Nov
08
Ron Washington’s clubhouse speech to his team before Game Seven of the World Series has been leaked. It’s just plain amazing. But who would expect anything less from Mr. Washington? He do what he do. My favorite quotes from it: “Motherfuck golf.” “He pitch ball and ball cross plate, we gonna knock the shit outta it.” “Ain’t …
Aug
12
According to unnamed sources from an opposing team (who threw the world series in 1919) in a far-fetched ESPN article that holds up to neither statistical scrutiny nor commonsense, the Blue Jays have been using a mysterious man in white to steal signs then relay them to their batters. It sounds insane. It is insane. But then we see the photographs …
May
20
I said on the twitter that I’d given up Edwin. But like most things relayed in 140 characters, that’s not the full story. I haven’t given up on him as a player. I’ve given up on defending him as a player. He just makes it too hard. Like, fuck’s sake Edwin, break me off something. …
May
12
I’m pretty sure this video is impossible to dislike.
May
08
pic nicked from here In baseball, safety is separated by ninety feet of danger. Touching the base, you are safe. The moment you lose contact with it, you are in peril. To score a run, you must navigate these ninety foot sections four times. If unsuccessful, you either get out or are stranded. If successful, you arrive back where you started. Home. …
Apr
19
A computer program has written a better sports story than a human.* But, in all fairness, the human did a really bad job of it. A really bad job. TNW says: NPR’s All Things Considered reports how writers at Gawker’s sports site Deadspin assumed that a story written on GW Sports about a baseball game had been written by …
Apr
04
Bases loaded, two out, bottom of the ninth. Blue Jays behind by one run and the clean-up hitter, Adam Lind, at the plate. He hits the first pitch he sees. Softly. To the first baseman. Game over. Blue Jays lose. Final score 4-3. This sets the blogosphere, twitterverse and talk-radio to sudden debate. Should he …
Apr
01
Opening day for Blue Jays baseball is upon us. I’ve been waiting six months for this. Nothing that happened last season matters and no one knows what will happen this season. A decent guess puts the Jays in third or fourth place in their division but no decent guess would’ve predicted that last year’s Giants …
Mar
21
VIA
Jan
24
As I child, I’d watch Blue Jays games with Dad. The bat cracked, the ball sent on a line into a gap for a sure double. We’d hold our breath. Devon White loped towards it. Then, somehow, he’s there. Waiting. Never seemed to speed up. Always seemed to jog. But his glove always found the …
Jan
15
The most recent round of inductions to the Hall of Fame has caused some kerfuffle about performance enhancing drugs. What, if any, effect should using these drugs have on the HOF ambitions of the players? It makes me long for the good old days. The days when baseball was no pink tea and mollycoddles but …
Nov
04
“I cannot get rid of the hurt from losing, but after the last out of every loss, I must accept that there will be a tomorrow. In fact, it’s more than there’ll be a tomorrow, it’s that I want there to be a tomorrow. That’s the big difference, I want tomorrow to come.”
Oct
17
I was thinking ‘I must have a really nice butt.’ -Tim Lincecum aka The Freak
Oct
13
An amazing and hilarious animated short about Doc Ellis and the no hitter he pitched while on LSD. Narrated by the man himself. Via SHOEMERDE
Oct
08
A lot of Toronto fans have a lot of mixed feelings about Roy Halladay. Some are rooting for him, some are indifferent, some bitter and some still find it tough to look at him in another uniform. A lot of people have all these feelings at the same time. Two things seem to be agreed …
Oct
05
Even if you don’t like baseball, this is an amazing video and well worth watching. It explains how Mariano Rivera has become the most dominant closer in the history of baseball on the strength of just one pitch. It’s also a glimpse into just what is happening at the plate and into the very nature …
Aug
27
pic nicked from here “The D.R. is baseball’s puppy mill. The buscones develop and sometimes feed and house these teenage players, with the intent of selling them to the highest bidder, a major league team willing to fork over thousands, if not millions, of dollars to secure a prospect. As a reward for their work, …
Aug
21
Aug
19
Aug
05
pic nicked from here But, at the same time, looking at those hats, I can’t decide if baseball needs less racism or more.
Jul
18
It’s the ninth inning and your team has a lead so slim it’s anorexic. The bad guys have the bases loaded and their best hitter at the plate. He’s been tearing the cover off the ball all night and looks ready to do it again. This is exactly the sort of situation he thrives in. …
Jun
07
It’s a subject I’ve often gone on about here: That access is used as bludgeon and bait to control media opinion. It happens with big subjects, it happens with little ones but I was surprised to see it happen in baseball. Mike Wilner, who hosts the Fan 590′s post-game, baseball call in show was suspended …
Jun
05
I know we beat the Yankees today but FUCK YOU ARIZONA!!! There’s no way that you should have the All Star game. If MLB had any balls at all, you wouldn’t. Races that play together win together. So you can take all that white supremacist shit and shove it up your ass. Cheers.
Jun
02
In life there’s two sorts of people: Those who think there’s two sorts of people and those who don’t. I’ve never thought there’s only two sorts of people. I’m not even sure that people can be put into “sorts.” There’s people and there’s the positions they play. When I’m in one of those “two sorts …
May
30
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (sci-fi), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap.
