This morning, the Usher of the Black Rod Blue Bat knocked on the doors of Bluebird Banter, and a message was delivered by him as follows:

Members of Bluebird Banter, His Excellency the General Manager desires the attendance of this honourable Blog, at six-and-a-half hours past noon, in front of their computers at BlueJays.com.

President Paul Beeston, General Manager Alex Anthopoulos, and Manager John Farrell are expected to address fans (read: season ticket holders) of the Blue Jays tonight in the annual State Of The Franchise Address (or Speech From The Throne as it is known in Canada) at the Rogers Centre. I assume that my invitation was lost in the mail (again!).

The doors open at 5:15 pm and the event formally starts at 5:30, but the broadcast will not begin until 6:30. I hope that the hour gap is sufficient for those invited to get through the buffet, get lubricated by the open bar, and settle down in their seats.

Once the broadcast starts, We'll be here to live blog the event, but before that feel free to chat and relay interesting tidbits from insiders that appear on your Twitter feed. The State of the Franchise itself is actually more in a "town hall" question-and-answer format rather than a formal address, so there should be plenty of fun fan questions to keep us entertained. Oh also, our friend Buck Martinez is hosting the party.