- Holy Jumpin’ Bejesus, Batman! I didn’t realize this today, but Sportsnet are showing every American League East team on their network tonight, with Red Sox/Yankees on Sportsnet East, while Sportsnet West has Rays/Orioles. The main feed will have Indians/Jays. Wowzers.
- If that wasn’t enough the Penguins and Capitals renew hostilities tonight at 7pm on CBC. We are actually forced to watch it on CBC tonight – we were spoiled with the vastly superior NBC coverage on Saturday afternoon.
- Vernon Wells stepped to the plate yesterday and sent a bomb to the warning track. Centrefielder Adam Jones, in a full sprint, blew a bubble with his gum. He caught the ball. Anyone else catch that?
- I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that fewer male “journalists” would be attacking Selena Roberts if she was, say, Erin Andrews. Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Here‘s a good editorial on The Big Lead with more on this issue.
- Rod Barajas is hitting .342.
- I’m not 100% certain, but I think the Jays are 3-0 when Geddy Lee is in his seat behind the plate at Rogers Centre. I’ll make an attempt to track that this year.
- Speaking of the Rush frontman: do you think if Raul Chavez tried to pull a Joe Montana “John Candy” moment on Saturday, that the young future ace replied with: “Who the fuck is Geddy Lee?”.
‘Twas s nice little weekend in sport, that. Let’s dive right in with another edition of The Twit!
- Robert Ray made his Major League debut and went (almost) 6 innings, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits. Best part is that he seemed to settle down after conceding a first inning home run to Adam Jones.
- If you have a young child, and you are looking for a professional athlete for them to treat as a role model (careful now), look no further than Jays 2nd baseman Aaron Hill. As far as I can tell he is loved equally by his teammates, management and the members of the media who cover him (and probably his Mom). Plus he delivers heroics as witnessed in the bottom of the 10th and 11th innings of Saturday’s game. First he booted the ball in the top of the 10th, spotting the O’s a one run lead, only to homer in the bottom frame to tie it again and in the 11th sealed the game with a walk-off base hit. NAILS.
- It was extremely difficult to juggle between watching the Jays game and the Pens-Caps opener. My brain was saying “playoff hockey is special, it only comes once a year (for two months, but still), and this series will be the most compelling story”. My heart was singing:
I managed to do a decent job as I didn’t miss any of the goals, and caught most of the pertinent Jays moments. Most importantly I got to watch every second of extra innings.
- Here’s hoping that the Pens/Caps series continues to be as good as the first game. Crosby and Ovechkin scoring, physical play from both sides, and the goalies stood on their heads (and sticks). If you haven’t yet seen the amazing save by Varlamov that preserved the final score, here it is in all its glory:
- I think there was a horse race or something. People wore hats. Not sure on the details though.
- The Jays and Scott Richmond (4-0) just kept on rolling Sunday, getting the brooms out in what surprisingly was their first sweep of 2009. Goodbye Orioles, come back soon! They Jays now have eight of the 14 wins I requested when their current 20 games in 20 days started. Two more wins and they go .500 for that stretch. Starting tonight the Jays will see the Indians twice, the Angels twice and finish up with a three game set against the Athletics. Something tells me they can scratch two wins out of those games.
- Triple overtime in the Ducks-Red Wings game yesterday was pretty cool, and once again was the scene for two outstanding goalie performances. Chris Osgood held up a middle finger to all his critics and Jonas Hiller showed everyone why he was the right choice over Jean-Sébastien Giguère.
Snider: Take a long term view?
- I’ll come right out and be the first to say it. Maybe it’s time for Travis Snider to head to Las Vegas to work on his swing. I realize this comes after a weekend in which he made some spectacular plays in the outfield (Brian Roberts won’t soon forget The Travis). However, he’s in a 6-for-33 slump which leaves him with a .229 average. My reasoning includes an excuse to send him down six weeks, which would give the Jays an extra year of control over Travis, as Bart Given explained before the season began. Everyone kinda forgot about it after Snider jumped out to a fantastic rookie-of-the-year-ish start, but now the question needs to be asked: Would a platoon of Jose Bautista and Joe Inglett really be a downgrade at this point?
- Caught the last period of Bruins/Canes last night and it was highly entertaining. Cam Ward (recurring theme alert) was spectacular facing wave after wave of Winnie The Pooh attacks. At one point during a series of successive Ward saves, the usually staid Gord Miller ran out of octaves to which he could climb. Doesn’t get better than that.
- The Jays send Brian Tallet (1-1) to the mound tonight, and the Jays hitters will face Fausto Carmona (1-3).
It is bye bye to Messieurs Burres, Bullington and Purcey, and hello to you Messieurs Wolfe, Ray and Cecil. Here’s hoping you can do the job a little more effectively than your predecessors (although Bullington was somewhat effective – why he was sent down is not immediately clear).
The Jays are 11 games into their 20 straight games without a day off, and if you recall I had asked for 14 wins in this strectch. With nine games to go the Jays have secured six wins, meaning they would have to win eight of their next nine to achieve this feat. A tall order indeed. You could see them sweep the Orioles and maybe the Athletics, but a looming series with the powerful Angels might be too much to ask. I wasn’t counting on Romero landing on the DL and David Purcey being unable to find the strike zone. Such is basbeball, though, and you’ve got to factor the unexpected into your predictions.
It’s May 2nd and the Jays are still leading the American League East. They’ve now won a game against a division rival, but I’m sure the naysayers will now point out that it was against the lowly Orioles. Fuck them, they’re just eager to get some egg off their faces after predicting a season of doom and gloom for the Jays. As it stands, the Jays have given us one month of pure bliss, which is more than most expected out of them.
Today we get to watch a kid make his major league debut on the mound. Robert Ray is 25 and was drafted by the Jays in the seventh round of the 2007 draft. He played his college ball with Texas A&M. He has very little experience in pro ball, but the stats he’s amassed so far are pretty decent. Here’s hoping the Orioles hitters have hard time figuring him out.
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