Dispatches

The following is made up of bits and pieces of baseball related things that came up over the week and change I didn't write.

I died a little on the inside when someone told me, rather snottily, that baseball was boring and also that it was the easiest to play because "fat people play it." So I dragged him outside and smacked him around.

Well, you can only be fat if you are a pitcher, a catcher or a first baseman. And someone like Sabbathia is clearly mounds of fun, but is also strong with ox-like tendencies and probably more in shape than most people. His arm would fall off if he wasn't in some sort of peak condition. Sabbathia is hardly ever on the DL, which is telling.

As for the contention that it is boring, I present this:

,

Whatever. The fact that the Red Sox loss and the Longoria homer happened within about 3 minutes of each other continues to blow my mind.

Speaking of the sleepless fury, the fallout from the epic Boston collapse began within hours of the end of the regular season. And Terry Francona said this,

"When things go bad, your true colors show and I was bothered by what was showing."

I like Terry Francona-and maybe even the fact that SOSH hates him so much made me think he is the sort of guy I can get behind. The enemy of your enemy is your friend, etc.

I have a feeling it is going to get very, very ugly. Francona was loyal to the cause to the very end and wouldn't name names, but it was clear that things were very, very rotten indeed.

"Some of it may be personal," he said. "I thought it was time. And again, to be honest with you, I didn't know, I'm not sure how much support there was from ownership. … And I don't know if I felt real comfortable. You've got to be all-in in this job, and I voiced that today. … It's got to be, everybody has to be together, and I was questioning some of that a little bit."

Oh right, the Jays finished their season. I was disappointed that, once again, they finished out of the post season but some comfort can be taken in the fact that they finished .500. I guess.

Ricky Romero, Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie are highlights. Encarnacion's smile and offensive blossoming. Escobar's swag. In general, this group was insanely fun to watch.

Brett Lawrie has so much star dust on him I sometimes can't believe he is for real.

As Ned Stark likes to say, winter is coming.

This will keep you warm: