The Big Hurt went a little overboard but I understood where he was coming from, I was screaming at the fucking ump all game. He had a most inconsistent strike zone. It was brutally shitty on both sides so I’m not doing a “Jays got robbed bit” although they kinda got robbed on that last called third strike to Aaron Hill to end of the game.
Vernon Wells is too fat and slow and the announcers really need to emphasize the “former” part of “former gold glove winner Vernon Wells”. It might be time for him and Rios to switch positions. Wow, that contract is going to cripple this team.
Aaron Hill has had an unsteady three days in the field and he needs to smarten his ass up and start making plays. Who the fuck does he think he is?
There were some positives to be taken from the game, including the intensity the Jays had again tonight. The still have that feel to them, who knows if it was the addition of Rolen and Eckstein or Stairs and Thomas being around another year or Halladay’s calling out the troops, but something is different about this years Jays (so far). I think the Pie in the face days might be a thing of the past.
Dustin McGowan battled through six innings despite having the shits the past couple days and not having quite the control we are used too. The bullpen did an adequate job despite the hairy eighth.
I can’t wait for Ryan and Rolen to get back and for the Jays healthy return to Yankee stadium. We are going to play them tough all year.
Finally I’m still waiting for the Yankees to sign Joba to a lucrative long term deal so he can hurry up and tear his labrum.
Moving forward the D needs to tighten up, it has just not been acceptable thus far. More importantly Eckstein needs to be hitting 9th if he is going to play everday or until Johnny Mac wins the job.
I’m not liking are chances this weekend but hopefully we can split the first two and have a Halladay vs. Dice-K Sunday game to decide the series.
3 comments:
Raz - when did you turn into Richard Griffin? All this talk of intensity is making me queasy (maybe McGowan and I should quite eating at the same restaurants).
First series of the season in Yankee freakin' Stadium, one-run game, I should hope the guys look intense, whatever that means. Do you think last year's team would have been making balloon animals in the dugout in that situation? The real test, I suppose, comes in a mid-August tilt in Kansas City.
But all that aside, this concept of intensity (with all attendant references to pie in the face) means little unless you're Larry Bowa or Dick Griffin. A couple of timely hits and decent fielding would have won us those games, not more intensity.
(Oh, and don't forget, as of last week this team wanted to get a clubhouse monkey, which surely rivals pie in the face for whatever the opposite of intensity is)
Hey Man, I'm not saying it's going to improve their record, but there is a kind of "this year is our only chance" feel about it. Nothing bothers me more than players laughing on the bench or field when they are loosing a close game. I haven't seen that, yet. Hopefully that extra concentration (as evident by the Rios back up play on Wednesday) will give them that little extra in the win column. But if nothing else, it's pleasing as a fan to watch players as into the game as I am.
I get that at some level - if everyone could approach the game with Doc's level of commitment I'm sure we'd be better off.
But I'm not convinced that "intensity" is - in and of itself - always a good thing or a necessary ingredient for success in baseball. I can see how it would be in football, but over a 162-game season I think a little perspective and levity might be more useful than a Bowa-esque coronary-waiting-to-happen approach to things.
Then again, what else would you expect from someone whose all-time favourite Jays include Jimmy Key, Fred McGriff, and John Olerud, all of whom brought a studied insouciance to the game that I greatly appreciated.
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