THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Dirk Hayhurst on Canadians

He says:

Another thing I’d like to address is the fine citizen’s of Toronto and Canada in general. I’ve never enjoyed baseball so much as I did when I played it abroad. Yes, I know that Hockey is the National Pastime of Canada, not baseball. And I will confess there were nights I wished TSN would give the Jays, the nation’s only baseball team for crying out loud, a little more airtime instead of rehashing goals by guys who name I can’t pronounce. But, hey, I liked the differences. I liked the culture. I liked the uniqueness and opinions and viewpoints that are underplayed, even missing from US turf. I actually liked reading Canadian’s opinions on American behavior, even when we earned every possible ire for running the world’s banking system into the crapper.

The city was progressive, clean, and beautiful; a great place to be if you’re a player who writes books. I do hope I’m around long enough to write a book about my experience with your team, Toronto (that earthquake you just felt was the collective shaking of your past and present players seized in terror of what I might say). Fear not, you have some incredibly humble and respectable men on your club, many of them I’m proud to call friend.

I’ll miss you, Toronto, but I’m confident we’ll meet again. If not on the baseball field, then at a book signing. Or, at the very least, on the pages of one of the many great Blue Jay blog sites that routinely crank out conjecture on your birds. I owe the media in Toronto a lot, professional and amateur alike. To the crew that covers the Jays in the clubhouse, and the crew that covers them on the net, may I say I would never have been baseball’s third player/author to reach the best seller’s list without you— you were instrumental in one of my proudest achievement. Thank you.

One last point before I go. I’m not a big name, and I’ll never consider my departure from Toronto on par with some of the truly great players you’ve lost. That’s vanity, not to mention arrogant. But, I’ve come into my own in baseball during the Social Networking days of our civilization. Social Networking has changed how we relate as a people. A decade ago, players didn’t have blogs, or Twitter, or Facebook access for fans. Because of these personal connection venues, we’ve had a chance to connect and I feel you deserve a personal farewell. Please don’t think I’m doing any of this goodbye stuff because I think I’m great. On the contrary, I’m doing it because I think YOU ARE great. I wanted to thank you for all you’ve given me in my time with the Blue Jays. I’d also like to say that, thanks to these new tools, you don’t have to say goodbye at all. I’ll always be here in my digital incarnation, anxious to hear from you, even if I’m not wearing Blue Jay Blue this next go around.

Okay, Blue Jay. Thanks for everything, and best of luck this year. I’ll miss you. Oh, and let’s play ball.