Welcome To TheBlueJaysNation.com!

Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton/USA TODAY Sports

Does today seem like a good day for new beginnings or what? The Blue Jays have officially opened camp down in Dunedin, Florida, taking the first steps on their path towards defending the American League East title they won last fall, and my coverage of the club has moved into these splashy new digs! Welcome to TheBlueJaysNation.com!

Here, get pumped (y’know, before the video gets taken down)!

Big changes like this are scary, I know, and it might take a couple of days before you start to get used to the new look and feel of the place — it will for me, too — but I can promise you that this is a great thing that’s happening here. I’ve joined forces with The Nation Network a tremendous independent, Canadian network of blogs that, in addition to a bunch of great behind-the-scenes stuff for me — you’ll still see my freelance work elsewhere, the podcast is sill the podcast, and I no longer have to look at my dumb face every damn time I go to the site — will be allow me to make this the best possible site it can be for Jays fans, too. I have a budget for other writers, for example. There will be weekend content! And I can spend less time worrying about SEO, dealing with ads, swimming around in code, etc. etc.

In other words, I’ve now got a great amount of support that just wasn’t there over this last year on my own, and other than that, it’s going to be business as usual — only better!

And this is just the beginning.

Now, for those of you who comment regularly, this means another change, and signing up (for free) with the Nation Network (and check your spam email if you don’t get an authentication email back within a minute or two!). I’m sorry to those who might bristle at that — and don’t be afraid of the comment moderation stuff you’ll see, just avoid swears for now, and I’ll work on trying to change that (otherwise I’d never get a comment through myself). And not that you were going to, but don’t worry, all my previous content will be accessible again soon through this site — I mean, how cruel would it be to zap all that hard work into dust just because of a URL change? Ho ho ho. Annnnywho, please forgive whatever growing pains we might experience in the next couple days, be sure to change your bookmarks (though AndrewStoeten.com will permanently redirect here), exclude this domain from your adblocker, and otherwise, enjoy the new site! I know I will. Now let’s talk Jays!