Heroes

Joe Carter rightfully deserves the title of "World Series Hero." But there is no bigger home run in the history of the Toronto Blue Jays than Roberto Alomar's two-run shot off of Dennis Eckersley on Sunday, October 11, 1992, in the 9th inning of game four of the ALCS.

It was at that moment when the Blue Jays shed the label of chokers and, finally, became the best team in baseball.

Robbie took home the ALCS MVP trophy, and rightfully so. His numbers from the six-game series were outstanding:

26 at-bats, 4 runs, 11 hits, 1 double, 2 home runs, 4 RsBI, 5 stolen bases, 2 walks, 1 strikeout, a .423 batting average, .464 on-base percentage, .692 slugging percentage, and a 1.157 OPS.

Speaking of heroes, the one, the only, Paul Molitor. Check out his numbers from the six-game 1993 World Series:

24 at-bats, an astounding 10 runs scored, 12 hits, 2 doubles, 2 triples, 2 home runs, 10 RsBI, 1 stolen base, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts, a .500 batting average, .571 on-base percentage, 1.000 slugging percentage, and a mind-blowing 1.571 OPS.

MVP, indeed.

There were others. In his career in the ALCS, spanning three years (1991, 1992, and 1993), Juan Guzman started five games for the Toronto Blue Jays. He won them all, with an ERA of 2.27; 31.2 innings pitched, only 8 earned runs allowed. He walked a ton of guys, 18, but struck out 22.

Who can forget Jimmy Key's performance in 1992? Pitching from the bullpen during the ALCS, he made his final start as a Blue Jay in game four of the World Series, going 7.2 innings, allowing only one run on five hits, while striking out six. Key threw 91 pitches that night, 57 for strikes. Roy Halladay would have been proud.

It wasn't the last we'd see of Key. He came out of pen in game six to throw an inning and a third of one-hit relief; the winning pitcher of the game in which Toronto was crowned World Series champions for the first time ever in life.

There are so many more performances I could single out. Too many.

Tremendous memories. I'll relive them all tonight, in what will be one massive love fest at the SkyDome. I anticipate never hearing the building louder than it will be tonight. Until the Toronto Blue Jays win another World Series ...

Someday it'll all make sense ...

One day, I'll stop bitching about the AL East, and how it is the toughest division in baseball. Not today. But one day.

As my man Dean pointed out in the comments of my last post, with the Tampa Bay DEVIL Rays having won last night, to sweep a mini two-game set with the Boston Red Sox, the AL East is now home to three teams with 60 or more wins. The Yankees check in with 65, the Red Sox 62, and Tampa Bay 60.

Only one other American League team has hit the mark; the Los Angeles Angels (63). In the National League, three teams: the Los Angeles Dodgers (66), Philadelphia Phillies (60), and San Francisco Giants (60).

Three teams in the AL East. Four throughout the rest of Major League Baseball. Life is cruel. And home, the AL East, has been most unkind to Toronto this season, with the Jays having gone 12-24 against divisional opponents. All in all, it's amazing the Jays have won 51 games so far in 2009. (That's my way of saying J.P. Ricciardi has done a stand-up job with a payroll of only $80 million dollars.)

The Ultimate Flashback Friday

For one night, let's forget about this, another, clusterfuck of a season for our Toronto Blue Jays. Tomorrow night at the SkyDome, for no reason at all, because we don't need a reason, let's celebrate the 1992 and 1993 teams that ran the AL East; that did something truly special for the city of Toronto.

I'll be there. In my powder blue. Cheering wildly like I'm 10 and 11 years old again; like I was when Dave Winfield sent the ball down the left field line in 1992; like I was when Joe Carter's ball cleared the fence in 1993. Hell, I think I'm even going to hit up the autograph sessions.

Speaking of memories, I was actually talking to the boys about the '92 World Series, and Ed Sprague's 9th inning pinch-hit home run in game two vs. Atlanta. Looking back, what an absolutely monumental round tripper. The Jays had lost game one of the series, and were down 4-3 in game two, with only three outs to go. Cue the heroics. A walk to Derek Bell, and a bomb to left field by Sprague to silence the deep south. It came off of Braves closer Jeff Reardon who, according to the ever-trustworthy Wikipedia, was then baseball's all-time saves leader; 5-4 Toronto, the World Series tied at one, and heading to Canada for the first time ever in life. Huge.

Unfortunately, I can't embed Sprague's home run here on the blog, but you can watch it here. Take a minute to do so. Trust me, it'll give you goose bumps.

The salad days. Be there tomorrow night to relive them.

Go Jays.

UPDATE: My man Johnny G mentioned the "Trenches" in the comments. I loved that shit. Sprague, Bell, and Turner Ward. Rudeys, all three of them. I did a quick search, and found this gem from the SI vault:

Sprague didn't play much after being called up—he had only 47 at bats—but he and two other Blue Jay reserves, outfielders Turner Ward and Derek Bell, started something called the Trenches, a silly little rally routine that has enlivened the Toronto bench. They lay a towel labeled TRENCHES on the top step of the dugout, near the bat rack. Bell, the loader, pulls out a bat belonging to a Blue Jay teammate who's about to hit. He passes the bat to Sprague, the exchanger. As the batter comes to the plate, the bat is handed to Ward, the shooter, who fires off an imaginary volley at the opposing pitcher. "If we need a big homer, like tonight," Ward said Sunday night, "I turn the bat around and make it a bazooka." The imaginary warfare may seem juvenile, but when one of the soldiers has to come into a game, his place is often taken by Toronto's 41-year-old star, Dave Winfield. "He's our commander in chief," says Sprague. As so often happens in battle, it was the guys in the trenches who won Game 2.

Makes you love Winfield even more, doesn't it?

Trenches!1

Nostalgic

Last night, as I read the numerous post-mortems on the Toronto Raptors season, watched another NHL playoff game that didn't involve the Toronto Maple Leafs, and watched the Toronto Blue Jays lose another heartbreaker (where is the bloody offense!?!?), I began to think about better days.

Days back in 1993, in particular. "The good old days." Fifteen years ago. Geezus. Time flies.

As I thought to myself, "I shouldn't be watching the God damn Habs and Flyers," my thoughts drifted to the spring of 1993 and the man who represented those wonderful times, number 93 himself.



Doug Gilmour. My first love. If that video doesn't bring a smile to your face, your heart is made of stone.

"Boy, oh boy, he's a beauty!" Indeed, Don Cherry, indeed.

Meanwhile, the offensive juggernot known as the Toronto Blue Jays wasted another magical pitching performance, this time from Dustin McGowan. This team is really starting to piss me off. They've managed only one run and seven hits in their last 18 innings. For a team that is supposed to be an above average hitting team, this is absolutely unacceptable. And utterly disheartening.

I'm more scared than I am upset. The Jays finished April with a dismal record of 11-17 and a season that began with so much promise is quickly fading to black. The "road trip from hell" - one win in eight games - mercifully ends tonight in Boston.

Great column by Blair at The Globe. Check out the layout, even though it'll likely only make you more depressed. It seems J.P. Ricciardi could pull the trigger on a trade, but teams only want our pitching.

The struggles of my beloved Blue Jays got me thinking back to the fall of 1993, when our players could, you know, actually hit the baseball. Sometimes, they'd hit the ball so hard it would clear the fences. A home run. Remember those?



Looking back, I don't think I understood, at the time, just how truly dramatic and special that moment was. I also didn't know it would be the last time we'd make the playoffs...

A New Season

Every year, it seems, baseball season has this strange way of sneaking up on me. I've got my eye on spring training. I know the regular season is coming. But every April I find myself saying "What the fuck? The Blue Jays are back already?" Well, game one is in the books, and it ended like too many did in 2007.

I must admit, I was eagerly anticipating opening day on Monday, especially with the Maple Laughs now booking tee times (seriously, the Maple Leafs golfing jokes never get old; keep 'em coming, douche bags!). An afternoon contest, I was stoked to take in the game at work. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, and Mother Nature ruined my Monday, already the most difficult day of the week, bar none.

Opening day Monday afternoon became opening night on Tuesday, and the Jays and Yankees played the final home opener in the history of the great Yankee Stadium last night.

There's nothing quite like opening night, be it at home or on the road. Harry "Doc" Halladay on the mound, a clean slate for those who struggled in 2007, and visions of a pennant dancing around in my head. The hope and anticipation of a new season literally puts a spring in my step, no pun intended. I go into every season thinking this is the year the Blue Jays will break their playoff drought. Do I believe the Jays are playoff-bound this season? Absolutely, although my track record isn't all that good (14 years and counting since Joe Carter was told to "touch 'em all" - I still get goosebumps when I hear the late, great Tom Cheek's call - in the Jays' last playoff game). Even after yesterday's disappointing 3-2 loss to the hated Yankees, I'm still calling the Jays to win the wild-card.

If you're thinking whether there exists a Toronto sports franchise whom I think will not make the playoffs in any given season, the answer is a resounding no.

While I will be singing the praises of the Blue Jays time and time again this spring and summer, and hopefully fall, I am pretty pissed off about last night's contest. The Blue Jays played much like they did last season: they made bonehead plays, left a ton of runners on base in scoring position, and were unable to deliver the big hit. So much for displaying an "urgency to win" and doing all "the little things."

OK, I've got to calm down a bit, and pour myself a drink. There, that's better. Thanks, Johnnie. Anyway, it was only one game, for Christ's sake, the Jays lost by one run, and they pretty much beat themselves. Harry was solid on the mound in seven innings and I will say this: the Yankees have one formidable lineup. I guess a payroll north of $200 God damn million dollars will get you some decent hitters, although it was Melky freakin' Cabrera who did the most damage last night, both in the batter's box and in the field. Damn Melky Way.

Alright, before I continue I've got a grievance I must air. If New York City is one of the mecca's of baseball, what the fuck is up with the rampant abuse of the curtain call? Everyone and their mother gets a curtain call in New York. It is completely out of control. Melky Way hits a solo home run that barely clears the short porch in right field (314 feet, give me a break) and he gets a curtain call? Wow. This one-curtain-call-a-game insanity in New York has to stop.

Enough about the Yankees. What the hell was Alex Rios thinking in the first inning when he was doubled off on a broken-bat liner to second base? I'm going to go out on a limb here, but he was probably thinking about how to spend $65 million bucks. It's mistakes like Rios' that the Jays simply can't afford to make in spades this year. If the Jays want to be taken seriously, they've got to play the part. No more mental errors. As Jeff Blair wrote, in a beauty of a feature from Saturday's Globe and Mail, "It's time."

There are a number of new faces on the 2008 Blue Jays. Welcome to town David Eckstein, Scott Rolen, Marco Scutaro, Rod Barajas, Randy Wells and Buck Coats (best name on the team, hands down). Welcome back, Shannon Stewart. While it's great to see Stewart back in a Jays uniform, he came at the expense of Reed Johnson, a personal favourite of mine the last few years. Johnson was, for lack of a better analogy, a grinder. A blue-collar guy who always did whatever needed to be done to get on base. He played the game hard and the right way, and he will be missed around these parts. His release, while not a shock, still stung. It's good to see he landed right on his feet with the Cubs, and I wish him well.

Toronto, with the addition of guys like Eckstein, Barajas, Stewart and Scutaro, have a much deeper bench than they did last year. It's already coming in handy. Injuries, as usual, have already made their mark on this team. Scott Rolen won't be in the lineup until May, Casey Janssen is done for the season with a torn labrum, Matt Stairs is nursing a sore hip (he's 40 years old, slack needs to be cut), and BJ Ryan is still recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Scutaro got the start at third base last night and was, in my opinion, the most effective Blue Jay not named Halladay. He got on base twice via a walk and a fielder's choice, he stole second base twice, and scored a run. It was a delight to see Scutaro's thievery on the base path's. The Jays simply do not steal enough, and I'd love to see that become more a part of their game.

I have made a vow, however, not to use injuries as an excuse this year. I did it about a week ago, just before Rolen went down thanks to a freak injury to his finger nail. My logic behind the vow? If guys like Lyle Overbay, Reed Johnson, Gus Chacin, Troy Glaus, BJ Ryan, Roy Halladay, and AJ Burnett didn't go down with injuries last year, and guys like Josh Towers, Tomo Ohka and Victor Zambrano didn't suck so good, the Jays wouldn't have gotten the performances they did last season from Matt Stairs, Jeremy Accardo, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum, John McDonald, and Jesse Litsch. Injuries helped the Toronto Blue Jays in 2007.

Guys stepped up last year. I'm hoping the trend will continue. Janssen's out? Fine, life goes on. Brandon League is back and looking like he did two years ago and I'm confident he can eat Casey's innings. BJ's not ready? No big deal, there's no rush. Accardo proved he can close out games in the American League East, and that's no easy task. Scott Rolen's out four-to-six weeks? It sucks, but what can you do? This is why JP Ricciardi went out and signed David Eckstein and Marco Scutaro, and don't forget the serviceable John McDonald on the bench, who played out of his mind last season. Matt Stairs is nursing a sore hip? Stew, a career .300 hitter and one half of the left field platoon, can play everyday if he has to.

Injuries are a part of baseball. I think I've finally come to terms with that. The good teams don't bitch about it. They overcome.

At the same time, I'm scared. What if McGowan, Marcum and Litsch can't duplicate their success from last season? The Jays need these three kids like a crackhead needs a hit. And if AJ Burnett doesn't put together a healthy season, I'm hoping he opts-out of his contract and finds work elsewhere. Like every team in the big's, the questions are plentiful when it comes to the starting rotation. If, however, the kids pitch the way they did last year, and improve, the Jays boast one of the best rotations, and bullpens, in the American League.

The pitching, I pray, will be fine, and do what they did last year, again. It's the hitting that must get better. If Vernon Wells doesn't improve on his 2007 statistics, I will be sick to my stomach in regards to the seven-year, $119 million dollar extension the Jays signed him to last year. Lyle Overbay also needs to bounce back from a brutal 2007 campaign. The pressure is on, as it should be.

While David Eckstein didn't impress me too much in the leadoff position last night - he was 0-for-4 and left a couple of runner's on base - he's a proven hitter who can get on base. He's also a proven winner.

It's more than just one individual hitter, though. Last night, as I wrote above, the Jays beat themselves. As a team, Toronto left 13 runners on base, and went a pathetic 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. That isn't going to get the job done, not against a team like New York. Vernon, although I hate to single him out, was brutal. He went 0-for-4 in the clean up spot and left four men on base. Come on Vernon. I need you right now.

What makes the loss a bit easier to swallow is that the game was there for the taking last night. The Jays owned a 2-1 lead and had they tacked on a couple of insurance runs, and they certainly had their chances, they could have spoiled the party in the Bronx last night.

Don't get me wrong, there were positives. The Jays stole three bases, two by Scutaro and one by Alex Rios. On the flip side, Gregg Zaun, he of the noodle arm, threw out Derek Jeter trying to steal second base. That doesn't happen everyday, folks.

AJ Burnett takes the ball for the Blue Jays tomorrow night, looking to tie the three-game set at one's. For Burnett, and for manager John Gibbons and GM Ricciardi, this season is a big one. Hell, it's a big one for everyone involved. If the Jays are serious about contending come September, they've got to start the season off on the right foot.

One game down, only 161 to go.

And remember: Blue Jays Baseball. You Gotta Believe.