A Week in Baseball: Two Sleeve Slams and an Evening with Stro.
I have come to the realization that this might be as sweet, as delicious, as beautiful as 2017 Blue Jays baseball is gonna get.
One came to cap off a four game sweep of the Athletics.
The other was to salvage a rather dismal series vs the Angels.
Oh Sleeve- you can't wear eye black to save your life, but those are some pretty, pretty bombs.
Seven unanswered runs make everything better. I was ready to write this one off as another Sunday in July disaster and it really did look like it was going that way.
I mean, it was a series that started with the Jays losing Tulowitzki two years to the day he was traded to the Jays. That's so 2017 Blue Jays.
This happened in the fourth game of the Athletic's series and is the other big story of the week:
I don't think I've ever seen a pitcher and catcher tossed within ten seconds of each other. I don't know what Martin said, but it must of been saucy.
Just pull out a good old:
"Ostie d’crisse de tabarnak
Ostie d’câlisse de viarge."
Stro post-game comments:
What did Gibby say? More than one f-bomb.
"Were you out all fucking night?" is a classic.
From Jays Care Foundation's Twitter
Later on Thursday evening, I attended "An Evening with Stro", an event put on by the Jays Care Young Professionals (I'm a member) to benefit the Jays Care Foundation.
Stroman, interviewed by the always great Hazel Mae, talked extensively about HDMH, baseball his life, his family and answered audience submitted questions, including about his friends, who on the team is the funniest (Steve Pearce, unintentionally) and talked about music and fashion.
Speaking of fashion, because I pay attention to these things, our boy was wearing a velvet baseball hat that said "Wasted Tears" on it.
It's a hat from Enfant Riches et Déprimés, which is the label of a designer named Henry Levy. Complex Magazine wrote a story about him in 2016.
(I'm not judging it, really, but it is vaguely hilarious that Levy talks about his punk aesthetic- nothing says 'punk' like a $400 velvet hat. It's ok- he's a rich kid who makes clothes for other rich kids. It's fine.)
Pusha T wears the label:
and I'm sort of obsessed with Pusha T.
This is still one of my favourite fashion videos ever:
In this picture I took, you'll also notice something rather large on the power finger of Stro's pitching hand. It was designed by Band Aid.
Stroman’s mom Adlin and sister Sabria, who run HDMH out of his mom’s house on Long Island, were at the event.
They had a little pop up shop set up to sell the merch and it remained hopping even after Marcus and his entourage of boys in skinny jeans peaced out.
The crowd had made a mess of the shirts on the table and because I’m a Virgo who has worked some retail in my life, a pile of shirts means I gotta be folding them. I can’t help it.
So I stood there and merchandized them while I looked for a shirt I liked.
Marcus’ sister Sabria saw me doing it and said, “I love you for doing that.” and smiled at me. Her smile matches her brother’s, and they both get it from their mother. These people are genetically blessed by great teeth.
I settled on this one:
Adlin was using an iPad as a POS terminal. She came over to take my money, and I thanked her for sharing Marcus with us. She looked at me and said, “Oh my God, you are gonna make me cry!” in a classic New York Boricua accent. And she talked about how much she loves visiting Toronto and being here, and that she should just get a dual citizenship.
I also told her I also have green eyes (her name on Twitter is BehindGrnEyes) and she high fived me.
Stroman’s favourite question seemed to be “Jay-Z or Nas?” and he hemmed and hawed, said he loved that question and then chose Jay-Z.
No one asked me, but this is what I’d say- I think career-wise, Jay-Z has put out a higher volume of quality, but Nas, at his peak, is unbeatable. Illmatic is arguably the greatest hip hop album ever.
However, Jay-Z ‘s overall output is probably stronger, it's over 20 years. His new album is pretty great.
It’s tough. It's really the best of what New York hip hop has to offer.
Let's end on music:
A classic from Nas:
And this one is new from 4:44. I love this video: