Friday Night Boneheads!

So there we (Holly and I) were on Friday night, at our usual seats, 2nd row, section 519. After 3 innings we decided to move to some a more spacious row that had some room to stretch out! We grabbed a beer and moved up to the 11th row where we had nobody beside us or behind us. After 1 inning, 2 guys came up and sat behind us and the one douchebag just started yelling and screaming at the players. Of course, don't the two of them then pull out a mickey of booze and fill up their pops. Not 5 minutes later, 4 girls come up and join them. The group's age was probably about 22 at the most. Of course the girls come up and proceed to gaggle and screech about how drunk they were! Super, we thought, it is time to check out of here. Especially after douchebag #1 started screaming again.

We went to get another beer but I couldn't purchase 2 at once. Holly had to come to the vendor to get one herself. We also got ID'd as this is a new procedure on Friday nights. The security guard at the beer stand told us that Friday night games are starting to attract rowdy fans that come to get loaded and cause problems. I had to give the Rogers Centre and Jays management credit. They are trying to limit the amount of drunkenness without eliminating sale of beer on the 500 level altogether on Friday nights. Holly and I noticed after we had changed sections that security actually went up to the douchebags and spoke with them. After that, the screaming and swearing stopped.

To add to the night, as Holly and I were waiting for the GO train to go back to Burlington, there was another douchebag puking on different platform at Union Station. It was a nice cap to the night!

Cheers.

Hangin' In

Four for 8 with runners in scoring position???? Are you talking about the Jays? The '08 Jays??? WOW!
I was reading the paper this morning and was surprised to learn that The Jays are in 4th place in the AL with the number of hits and on-base percentage. However, as you probably know, it is their inability to get the runners in scoring position across home plate that has proven their hindering factor against a +.500 record.

It was good to see a few bloop singles drop in and score some runs. Then Lyle Overbay hit a homerun to put them ahead after the Angels tied it. The BEEJ, coming in and saving his 10th in as many tries looks better. Even when he puts guys on with walk or a hit, he manages to bunker down and hold the fort!

I'm going to the game tonight against the Royals. Candy Maldanado will the the Flashback Friday feature player. I still remember his hit in the '92 World Series that gave them the win (I think in game 3, but may have been 4).

I went to the Toronto FC game on Wednesday night and I have to say that it is the best sporting atmoshpere in Toronto by far. The Jays home-opener this year was a blast, but considering the FC game was a regular, middle of the season game played in a steady rain, it was amazing. The crowd is constantly singing, chanting, playing drums and cowbells (that's right, more cowbell).

It will be interesting to compare the two events. Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog.

Cheers.

Back to the same old, same old

Nothing like having the bases loaded on 3 separate occasions and not being able to cash in a run. YIKES.

I've got to give Rios a little credit though. He is going through a terrible slump (13 for 78 with 23 strikeouts) and he got caught looking at a called 3rd strikeout to end the game with the bases loaded. However, he did have the onions to stick around after the game and face the media. That could not have been the place that he wanted to be, but he is getting paid big bucks and at least he realizes that he has to be accountable.

At least the Yankees got crushed last night 12-2 by the Orioles!

Cheers.

Hooray for Overbay!

Good Evening:

It's been a few days since my last post, but it's been a busy weekend!

Holy crap, did you see Lyle jack a pinch-hit 3-run shot yesterday against the Phillies? He should have taken more time to admire that monster!!!!!!!!!
Reading The Star today and learned how Halladay got into the game as a reliever. It wasn't that Gibby asked him. Nope, The Doc volunteered to go in because he thought it would be tough on an already tired relieving corps so he pitched in with 2+ innings of work. Too bad that he didn't get the win for his efforts!

Looking at the standings in the AL East, the Jays still remain 4 back of The Bosox, but aren't in last place. That honour belongs to the Yankees for the time being. However, I'm sure the Orioles will find themselves there in the very near future. I have a new sense of respect for the Rays (nee Devil Rays) as they continue to hang tough in the divisional race. I'm not entirely convinced yet that they can keep it going. Although they do seem to have the pitching and hitting going right now.

If the Jays can get their shit together, I think they have a legitimate shot at beating the Yankees in the division for the first time in how many years???? I'm guessing since 1995. The Yankees just don't seem to have the pitching after Chin Ming Wong to keep up with the Sox, Rays, and Jays. Time will tell and the Yankees have been written off in May a few times in the last 3 years, but managed to find themselves in the post season for the umpteenth straight year.

I'll be at the game on Friday night vs. the Kansas City Royals.

Cheers.

More on Alan

In my earlier blog I spoke about Alan Ashby as the colour commentator for games on the radio. As I was listening to the game, I realized what great insight he brings. He caught in the majors for 17 years. He caught some hall of famers as well. Who is that guy again, you know, 5000+ strikeouts, 7 no-hitters???? Oh yeah, Nolan Ryan!

Anyways, he was talking about how a catcher approaches a mound visit differently depending on the pitcher. He used the Jays pitchers and Greg Zaun as an example. Zaun will visit Halladay on the mound to discuss an approach against a hitter, but won't approach him to cool him down after a bad hit or a run scoring single. He knows enough to leave him alone because Halladay can deal with it on his own, and Zaun visiting him will only piss him off. Contrastingly, Zaun would visit Marcum or Litsch to cool them down and get their head in the right place, perhaps as a steadying hand during troubled times.

Not really something that I had thought of before.

Didn't hear any of the game today because it was an afternoon deal, but it is good to see they swept the Twins.

Cheers.

O Canada

It was an impressive display last night by the Canadian boys, Matt Stairs and Justin Morneau. Stairs hit a grand slam in the first and Morneau hit a 2-run shot in the bottom of the inning.

Finally, Roy Halladay got some run support, although he didn't make it easy on himself. Given a 4-run lead before he had thrown a pitch, he gave 3 back in the first and then the game was tied in the 3rd. Luckily, newcomer Brad Wilkerson knocked home Shannon Stewart home and then Scott Rolen scored on a bonehead move by the pitcher to score the winning run as the Jays won 6-5.

In an earlier blog I spoke about Rance Mullinicks as my preferred colour commentator on Jays broadcasts on TV. I am now really starting to enjoy Alan Ashby on the radio. He adds insightful comments, but also has a good command of the english language. Sometimes, with colour men being former athletes, they can butcher the language (remember Joe Carter as a Jays and then Cubs colour man?) He provides a nice change from Jerry Howarth when he takes a break, and then compliments him well when they work together during the middle innings. It is tough though to beat Howarth's call of a Jays home-run (Yes-sir, and there she goes, a grand-slam by Matt Stairs!) That call sure beats the commentator on YES (the Yankees network). That douchebag does this stupid call of....SEE YA everytime a Yankee hits one out.

Spoke to The Dad on Tuesday as it was his birthday (Happy Birthday again Dad) and it was great to hear that although he lives in BC, he still catches the Jays on XM! You can take the guy out of Ontario.....but you can't take Ontario out of the guy!

OK, let's hope for the sweep and get closer to .500 for the year.

Cheers.

Jesse the new Gus?

Remember a few years back when Gustavo Chacin won 13 games in his rookie year? He did it despite seeming to give up 1 run less than was scored for him. He would win games 8-7, 6-4, 11-9, and so on. He would never seem to pitch more than 6 innings though.

Jesse Litcsh pitched 5 and 2/3 innings last night, but to his credit, only gave up 2 runs. It seems that whenever Jesse is on the hill, the Jays bats seem to scrape together enough hits and runs to give the sophmore the win. He leads the Jays with a 5-1 record. To the rotation's credit though, all of the pitchers would have more wins if the bats would have give them more support than they have.

Matt Stairs went deep last night for the 5th time this year. As a team, the Jays have hit just over half of the home-runs that they had hit at this point last year. So far in '08 they have 25 HR's compared to 48 last year at this point.

It is a little scary to think that the pitchers have to be almost perfect for the Jays to win each game since the bats are almost comatose. It must be difficult on the pitchers to have to bear down on every pitch because they know that if they make a mistake, it could end up costing them and the team in the win column since the bats won't be able to get them back in the game.

Hopefully the Jays can get all over Boof Bonser (best name in baseball, but Coco Crisp is a close second) who isn't have a great year so far. Then again, if you look at the numbers only, Roy Halladay isn't having a great year either, but we know that he record is 2-5 because he has had terrible run support. You don't get to pitch 5 complete games when you don't have your best stuff. You pitch 3 complete game losses because you've pitched so good, the manager wants you to have a chance to get the win but the bats do squat.

Cheers.

A Saving Split...Step Out!

Morning Jays Fans (I know you're out there....somewhere)

Sorry about not having a post since Thursday, I was in Montreal with some fellas for a stag party. Gotta love Montreal! Special thanks to Lewin for helping me out with a Top 5 question (Step Out...sorry if I woke you up).

Too bad about AJ in the first game yesterday. He pitched pretty good. 7 plus innings, 3 runs, 9 K's but takes the loss as once again the Jays bats are nowhere to be found. Shawn Marcum had it tough against Cliff Lee last night but didn't flinch and held his own. Lee is 6-0 with an ERA of 0.81 which will fall after his scoreless 9 innings last night. Those are some hot numbers!!

It figures that with the Jays offence totally floundering, manager Gibbons tries to manufacture some runs by putting on the hit-and-run with runners on 1st and 2nd and Overbay up batting and it all goes wrong...triple wrong! Lyle hit into an unassisted triple play, only the 14th in history of baseball. Luckily the Jays got the bats going in the 10th after 21 scoreless innings and won the 2nd game 3-0.

It will be interesting to see how the Jays do with Wells out along for 6-8 weeks. I just can't picture them being able to get the bats going enough to get back into the East. They've lost their opportunity, as they did last year, with Boston and New York relatively struggling at the start of the season.

The road trip continues for the Jays....

1st in 20 Games!

Hot Stuff. The Jays bats came alive to score more than 5 runs in a game for the first time in 20 games. The longest streak in the AL for scoring 5 runs or less was 5 games this season. The last team to have a streak as long as the Jays were the 2002 Tigers.

Shaun Marcum was on fire last night. Too bad he couldn't get the complete game shutout.

What was really interesting last night with the offense was the way that after Rolen's HR in the 8th, the batters just seemed to relax and let the pitches come to them. There were lots of opposite field hits through the infield. I can imagine that about a week or two ago, those hits were getting hit right at the shortstop and double-plays were getting turned.

Speaking of Rolen, I was speaking with my buddy Foucault last night and just commenting on Scott Rolen. He is just a vacuum out there at 3rd. I imagine you don't win 7 gold gloves for being lucky. It's not that he is flashy at 3rd base (I haven't seen many flashy plays yet, but I'm sure we will), but he always seems to be in the right position to make the play. I suppose that could also be the excellent coaching of Brian Butterfield who is the infield coach (along with bench manager). But what a cannon of an arm. It is a confidence builder for the pitchers when they know they can put the ball in play and have Scott ready at 3rd to gobble them up.

Tonight it is Jesse Litsch. Let's see if he can get the good times rolling again and beat the damn Rays. They just always have such a tough time against those guys!

Cheers.

Hello Syracuse....Is Russ Adams Handy???

Uh-oh, the streak ends, the shortstops go down, and Hinske hits a difference making home-run last night.

The move by JP to pick up Marco Scutaro looks pretty good right now as both Eckstein and Johnny Mac went down last night with injuries. Eckstein went down with a hip flexor/groin injury and is probably day-to-day. Johnny Mac went down with a high ankle sprain and could be out a while. Luckily, the Jays do have Scutaro to fill in and he has played a lot of shortstop over the years so it isn't too much of a worry. I'm thinking they may have to call up Russ Adams if Eckstein will be out for a while because I'm not sure who else can play second or short.

Loved to hear the boos raining down on Eric Hinske last night and especially after he hit a bomb off of Windows restaurant. Can't believe he has 7 home-runs already!! Come to think of it, can't believe that the Rays actually have a decent team this year. Their bullpen is 2nd in the league in ERA and that can make a huge difference in the Win/Loss column. It will be interesting to see if they can keep it up. But tell me...is Troy Percival huge or what. When was the last time that guy hit the exercise room???

I really enjoy the colour work of Rance Mulllinicks during Jays games. During a Lyle Overbay at bat last night, Rance observed that Lyle has started to look really comfortable and his body language is really quiet. He stated that Overbay is starting to look dangerous. What does Overbay do on the next pitch??? He just launches one to center field that hits the top of the fence and bounces back into play. Too bad really as it would have tied the game if it had gone out. However, it is good to see his bat starting to heat up because the Jays need all the bats to get going. Aaron Hill and Alex Rios also have to get the bats going.

Looks like AJ's curveball was working last night as he struck out 10. However, the usual AJ inconsistency befell him last night as he only pitched six innings while giving up 9 hits and 5 earned runs.

Come-on Marcum, get the boys back on track tonight please!!

Cheers.

Tuesday Morning Musings!!

Good morning Jays fans. A bit of a nail-biter last night with BeeJ on the mound but in the end, he got the job done.

Maybe it's just me, but a sense of calm comes over me when Matt Stairs comes to bat. I think it is because you never see him get cheated at the plate. You don't often see him come up to bat with a couple of runners on and hit a dribbler back to the pitcher or a slow roller to 2nd base. He's either going down swinging, or more often than not, he is driving the ball to the outfield or beyond! He just seems to be clutch! Last night, his solo home-run was the difference as Vasquez and McGowan each pitched a gem.

Speaking of McGowan, he really has come of age. Remember the time of 2 years ago where he would be lights out through the first four innings and then he would have a blow-up inning in the 5th or 6th, give up 4 runs and then it would be it for him? Now, he still gets into the odd jam (see 3rd inning last night), but he limits the damage and continues on with the game. Last night, he had runners on 2nd and 3rd with none out, but got out of it without giving up a run (albeit with some questionable baserunning by the Sox).

Don't look know but here come the Jay's achilles heel (sorry Lewin...sore spot for you). The Tampa Bay Rays. Let's pay them back and sweep them. It is too bad that despite the 5 game run that the Jays are on, they haven't made up any ground in the east. But as I said yesterday, they haven't lost any ground either so although they are still 4.5 back of Boston, at least they aren't 8 back!!!

Cheers,
Booze

The Doc is In

It was good to see The Doc get some decent run support this afternoon, although he almost gave it all right back in the 4th inning.

Matt Stairs was crushing the ball whenever he stepped up to the plate, as were a bunch of the Jays. It was good to see that the bats are coming around (slowly but surely).

Of course with the Bosox winning this afternoon against the Rays, the Jays didn't gain any ground on them, but they didn't lose any ground either. If they keep winning series, they can get right back in the race. Hopefully, they'll come to play tomorrow night and sweep all 4 games against the ChiSox.

Until tomorrow....

Great Game....Terrible Audio!

Good game, good outcome, terrible audio is the theme for today.

When I was watching the game last night, I realized how much I like watching Mark Buerhle pitch. He is like the Doc. He pitches quickly. The only thing better than having Marcum pitch last night would have been for Halladay to have pitched and then the game would have been done in less than 2 hours.

The game was broadcast by Sportsnet, and I'm going to have to watch the game today to see if it was just last night's telecast that had terrible audio. I found that I could barely hear Jamie Campbell and Rance Mullinicks' commentary as it was drowned out by the echo of fans and ambient noise at the Roger's Centre. I'm no audio technician, but can't they turn the mikes down that are used for crowd/ambient noise and/or turn up the mikes of the commentators? By the eighth inning, I was going so crazy trying to hear what they were saying that I used an old Cookball trick and actually emailed the network. For those who don't know who Cookball is, well, I suppose we should refer you to Top5ives.com where I think a top 5 list of Cookball moments is called for. He is a mate who once called Fox in the US to tell them to put the score back on the screen during the baseball playoffs. God Bless that Kid!!!

Anyways, good game result. Hopefully the Jays can keep the W-Train going and get back in the East race.

Booze

What an April!

Holy Crap!

11 and 17 in April! Not a good month to start the year. And is that the Tampa Bay Rays (nee Devil Rays) that I see at the top of the AL East? I must be dreaming. I must also be dreaming as I've watched The Doc pitch 3 consectutive complete game losses in a row.

In the latest Jays swoon, you definitely cannot fault the pitchers. They have all made quality to great quality starts in the most recent trip through the rotation. It is the bats that are in the shitter. What doe JP Riccardi need to do? Fire John Gibbons? Why would JB deserve that? He is not up there hitting the ball. He is trying to manufacture runs any way he can. To give Riccardi credit, he took full blame on Jays Talk with Mike Wilner after last nigh'ts debacle.

Hitters are in the tank and once again, it is hitting with runners in scoring position (or lack thereof) that is killing them.

As an aside, does anybody else cringe when a ball is hit to David Eckstien and he has to hurry a throw? I watched him last night lob a ball over to Overbay as if it were a hand grenade. Luckily, Lyle was able to dig it out of the dirt. It was an ugly, ugly throw.

Hopefully, the Jays can win tonight and at least finish the road trip from hell at 2 and 7.