Good Gracious
WestJet and the Blue Jays organized it so that a bunch of Jays' dads could come up for Father's Day. It was interesting to see the dads. Seeing Americo Bautista, I knew the source of the power ears, a feature I consider to be more of a trademark than even the beard. Elipido Encarnacion has the same natural sad panda face that his kid sports. Russ Lawrie's advice to his kid was sound: "Don’t steal third. I think there’s no upside here."
And Tony Rasmus came north for the first time since he was the centre of some controversy in St.Louis that led to Colby Rasmus coming to Toronto. And the man came to talk. And it was so elaborate that the Toronto newspapers just posted the transcript of the scrum.
These are some of my favourite bits:
I was lucky enough to have my passport ready. My wife still hasn’t got hers …. When they called and invited me up, I had to go over and say, ‘I’m sorry, baby, you don’t have your passport; I’ve got mine, so I’m going to have to go ahead and leave you here.’ She called me a thousand times, though. You know, ‘be careful, be careful walking around, that’s a big town.’
I wanted someone to take him on the subway. Just to completely blow his mind.
I’m not really a technical [coach]. But the fact is, I’m 46, but I can still throw about 90. So I can back up 60 feet and throw BP versus having to soft-toss to him. And I can throw breaking balls and changeups and that kind of stuff. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve coached him since he was in coach-pitch and if he goes 3-for-4, I’m like, ‘That fourth at-bat there, you threw that thing away.’ That guy laid one across, there. He said, ‘You know, I’m not going to be perfect, can you, like, cut me some slack?’ And that’s kind of been the difference.
Brett Cecil cried when he read this.
I always told somebody, if your kid believes he has to chop off a chicken’s head to hit, if he believes that’s what makes him hit, then by God, chop one off every day. He for some reason believed me throwing batting practice to him was helpful for him. If he believed it was helpful for him, it was helpful.
Told somebody? Who? Who is this somebody? Also, run away,chickens.
Last year I didn’t do it any, because Tony didn’t want me involved because he was wanting Mark [McGwire] to get this kind of credit or whatever. And obviously Colby had a hard time. I always told Colby, ‘Don’t mention my name, let me go ahead and throw to you, man, and go in the newsapapers and say Mark McGwire is my man, he’s the reason I’m hitting.’ But he don’t know how to lie and I think that’s a key to making it in this business, being able to not tell the truth a lot of the time.
Some misread this as Ramus Sr. telling his kid to lie to the coaching staff. No, he said to lie to the media. A lot of players who have been in this business a long time have been known to perhaps not outright lie, but definitely hedge around the full story and are strategic with what they say.
I wonder what kind of hitting coach McGwire is. I haven't heard what he's like in that capacity. I know what credentials he brings to the table, but not how he gets through to the players. Which isn't to say it was all on McGwire to get Colby hitting, but I'm curious.
The whole interview was interesting because of the portrait in painted of that family. Father and son seemed to have an intense and at times difficult relationship.
John called me early on, it was really funny. I was like starstruck. I was in chemistry class, I teach chemistry and physics, I was in chemistry class, my phone went off, I answered the phone, he’s like, ‘This is John Farrell.’ I was like (gasps), good gracious.
I wanted Rasmus Sr. to talk about covalent bonds, damn it. Also, "good gracious".
Now some people found Rasmus Sr. to be a little much. I actually get the sense that Colby also finds his dad a little much. But he's hardly been around and Colby has been playing his face off the past month or so. And yeah, Papa Rasmus might be a little full of shit. But a lot of dads are full of shit. Hearing a dad's crackpot theories is a Father's Day tradition.
Wait, what? There was a series? And they swept the Phillies?
Drew Hutchison left in the first inning of Friday's game and joined Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek on the DL. So that's three starters hurt in about five minutes. Drabek might need another round of Tommy John. Which would be upsetting for Drabek as he already had it in 2007. He was described as dejected. Tears spilled out of his eyes and collected in the beard that he wears so he doesn't look 100 per cent like a cherub.
The bullpen, notably Carlos Villanueva, stepped up huge on Friday. Rajai Davis had a stellar game on Saturday to bail out a slightly shaky (but not hurt!!) Ricky Romero. And Colby Rasmus, with three hits including a two-run homer showed off for his dad and an extremely thin Brett Cecil made his 2012 MLB debut with solid command.
Sweeps are nice. But it gets a little alarming when one realizes the Jays head out for nine games in Milwaukee, Miami and Boston with next to no pitching.
Good gracious.