March 22, 2006

Short and Sweet(body)

take a look at the Spring stats for the Blue Jays when you get a chance...
Who is leading in most categories??..Well is #11 Eric Hinske!!

Only a short time until the Blue Jays are back in T.O kids!!

Thats the shortest post in our brief history here I think!
I'll write more very soon.

Jimy Sweetbody

March 07, 2006

Rest in Peace Kirby


Yesterday, the baseball world lost one of it's greatest and I think it's only appropriate that we take a few minutes to remember Kirby Puckett the baseball player and Kirby Puckett the person.

I guess I should start by explaining who Kirby Puckett was to me. As a lifelong baseball fan, I've watched countless games on TV and listened to even more on the radio. I've attended hundreds of games in person in Toronto and I've been fortunate enough to attend games in many other MLB cities. I've been to Spring Training, the all-star game, playoff games, and I was even there when Joe touched 'em all. Since the age of 5, I've collected baseball cards, baseball stickers, baseball magazines, and anything else I could find related to the grand old game. As far as I can recall, baseball has been the one thing that I've been passionate about during my life. My childhood obsession with trading cards turned into an adult obsession with Fantasy baseball. You see, there's something about the stats, the numbers, the figures that just seems to resonate with me.

Yet as much as I love the numbers side of it, I've never really taken to the personalities in the game. I guess I've always looked at players as if they were the 2-dimensional images on a trading card. I've always found baseball players to be interesting and impressive, but I've never really idolized any kind of athlete. Other than the throwaway 'favourite players' we latch onto as children, I've never been one to consider a certain player my favourite. I've always felt that identifying a favourite player puts you in a position to be identified with that player. How a player defines himself and carries himself becomes some kind of reflection on how you define yourself (who your are or maybe who you want to be). In all my years of watching, listening, and following baseball, I've only had one favourite player. I've only identified with one player. I've only put myself out there by associating myself with one player. And that player was Kirby Puckett.

Growing up, Kirby Puckett was everything that you looked for in a role model. He was not a giant man, but the man was a giant. His enthusiasm, his energy, his humour, his demeanor, his class, his smile, and his talent made him stand out in my mind. We've never come close to having a Kirby Puckett in a Jays uniform. Imagine the talent of Robbie Alomar, mixed with the charisma of Joe Carter, and the attitude and enthusiasm of Pinball Clemons. Yet the thing that made him so likeable and endearing was the fact that he seemed like he could be one of us. He did not look like an athlete and he did not act like an athlete. He looked like the guy who was selling hot dogs out front of the Dome, not the guy leading his team to playoff victories inside. With his smile and his bowling ball physique, it's almost as if Kirby was a cartoon character out there. You couldn't help but love him and you couldn't help but cheer for him.

As a baseball player, he was a first-ballot Hall of Famer even though his career was cut short due to glaucoma. He was an MVP, a two-time World Series champion, a 10-time all-star, six-time Gold Glover, and the 1996 Roberto Clemente Award winner. As a teammate, he was just as supportive and friendly with the 25th guy as he was with the stars. As Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said, "The thing you have to remember is, Puckett didn't separate people. Everyone had a chance to be his friend. You could have been star or a Joe off the street, it didn't matter.''

Like I said before, when you identify a favourite player, you become associated with that player. So as I've been going through some of the emails from friends consoling me on Puckett's passing, I must say that I'm still proud that people associate Kirby Puckett with me. My 6-month old son was curiously looking around the basement last week when his eyes became fixated on my #34 Twins jersey hanging on the wall. As I told him then, "you don't know who Kirby Puckett is yet, but as you get older I'll be sure to tell you all about him and what he meant to your Daddy". And hopefully as he learns about who Kirby Puckett was as a baseball player, he'll understand a little more about who his father is and some of the characteristics that he hopes his son grows up to have.


Addendum: By no means am I attempting to gloss over or ignore all of the negativity surrounding Kirby Puckett since he retired. For all of his success on the field, he had obvious failures off the field. Reports of infidelity and domestic abuse have certainly tarnished his image in the eyes of many (myself included to a degree). I think it just shows that he was human, and like all of us he was not perfect. But that's part of what made him so easy to relate to and pull for as a baseball player. He did not surround himself with handlers. He did not walk around with an entourage. He did not have 10 people working to keep his image squeaky clean. If Michael Jordan were to pass away tomorrow, he would be looked upon as the greatest athlete and sportsperson of our generation. But what about his gambling problems and his rumoured associations with known criminals? It's still OK for you to have MJ as a role model. If you sit back and wait to find a perfect person to look up to, you'll be waiting forever. It is our faults that make us truly human and I would think that we can continue to admire and respect the positive contributions of someone like Kirby Puckett without approving of his failures.

March 04, 2006

Hello My Name Is: Lyle Overbay

Personal Stats
Name: Lyle Stefan Overbay
Age: 29
You Might Remember Me From: Who's kidding who? You have no idea who I am.
Most Resembles: Actor Michael Rapaport
Why the Jays Picked Him Up: J.P. thought that he was acquiring the rights to the band Loverboy, not L.overbay. It's all just a big misunderstanding.

Career Plus/Minus
Plus: Named the MVP for the Millwaukee Brewers in 2004
Minus: It's not like he was playing on the '27 Yankees. Winning the MVP award for the Brewers is like winning the award for Best Basketball Player under 5 feet tall.

Plus: Led the majors in doubles with 53 in 2004.
Minus: Could only muster 16 HR to go along with those doubles.

Plus: Hit .276 with 19 HR, 72 RBI, and a .816 OPS for the Brewers in 2005.
Minus: He'll be replacing Eric Hinske, who hit .262 with 15 HR, 68 RBI, and a .766 OPS in 2005. Not exactly a huge upgrade, is it?

What To Expect in 2006
Along with Troy Glaus, will be expected to add some protection for Vernon Wells in the middle of the lineup. He's a gap hitter, so you'll see lots of doubles but not that many homers. He's also a decent defensive first baseman, so you won't see too many throws in the dirt that he can't scoop out. In an ideal world, he'll hit .290 this season with 25 HR and 90 RBI.

March 03, 2006

Let the Grapefuit Eating Begin


The Grapefruit League is underway and the Jays stumbled out of the blocks with a 9-5 loss to Tampa Bay. If we pool enough money, we can send down a bottle of CLR to help remove the rust.

The Latest Buzz

Bloom: Jays ready to make their run (mlb.com) - Mar 3
Made-over Jays hope to join same sentence as Yanks, BoSox (sportsline.com) - Mar 3
Keys to Jays' hopes (cnnsi.com) - Mar 3
New-look Jays create a buzz (thestar.com) - Mar 3
Molina catching up (torontosun.com) - Mar 2
The Jays' expectations soar (thestar.com) - Mar 2
All is not clear for the Jays (torontosun.com) - Mar 1


March 01, 2006

You Named Your Baby Hosken?

As a new father, I'm well aware of how stressful and confusing it can be coming to a decision on what to name your new child. You want to be creative and original but you also don't want your son or daughter to spend their childhood years dodging spit balls and punches because you named them after a kitchen appliance.

If you're a rabid sports fan like me, there's a good chance that you've at least considered naming your first-born after your favourite athlete. If you're lucky enough to have a son, then by all means name him after your favourite Jay, but please, for the love of all things holy, avoid the following names at all costs.

New Dad's Guide to the Least Popular Blue Jay Baby Names

Hosken (Powell) - You're sure to get points for originality here, but what the hell is a Hosken? I can't find it anywhere in my Big Book of Baby Names. In fact, my on-line search failed to find any kind of history or meaning behind the name. I can't even find a single person other than Hosken Powell with the same first name. You might as well make up a new word and throw it on the birth certificate.

Rance (Mulliniks) - It's supposed to be short for Laurence, but I don't think his parents got the memo. Luckily for him, he was born with a weightlifter's physique and a model's good looks, so I'm sure he didn't get picked on in school.

Homer (Bush) - I remember the first time Homer Bush entered my world. I was at a Jays-Yankees spring training game at Legend's Field in Tampa Bay. Prior to the game, the Yankees handed out their award for the most valuable player of their spring training season. The winner was #69, Homer Bush. I thought for sure someone was playing a joke on the crowd (I kept looking around for the hidden cameras). I thought there's just no way that there's really a baseball player named Homer Bush who wears jersey #69 (on sober second thought, I wonder if he was actually wearing #69, or if that was just some kind of Budweiser-sponsored dream sequence).

Candy (Maldonado) - His actual first name is Candido, but that doesn't make it any more acceptable. As a general rule, you should try to avoid giving your son a name that sounds like a character from HBO's Cathouse.

Dick (Schofield) - I realize it's short for Richard, but at what point does someone willfully accept people calling them Dick?

Rico (Carty) - In 1991, Rico was listed as the 587th most popular boys name in the US. Also in 1991, Ecuadorian-born Gerardo became a chart-topper after issuing a single called "Rico Suave". By 1998, it had plummeted to the 987th most popular boys name. I don't need to draw a graph to show the correlation between the two, do I?

Just missing the cut were Ernie, Roy Lee, and Doyle. Did I miss any?