an answer to a question nobody asked. My natural state of cynicism finds me picking nits and looking for chinks in the Blue Jays armor as that is my way. Just as it was last year when I repeatedly sought proof of the Jays greatness in the face of a fourth place finish and the perception of a lost or pointless season.

It's easy to get too close to a team, especially when things are going as well as they have been, and ride the wave of unexpected offense and incredible early season results. Strangely enough, a basketball game brought me back to my lazy, safe center.

Watching Ray Allen shoot spot-up jumpers with hand(s) in his face reminds me of glorious architecture. The perfect balance of form and function, of angles, forces and artistic flourish. His jump shot is as aesthetically pleasing as anything anywhere. I don't have a vested interest in the Celtics, the Bulls, or the NBA playoffs in general. I just know I could watch Ray Allen alone in a gym for hours without complaint.

We Blue Jays fans are lucky enough to have Roy Halladay: our very own aesthete here in Toronto. His precision and execution marvels us all, opponents and fans alike. It's not just because he wins, or because he increases the teams chances of winning. By watching him; we all win. A 1-0 Jays loss with Halladay on the mound has more value, to me, than a 10-2 drubbing with Scott Richmond or some other middling/slight effective starter. If that makes me a shitty fan then fine. I'll be enjoying the madness and uniqueness of Ichiro and the uncanny skill of Manny over here in my pretentious little corner. Until then, let's all enjoy watching the master work, starting tonight against the goonish Texas Rangers. They're a modern J-Horror rip-off movie: startling not scary. Minus the C-list starlets inevitably in her underwear. I guess you can't have everything.

Little bit of Housekeeping

• Speaking of pretension, check out the latest addition to the blog roll Joy in Mudville. From the Free Darko school of thought, so you know I'll be ripping them off in no time.
  
• The Walkoff Walk Furious Five Podcast jumped off again last night. Blue Jays content!
  
• Speaking of Blue Jays content, Rob took Marco Scutaro's hot start as an opportunity to laugh at the weakness of the Oakland A's. Coming off a series in Toronto that sort of stuff should be expected.
  
• The Onion's AV Club takes a good look at the baseball literary classic Ball Four. I'm currently reading Moneyball for the first time (I know!) and it's great. SO great in fact, I missed my stop on the subway yesterday. That's high praise.
  
• I'm not good at fantasy baseball.
  
• With Texas coming to town, it's important that we reflect on the value of pitching. We've got it, they don't. Be thankful.