Hello, baseball fans, from me, Ward York! Welcome back to another upcoming season of Major League Baseball, and another year of semi-regular commentary and opinion from your favorite non-profit place for baseball writing that I edit, Yard Work Dot Org (not to be confused with any other Yard Works that you might find while Googling – ask for the original)! We have some fantastic plans for this year, some of which (or whom) you might actually see come to fruition before your very eyes, as well as ours! But before catchers and pitchers lace them up somewhere within the contiguous United States at an MLB-club-owned facility prior to an official MLB Spring Training game, there is some business that needs attending to.

Long-time readers (and even some random Googlers) know that, in the past, we have criticized, or “taken aim at,” a well-known weblog called FireJoeMorgan Dot Com. (Here is the most blatant example of us scoring lots of points and feeling really good about it.) Ironically enough, that aforementioned weblog is also famous for “taking aim at,” or “pinching a loaf on the chest of,” certain things – in their case, they focus on sports punditry that they believe is full of lies, nonsense, and nonsensical untruths, among other things. While Yard Work Dot Org was originally pleased that the aims of this site were somewhat true and noble, we took umbrage at the way in which they shot their mouths off. In short, we often felt they were using the same sort of fish-in-barrel thug-like tactics that their targets often used, and we took personal offence to that, and we hope that came through in our insults, both in public and private. (Officially, I am not at liberty to discuss whether our attacks on their attacks had anything at all to do with the fact that their web traffic, and public profile, totally dwarfs that of Yard Work Dot Org, despite smart people knowing full well that we are totally awesome and deserve to get interviewed in Sports Illustrated and on various radio shows and do other fame-type things.)

In the last few days, however, new information has come to light that has caused us to rethink our position. According to sporadically reputable websites, the FireJoeMorgan poster known as “Ken Tremendous” is actually a real person called Michael Schur, a writer for the famous TV show The Office. Supposedly, the other writers for the site are famous as well, but I’ve never heard of them, so I’m suspicious of their supposed fame. Everyone here at Yard Work Dot Org is a big fan of the show (especially the ones where the Jim character looks at the camera, and the Dwight character says something psychotic and Amish), and we were shocked to learn that a writer that we thought wasn’t good was actually a writer on a show that is actually good. Suffice it to say that if we knew that “Ken Tremendous” was a famous writer for a funny TV show that actually makes people laugh, we would have taken that into account in our assessment of how great and beyond awesome the writer (and his site) actually are.

To that end, we would like to offer our sincerest apologies for saying bad things about Mr. Schur and anything he’s had part in doing in regards to riding Mike Celizic like a rented mule with a hacksaw in his or her back. And please be assured that, unlike other people whose opinions are changing in light of this news about you being famous, we are totally sincere in our newfound appreciation for your talent and fame, and we (meaning I) would like you to know that if there’s anything you’d like us (meaning me) to do in exchange for, say, a romantic dinner with the Angela character in real life, let me (meaning Ward York) know well in advance so I can buy a discount plane ticket and get my back waxed. Also, if you have any contact with any of the people that work at your, or any, television network, I could help you out in exchange for that as well – I have a proposal for a new Manimal series (starring Timothy Dalton and that pretty girl from Grey’s Anatomy) that is sure to, as they say in Hollywood, “impress lots of people with its verisimilitude.” I know there’s some sort of strike going on between the networks and writers, but don’t worry – I have no problem crossing the picket lines and being a “scab,” so please make sure to mention this when you talk to someone at the networks.

Anyway, that’s all for now, dear readers of Yard Work Dot Org. There’s plenty coming up for baseball in the next few months, including the regular season, and then the playoffs, so stay tuned for that, and for anything else that might happen as well. See you in the boxscore! And at the NBC Studio security gate!