Friday is for the Birds

Today I could write about how the Tampas drowned the Twins by scoring seemingly 100 runs on 200 hits, but that would be an exaggaeration, it was merely 99 runs, thanks a doubleheader dream day by Ben Zobrist, who just took over the RBI lead.

I could talk about the Cleveland Indians who own the best AL Central record, lording themselves over 2nd place KC Royals ( I better double check that ), or the fact that the Red Sox just slid back into the basement with Carl Crawford hitting .160 ( don't you just love the irony ).

I open the papers to read about UFC 129, 6 pages of HGH enduced guys ready to pull limbs off each other, guess the Romans were right. Bread and Circuses keep the masses happy. A Federal election comes Monday in one of the quiestest campaigns I have ever witnessed. No Fuddle Duddle, no slips and falls, no gaffs, except Iggy tells university students he enjoyed a 4:20 puff now and again. C'mon Micheal, trying to attract the stoner crowd, waste of time pal. They don't vote, they don't remember where the shoes are half the time.

Get a kind of a rant going here, aren't I ?  Well, it's Friday, the Jays travelled to Deepinaherta Texas, and stole yesterday game form the Keystone Cops defense thrown up by the Rangers. Winning 3 out of 4 gains them some mo jo as the head to New York, then onto those Twin Stomping Rays in Tampa.  So this season is just full of suprises in Jays land, isn't folks ? Travis Snider, please pick up your complimentary Cirque de Soleil tickets at Gate 6, just in time to play for Vegas. 

4 games into the second 10 game road trip, and we hover under .500, so we need to go 3-3 and get our asses back to home cookin', and escape this heathen schedule. We need some heath and hitting injected up and down the line up. We should get the Rajah of Running Game back, plus we need Aaron Hill back at 2nd, and Jayson Nix back at 3rd, so we don't have to play Bleeping Encarnacion at 3rd anymore.

Get some offense from guys other than Jose and Adam, and Corey.  Get some deeper picthed games from Jo Jo, or this guy's toast, he is causing us to empty the bullpen way too early.

Okay so onto other interesting notes.

1.  Arthur was a very funny movie., go see and try not to laugh. Go, hurry, run...
2.  If you ever go to Sudbury, go to Nibbler's downtown, great soup.
3.  Encarnacion has made 7 errors for my fantasy team, where the hell is Evan Longoria ?
4.  I miss WKRP in Cincinnati, it's irreverance, it's ability to make us feel uncomfortable all the while amusing us.  "Red Wigglers, the Cadillac of Worms", best commercial ever.
5.  PK Subban has a $ 1 million set of hands and speed, and a 10 cent head, he don't get it, yet do he ?

6.  Prince Fielder ( off to a fabulous start ) is going to get a bucket load of money.
7.. Cam Newton is not smarter than Vince Young, so let's see how this plays out on Tobacco Road.
8.  The New York Yankees are looking better than I thought, despite paper thin pitching, not a good omen.
9.  When the hell is spring arriving, I mean really, I think it's either pouring rain, or 4 degrees C
10.  I just want to say " BOOGER".....

Dr. Johnny Fever

Remember boys and girls, vote early and vote often !

The Shots

Is it just me, or do the Jays current moves reflect a change ?

David Purcey, designated, then  traded to Oakland, 4 outings, could not find the strike zone.
Jesse Litsch, sent to Las Vegas, after a rough outing against the Red Sox, after 4 runs, he set down 11 in a row.
Brett Cecil , 4 poor outings, sent to Vegas, control issues, slower fastball.

By the way we are writing this on April 21st, and we started on March 31st. 3 weeks into the season.

We have had to deal with actual DL decisions for Rajah Davis, and shuttling Mike McCoy back and forth, bereavement leaves for Encarnacion, etc. But the demotions / decisions on the 3 pitchers has me guessing whether these are organisation decsions, made by Anthopolous or reactionary decisions by John Farrell.

I mean, these are not his guys, these are somebody else's players. But he had input based on spring training, right, so what's happened to sour these guys with their bench boss ?

I know we have a killer schedule for May, 2 10 game road trips, hitting Boston, New York and Tampa, as well as Texas. Plus an early west coast swing, but have we put so much stock into a quick start that our reeactions are geared to quick fixes.

Would prefer to be wrong about this, but maybe Rickey Romero should begin to worry too....the Daleks could gunning for you.

Cartoon Barry

 Just thought rather than a full fledged blog on the SF court case, it would be nicer to see what the media feel about Bonds.

Is Barry a joke, to my mind he is.

Will he serve any jail time, doubtful, but is hr guilty,  I think so.

42

As a reminder of the largest contributions ever made in the game, players all wore the same number 42.

Jack Robinson was the first black player to play in the modern era, and thanks to his dedication, and his perserverance, the current black players owe a huge debt to Jackie.  And Branch Rickey and the Dodgers of course.

About Jackie Robinson's life: Jackie Robinson, born January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. He grew up on Pepper Street, Pasa Dena. Jackie lived and went to college in California and played football for U.C.L.A. He was named to the All-American football team in 1941. While he was in college he played Baseball, Basketball, Football and Track and was the first athelete in town to earn varsity letters in four sports. In 1939 before Jackie was a baseball player he was a messanger at Warner Brothers Studios. Later after becoming a baseball star he made a movie on his childhood and was the first actual player to have movie about them with them in it. The movie about his life was produced by Warner Brothers Studios. This Baseball legend and strong supporter of the Civil Rights Movement passed away on October 24, 1972.


Rickey knew there would be difficult times ahead for the young athlete, and made Robinson promise to not fight back when confronted with racism. From the beginning of his career with the Dodgers, Robinson's will was tested. Even some of his new teammates objected to having an African-American on their team. People in the crowds sometimes jeered at Robinson, and he and his family received threats.
Despite the racial abuse, particularly at away games, Robinson had an outstanding start with the Royals, leading the International League with a .349 batting average and .985 fielding percentage. His excellent year led to his promotion to the Dodgers. His debut game on April 15, 1947, marked the first time an African-American athlete played in the major leagues.

The harassment continued, however, most notably by the Philadelphia Phillies and their manager Ben Chapman. During one infamous game, Chapman and his team shouted derogatory terms at Robinson from their dugout. Many players on opposing teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. Even his own teammates threatened to sit out. But Dodgers manager Leo Durocher informed them that he would sooner trade them than Robinson. His loyalty to the player set the tone for the rest of Robinson's career with the team.
Others defended Jackie Robinson's right to play in the major leagues, including League President Ford Frick, Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler, Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg and Dodgers shortstop and team captain Pee Wee Reese. In one incident, while fans harassed Robinson from the stands, Reese walked over and put his arm around his teammate, a gesture that has become legendary in baseball history.

Jackie Robinson succeeded in putting the prejudice and racial strife aside, and showed everyone what a talented player he was. In his first year, he hit 12 home runs and helped the Dodgers win the National League pennant. That year, Robinson led the National League in stolen bases and was selected as Rookie of the Year. He continued to wow fans and critics alike with impressive feats, such as an outstanding .342 batting average during the 1949 season. He led in stolen bases that year and earned the National League's Most Valuable Player Award.

Robinson stealing home

Bird Seed

As we enter Week 3 a few tid bits or seeds of note.

Brett Cecil has lost 5 mph of his fastball, if found please return to the Rogers Centre. Cecil hitting the high 80's currently but in no pain. Weird.

Aaron Hill's defense is keeping him valuable, his bat however has produced 7 hits, and again is below the Mendoza Line. When does last year's .205 batting average and this year's start begin to look like more than one poor season.

The power game has eluded the team after Game 5, great start, but it has waned, but could be due to a 3 game absence by Bautista.


When will they pull the plug on the 3rd base experiment with Encarnacion, 4 errors and mounting ?

Also, please somebody call in and rip the lack of caring that Juan Rivera seems to potray, I mean he looks like he is a zombie in the field, and you would have hoped for a guy traded by the Angels to mount some type of effort. He makes Hill look fabulous by comparison.

Octavio Dotel comes in and throws 10 pitches, ALL are strikes, gets 3 outs, then is yanked in favour of David Purcey who is asked to face a left handed hitter. He walks him on 4 pitches.  Ok, that makes sense.


We sit 5-4 after 3 series, tied with New York, and still ahead of 2-7 Boston and 1-8 Tampa, but does anyone feel we should be further ahead of our key rivals ? I do.  And yet Saturday's loss in 14 innings was compunded by Jered Weaver's 15 strike out performance, and we lose 2 out of 3 to the Angels.  A sense that we should have an even better record abounds.

I like this team, and one sub par series in Anaheim does not ruin it for me, but there was a downturn from the hitters, and I am now worried the offense is in a bad slide, but as they face Felix Hernandez, we cannot say that for certain until after a few more games.

No real criticisms of Farrell's managing yet, I sense the need to play all hands until he gets a better feel of who he wants in certain situations. I would hope that he keeps Escobar near the top of the line up, as he has outperformed with the bat more than anyone would expect. But it's still only Game 10 tonite, so much can chalked up to trying to find the right formula.

April will test the Jays, they played 6 at home, then this 10 game road swing, home for 5, then another 10 game road swing taking us into May.  They have roughly 17 road games out of 22, pretty tough sledding, so an 8-9 or better record on the road will leave them in good shape, 10 wins or better and they emerge in May in the hunt.

Pass the seed...our birds may take flight soon.

The Fan Cave

I thought I would investigate this new marketing ploy by MLB and it would appear that so far these two contest winners are not tired yet, but blood shot eyes are appearing.

The idea behind this is siumple, fans watching fans, watching baseball, literally every game they want, they watch, multiple screens, day and night, that is what these two dudes are doing.

Cannot imagine my boss allowing me the luxury of taking 6 plus months off just to watch games on Hi Def big screen TV`s, would yours.

These 2 tweet out to fans folowing them like a season long episode of Big Brother, but the ``catch` is, they don`t get voted out of this household.

I think other sports are closing watching this, and gauging the staying power, certainly now it`s all new, no fights, lots of excitment with home openers, afternoon games, and they are in the honeymoon phase.

Basketball, and Hockey might want to see after April and May passes, are these 2 at each other`s throat, or does it become tedious, and perhaps boring, remember, they can only stay in the Cave and watch baseball, there is no slipping out to watch Transformers 3, or The Green Lantern, in July, it`s all baseball, all the time.

If it works, get ready for season 2, with them also playing MLB The Show, ``well played Mauer``. Then the sports with multiple games per week will try and hop on board. The NFL is restricted mainly to Sunday, but if there are no games this season, will see their fan base eroded by baseball having centre stage. It hurt baseball in 94 with the Series cancelled, so will it hurt the NFL, yes, but only in certain markets.

The Cave Monster has as many games on as are being played, and so far the boys are commenting that they are watching teams they normally never watch, The Royals, the Pirates, The Jays and the Astros.

I will check in from time to time, as their live look in opportunities, liking watching the Truman Show.

I am intrigued, but not tempted enough to volunteer.

Drug Cheat finally hits the end of the road

So we have the news that Ramirez has chosen to retire instead of face the 100 game suspension he was about to get. what is shocking about this, he hit well in spring training, maybe not boffo, but enough to convince the rays they spent good money on the right guy, and it seemed like Manny had something to prove to all 29 teams that took a pass. That he was not washed up, and he could garner another 20 million dollar deal. Well I guess he had us fooled, again.

Manny has himself to blame for having walk away, nay skulk off into obscurity, maybe heading to the great Raphael Palmeiro cheat squad on the sidelines. Mark confessed, Arod danced around the subject, so did Giambi, " I did something bad, and I am sorry for it ".  Manny cheated us once, he parlayed that 20 million dollar Dodger deal for year one, then got sniffed out. Sorry Manny, fool me once , fool me twice, we will never play the role of fool again.  You own that role now, you leave the game with your name tarnished worse than 30 year discarded silverware. You disgraced yourself, and put your team in a real pickle. The Rays took you in when no one else would have you. 

The old clubhouse comedian act has been booed off stage, the class clown has been expelled, the ability to slough this stuff off has ended, with a whimper, and no bang.  It was ironic that whatever he was caught taking, and I have no knowledge of what it was, it had not helped him start the season off, he was 1-17 and leaves the field with poor memories.

Now the Rays must deal with the backlash, the aftermath, while Ramirez is likely holed up in a Brooklyn condo, or Florida hideaway waiting for Tiger Woods or Roger Clemens to say or do something stupid to divert attention. C'mon Charlie Sheen !!!

He was in his hey day, thee most feared American League hitter, I think even more than Arod, or Vladdy. He was just capable of so much damage, a quick strike and bam, gone, 3 runs later, the Sox were back in a game, or the outcome was out of reach.  He was born in the Bronx, but never wore the pinstripes, his career started in Cleveland, and it was when he moved to Beantown that things flourished.  2 World Series titles and many playoff appearances. It had been a long time between post season success, really not much with the Dodgers.

But that half season when he joined LA was some of the best ball he had ever played. Hell they created Mannywood and Mannyworld sections. There were some epic moments on a large Hollywood stage.

Vin Scully though always a bit hesitate to engulf the "full Manny", and perhaps he sensed there was somnething that was not quite true, but nothing you could point to, and Vin, you were right.

ESPN's Dan Schulman ( now star of Sunday Night Baseball ) thought that after his 50 game suspension, that he should have retired after that season, that it proved too hard to miss that amount of time and come back strong. Without the wonder drugs, being clean meant playing with less gas in the tank. Less bounce, and less juice.

Can't say I was ever a huge Manny fan, he was a bad ball hitter, a horrible fielder, a malcontent, and a distraction in his own clubhouse, but you wanted his potent bat on your team, because the explosion was imminent. The RBI production was consistant, and the ability to poke fun at himself was infectous. 

But all acts at some point when the numbers dry up wear thin, and the curtain pulls back and you see it's not the Wizard of Oz, but a cheap imitation. 

A drug cheat at the end, and that's what he leaves behind. The smile is gone, and the sour taste of another drug cheat hitting the skids.

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out Manny.