Greatest Blue Jays Home Run

I've made it a habit over the course of my first 50 or so posts to occasionally try and rank specific Blue Jays players and other events/moments, but I have yet to throw my two cents in on what I believe to be the greatest and most important Home Run in Blue Jays history!  

No question there have been a number of important home runs in Blue Jays history.  You can probably make a case for a number of really important ones that helped define the club's identity, but in all honesty there is only really one that matters. 

You could make a case for the most important to be Doug Ault's first ever Blue Jays Home Run, but I won't.  A great moment indeed, but not the greatest ever!

Could you give it to a personal accomplishment?  If that's the case you could give it to Jose Bautista for when the set the single season record for home runs in a season....

Or Carlos Delgado's 4th Home Run on a night when he became one of only 16 Major League hitters to ever hit 4 home runs in a game. (Sorry for the lack of video on this one, god damn copyrights)

These were all well and great, but unless it's breaking an all-time home run record, I don't think these two stand much a chance. 

What about Ed Sprague's home run in the 9th inning of game 2 of the 1992 World Series?  Without this home run the Jays would have went back home to Toronto down two games to none.  Could they have come back from 2-0?  I don't know I'm no fortune teller, but it's still not the most important.

For year's the Blue Jays had been knocking on the door of the World Series, but it kept on getting slammed shut by team after team....that was until Roberto Alomar took Dennis Eckersley deep in the 9th Inning of game four of the 92 ALCS.   Among many Blue Jays fans this home run is regarded at the one that changed the mindset of the Blue Jays.  We were no longer knocking on the door, we were kicking it open!

Still not the best however...

Let's be honest the question of "Greatest Blue Jays Home Run Ever" is actually really easy.  In the history of the MLB only twice has the World Series ever been closed out with a walk off home run, and on October 23rd, 1993 Joe Carter did just that. 

No matter what you want to say about about the situation that any of the aforementioned home runs were hit in, none of them were to win a World Series.  Any kid who ever day dreamed about playing baseball has put themselves in those shoes only hoping that they could produce a story like Joe Carter did on that day! 

Enjoy! You'll never see a bigger Jays home run in your life!

 

Toronto Blue Jays Home Opener

On April 2^nd the Toronto Blue Jays will put a start to the 2013 season by facing the Cleveland Indians in probably the most highly anticipated home opener in recent memory!

The home opener to me has always been a day where baseball is King, a day where fans can come together & share their passion for a team, a day where every team is still in the race for a world championship, a day where long standing traditions are nourished and built, a day where everything is pretty much right with the world!

Well with saying that you would think that I would be a pretty much sure thing to go each and every year to the home opener, but last year I made a decision to stop going!  Now I love going to Jays games and I’ll probably make it out to at least 10 games this year, but the home opener over the past few years has become about something else in Toronto.

No longer do I feel that that I can bring my family to the home opener and actually enjoy the game. Toronto has always been an event driven city and with that you don’t necessarily get the cream of the crop that show up to Ball Park.  In the past four years I’ve seen a manager pull his players off the field for 30 minutes for safety reasons, countless fights, people pouring beers over balcony’s onto other fans, fans littering the field with promotional items, and not to mention some of the least clever heckling you could ever imagine (Don’t get me wrong heckling is great if you’re not someone with the brain capacity of a 2 year old who does nothing but yell our curse words).  All of these things are not something I want my boys to associate with going to the ball park at such a young age.

To be honest I don’t think all of these issues are the fans fault!  The Blue Jays organization is just as much to blame for the whole mess.

Why not provide proper security for the event?  If they were to treat the home opener like the Buffalo Bills do for any one of their home games you would not even have close to the type issues that it currently has. If you go to a Bills game you can’t look more than 10 feet without seeing some massive security guard in a bright yellow jacket holding down sections of fans.  Do the fans still have fun?  Sure do. Do some issues still arise?  Sure, but they are put to rest very quickly.   

Why give away promotional items at the start of the game?  They have to know that there is going to be a ridiculous amount of drunken people at this game and if you give them something to throw, they are going to throw it!  If you want to give them something (Which is actually stupid in itself, why giveaway something to a game that you are going to sell out???), give it to them on their way out of the building after the game.

In the end I’m still going to go to games, I’m just going to wait until after the home opener to make my way down to the Rogers Centre, where it’s a little more likely that my family can enjoy the real experience of going to a Blue Jays game. 


**Updated April 8th, 2013

Just wanted to add an addendum to this Post from a few months ago.... Here is a overview of some of the happenings over the course of the opening weekend down at the Roger's Centre.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/toronto-blue-jays-lead-league-unruliest-fans-232337796--mlb.html

All this just proves my point and re-affirms my intent on not going to any opening day type games and waiting until the Morons weed themselves out before I start to go to games.  

Spring Training Is Here! The Off Season is Over!

Well it's finally here!  Spring Training the quintessential end to the Winter season in my mind! Sure there's tons of snow on the ground in Canada, but right now i'm seeing nothing but sunny sky's!

So instead of clamoring on the bandwagon and talking more about how great the off season the Blue Jays had was. I'm going to look at what my 5 biggest questions that I have leading into spring training.....So here we go!

1.  Will JP Arencibia catch for RA Dickey regularly?

It's been well publicized that JP is more than willing to learn how to catch the Knuckleball and has spent a lot of time already hanging out with RA  trying to figure it all out.

I think he'll catch for him, but it won't be as much as he thinks.  I think JP will make sure he feels comfortable with it, as you would want your everyday catcher to be comfortable with your ACE especially if it comes to needing his bat in important games. However JP is going to need some days off and having two potential backups who are comfortable with a Knuckleballer it may make the most sense to get his rest on those days when Dickey is throwing.

2. Who will win the starting 2nd Baseman job?

I think when April 2nd roles around Emilio Bonifacio is going to be the starting 2nd baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays!

Now I know everyone in their brother who works for the Jays says the Izturiz is guy who is leading the way to have the spot locked down, but as I've said many a times....I think AA made some promises to Macier about 2nd base before he ever dreamed he could have had Bonifacio on his roster and he is just making sure all his people are saying the right things in order to save face with Izturiz.  I mean you can't look at Bonifacio and realize that he is everything that AA loves in a player.  He can hit, play multiple positions and is god damn fast!



3. Will Ricky Romero bounce back in 2013?

I do think we will see a new Ricky Romero this year!  He has all the tools to come back and be a staple in the back end of the starting rotation.  In the end I think we will see some career numbers from Ricky in 2013.



4.  How will the Blue Jays Bullpen look like in April?

Here is a quick list of where I see everyone!

Closing - Casey Janssen
8th Inning - Sergio Santos
Lefty Specialist - Darren Oliver
Lefty Long Man - Brett Cecil
7th Inning - Steve Delabar
Long Man - Esmil Rogers


Due to a number of great trades in 2013 AA has built himself a pretty impressive stable outside of the 6 mentioned above that will probably find themselves in Buffalo either in the Starting rotation or the Bullpen. They including....  JA Happ, Brad Lincoln, Jeremy Jeffress (No options left, may end up somewhere else) & Aaron Loup.  

I think the Jays have a pretty solid bullpen going into 13 and with the added rest that they could see due to a more veteran starting rotation, they could be very dominant over the course of the 2013 season.  



5. What Melky Cabrera will we see in LF?

I was one of the 1st guys to be jacked about the Melky signing in November, but as I thought about it more and given the recent media blowup with a Florida Anti Aging clinic, i'm not so sure that Melky is a slam dunk for the Jays.  

If you look at his numbers prior to the past two years, they are not the greatest and if they're a true indication of his abilities it could end up being a very average year in LF.  Let's just hope there is a happy medium between the two.  I would love a LF who hit .280 with 18 HR and 80 RBI.   



Here you have it....my 5 questions as it stands right now for the Blue Jays!  

What are your question marks about the 2013 Blue Jays?    Go Jays Go!

All Time Blue Jays Starting Rotation

In the 3rd and final installment of my All-time Blue Jays, I am going to close it out with the all time Jays pitchers that I would choose to put together one unbelievable starting rotation.  

Some perimeters here....I only chose Jays that were a part of the team for a decent part of time or accomplished something that was ground breaking for the franchise. 

So here we go.....

Opening Day Starter: - Roy "Doc" Halladay

If I could pick one pitcher to start any game for me, it would be Doc.  The quintessential professional who to this day could possibly be the most well respected ball player to ever wear the Jays uniform, and boy could can he pitch.  You knew that no matter what was going in in Jays world during his tenure, every 5th day you were  sure you were going to get a win. This is an easy decision for me. 

Roy won the Cy Young in 2003 the same year that he set the all-time Blue Jays record to wins in a season at 22.  As a Jay he represented them 6 times in the All-star game.  He is second all time in wins even though he started almost 120 games less than the all time leader.  Had a winning percentage of .661, only average 2 walks per 9 innings and had a average of 6.59 K's per 9, and my favorite stat (because it's so rare these days) but he had 49 complete games as a Jay.

2nd Spot - Roger Clemens

Although he was only a  Blue Jay for 2 years (Those 2 years will go down arguably as the most controversial of his career given that's where all the allegations of steroids came from), those two years were absolutely unfrickenbelivable.  He was hands down the most dominant pitcher in the MLB for those two years and that is why he is on my list.  

In those two years he racked up 41 wins, had an ERA of 2.33, a WHIP is 1.061, a K/9 rate of 10.2, 14 complete games, 6 shutouts, a wining percentage of .759, went to the All-Star game twice and won 2 CY Young awards.  That is ridiculous, even for a guy getting shot up in a hotel room overlooking the field. 

3rd Spot - Dave Stieb

When you look up the definition of fierce Ccompetitor you may very well find a picture of Dave Stieb.  Stieb was originally a center fielder in University  but was tansitioned to a pitcher, which proved to be a great decision ultimately. There's no real way to tell how good Stieb's numbers could have been as he was a great pitcher who was on a lot of bad teams.  Saying that he left his mark on almost every pitching record that the Blue Jays have. 

He is still the All-Time Blue Jays leaders in Wins, Shut outs in a season, complete games, innings pitched in a season, number of appearances in an All-Star game at 7.  He had a career 3.42 ERA, had 103 complete games and had a 5.62 winning percentage.  

...All that said all Jays fans will remember him for his....

4th Spot - Jimmy Key

I could have easily put a rotation together that consisted of all RHP, but that would be stupid....My Left handed pitcher of choice for the Jays was none other than Jimmy Key.  Not to be over shadowed by Dave Stieb as the ultimate Jays pitcher of the 80's, Key was probably one of the best Left handers in the majors during his career.   If you're like me you'll always remember Jimmy Key for his game 4 win against Tom Glavine in the 1992 world series, where he out pitcher Glavine in a dramatic 2-1 victory.

During his 9 years as a Blue Jays he won 116 games, had an ERA of 3.42,  had a winning percentage of .589, a WHIP of 1.196,  went to the All-Star game twice, had 28 complete games, and hardly walked anyone.  

5th Spot - Pat Hentgen

Pat Hentgen is a Blue Jay through and through...sure he spent some time outside of the organization but the dedication that he showed to the team while is was playing and now after he has retired is unlike any other.   Oh yeah and he was one hell of a pitcher at the same time....

His stats are not the greatest, but he has a number of years that were outstanding... he won 107 games, had a .557 winning percentage, 31 complete games, 9 shut outs, went to three All-Star games and who could forget won the CY Young in 1996.

I love that he is back in Jays Bullpen for this upcoming year.  He'll be a pitching Coach sooner rather than later if you ask me.

Some notable others who could have made the list....David Wells, Dave Stewart, Jack Morris, David Cone, Juan Guzman & Jim Clancey.

Well there you have it, my All-Time Starting Rotation.  It's pretty good if you ask me... Go Jays Go