Blue Jays end another mediocre season
On Sunday I got to go to a Toronto Blue Jays game. My wife snagged the tickets: excellent field-level spots normally costing $44, which were free because it was "Fan Appreciation Weekend," or, as it really should be called, "please come to the stadium and watch because it's the last game of the season and we're out of the running and without free tickets the whole place would be empty Weekend." Anyway, the ploy worked because the place was respectibly full and lively. In addition to the free tickets, they also gave out free Jays toques, and since they struck out 7 opposing batters, we all got a free slice from Pizza Pizza. Hooray for free stuff.
I hadn't been to a Jays game in about 8 years - back when they had players like Shawn Green, Carlos Delgado, and Alex Gonzalez. They were still mediocre back then but at least I knew the players. I haven't followed baseball for about 6 years and the only baseball I've watched this year was the homerun derby. Not that having a more intimate knowledge of the Jays roster would have helped much, since on Sunday the team consisted of regulars Alex Rios, AJ Burnett, and a bunch of minor leaguers. Still, they played pretty hard at times, so it was fun. I miss the glory days of the early '90s though.
In typical mediocre Jays fashion, they were actually doing pretty well against Tampa Bay (up 4-2) but completely blew it in a disastrous 6th inning, yielding 5 unanswered runs. Meh.
Interesting things about the game:
1) There was one minor league guy who the Jays brought up recently who came in batting 1.000. Amazingly, through his next two at bats, he belted in some RBIs with a single and a triple, causing some drunk guys without shirts to yell things like "greatest hitter of all time!" He unfortunately got out in his next at bat, dropping his overall average to 0.750.
2) Speaking of triples, I've never seen so many in a game before. There were four triples in total, two for each team.
3) I couldn't understand all the thousands of people eagerly lining up for $8 domestic beer and $9 nachos. Are they crazy?
4) I don't remember pre-game warmup looking like this:
There's the trainer working on one of the players. The other guy is soaking it all in a little too intently, don't you think?
Decreed by King Aardvark @ 1:23 p.m.
6 Comments
6 Comments:
I have never been a sports fan; however, relatively recently I went to see a Blue-Jays game myself and realized that it's pretty fun.
Being from 'der East Coast, we ain't got no Major League teams to see (closest one is probably ~12-13 hour long drive) so there's never that 'I'm there!' excitement about the whole thing. Watching sports on the TV never did anything for me.
I'd personally rather me a regular old nerd because sports nerds are the worst type of nerdiness there is...
I'm a multidisciplinary nerd. I can go on and on for hours about hockey (and frequently do) to go along with hours of engineering, science, Simpons, Monty Python, and all those other regular nerdy things.
I feel your pain. My White Sox are only two years removed from being the World Series Champs and they nearly ended up at the bottom of the division!
Not to mention the fact that the team on the north side won their division and are in the play offs!
re: #1 - Sounds like it's time to retire and spend the rest of his life bragging about his career .750 major league average.
re: #3 - Yeah, I don't get that either. You get to miss a half an inning waiting in line. When you get back, you have to spend another half inning standing in the entrance to the stands because the usher won't let you go out until between innings. By the time you get back to your seat, you've spilled half of the beer due to the flimsy cups, and then, when you finally taste it...it's draught Canadian. Might as well be drinking water. I prefer to save my money and have a couple of nice scotches at the bar after the game.
Came here via BigHeathenMike's place, by the way. Another GTA-ite.
Hey Paul, thanks for dropping by.
Heh, I would have retired after batting 1.000 with 3 hits (one a triple) and a couple RBI. It's a nice pro record, eh? Can't remember the guy's name though.
MMMmmm, scotch. I haven't had a scotch in a while.
"Wooo! GTA!" is what I'd say if I was actually proud of the fact that I lived here ;-)
Well, you gotta live somewhere. And while we Canadians like to make it a competition sport to complain about how bad off we are, the Toronto area is truly one of the nicest places in the world to live. You know, next to Oregon.
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