That's Baseball (Ugh)
The less said about that series last weekend in New York the better. They didn't play in New York. No, they didn’t. And I wasn't actually relieved that the Sunday game was rained out. No, I wasn't. Because there was no series in New York.
But if they were going to play in New York, I'd begin to question what the actual approach is going in there as the team has only won 11 games since it opened in 2009. Buck and Tabby speak lovingly about the Yankee's ability to pitch and hit in that ballpark, taking advantage of that short right field and the expansive left-centre. So I wonder why exactly the Jays aren't doing the same thing. It’s not a secret, so it’s likely a situation of the team being aware of those tendencies and not being able to execute.
I was travelling on the holiday Monday, so I missed the first game against the Rays and heard all of the Yunel Escobar homer celebration second hand.
It's not a story, people. I made fun of the Giants fans and beat writers for building up the Melky Cabrera World Series ring non-story, and this is pretty much the equivalent.
Escobar does that celebration all the time. He also hit the homer off of Janssen, who has been pretty filthy all season and brought his team closer to a win. Janssen, like everyone who has any sense at all, had this to say:
“I don't think it was directed at me,” Janssen said. “We were good teammates, I had no problem with him, he had no problem with me. I did hear the chorus of boos and I'm sure he was a little frustrated at times. He’s an emotional guy, he’s a prideful guy. It was his moment to shine and he did his thing.”
For his part, magic gnome Rays manager Joe Maddon said, "I love the way he is, I want him to remain the way he is. He did nothing wrong."
Toronto's knee jerk reaction to returning players is always to boo. Even if the player was traded through no fault of their own, even if they were released or their option wasn't picked up. The Escobar situation is more complex, of course, but I still find the whole thing tiresome and a lot of feels like general frustration about the season. But hearing boos to Vernon Wells, who then proceeds to kill his former team consistently and thoroughly, is tough to watch.
I went to last night’s game and sat behind the pen. Even that far away, I knew the called third strike to Cabrera was several inches outside. It was unfortunately not as apparent to the umpire who I guess had dinner plans and figured that a team that had threatened to score the go ahead runs in two previous innings just was not going to be allowed ruin his dinner.
Because, shut up with that call. Rodney had demonstrated little to no command of the strike zone and had not earned any sort of close or borderline call. And that pitch is borderline to being borderline.
“That's a pretty tough call, leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth,” Colby Rasmus, who hit a homer in the fifth, said after the game. “But that's baseball.”
That cruel bitch baseball.
Just look what it's done to Encarnación:
