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Roberto Alomar. Beta testing the iPhone 5. Hall of Famers get all the cool gadgets first.
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JOSE BAUTISTA in “THE HIT MAN (2011)
This is cute. Not only can he hit, José Bautista can out-act most of the celeb stiffs that guest-host Saturday Night Live.
Nice work by MLB.com, casting “Joey Bats” as a goombah right out of The Godfather or The Sopranos. The way he Hulks out on the offending baseball is pretty much in keeping with the whole the madder José gets, the stronger José gets motif that’s led to some of his most spine-tingling mashes of the past season-and-a-half. (Hint to pitchers: don’t throw inside. He might do this.)
Hey, no one’ll ever supplant Dave Stieb as my favourite Blue Jay of all-time, and perhaps George Bell’s spot as my favourite Jays hitter is secure as well. But Bautista’s been a thrill to watch at work, the best thing to happen to Toronto sports in many a year, and an inspired little clip like this only adds to the fun.
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Bobby Cox retires. Thanks for the memories. Oh, to have had you in Toronto a little while longer, Coxie.
2504-2001 Won-Lost record. 15 division titles. Four-time Manager-of-the-Year. 1985 AL East champion. 1995 World Series champion.
And, another Toronto Blue Jay headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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Yessss!
Jen and Robyn, continuing a Toronto Blue Jays home opener tradition, April 12, 2010.
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The Public v. Alex Rios - June 4, 2009
“The way you played today, Alex, you should be lucky some wants your autograph.”
“Who gives a fuck? Who gives a fuck?”
“You’re a bum! You’re a bum!”
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool the guy who waits outside the charity gala to heckle you on your way to your car after work.
Alex Rios’ once-promising career with the Toronto Blue Jays was already foundering when he had this altercation with the lowest common denominator while leaving a team charity function in downtown Toronto last June.
Earlier in the day he’d had an awful game - 0-for-5 with five strikeouts - which coincided roughly with the beginning of his team’s long slide into mediocrity after a surprisingly strong start to the season. Rios already had a reputation as a slacker, and this clip, which got big play over YouTube, wasn’t a great example of positive brand management.
Accounts vary over what precipitated the 34 seconds shown here - and it should be noted Rios can’t be faulted for feeling sore after the classless heckler ambushed him - but if you’re wondering why 45,000 fans will be booing all night long at tonight’s Blue Jays home opener, consider this clip the Coles’ Notes version. Rios apologized for the incident the next day, but you know what they say about the location of printed retractions…
Alex Rios returns to Toronto for four games this week, playing for the Chicago White Sox. It’s his first time in town since being waived last summer.
Photo reblogged from Go Jays Go
In the absence of any tell-tale surface glare, I’d vote for sticker over pin, of which I have a few.
My friend Blake has a Dave Stieb Golden Griddle poster. Pure class. Dave, in full Jays regalia, circa 1983, gettin’ down with a plate of pancakes.
I have a Stieb gym wristband (yeah, seriously) from about 1992, a Blue Jay-blue terrycloth band with a white vinyl patch showing a Stieb head shot. Pretty hardcore.
Sticker? Who knows. WANT!
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30 years ago tonight: Dave Stieb's first major league win →
I was at this game. That’s something I’ve always been really thankful for.
My dad had a pair of tickets along the first-base side, just inside the bag, something like 20 rows back. It was a beautiful midsummer’s night, and the ultra-competitive, hard-hitting Milwaukee Brewers were in town to administer a beat-down on the godawful third-year Toronto Blue Jays.
Those of you with a working knowledge of Blue Jays history don’t need much of an assist to stir your memories. The rest of you only need know that a few decades before Roy Halladay, there was a prodigy named Dave Stieb, who was so bloody talented that less than a year after converting from a hitter to a pitcher, he was performing effectively in the best baseball league in the world for its worst team, at the tender age of 21. And unlike so many other overnight success curiosities, this guy was good enough to stick around until he was 41 years old, establishing all the team’s franchise standards for pitching excellence and durability, making a then-league record seven all-star game appearances, winning The Sporting News’ Pitcher of the Year award in 1982, throwing the team’s only No-Hit ball game in 1990, and eventually earning a spot in Baseball Think Factory’s Hall of Merit, as one of the greatest pitchers to ever play the game.
For you more dyed-in-the-wool types, a mouse-click on the baseball card above will bring you to the game boxscore, courtesy the magnificent Baseball-Reference website.
Stieb was making his third start, but this was his first in Toronto, following a lopsided loss in his debut, and a decent no-decision performance in his second. He’d gone 10-2 in the minors to this point in the season, and a rash of injuries and worse-than-usual performances had forced the team to call its blue-chip prospect up to The Show.
There are several curiosities contained within the boxscore. The Brewers’ lineup was dotted with future contributors of significance to Blue Jays lore: the leadoff hitter was Paul Molitor, and the bottom of the order was rounded out by Buck Martinez. Together they accounted for half of the Brewers’ measly four hits this night, as Stieb went the distance for the first complete game of his career. Not appearing in this game, but part of the Brewers roster, were Larry Hisle - the Blue Jays’ hitting coach in their World Series Championship winning years - and Charlie Moore, who was Toronto’s backup catcher in 1987.
Also high on the coolness scale: Stieb had no trademark Tom Selleck-like moustache at this point. Probably because Selleck didn’t have one then, either, and we all know these two were separated-at-birth twins. (Dave’s the shorter, tougher one.) The boxscore doesn’t include reports on Sir David’s hirsuteness - or lack thereof - but it’s got practically everything else. Take a gander, and raise a cold one (a Labatt Blue, of course) to the anniversary of a wonderful moment in Blue Jays history.
You’re still #1, Dave.
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Looks like the Toronto Blue Jays are stimulating everyone in Toronto these days. Check out this stimulus package. GO JAYS!!!
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Link: The good ship Cito Gaston springs a leak →
For those of us old enough to remember Cito Gaston’s first tenure as Toronto Blue Jays on-field manager, the current state of the team hearkens back to complaints that dogged him throughout the 1990s.
Gaston’s teams won a lot of ball games - four division titles and two championships in nine seasons - but critics’ knives were always out for the way he handled his pitching staff. The Blue Jays only lost one American League East title from 1989 to 1993, but perceived wisdom was that Gaston mismanaged the team out of the 1990 title, and out of the 1991 playoffs, through his misunderstanding of pitching management.
Gaston used starters Dave Stieb, Todd Stottlemyre and Jimmy Key as six-inning pitchers in 1990, ideally saving the seventh and eighth innings for set-up man Duane Ward, and the ninth for closer Tom Henke. The overused Ward frequently lost leads, forcing Gaston into a Plan B approach that kept Henke on the bench for days at a time, meaning when he finally got into games he was over-rested and tended to overthrow. By the time Gaston figured out how to manage a pitching staff in 1992-93, his starters were going deeper into games and his ace bullpen was used in a more traditional style, with greater returns.
Stieb and David Wells couldn’t stand Gaston. Wells famously blew up in a 1991 game when Gaston came out to remove him, tossing the ball into the outfield and stalking back to the dugout. Gaston got his revenge the next year, leaving Wells in the game long enough to endure the worst beating by a starter in team history.
Gaston is back to his old ways in 2009: overthinking the pitching and underthinking the hitting. Now that the hitters’ torrid start has cooled off, Gaston will have to manage more resourcefully to steer the Jays through choppy waters. A tough patch in the schedule has already handed the team a nine-game losing streak, and the negative press has begun to accumulate.
Toronto Star columnist Richard Griffin writes about Gaston’s managerial weak spot in this column, most damningly illustrated by Wednesday’s comically inept loss in Baltimore.
Photo reblogged from Go Jays Go
I know these two awesome girls. Superfine people, and tried-and-true fans of the (now) third-best team in the AL Beast.
NICE!
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Blue Jays in first place as Yankee circus stumbles into town
Pretty sweet time to be a Toronto Blue Jays fan. A fifth of a season is a decent sample, and these guys are holding down first place in the toughest division in baseball. The Jays have the best offensive numbers in the league and they’re winning games with a spit-and-bailing wire lineup of pitchers who should be in the minors: consider this - in the organizational depth chart, five of Toronto’s top seven starting pitchers are injured. It’s a terrific story, and it’s finally getting the Jays some love in the American sports media, too.
The key stat below, though, is the one in the right column: despite Toronto’s sexy record, “3-0” means it’s only played three games against its prime rivals, and those were against the always crummy Baltimore Orioles. The next fortnight’s when the baseball world learns whether the Jays are for real, as each of the Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees are on the docket. Even as some of the injured Jays pitchers figure to rejoin the team, the competition’s about to get considerably steeper.
Standings through May 11, 2009. (Legend: W- wins, L - losses, GB - games behind leader.)
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First up: the New York Yankees. Struggling on the field, but leading the league in press. Amid criticism over astronomically high-priced seats in its new ballpark and the shame of failing to make the playoffs last year despite the highest payroll in sports, the Yanks stumble into Toronto with risable superstar Alex Rodriguez making his way back into the lineup after missing the first five weeks of the season in recovery after hip surgery. Alex, better known to the public now as “A-Roid” for his off-season admission of past steroid use, is making $33 million this season (all figures U.S.), or $203,703.70 per game. He earned $5.7 M in the team’s first 28 games, none of which he played. He’ll earn $611,111 for the three games he plays in Toronto this week. Hey, it’s a free market system. System supports it, let him grab what he can. Not sure I like the steroids thing much. Pretty sure I don’t respect him over the fact he’s almost always failed when the game stakes have been high. But whatever. I can always boo his needle-ridden ass. Like these fans in Baltimore last weekend:
May 8, 2009. Amusingly creative Baltimore Orioles fans welcome Alex “A-Roid” Rodriguez (swinging bat in foreground) back to active duty after a five-week rehab from hip surgery. I’ll be damned if the prick didn’t homer on the first pitch he faced in a 4-1 Yankees win.
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You won’t easily score a ticket to tonight’s game: former Blue Jay A.J. Burnett is pitted against Jay stalwart Roy Halladay, which would be reason enough to pay attention, even without the A-Roid blather. An early pick for game-of-the-year, then.
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Link: World Series championship Jays teams to host major-league reunion in August →
This seems interesting. I’m pretty sure we won’t have a pennant race to believe in come August, but this might bump up ticket sales for a weekend. A few dozen players from the back-to-back champion Jays teams are congregating in Toronto to celebrate the, uhh, 16th and 17th anniversaries of their successes. My itinerary includes determining whether Dave Stieb will call me “Lenny” again, and huntin’ down a Tiny Tom’s donut kiosk.
