Jays: Bart Given shares secrets of his soul, hopefully

Former Blue Jays assistant general manager Bart Given, who was let go as part of some corporate belt-tightening (wink), isn't sitting idly by.

Given has started a blog called Inside The Majors, which means all of us ass-talkers should live in fear. Given did strike back at Chipper Jones for his birdbrained comments about Team USA being stuck in Toronto during the first round of the World Baseball Classic. He's even running a Chipper poll, asking people where they would rather stay for a week, Toronto, Las Vegas or anywhere else:

"It's obviously Chipper’s prerogative to choose Vegas, but why pluck your own eyebrows out one at a time? Team USA was stationed in Yorkville for a week, and he couldn't find a spa to help him with a uni-brow issue? C'mon ... that's just plain lack of effort."

Anyway, Rob Carnell of CFRC 101.9 and Salt Water Music has been raving about Given's early blogging efforts at ITM all week, so it is probably worth a link.

The Jones comments barely rated as news. No disrespect, but anything some cracker National League player says about Toronto should be like water off a duck's back. He studies frappeurs, not Frommer's.

He's one of Holden Caulfield's athletic bastards. People just have to realize that, as NBA Hall of Famer Kevin McHale once said of his teammates, "Most of our guys' idea of culture is going to McDonalds for lunch."

There are some players who do have eclectic tastes and are comfortable enough in their own skin to let it be known: Steve Nash, Carlos Delgado, Jim Bouton (who after the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee after only one season, mused in Ball Four that if people in Seattle would rather go to the art gallery than the ballpark, he couldn't blame them).

One would suspect there are more athletes with such tastes. Pro sports, really, any male sports team once you're past the age of 16 is very much like the military. The group mentality rules all, so the weirdos who like books and plays and movies have to become adroit at subterfuge, like Jonathan Moxon in Varsity Blues hiding a Kurt Vonnegut novel inside the team playbook.

Then there are a few like Chipper Jones, God bless him, who once in a while open their mouths and remove all doubt.

Anyway, Bart Given is blogging and some might want to know.