He Can Take The Hit.

Major League Baseball may soon be playing again, but two big names won't be.  David Price has announced he will not be pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers this year due to concerns over COVID 19.  He's the second high profile player to make such an announcement, as Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals has also said he won't play in this year's abbreviated season.

Price will be losing 11.9 million dollars for not playing.  But he can take the hit.  He made 31 million dollars last year.  Zimmerman made a mere 2 million last year.  Of course an obvious question is how might the layoff effect Price's pitching next year.  He's 34.

It Could Have Been Better.

Baseball season is here.  Unfortunately the Blue Jays lost their home opener this afternoon against Detroit.  But it actually was a good game.  There was no score into extra innings because the Blue Jays and Tigers played well, not because both teams played equally horribly.   And Toronto hasn't won a home opener since 2011, so we probably shouldn't be surprised they didn't win this one.

Cool, I actually have a Detroit Tigers tag.

Let's Buy The Blue Jays!

In case you hadn't heard Rogers is thinking about selling the Toronto Blue Jays. If they actually do put it up for sale why don't we buy it?  I can probably put up a couple hundred bucks.  You've probably got a billion or two lying around, right?  Know someone who does?  Maybe we could start a GoFundMe page.  It can't be that hard to scrape together 2 billion dollars.

To be slightly more serious I wonder who would buy a Canadian market MLB team.  Perhaps Rogers Centre will be Loblaws Dome in a couple of years.  Or Jim Pattison Group could decide a baseball team would be a nice addition to its portfolio.

I Hope You Stayed.

If you were at Rogers Centre this afternoon I hope you didn't leave the Blue Jays game early.  Seeing Steve Pearce hit his second walk off grand slam in 4 games on TV was amazing.  I'm sure it was even more amazing to see it in person.  I suspect that no one will be throwing anything hittable to Pearce if the bases are loaded for a good while to come.

Stro Makes It Go.

If you're a Jays fan I hope you've been watching the game tonight.  Marcus Stroman hit the first home run of his career just a few minutes ago.  The only other Jays pitcher to hit a home run  was Mark Hendrickson back in 2003 against the Montreal Expos.  So cool.

"Superman" Crashes.

Kevin Pillar has been one of the most popular Toronto Blue Jays over the last couple of years.  He regularly makes spectacular catches in the outfield, and this year has been one of the team's best hitters.  But his popularity may take a hit after last night's game against the Atlanta Braves.  After striking out to Braves reliever Jason Motte in the seventh inning Pillar threw a number of curses at Motte, which reportedly included a homophobic slur.  After the game Pillar apologised, but Major League Baseball is investigating the incident, and sanctions may be possible. 

This is sure to remind some Blue Jays fans of Yunel Escobar.  During a 2012 game then Jays shortstop Escobar had a Spanish language homophobic slur written in his eye black.  The team suspended him for three games, and donated his salary for those games to gay rights groups.  There would later be speculation that Escobar's tenure with the team was cut short due to his behaviour, as he was traded to the Miami Marlins late that year. His contract was set to continue into the 2013 season, with options for 2014 and 2015. 

If Pillar were to be suspended for this incident, even if presumably only for two or three games, it would just add to the woes of the Jays, who have blown the momentum they gained with their recent five game winning streak.  It may also have an effect on the marketing of the team, given that Pillar has played a prominent role in that marketing.

How many gay players are there in the majors?  No one knows.  You can be sure that incidents like this won't encourage them to come out while they're players.  Such incidents may also discourage gay youth from considering a baseball career.  A lot has changed in pro sports in recent years regarding the way such things are treated, but the actual climate on the field is still questionable.

Endurance Test.

Did you watch last night's Blue Jays/Angels game?  Did you watch it all the way to the end?  If you're a Jays fan the payoff was worth it, but getting there was quite the task.  Of course it was easier for those of us on the west side of the country, since it was only 8 PM or earlier when it started.  I imagine a lot of viewers in Ontario and east jumped ship pretty early, even if today is a Saturday, when they might sleep in.  Given some of what happened last night I wouldn't be surprised if the management in Buffalo got some very early phone calls today.  And hopefully today's game, besides being another Jays win, will be considerably shorter.

You Just Know It Will Happen.

Now that the Cubs have won the World Series for the first time in 108 years, they won't win it for another 108 years. 

Of course no one reading this in 2016 will be around to know I'm right if I am right. 

Goodbye, Mr. Ortiz.

David Ortiz's career ended tonight on a positive note, with Big Papi reaching base on an 8th inning walk.  Unfortunately for the Red Sox they couldn't get the runs they needed, and the Cleveland Indians beat them.  So it will be Cleveland versus Toronto for the pennant, with the first game Friday in Cleveland.

It will be interesting to see if we'll see Ortiz in a dugout again.  I can imagine someone wanting him as a hitting coach, but he may have other plans.  Whatever his plans if I were him I'd take a year off to just sit around the house, something he hasn't had a chance to do in his adult life.

Cheer Up, Texas Rangers Fans.

The general suspicion amongst much of the Blue Jays fandom is that Rogers, the giant Canadian multimedia company that owns the Jays, won't pony up the money to insure a playoff viable team next year.  So next year you may very well not have to worry about facing the Jays in the playoffs.

And be nice to poor Rougned Odor.  Everyone makes mistakes.

3 For 2.

Baseball is a game where attention is paid to a lot of numbers.  Some are considered important guides to success or failure, while others are simply fun.  Sometimes they're both.  Last night we saw the Toronto Blue Jays win the American League Wild Card game with a 3 run home run by Edwin Encarnacion.  Tonight we saw the San Francisco Giants win the National League Wild Card game with a 3 run home run by Connor Gillaspie.    Back to back games won by the same method.  This will be even more cool if both teams make it to the World Series.

Probably A Drop.

The Blue Jays are over on the West Coast at the moment.  They just won the first of 4 games against the Los Angeles Angels, and then will head to Seattle to take on the Mariners.  It would be interesting to see the ratings for the evening games during this road trip.  I suspect they probably drop some.  After all it's after 1:30 AM in Toronto as I write this, and even later further east.  Some eastern viewers probably skip the games entirely, knowing they can't stay up to watch the whole thing.  Others probably watch the first few innings before going to bed.  Even here in Saskatchewan the late innings of these games probably get skipped by a few viewers, since they take place around 11 PM.

I wonder if TV ratings might be an issue for anyone considering a MLB team for Vancouver.  Regular viewership for evening games might be pretty low for such a team in much of the country, compared to the Blue Jays.  Of course the lack of a suitable stadium, and potential opposition from the Mariners, are probably bigger concerns before the issue of TV broadcast revenue comes up.

Already Gone.

It's great when your favourite team is in the running for the playoffs, like the Toronto Blue Jays are.  But for fans of other baseball teams they already know their teams won't make it, despite there being just a bit less than a month left in the season.  The teams we already know won't win their divisions are the Minnesota Twins, the Atlanta Braves, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Cincinnati Reds.  The Oakland As will join the out of it gang either tonight or tomorrow, and several other teams aren't far behind.  The National League Central may have the most anti-climatic ending of all, with the utterly dominant Chicago Clubs having a 15 and a half game lead on the second place St. Louis Cardinals, although the Cards continue to be leading contenders for the National League Wild Card.  The Twins were the first team eliminated from Wild Card contention, and the Braves are probably the next ones out. 

Baturday.

You could of course call any Saturday during the Major League Baseball season Baturday(or perhaps it should be Batterday).  But yesterday seemed to especially fit the term.

Directly relevant to Canadian baseball fans was yesterday's 9-6 Blue Jays victory over the Cleveland Indians.  After Friday's 19 inning endurance match, which saw the Indians win in the 19th inning, a high scoring game was probably to be expected.  It ended the Indians franchise record 14 game winning streak.  On the other hand the Indians had something to cheer about in former Blue Jay Rajai Davis hitting for the cycle, the first time an Indians player has done so since 2003.

The biggest bash of the day was of course the Los Angeles Angels putting the beat on to the Boston Red Sox.  I went out to get a snack just before the 7th inning, with the Angels already ahead 9-1.  So I missed most of the top of the 7th, when the Angels scored 11 runs.  Nasty.  And the big heroes in the game were a couple of players you wouldn't have expected.  Albert Pujols having 5 RBI?  No surprise.  But unless you're an Angels fan you probably aren't familiar with C.J. Cron and Carlos Perez.  Yet Cron went 6 for 6, including 2 home runs, and earned 5 RBIs.  Perez went 5 for 6 and generated 6 RBIs.  Had Perez gone 6 for 6 it would have been the first time 2 players on the same team had gone 6 for 6 since the 1920s.  Perez also managed to increase his batting average 20 points if I'm not mistaken.  And to add insult to injury the Angels are not a good team this year, sitting 15 games below .500 even with yesterday's win.  John Farrell called Boston's performance embarrassing.

The weak beating the strong was also a theme in other games.  The lowly Minnesota Twins, at a dismal 26-54, beat the 52-30 Texas Rangers 17-5.  The wimpy Atlanta Braves beat the Miami Marlins 9-1.  Atlanta's currently 28-53, while the Marlins are 5 games over .500.  And the Cincinnati Reds beat the National League East leading Washington Nationals 9-4, the Reds being another team who are a long way from .500.

Not all the games were big hitting affairs.  The closest was the San Diego Padres(another team with a seriously losing record) beating the Yankees 2-1 with a walk off home run by Melvin Upton Jr.  But you still have to wonder what was in the Gatorade  around the league yesterday.

Interestingly Toronto was the only American League East team to win yesterday.  So thank you to the Angels and the rest for helping them out.

Blast From The Baseball Past.

Interesting news on the Blue Jays broadcast front.  Veteran Canadian sports broadcaster Dan Shulman will be doing play by play on 30 Toronto Blue Jays games next year, as well as appearing on other Rogers Sportsnet baseball coverage.  Shulman was Buck Martinez's broadcast partner on Blue Jays broadcasts on TSN(remember when TSN and CBC had baseball broacasts?) between 1995 to 2001 before joining ESPN.  He'll continuing working for ESPN on baseball and basketball broadcasts, ensuring he'll be a busy man next year.  I'm sure there's an interesting story on how this all came about.

Strange Scheduling.

The fact I'm sitting here watching the Blue Jays on a Friday, and it's not even 11 AM, is odd.  If you're a Texas Rangers fan in Texas, where it's coming up on noon, it's only slightly less odd.  A lot of the audience for both teams will be busy at work, at school etc.  It would be really interesting to know who made the scheduling decision, and what they were thinking.  I know that getting in four games in one day meant compromises, but still....

The Truly Important Blue Jays Question.

Was today's top of the ninth at bat by Munenori Kawasaki his last appearance as a Blue Jay?  My personal dream scenario is Kawasaki hitting a walk off grand slam to win the World Series for the Jays.

First Out.

Condolences to Cincinnati Reds fans.  The Reds unfortunately became the first MLB team eliminated from winning their division.  It's going to be a long month for you guys.  The Brewers will probably be joining the crowd within the next day or two.  Both teams are technically still in contention for the wildcard, but that door too is getting pretty close to closing. 

Get Well, John.

Former Blue Jays and current Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell has announced he has stage one lymphoma.  This is good news for very bad news, as this means his cancer has been caught early and hence is highly treatable.  Here's hoping he gets well soon.  In his absence Torey Lovullo will be interim manager.

Brendan Ryan's Moustache.

With the Jays playing the Yankees twice within the span of a week I've been exposed to the moustache of Yankees player Brendan Ryan.  Does anyone find it makes them think of the moustache Yankee great Don Mattingly used to have?  Ryan looks like he could have stepped out of a '80s baseball card.