Buck Yeah!
The last time I was so pro-John Buck, I was arguing that he should be playing over a rookie Arencibia. It was a pretty hot topic in the summer of 2010. Some said it was Cito's call and it stemmed from senility. Anthopoulos later claimed responsibility. Stoeten got ornery about it in the dead of winter in 2011. I post that because you should all read the comments and think about how far we've come. This is my favourite one:
Well, something's insane, but I'm not sure it's that.
Don't worry, I am no longer arguing Buck starting. I accept that Buck is the back up catcher, especially considering his offence has gone off a cliff since he left the Jays. But hearing Buck on the Jeff Blair show yesterday made me love the heck out of the guy.
Buck was so overwhelmingly positive about Toronto and Canada that I think Anthopoulos needs to hire him as a good will ambassador for the team and use him in recruiting nervous American free agents whose minds have been polluted by xenophobic media. I realize it is different moving to Toronto, but you can't convince me that moving anywhere new isn't a little disconcerting. Miami is different from Toronto, but it's also different from Boston or Chicago or Los Angeles.
"To play for the Blue Jays– I wouldn’t have said this beforehand, but now that I got to experience and live it– it’s a cool experience. I said, ‘You know how you’ve got the aura of the Yankees here in the States? Put that with the Blue Jays and times it by a whole country. I’m telling you, it’s pretty cool to have the fan base that the Blue Jays have,’ and kind of told them that. That definitely made Mark a lot more excited, and Josh, because you’ve kind of got that aura of, ‘Oh, I don’t know’– the fear of the unknown, if you will– and I kind of reassured them that it’s going to be a cool experience."
The interview also reminded me that I love to hear people who know about pitching, talk about pitching. Buck described Johnson thusly:
“He’s a power pitcher who is able to finesse, because he knows where it’s going. He can locate four different pitches, inside and out. Not afraid to throw one up into your chin, and he throws a real heavy ball,” Buck explained. “He’s so big, he’s kinda cheating– he’s three feet closer to the plate than everybody else. He takes a big long stride, releases the ball out front, and it’s heavy."
Buck described Reyes in such a way I wondered what "Full Tilt" in Spanish was. The only worry is that Reyes and Lawrie accidentally kill each other in some sort of range defying feat of agility. Brett, look out for the Dominicans.
And I include these because they've got new Blue Jays and they've got doggies. The first one features my new obsession, Slater Buehrle and his lesser known siblings.
Apparently, John Buck adopted Hooch.
Apparently, John Buck adopted Hooch.