Meaningful At-Bats

We continue, in Toronto, to wait for meaningful baseball. Patiently, I might add. And as the Blue Jays were officially -- mathematically -- eliminated from post-season play Sunday afternoon in Boston, I reverted to the old adage, tried, tested, and true: maybe next year.

But 2010 has far from been a lost cause. (Unless you're Travis Snider, or J.P. Arencibia, but that's a whole other story.) Toronto hasn't lost 100 games. They won't end up anywhere near the dreaded century mark. And they certainly won't finish below the Baltimore Orioles in the standings. Shame on those of you who even thought of such a fortune. No, we weren't treated to meaningful baseball this season, even though it's clear the franchise is headed towards the light. But, thanks to Jose Bautista, we were treated to that which we haven't seen around these parts since Carlos Delgado's heyday: meaningful at-bats.

Forty-nine home runs. One every 10.65 at-bats. And counting. A violent assault not only on fastballs, but on Toronto's, and baseball's, record books. History. Bautista will become the first Blue Jay to hit 50 home runs in a season. It's going to happen, and, no, I don't believe in jinxes. And when it does, when number 50 does clear the left field wall (hopefully at the SkyDome), the feat will have been accomplished for only the 42nd time in baseball history.

The Toronto Blue Jays have been around since 1977. The Steroid Era has come and gone. Bautista will be the first to hit 50 for the good guys, and he could very well be the last. That's the beauty of baseball. You just never know. I'm convinced the franchise will one day return the post-season. Will add a pennant, or two, to their collection. But I'm not so sure I'll ever see another no-hitter. Perhaps Dave Stieb's effort was Toronto's pitching performance of my lifetime. And, in that same light, perhaps Bautista's exploits in the batter's box have been Toronto's home run hitting performance of my lifetime.

Post-All Star break, there's been a buzz everytime Bautista has stepped up to the plate. It's palpable. At home, on the road, and even on television. Bautista excites; Bautista has people talking baseball. (And beards.) There's an expectation that regardless of who's throwing the ball, and how fast it's traveling, and how much it's moving, Bautista can murder it. The situation hardly matters, either. Nobody could be on base. Actually, nobody usually is. The Blue Jays could be down by five. Yet each Bautista at-bat matters. Each Bautista at-bat means more than any other.

The only comparable seasons to Bautista's are John Olerud's 1993 campaign, and Carlos Delgado's 2000 and 2003 seasons. Olerud flirted with .400 that magical summer, and finished with a Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) of .453, and a Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) of 181. In 2000, Delgado hit 41 home runs, and put up an incredible wOBA of .471. King Carlos bested Olerud's wRC+ by one, finishing with a rating of 182. Delgado finished fourth in MVP voting that season, which still completely blows my mind. In 2003, Delgado hit 42 home runs, and tallied a wOBA of .423, and a wRC+ of 160.

Bautista, with 49 home runs to his name, and 12 games left on the schedule, today sports a wOBA of .423, and a wRC+ of 170. Like I said: historic. One of the finer offensive seasons Toronto has ever seen. Delgado-esque. And who could ever have imagined saying that about the journeyman outfielder-slash-third baseman?

I get it, now. I get why Damien Cox, and others in his wake, had to ask the question. We're talking history, and in Bautista, a player who has come out of nowhere. Literally. Pittsburgh: baseball's nowhere. What I wish I'd see less of, though, in the Toronto media landscape, is "But you've got to at least ask the question ..." masquerading as reporting. Because I'd put money on the fact that Bautista is indeed clean. He's been tested. And he does not physically look the part of a juicer. If the Steroid Era taught us anything, it's that the human eye does not deceive. There's more: Bautista hasn't hit a cheap home run to opposite field all season. He's pulled one through 49 to the left side. The proof in Bautista's changed mechanics alibi -- he's closer to the plate with his back foot, his hands are higher, and he starts his leg kick, and swing, earlier -- can be found in the fact he's hitting fastballs 32.8 runs above average this season, compared to only 4.2 runs above average in 2009. Bautista essentially owns the inner-half of the plate. He's made a conscious decision to pull the ball. If he doesn't get a pitch to pull, he'll gladly take a walk, his on-base percentage a career-high .382, far above his .342 career average. Instead of wondering whether Bautista is on steroids, where are the columns applauding Bautista's patience at the plate? Where are the columns asking an even more important question: why the hell is he still being pitched to inside?

It's pointless, defending Jose Bautista's honour. I know that. And, at the end of the day, he doesn't need my help. His urine has done, and will continue to do, the talking.

Instead, I'm going to enjoy Bautista's final meaningful, and hopefully violent, at-bats this season. I'm going to be at the SkyDome on Tuesday night, and Wednesday night, and maybe even Thursday afternoon. Perhaps I'll be there on the weekend, too. And maybe next week, when the Yankees are in town. Bautista's got nine games to hit number 50 at home, in Toronto. And I'm not going to miss it.

Beautiful image via daylife.

I Don't Get It

Wednesday was Bruce Dowbiggin's turn to spank bloggers. Not only that, he essentially put a bounty on their -- our? -- heads. What's ironic to me, and I think most people that read and/or write blogs, is that everyone, I believe, wants the same thing: accountability.

Even more ironic: while the lines between traditional and new media continue to blur, they've already intersected. For good. Take a look at the sports sections of your favourite newspapers; everyone is blogging. The debate has been pitched as mainstream media (MSM) versus bloggers, but so many in the MSM are blogging, that the entire conversation doesn't make a lot of bloody sense anymore. To me, at least. The Toronto Star's Damien Cox "asked the question" in his blog The Spin, for Christ's sake. And I'm not going to bother with Dowbiggin writing that bloggers need to "face their subjects from time to time." That's laughable, after the Cox fiasco. We bloggers wanted Cox to head to the SkyDome and face Bautista. We specifically asked that he go and do just that. Instead, it was Bruce Arthur who went and talked to Toronto's Home Run King about the allegations being bandied about. Thanks, Bruce.

Sorry, I lost my train of thought. Jose Bautista has a tendency to make that happen. His swing, so violent and dreamy at the same time. Anyway: the MSM, they're blogging. Cox's colleague Richard Griffin's got his own blog, with its own weekly mail bag feature. And where he sometimes rips Cox. (That was fun!) The Globe And Mail's Michael Grange has got his own blog, From Deep. Jeff Blair goes on blogging runs every now and then at Unwritten Rules. Doug Smith at The Star's been blogging for years about the Toronto Raptors. Go to espn.com; Jayson Stark, Buster Olney, and Keith Law all have their own MLB Blogs. Pierre LeBrun blogs about hockey for the Worldwide Leader. The esteemed Elliotte Freedman blogs, and I can't wait for hockey season to get underway so his 30 Thoughts feature will once again be a part of my life. I can give you a ton of other examples, but you get the idea. And I'm a lazy blogger.

I've worked in broadcast journalism, with TVO's The Agenda With Steve Paikin. As an associate producer at the program, it was mandated that we write a blog post for each segment we put to air. It was mandated that we get on Twitter with work-related accounts, and tweet about story ideas, and future programs. Steve Paikin's got his own blog. Mike Miner, a producer at the program, has his own technology/media blog, The Fifth Column. Those are mainstream journalists, blogging.

When it comes to sports blogs, which I know are the main tenet of this discussion, if the press box is such an issue, the MSM can keep the press box. Look, I've been up there. Once. For a Toronto Maple Leafs game. And I'll be honest: it wasn't all that. Look, much love and respect to Jonathan Sinden and the Leafs for inviting me up there. Of course they were going to invite the guy who travels the Toronto sports blogosphere leaving "Playoffs!!!" in his wake. As they should. But on my one night up there, planning to live blog the affair, the wireless internet didn't work. It was, as the kids say, a live blog fail.

Now, this may surprise you, but, believe it or not, I went up to the press box that night in November not wearing my Tomas Kaberle jersey, or my customary Toronto Blue Jays hat. And I didn't cheer like a fanboy. I didn't cheer at all. I didn't have a sign stuck to my back that said "Blogger!!!1" Everyone up there went about their business, as did Jonathan and I. We chatted Toronto hockey. (I wept, but only briefly.) We talked about the Maple Leafs being more proactive on the social media front. I took notes about how the Leafs disappointed me that night. And, once the game ended, I went home.

I didn't even ask Jonathan if my invite upstairs included an invite downstairs, into the locker room, or to Ron Wilson's press conference. I'll be honest: the thought never even crossed my mind. Had I been invited to Wilson's presser, was that fateful Monday night the night he would finally be honest, and say that even though Jonas Gustavsson was the losing goalie, if it was up to him, he'd never play Vesa Toskala again? That Toskala had a lot of nerve to question the advice of goalie guru Francois Allaire? That against a team like the Buffalo Sabres, a Maple Leafs team with Matt Stajan as its number one centre really didn't stand a chance? No, it wouldn't.

Was that the night Francois Beauchemin would, in the locker room, tell me how much of a nightmare the first two months of his life as a Leafs defenceman had been? That Mike Komisarek was trying way too hard out there? No, it wouldn't.

We've all watched the excruciating answers players, and coaches, give journalists in press conferences and in the dressing room. And we've all played sports. We know what a guy can and can't say. More than half the time, we could do without the charade, without the references to 110%, which isn't even bloody possible.

I'll be the first to agree with Dowbiggin and tell you that a hockey blog "that resembles Hockey Night in Canada meets TMZ" shouldn't be allowed in the press box, or in the dressing room. Who the hell is arguing that it should? But the press box isn't hallowed ground. Certainly not worth a $10,000 bond. Let's stop treating it, and the experience that comes with it, like it is.

Image courtesy of this isn't happiness.