We Kid, because we love: Gary Carter can see Citi Field from his house, while Shea needs a new stadium

A lot of stuff gets missed over a weekend, but not the news Gary Carter is moving up the managerial food chain.

The Kid, wannabe major-league manager and walking punchline to sports journalists whom he might have put off a few times back in the day, was hired late last week to manage the Atlantic League's Long Island Ducks. He is getting closer to managing in the majors, at least geographically, since the Ducks' ballpark is not that far away from the new home of the New York Mets, whom Carter played for to no small amount of critical acclaim. Nevertheless, the critics only want to focus on the negative. Shame on them:

"He'll be in the New York media market now, and at some point, he'll say something dumb. Something that will increase the wedge between him and Mets ownership. That will hurt his reputation again.

"It'll be a complaint that the Mets didn't respect what he did for them. That he put in his time in the minor leagues, so why didn't he get a chance at the major-league level? Something within that theme.

"You can set your watch to it.

"Twice, in 2004 and again last year, Carter lobbied for the Mets' managing job while the office still was occupied, first by Art Howe and then by Willie Randolph. In last year's despicable sales pitch, on Sirius Satellite Radio, he said he could get out of his contract with the independent Orange County Flyers at a moment's notice. It led former teammate Keith Hernandez to shred Carter on an SNY telecast.

"Carter came to the All-Star Game festivities in New York, and at a media availability in Manhattan, he still didn't understand what he did wrong. I asked him if he thought that even if he intended no harm, he created a great deal of it.

" 'Obviously, I think what was transpiring was they were trying to take the heat off Willie at the time and throw me under the bus,' he said, the 'they' referring to Mets management.

"He just doesn't get it." — Ken Davidoff, Newsday

In the parlance of our time, that is cruel, Mr. Davidoff. It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional, and you guys are jerks if you came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something about Gary Carter. It's not fair and not right.

The real Gary Carter is not the caricature put out by these dishonest leakers. The reality is he is a tough, capable, knowledgeable and focused baseball manager. He also had 1,225 career RBI in the majors, which makes him 1,225 more career ribbies qualified than current Amazin's manager Jerry Manuel to lead a major-league dugout.

Managerial experience? He had one thousand, two hundred twenty-five career RBI, people!

Meantime, in a story that seems unrelated but is in the same vein, Shea "Sinking Ship" Hillenbrand is contemplating a comeback. Hillenbrand played last season in, wait for it, the Atlantic League.

"I just had a bad year in '07. I was with the Angels and I thought I was going to be the full-time DH but they wound up having Vlad Guerrero and Garret Anderson take some time there, so I wasn't playing much and it was hard for me to stay in any kind of groove at the plate. It was just a bad year, but I never expected to be sitting out in '08. I played for York in the Independent League for half of a year and hit .340 so I know I can still hit and help someone. I had the problem up there in Toronto with John Gibbons (in 2006), so maybe that's followed me. But I've learned a lot and just want the chance to get back into the game.

"... I know my skills and they haven't gone away; in fact, they're better, because like I said, I'm entering my prime years right now. I know from all the players I've played with -- like Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, Barry Bonds - that I can really help a team with younger players." -- Boston Globe

One wishes him all the best, especially given that Hillenbrand, especially through his family's work with animals and underprivileged youth, does not fit the stereotype of a self-absorbed athlete (that's why it is a stereotype). He did hit .340 in 153 at-bats in the Atlantic League last season, but it was with his customary lack of power (two homers) and walks (five). It also came in a league where an entire team batted .303.

However, if he says he can still play, who are you to doubt him, you doubters? Take him on his word. Take Gary Carter on his, too. He might not be ready for the big stage yet, but don't rule him out in 2012.

Related:
Is Carter just a lame Duck? (Ken Davidoff, Long Island Newsday)
Previously:
The Kid can manage, I tells ya (June 17)

IT'S GLOVE STORY...

Hearty congrats go out to our man (originally) from Madoc, Pete Toms, whose labour of love from below level ground, A Baseball Geek got name-checked by globesports.com's Jeff Blair today.

The Tao of Stieb and Drunk Jays Fans also rated a mention.

So it seems Troy Glaus is in the clear (not that clear). Meantime, the Jays, who have apparently gone too long without having a backbiting backup with overinflated self-esteem since firing Shea Hillenbrand midway through '06, are thisclose to signing Paul Lo Duca.

It looks like it's going to take yours truly getting on a train bound for Toronto tomorrow for anything big to actually happen, though.

JAYS-TWINS: LISTENING TO FRANK THOMAS CONNECT

Thursday -- Twins 8, Jays 5: When Frank Thomas connected for his 500th home run, Rogers was showing the same Sportsnet Connected that had been in a continuous loop since the pre-dawn hours. Nice work.

None of the Jays three TV partners was there to chronicle it, which is just nuts considering the Jays have hyped Thomas' countdown to 500 for weeks. Regardless, the game was only available to Rogers Digital subscribers, who got the local Minnesota broadcast on a free preview channel. (Nothing against those guys, they gave the feat the proper attention, but I've also seen about a half-dozen Twins regional broadcasts this year and still can't remember the play-by-play guy's name, he's that vanilla.)

True, it's an afternoon getaway day game, unlikely to get as big a rating as a weekend game vs. the Yankees (remember when the Jays used to have those?), but couldn't Rogers adjust the schedule, seeing as it owns the Blue Jays, for pity's sake. To add insult to injury, the game unravelled fast on the Jays. A.J. Burnett went berserk over a few ball-and-strikes calls by home plate ump Mark Wegner, which led to Thomas himself and John Gibbons also getting run in the all-but-the-crying stage of the game.

Talk about brutal; this and Gibbons blowing Tuesday's game, which was much more egregious, left the Jays with a split against a weak-hitting Twins club that didn't throw Cy Young in the four-game series.

At least Rogers' oversight meant, in theory, that more dedicated Jays fans had to tune in on the radio and hear Jerry Howarth call it: "... and listen to that ovation." There's the rub -- a lot of people could only listen to it.

Wednesday -- Jays 5, Twins 3: For one night, it was great to be young and a Jays fan.

Josh Towers goes six-plus innings to earn credit for a win -- he had the "at them" ball working. Meantime, an accredited baseball writer on the Yankees beat whose name shall be withheld here as a public service actually suggested Shea Hillenbrand would be "worth the shot" for the Yankees, given their first base woes.

When someone chronicling the Yankees actually believes SFH and his 600 OPS could help, that run of 12 straight playoff appearances is about good as done. (Oh, and we kind of half-joked back in spring training about what S.F.H. could do for A-Rod if they ever became teammates.)

S.F.H.'s latest departure, being designated for assignment by the L.A. Angels, isn't his own fault, of course, just like it wasn't his fault when the Jays turfed him last summer (and flipped him to the Giants for Jeremy Accardo, who delivered a four-out save Wednesday night). It's a matter of philosophical differences -- namely, the Angels' philosophy is that a .254 average with nearly no power or walks doesn't cut it for a corner infielder making $6 million.

(Last time Hardball Times did an update, S.F.H. had earned minus-2 Win Shares Above Bench. In other words, the Angels could have given his playing time to some random rookie or Triple-A callup, and got more production for about 5-10% the salary.)

Tuesday -- Twins 2, Jays 1: In extra innings, it's the manager's game. The Texan flat-out frittered away a tight game while having his best reliever, Casey Janssen, throw only two pitches and his second-best, Accardo, never pitch at all. This actually happened.

It was shock enough to see Jason Frasor come in for the Twins 10th after C.J. coaxed a double-play ball from his only batter, Michael Cuddyer, to end the ninth inning. Then Gibby The Genius topped that by turning over the 1-1 tie to Brian Tallet in the bottom of the 12th. Perhaps the same thing happens (the Twins worked across the winning run with three singles, the last by consummate professional hitter Jeff Cirillo with two out) vs. Accardo or Frasor, but the logic is baffling. You always put off using your weaker pitchers as long as possible.

How is that the manager could be more worried about having to turn over a lead to Tallet and/or Brian Wolfe than having one of them protect a tie, where there's a slimmer margin for error? Why preserve Accardo for a save opportunity that might never come? The answer is to that is three words long, and two are cover and arse. It was like he was afraid to go against convention.

It's possible that the Jays still lose if Janssen pitches through the 10th and/or Frasor comes in for the 11th. There should be no shame in losing a game that had great pitching and defence on both sides. (True, the Jays had only four hits, but after scoring 50 runs across the previous seven games, they were due for an evenout.) Instead, Gibbons failed to pull out all the stops, it led to the Jays losing, and in the words of Renee from Mallrats, "... and I go to sleep unfulfilled." Arrrrgh.

(Let's see what the good people at Fire Gibbons will have to say.)

Monday, 8:10 -- Jays 7, Twins 5: It's officially a roll when Adam Lind and Matt Stairs are robbing the other team of hits and runs.

Stairs also hit the game-winning homer in the eighth, putting the Jays on their way to being a game above .500 -- and bringing the bandwagoners out of their 2 1/2-month stint in an undisclosed location to start talking about wild card. That's about two weeks premature -- six games out of the wild card on June 26 is like being 12 out in the division, since it involves leapfrogging three or four other teams.

The only problem with Stairs' two-run homer in the eighth was that since Rod Black and Pat Tabler were really rolling along in their nine-inning rhapsody to small ball and how the Twins play like a National League team with all the bunting and basestealing.

True, that's the common belief, but this season American League teams on average have 45 steals, to 42 for those in the Quad-A league. After the Nye Mets, the next four most prolific teams in base thievery are each from the AL. Six of the bottom seven play in Quad-A -- of course, the one there is the Jays. Black and Tabler are smart enough guys, so why don't they say something that reflects some research? Besides, if anyone wants to go back to 1917 so they can live in the Dead Ball Era, that would also mean living in an age before penicillin. Sounds like fun.

Anywho, Roy Halladay fought through and the Jays got the breaks the team with the better pitcher should receive. Twins starter Kevin Slowey would have an easier time throwing his lukewarm fastball through the eye of a needle than busting it past a right-handed hitter on the inside corner.

CBC slow off the mark? The Toronto Star's Chris Zelkovich touches on a good point in his column today, criticizing the CBC for underplaying Dustin McGowan's bid for a no-hitter yesterday. It segues into whether the tradition of baseball announcers being coy when a pitcher has a no-hitter going really jibes with our short attention span society. It likely made sense in 1955, when there was an expectation people would follow the whole game, but these days, people will flip to another channel if there's no evident reason to stay with the game.

At the same time, people should be able to pick up on it themselves. This is the snob argument: Shouldn't people figure out by the reaction of the crowd to each out and the tone of the announcers that something extraordinary is happening?

(According to a comment left at the thread for the Rockies series, Hughson did mention it: "No sooner had he opened his mouth and puked out the jinx, then BOOM! Jeff 'I hit .239 because that's how I roll' Baker breaks it up.")

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

BATTER UP: L.A. ANGELS

Counting down the seconds till Opening Day when life begins anew involves providing a "starting nine" for all 29 major-league teams, and if there's time, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays too! Presenting: The Los Angeles Angels.

1. Anaheim could be Shea A-Rod: Yankees GM Brian Cashman is playing hardball with Alex Rodriguez over a contract extension, so the Angels could be a new home for the so-hard-done-by slugger. A-Rod is in a vulnerable place -- can't you just picture him on road trips, all alone in his hotel suite, comfort food and box of tissues at arm's length, listening to It Nevers Rain in Southern California sixty-three times in a row on his iPod?
   
   A move to Hell-A has to happen today. It gets A-Rod out of the American League East and weakens the Evil Empire. He also honestly seems to have some inner conflicts which need sorting out and what better place to get than with the Angels, (this year's) home of the Shea Hillenbrand Baseball Academy?
   
   Shea Hillenbrand (pictured) can straighten out A-Rod. Shea Hillenbrand is a winner. Shea Hillenbrand gets results, just like Jim 'The Hammer' Shapiro. Shea Hillenbrand is a TWO-time American League All-Star whose OPS sometimes flirts with the mythical .800 barrier. He can give A-Rod, whose OPS hasn't dipped below .880 since he was a 22-year-old shortstop, the help he needs. The first lesson would involve some tough love -- hiding the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood DVD and forcing A-Rod to watch John Cena as The Marine.
2. Howie Kendrick is the DFM: Can the 23-year-old second baseman make Angels fans forget Adam Kennedy? He might make them forget Bobby Grich. Kendrick has hit everywhere he's gone -- check his OPSes from the minors -- and could have a 200-hit season with above-average power for his position.
3. They're winning the AL West: Explain why they won't. The Angels were an 89-win team last year despite only 10 starts' worth of Bartolo Colón and a lineup which had more dead spots than entire season of Lost episodes, and about as many characters.
4. Arte Moreno is baseball's best owner: He's cut the prices of tickets and beers. He's doubled the value of his franchise across the past four years without holding local governments hostage for a new stadium. He's also keeping 50-million-dollar man Gary Matthews Jr.'s feet to the fire over allegations he was a juicer because he wants a clean game.
   
   Of course, some Angels fans might feel a little differently about that last thing after the team hit a paltry 159 home runs last season.
5. It's pronounced Shawn: Angels leadoff man Chone Figgins is one of our favourite players just for the spelling of his first name. "That's not Shawn!" has been a frequent exclamation of Shawn Sager, Official Brother of Out of Left Field.
6. Retro Angel: Oh, to be young and innocent about on-base percentage and Win Shares, since it freed one up to appreciate how Gary Pettis (centre-field, 1982-87) played the outfield and ran the bases. Pettis was about as valuable as a .236 career hitter with no power could due to his defence -- which actually kept Devon White in right field for a time. By the way, that's not Gary Pettis in the picture. He had his brother pose for his 1985 baseball card, and the Topps idiots fell for it.
   
   Gary Pettis' motivations for blowing off the photo shoot have been lost in the sands of time. One would like to think he had a chance to hook up with Diane Franklin, Teal Roberts or some other mid-'80s Hollywood starlet.
7. Curse of the Cowboy redux: Look, no one likes to believe in a team being cursed more than a Leafs fan, but sometimes it's just sheer Jelloheadness at work. Take the Angels: Do you think they might have won a pennant in the 1980s if then-GM Buzzie Bavasi had got something in return when he gave away Tom Brunansky, Carney Lansford and Dickie Thon, who all went on to help other teams win in that decade? Bavasi, who's now in his 90s, was a big part of the Brooklyn Dodgers intergration effort of the '40s and '50s, so he gets a free pass for that.
8. Need-to-know: John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Jered Weaver and ex-Jay Kelvim Escobar are a fairly formidable foursome of starting pitchers. There are plenty of swing guys -- Scot Shields, Hector Carrasco and Darren Oliver -- who can fill in if Colón is idled.
   
   The Angels should score more runs and play better D by simple virtue of more stability and the likes of Kendrick, first baseman Casey Kotchman and catcher Mike Napoli growing up, and that will give them the extra push to get into the playoffs.
9. Last but not least: No self-respecting person has referred to the team by its new name, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, since about 10 minutes after it was adopted. You could say whoever coined that deserves the nickname the Anaheim ballpark used to have -- the Big A -- but that belongs to Shea Hillenbrand.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

BATTER UP: SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

We're counting down the seconds till Opening Day, when life begins anew. This involves providing a "starting nine" of obscure trivia, fun facts, high points and low moments for all 29 major-league teams, and if there's time, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays too! Presenting: The San Francisco Giants.

1. Barry Bonds may need a bit more time to set that home run record. Bonds' fast-fading power and deteriorating health (what could have caused that?) might make it tough for him to hit the 22 homers he needs to break Hank Aaron's career record by the end of this season. One projection says he'll hit only 12.
   
   If the chase carries over into '08, it won't mean more hand-wringing, self-righteous columns and editorials since everyone not connected to the Giants is beyond caring. If a steroid user can break a famous baseball record and get away it, so be it; Bud Selig will have all eternity to half-answer for that.
2. Tonight's starting lineup brought to you by regular Polident. Between the soon-to-be 43-year-old Bonds, Omar Vizquel (age 39) at shortstop, Ray Durham (35) at second and Ryan Klesko (35) trying to win an outfield/first base job, the Giants have an all-star lineup. Unfortunately, it's a 1997 all-star lineup.
3. Sure it's not 1985 now, but who knows what tomorrow will bring? Feel free to tell every baseball fan you know that the Giants, despite making a big winter splash by bringing Barry Zito across the Bay from Oakland, are going to finish last for the first time in 22 years. They will call you crazy, especially since San Fran's division includes the dismal Diamondbacks and ramshackle Rockies, but at least you'll have their attention.
4. They're clearly owned by socialists. Everyone knows that a true red-blooded North American capitalist who believes in free enterprise and competition would have shaken down the government to build a ballpark. Those tree-hugging, Pelosi-contributing Giants owners with their Janeane Garofolo posters over their beds spent their own cash ($319 million) to build Pac Bell Park. For the record, the Giants did get some tax abatement and municipal upgrades in the area around Pac Bell, or as it's officially known, AT&T Park.
5. How inhospitable was the old Candlestick Park? According to legend, former National League MVP Keith Hernandez had it written into his contract that he couldn't be traded to the Giants.

6. Retro Cool Giant: Greg 'Moon Man' Minton (right-handed reliever, 1975-87). Remember the scene in Bull Durham where Crash Davis floods the ballpark to get a rainout? According to his Wikipedia bio, Minton actually did that in the minors before the last game of the season so he could go home early. Another time (one assumes), he made off with the team bus.
   
   Minton, who in his playing days kind of looked like a younger version of Uncle Leo from Seinfeld, also set a major-league record by throwing 254 1/3 consecutive innings without allowing a home run. In '82, he put up numbers that are alien in today's game with its more specialized bullpens: 10 wins, 30 saves, 78 appearances, 123 innings pitched.
   
   Minton was paid $343,000 in '82. Last year, the Yankees paid their closer Mariano Rivera $10.5 million to throw 75 innings. If you work that out on a per-inning rate, that's a 5,000 percent pay hike for top relievers over 25 years -- and remarkably, there have been no reports of Minton being committed to a psych ward over this.
7. When it comes to the Giants' prospects, your love life looks good in comparison. According to Baseball America, the Giants have only two of the top 100 in the game, righty pitcher Tim Lincecum and lefty Jonathan Sanchez. (Know how also only has two of the Top 100 prospects? The Blue Jays.)
8. Which Barry Zito are they getting? The Giants are forking out Vernon Wells money, $126 million over seven years, for Zito, the 2002 Cy Young Award winner. Trouble is, Zito's walk rate went up and his strikeout rate declined from '04 and '05, and did so again from '05 to '06. The big spring training camp story with the Giants is that Zito has tweaked his motion. That could mean some short-term pain for a pitcher whose out pitch is his curveball.
9. What's black and orange and has no corners? The Giants' lineup. They got jack squat out of their first basemen (combined .719 OPS) and third basemen (.684) last season. In fairness, if they could have had legend in his own mind Shea Hillenbrand for the entire season, he certainly would have pulled those numbers almost up to sub-mediocre levels.
   
   Remember, Shea Hillenbrand is not only a fabulous player, but he also knows everything there is to know about baseball. That's why he has a new team every other year -- to spread that knowledge to as many people as possible. He's like the Jesus of baseball the way he spreads that gospel.
   
   Anyway, the need-to-know with the Giants is that they have good enough starting pitching to finish with 72-75 wins and stay out of the division basement. Between the unproductive lineup, the Bonds baggage and a bullpen which had NL-worst 4.73 earned-run average in 2006, contending is out of their reach.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

WHERE'D THE YEAR GO... JULY

In our continuing quest to secure a lower rung on the inferno, Out of Left Field looks back at the wild 'n' nutty month of July.

Someone got awfully irritated as the Blue Jays faded from the playoff race.

Italy wins the FIFA World Cup.

That damned Roy Halladay is just too consistent to ever throw a no-hitter. Effin' guy.

Was it a bit reactionary to say the Martin Havlat trade foretold the end of the great regular seasons the Ottawa Senators have enjoyed? Eh, maybe a little.

Sports movies you can share with your girlfriend. You're welcome.

A convicted drug trafficker coaching youth swimming? Sure, why the hell not. (I loved the one anonymous commenter who, in an article that had the disclaimer, "There's flies on all us, people," accused me of a "lack of tolerance." No wonder he or she preferred to stay anonymous.)

Hey, garth snow me a coffee, would ya? (Hat tip to Neil Acharya.)

Hockey Night in Canada on CBC? Probably not for long.

What it's like to be a Minnesota Vikings fan.

Shea Hillenbrand, we hardly knew ye!

Being a NFL fan isn't just about supporting your team, it's about abusing the fans of their rivals. We started about disabusing Detroit Lions fans of their delusions of adequacy.

OK, so July was kind of a slow month. That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

IN ROYCE, JAYS MADE ODD CHOICE

Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi must be really, really eager to show he's not some Moneyball egghead. How else to explain signing shortstop Royce Clayton?

Either that, or J.P. figured, what the hell and decided to grant the Toronto Star's Richard Griffin -- one of those old-timey sportswriters who always waxes on about the fundamentals and the flashing of leather -- his wish to be "GM for a day."

Clayton is the baseball equivalent of a substitute teacher. He fills in somewhat adequately for a while, until they find someone qualified. He's played for six teams in the past five years. He looks like a major-league shortstop, but his range is shrinking. As for his hitting, he's been "due" for his entire 16-year career.

Or as Baseball Musings put it (I checked after writing my post): "So he's a lousy offensive player, and he's not a great defensive player, but at $1.5 million at least he's a cheap lousy player!"

Hey, maybe the Jays still hope Russ Adams can get his act together and that Clayton is just a stopgap measure. Please, let Russ Adams get his act together.

Having a proven veteran shortstop, even a declining one, should help manager John Gibbons' peace of mind, which is good, since he has been known to lose his temper occasionally (see, Hillenbrand, Shea and Lilly, Theodore Edward). Clayton also came came cheaply (one year, $1.5 million).

Bottom line for a Jays fan: This move is just way to cleanse the palate until J.P. lands some starting pitching -- and gets Vernon Wells signed. Clayton's an early contender to lead the majors in the Neifi Index -- a stat invented by Salon.com's King Kaufman for the players who hurt their teams more the more they play.

(UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.: Ricciardi told a conference call "nothing is defined right now" with the Jays' plans at shortstop.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

SPIN-DOCTORING THE THOMAS DEAL

Frank Thomas is officially a Blue Jay, signing for two years and $18 million.

Now Jays fans eagerly await to see Toronto Star baseball columnist Richard Griffin plot his next opus to explain why it's so terrible that the Jays are signing a future Hall of Famer coming off a comeback season where he hit 39 dingers in a poor home run park in Oakland.

Fire Joe Morgan, which chronicles the stupidities of the overly chummy writers and broadcasters whom Moneyball author Michael Lewis called baseball's "ladies' auxiliary," is all over Tricky Dick for his Wednesday column.

Short synopsis: Griffin said Jays fans should hope Thomas fails his physical, thus voiding the signing. He followed that up with the leap of logic that Thomas is a divisive clubhouse presence, among other things, and the Jays should consider someone else as their DH, perhaps, wait for it, Shea Hillenbrand.

Would that be the same Shea Hillenbrand who the Jays fired last summer for insubordination? No, the other Shea Hillenbrand.

Now, I let it slide. Ragging on beat writers, columnists and even TV guys gets old fast and it's better to develop your own takes. Also, you have to realize they're writing or talking at a different, broader audience than the ones bloggers write to.

(Full disclosure: Griffin's Star colleague Chris Young has often linked to this blog, so there is a halo effect.)

If you wanna do the baseball-as-church analogy, Richard Griffin is kind of the Ned Flanders of baseball writers: Perfectly nice and normal, but full of some screwy, backwards ideas. You don't want to ever get in a philosophical discussion with him, since he's so convinced he's right, and no empirical evidence can convince him otherwise. It's like arguing with someone who believes in Creationism.

Same time, you don't want to push him away, though, since he does love the game, in his way, and besides, who else can you count on to organize the church bake sale or clothing drive?

On Thursday, Griffin tried to make hay from the Chicago White Sox invoking a "diminishing skills clause" to cut Thomas' salary a few years back. Right, like it's Frank's fault that White Sox are run by a bunch of A-holes. (Remember the Mike Sirotka trade?)

Then he tried to say Thomas had "fringy Hall of Fame numbers." Thomas' numbers — .305 batting average, 487 homers, 1,579 runs batted in (fourth among active players) would merit Cooperstown even before you add the "nerd stats" of on-base percentage and slugging percentage, where Thomas ranks among the top 20 players all time.

To Richard Griffin, though, that doesn't matter. To borrow Lewis' line, he needs to let it be known that he just "gets" baseball in a way that you, weak-chinned outsider, do not. If the former Expos PR flack and National League propogandist — remember him taking the Cardinals in the '04 World Series over the Red Sox (who swept, by the way) pretty much solely on the basis of David Ortiz having to play the field for a couple games? — then it be so.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

BLUE JAYS' BREAKFAST OF RUNNERS-UP

For this graduate scholar in schadenfreude, it warms the cold, cold heart on to see the Blue Jays finally perched in second place after whipping up on a makeshift Boston/Pawtucket Red Sox lineup last night in the season finale in front of 40,000-plus fans at the cable box.*

Rookie Shawn Marcum pitched brilliantly last night, fanning 10 and giving up just two soft singles across eight shutout innings in the 5-0 win. Jason Phillips (pictured) called a great game for Marcum and also got a hit that started a three-run rally.

Associate Blogger Neil Acharya was on hand last night, and reported that the crowd was loud and came away impressed by the Jays. Maybe it felt like the old days -- 1993. In Neil's words:

"The crowd started out quiet but quickly noticed Marcum's pitching performance... with every strike, the fans became more louder and more involved. The crowd was just waiting for a chance to let loose and was finally allowed to when Phillips broke up Tim Wakefield's shut out with a double, which was followed up two batters later by Alex Rios' 3-run homer.

After wakefield's no hitter was broken up, fans watched as Marcum's no-hit bid was broken up by an infield hit by Alex Cora. Even before Aaron Hill made the fleeting attempt at trying to preserve the no hitter and threw a limp ball towards Lyle Overbay at first base, the crowd was on its feet, cheering Marcum's performance.

Later, David Ortiz hit a foul ball within about 15 feet of the 500 level fair territory, he hit foul near about 4 Boston fans who had NESN signs. What luck. You can't find that much room on the Massachusetts Turnpike, let alone Fenway."

It's kind of an empty feeling. Don't get me wrong. It would be nice for the Jays to finish second in the AL East after finishing third in seven of the past eight seasons. It's just more a feeling that being pleased about the Jays finishing second, in light of how the Red Sox unravelled over the final six weeks, reeks of being of an apologist for the brain trust of team president Paul Godfrey, GM J.P. Ricciardi and manager John Gibbons.

There's just a hard-to-shake feeling is that all the positive energy that abounded at times this summer -- peaking on the late July weekend when the Jays took three of four games from the Yankees, pounding them 13-5 in the Sunday game -- is all going to be in vain. The Jays don't have the smarts, in the dugout or the GM's office, to take the aging Yankees next year.

It's never going to be easy so long as the Jays are in the AL East with the Evil Empires. That's fine. This season's been nothing if not interesting (witness Gibbons' clashes with Shea Hillenbrand and Ted Lilly), but in the end, what did it all mean? Back in the summer, when the Jays had the sixth-best record in the majors but were stuck in third in the division, yours truly sent a wild, barely coherent e-mail to a Toronto beat writer, pointing out how baseball's scheduling and playoff format skews perspective and gives certain columnists license to bash the Jays.

The writer responded courteously, but pointed out if the Jays didn't make the playoffs this year, you'd have to wonder if they would ever be able to, barring a change to the post-season format.

Now it's another non-playoff season, a nearly inexcusable sin in a market which, thanks to all those years when the Leafs were in the old Norris Division (where they could, and did, finish 20th in a 21-team NHL and still get a shot at the Stanley Cup), believes you almost have to try to not make the post-season. Well, that, and all the fair-weather fans got spoiled back in the day. (How many realize that Cito Gaston was the only manager ever prior to the current three-division to make the post-season in four of his first five seasons?)

The Jays drew 2.3 million fans this year, their most since 1998. There seems to be a buzz around the team. Those in the much coveted 18-to-34 demo are rediscovering baseball after largely ignoring it since the World Series years (as The Geek noted back on Opening Day), whatever their reasons might be.

Still, the end result is that it's another season with 85 or so wins, just like 2003, or 1998 through 2000. In each of those seasons, the following spring brought no real reason to be optimistic about seeing the Jays play in the post-season. This is a good team here, as exciting as any since the early '90s, but it's hard to ease these self-doubts.

(* Re: "cable box." The hope here is that this takes off as the new nickname for the Rogers Centre. Credit goes to Woodstock Sentinel-Review sports ed. Darryl G. Smart.)

Previous Jays rants:
More Like a Towers of (Slim) Hope (Sept. 25)
Ain't No Party Like A Lame Yankees Victory Party (Sept. 20)
Baseball's Scheduling Imbalance Revisited (Sept. 13)
Our Feminized Society Catches Up To John Gibbons (Aug. 22)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BRAWL GAME

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2006 Toronto Blue Jays.

Loads of offence, not-so-stellar pitching, a strange tendency to take their disputes public ... and frustrated fans.

Last night, when lefty Ted Lilly blew an eight-run lead against the A's, argued with manager John Gibbons, and the two wound up fighting in the dugout, was a perfect storm of all three and perhaps embodied the Jays' season in microcosm.

The timing couldn't have been worse, since Wednesday night's special promotion was Guaranteed Manager-Player Fight Night. Just kidding.

Since yours truly was at work when it happened and the game wasn't on any of the TVs in the newsroom (NFL pre-season ... you gotta watch the NFL pre-season), the only comment that can be offered here is on what the fallout is going to be for both the manager and ballplayer.

Declarative statements such as "Gibbons just signed his own pink slip" have a tendency to come back to bite you in a fairly uncomfortable place. The skipper came out of the Shea Hillenbrand contretemps last month smelling like a rose. For the first year and a half of his tenure, he'd been the most low-profile of the leaders of Toronto's four sports teams. Not as quotable as Argos coach Pinball Clemons or Pat Quinn, then of the Leafs; and not certifiably nuts like Raptors coach Sam Mitchell. After he challenged Hillenbrand to a rumble, Gibbons was elevated in the eyes of some. Besides, Hillenbrand was known to be a me-first malcontent, so it was pretty easy to side with the manager.

This time, not so much. The case can be made that in the past month, as the Jays slowly but surely fell away from the playoff contenders and back into the middle of the pack, Gibbons' competency has been called into question. No one's quite sure what anyone could have done with the pitching staff, but the bottom line is a manager can't be fighting with his players. It just can't happen. The Billy Martin era is long gone, and nowadays, the guy in the dugout is pretty much middle management, a supervisor reporting to the suits who have the real power and control.

So this maybe endears Gibbons to a certain meathead segment of sports fans, or the miscreant faction who would like him to stay around just for sheer entertainment value, but really, tonight probably marks the beginning of the end of Blue Jays tenure. Can you really imagine this guy being the manager who's going to lead us (the royal us, the editorial us) back to the playoffs?

Lilly's Blue Jays tenure only had another six weeks. In his mind, he was probably gone already, since he's a potential free agent and the feeling on him leaving was mutual. Not to choose sides, but Lilly probably didn't do himself any lasting damage. He's still got another 3-4 years to trick otherwise savvy baseball men into paying for his arm, not his stats.

Last night could be excused as just one bad night, but you wonder why this is a pitcher who's been in five organizations in the past eight seasons. Teams always covet him for what he's supposed to be capable of, but when you actually have Ted Lilly, most of the time is just waiting for the good starts he has every now and again. So yes, it will probably be good riddance come Oct. 1.

That's all for now. Sned your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

THE BLUE JAYS: 100% ARSON FREE!

Where's Damaso Garcia when you really need him?

You may remember Garcia as a decent second baseman for the Jays throughout the first half of the 1980s -- decent glove man, first Jay to steal 50 bases in a season, first player to get 1,000 career hits in a Toronto uniform. Not many people talked about on-base percentage and OPS back then, so few noted that 1985 Jays won 99 games with a leadoff hitter whose OBP barely scrapped .300 since he never walked if it could be avoided. (Damaso's single-season high in bases on ball was 24, which is about a month's worth for Jason Giambi.)

That's neither here nor there. Along with the fact he once took Alfredo Griffin as his guest to the all-star game in lieu of a spouse or significant other -- and then Griffin ended up getting into the game as an injury replacement -- Damo will always be remembered for something else.

It's topical, in light of the Jays free-fall (outscored 20-4 in a three-game sweep by the Yankees) to recall that Damaso committed the most memorable temper tantrum in Jays history, pre-Shea Hillenbrand. On May 14, 1986, after a 9-4 loss in Oakland where a Garcia error opened the door to a five-run A's seventh inning, he went into the clubhouse bathroom, set his cap and jersey on the floor, and set it ablaze.

It was rash, it was dangerous, and in its own way, highly original. The kicker was that some people could make out the outline of the number 7 in the charred powder-blue, polyester pullover jerseys they wore back then and assumed the human torch had been Dave Stieb (who wore 37), since he had taken the loss to fall to 0-5 on the season.

MOLINA: CULTURE SHOCK?

Which is a roundabout way of saying the nicest thing you can say about the Jays of late is that no one is starting fires in the locker room after losses, although it might be wise to keep an eye of Bengie Molina. The catcher sounded off about his lack of playing time and it's possible the Jays could put him on waivers within days in order to avoid having to buy out his contract after the season.

Molina really can't be blamed for being upset over being reduced to a backup role, or not getting to DH when Gregg Zaun starts behind the plate -- a luxury the Jays can afford with three catchers on the roster. There's an argument that this is proof of John Gibbons being a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately guy -- which defenders would call going with the hot hand.

Molina hasn't been that much better defensively than Zaun, and is getting outhit by him too (.723 OPS to Zaun's .819).

You have to wonder if the problem is cultural. Molina, who's from Puerto Rico, came over from the Angels, who have a Latino owner, at least one Latino coach (the aforementioned Alfredo Griffin), and a host of Latino players -- Bartolo Colon, Vlady Guerrero, Jose Molina, Francisco Rodriguez.

The Jays, on the other hand, are pretty much on the most white-bread teams in the entire majors outside of Atlanta or Houston. With Gustavo Chacin, a Venezuelan, away on a rehab assignment, Molina's the only player on the entire team born outside the continental United States. (Right-fielder Alex Rios was born in Alabama.)

Not to stereotype, but you wonder if that's affected Molina's comfort level with the Jays, and in turn impacted his play. Then again, if the demographics of the team roster influenced a player's happiness, how do you explain a redneck like Hillenbrand blowing his top two weeks ago?

Regardless, it's important to be upbeat. It's a game, for chrissakes, and the knowledge has been there all along that this was not going to be easy, that the odds against pulling off a playoff berth was going to be tough (and that was before the Tigers came virtually out of nowhere).

It's never as bad as it seems when it's going bad, just as it's never as good as it seems when it's going well. Besides, Roy Halladay starts tonight against the White Sox. Said it before and will say it again: you're only as good as the next game's starting pitcher.

That's all there's time for. Back a little later. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

TRADERS.... SOME MORE THAN OTHERS

News of note as you wondered why July goes by so fast and February seldom does.

To little surprise, Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi didn't make a trade at the deadline to improve the Jays, who are 51⁄2 games out of the wild card and 61⁄2 back in the AL East. (Actually, he did make a trade to improve the Jays: he got rid of Shea Hillenbrand.)

Opinion seems split 50/50. One pet peeve here is with fans -- talking the people who clog up the call-in shows who says a team should have done something at the deadline but never supply specifics about who, exactly, that have might have been. Besides, did anyone notice the Red Sox didn't do anything either, with all their cash? Let's not shill for the Jays, though: Two good shortstops -- Julio Lugo and Cesar Izturis -- were traded, and either one would be an upgrade over John McDonald.

OTHER BUSINESS

• How many hockey metaphors can you run into the ground for Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk's current entanglement with the Ontario Securities Commission. Can the Sens billionaire boss skate or stickhandle around these allegations? Will the securities commission whistle him for a major penalty?
  
  This story gets more play due to the high profile that comes with being a NHL owner, but it's not really a sports story. Stephen Brunt or Bruce Dowbiggin could probably tie in all the sports and business angles, but it seems like Melnyk isn't in major trouble. He hasn't been accused of insider trading at Biovail. The OSC is merely eyeing the paperwork that has to be filed in order to protect insiders such as himself from the appearance of insider trading -- in other words, make the stock market appear like it's a fair fight. Compared to the trouble Conrad Black is having, the potential punishment for Melnyk practically amounts to a parking ticket.
  
  Besides, we've all seen Wall Street -- among traders, the rule of thumb is if you don't have the watchdogs on your case, you're not trying hard enough.
• New York Islanders general manager Garth Snow has set up -- and plans to respond to -- questions sent to askgarth@newyorkislanders.com. Apparently Islanders fans have already sent him more than 1,000 messages. No word on how many asked him to "Garth Snow me some coffee." (Via James Mirtle, who also has some good stuff on the Melnyk situation.)
• Have to love baseball's NL West: the last-place Dodgers not only have a better run differential (plus-18) than the first-place Padres, but have the best in the entire division. Then again, this last-place stuff is all relative; L.A. is only three games out.
• If the Padres, who won the NL West last year with a paltry 82 wins, hang on, they will likely set an unofficial record for fewest wins in back-to-back division-winning seasons. The mark of 175 is shared by the 1984-85 Kansas City Royals (seasons of 84 and 91 wins) and '97-98 Indians (86 and 89). Both of those teams, incidentally, made a World Series appearance. Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com.
• Some well-meaning advice for Floyd Landis from some sports figures who've been in his shoes, courtesy those wacky kids at WBRS Sports Blog.
• Note to readers: Excuse the lack of a middle-of-the-night update -- an electrical storm briefly knocked out my 'Net connection, plus it was really trippy to watch.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

JAYS-OBSESSED: PLAYOFFS, SCHMLAYOFFS (AND STICKING UP FOR LINDSAY LOHAN)

Ibid., see yesterday's post.

Some would say they were 24 hours late in light of what appeared here yesterday, but the Toronto Star's baseball writers have dug a third-place grave for the Blue Jays after yesterday's walk-off 6-5 loss to Oakland.

Not to shoot the messenger, but it's fairly easy for beat writer Geoff Baker and columnist Richard Griffin, along with the scribes from the other Toronto papers (which don't update their websites until after I go to sleep) , to arrive at that conclusion after yesterday, when the Jays turned in a performance that was the equivalent of listening to fingernails being dragged across the chalkboard for three hours.

Only the true believers would think the Jays aren't teetering on the edge of the cliff as far as their playoff hopes go. For anyone in the media to offer anything but a written or verbal push, figuratively speaking, would just seem like a waste of energy, or worse yet, shilling for a sinking ship. (Hey, maybe Shea Hillenbrand was on to something.)

Fingernails across the chalkboard. Blown opportunity after opportunity against a rookie, Shane Komine, on a day when Roy Halladay was good enough to deserve his 14th win. Finally, after Doc was out of the game, a three-run rally off Huston Street in the top of the ninth to take the lead, only to have Oakland match that when Milton Bradley homered off B.J. Ryan with two out in the home half of the inning. (Baker did point out, astutely, that the real killer was Ryan walking Mark Kotsay in a lefty-lefty matchup one batter before Bradley's moon shot. That was the cardinal sin.)

As any cynical conjurer can tell you, that whole collapse typifies a season where this team has spit the bit mre often than not. It couldn't just be that Ryan was extended after throwing 30-some pitches two days after he'd pitched a rare two-innings save. No sirree. Even if it was, that's more of an indictment on the rest of the club for putting its closer in that situation by not getting good enough pitching earlier in games or scoring enough runs, now isn't it?

If nothing else -- and that's not just a throwaway phrase -- 24 of the remaining 57 games remaining are against the teams the Jays are trailing for either the division or wild card race. And this is a team that tends to play better against good clubs than the ones it's supposed to beat.

There's nine games left against the Yankees beginning with this week's series in New York, plus eight against Boston, four against Minnesota and a three-game set against the White Sox this weekend at Rogers Centre. There's certainly no lack of showdowns with the top teams. It's just that, with the likes of Dustin McGowan and Shawn Marcum thrust into the starting rotation, the Jays keep bringing a knife to a gun fight.

Incidentally, if you're wondering, Cool Standings has downgraded the Jays to 86.3 wins and a 4% chance of making the playoffs. Don't look so glum there. Baltimore and Tampa Bay fans would kill to be in that position at this point in the season.

The wise route: Reaffirm the goal that 90 wins would be enough -- playoffs, schmlayoffs -- and opt for baseball-themed therapy each day until Stage 5, acceptance, is reached. Tonight's, by the way, was watching Eight Men Out on DVD for the first time.

OTHER BUSINESS

• Us redheads have to stick together: Lindsay Lohan's mom was completely right to rip into the movie-company lowlife who chastised the full-time party girl and occasional actress for coming down with heat exhaustion during a movie shoot. Someone text-message this to this guy's Crackberry: You put a 95-pound girl with asthma through a 12-hour day in 105-degree heat that's killing people in California and you get mad when they get heat exhaustion?
  
  It would come as no surprise if this guy drives some ozone layer-wrecking gas-guzzling SUV. That's going to make the heat ever really unbearable for him when he's picking lettuce in the Salinas Valley in his next lifetime. (This assumes the existence of both reincarnation and a just God with a keen sense of irony, but what the hey, it's 3:30 a.m.)
• The Detroit Lions are terrible and the Vikings are not. Don't get all smug, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers fans. Your uppance shall come.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

TAKING STOCK OF THE JAYS

You can hear it already: "Classic Blue Jays."

Take three of four off the Evil Empire on the weekend (could have easily been a sweep), then start out this jaunt out the west coast by dropping a rather desultory 7-3 decision to the Seattle Mariners. Simply put: This one stunk.

Casey Janssen simply didn't have it, issuing successive walks in the bottom of the second, when the Jays fell behind 4-0. Other than some continued hot hitting by the likes of Reed Johnson and Lyle Overbay, and two homers from Eric Hinske (making it four in three games since Shea Hillenbrand was shipped to San Fran), there wasn't a whole lot to see.

Still, little to worry about for Jays fans to since Roy Halladay is throwing tonight. It is looking like next year might be The Season; the Jays would only need slight upgrades (either by getting new guys or getting more out of their current personnel) at most spots.

The solid areas are the corner infield (Overbay and Troy Glaus, provided his back and knees hold up), centre-field (Vernon Wells, who may be in a contract year) and the front end of the starting rotation and the late-inning pitchers (Justin Speier, Scott Schoeneweis, B.J. Ryan, and potentially Jeremy Accardo).

Catching needs to be upgraded, they need a real shortstop -- Aaron Hill belongs at second base, Russ Adams is the odd man out and John MacDonald will never hit much. Then there's the outfield.

Can the Jays get by next year if they trade Frank Catalanotto for pitching help and count on Reed Johnson and Alex Rios can be productive over a full season as the everyday corner outfielders?

Rios, of course, tore up the AL for two months, then cooled in June before getting the staph infection that's kept him out for the past few weeks. (He just made a rehab start last night in Triple-A).

Then there's Johnson, who's going to be trying to make the leap from likeable character actor to leading man (or everyday leadoff hitter). He has a 970 OPS this year in part-time play and has reached base in all but three of the games he's started. Even more interestingly, considering he's a platoon player, he's hit right-handers better than lefties this season.

Potentially, the Jays could go with Rios, Johnson and Eric Hinske as the quasi-DH who plays in the field when needed.

Just keep an eye on Johnson the rest of the year; if his stats don't tail off too much over the last nine weeks, it's going to be hard to justify not giving him a chance to play every day. In the short term, don't get caught up in debating whether or not it's best to sit Rios down for a few games when he is able to play again. Hinske is so right now, but that can't last.

That's all for now. Talk again later today. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

HILLENBRAND TO SAN FRANCISCO: YEAH, THERE'S NO IRONY THERE

Know how I know you're gay? You did a Google Images search of "San Francisco"+ "gay pride" and claimed it was strictly for comedy value.

Well, the Toronto Blue Jays really showed Shea Hillenbrand who was boss.

It's probably a coincidence, sure, but the Jays trading the disgruntled DH who once infamously called Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein a derogatory term for gays to San Francisco is irony, on a base level.

Of all the places Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi could have sent that Red State roughneck, he trades him to the team in the self-proclaimed gayest city on earth. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

It's funnier than the San Francisco 49ers offence.

If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair? Hillenbrand doesn't even have hair. Not to go all Bill Simmons on you, but this is a reality show that should, nay, must happen. Take Hillenbrand to the Gay Pride events and the Exotic Erotic Ball and all sorts of various only-in-San-Fran stuff, and let the cameras capture his eyes bugging out of his head. Hey, it's his own fault. He wanted to play every day. He didn't specify where.

As for the trade itself, the Jays also sent seldom-used reliever Vinnie Chulk to the Giants in exchange for 24-year-old righty reliever Jeremy Accardo (1-3, 4.91 in 40 2/3 innings this season).

Who are the Jays getting in Accardo? According to what I found posted at Rob Neyer's website, he throws in the mid-90s and has an occasionally nasty split-finger pitch; when he's on with it, he can be very effective. The Giants had him filling in as their closer a few weeks ago when Armando Benitez was injured. It's also worth noting, as Ricciardi and the Blue Jays brass no doubt did, that he has a very good strikeout-to-walk ratio (40 Ks, just 11 bases on balls this season).

It appears the Hillenbrand saga wrapped up pretty nicely from a Toronto fan's perspective. It's win-win: A win for the Jays for divesting themselves of one of baseball's most overrated players, and a win for Hillenbrand, who gets his wish to be in the lineup every day, even if it's on a team that's going nowhere fast.

(Please don't write that the Giants are only a half-game out of first in the NL West. It's the NL West. The Tacoma Rainiers could probably win that division.)

At least it's not like the Giants don't have plenty of experience with me-first ballplayers who engage in general dickishness.

So, in the end it can all be summed up with a line heard on The Daily Show a while back: there's no I in team, but there are two in dickishness.

How long will it be before Hillenbrand tries to call out Barry Bonds for not hustling? To be a fly on the wall of the Giants clubhouse ...

Related:
Vernon Douses Shea's Bridge-Burnin' (July 21)
The Breakup, Blue Jays-Style (July 20)
Shea Ya Later (July 20)

WRAPPING UP THE WEEK

Here's what was happening in Out of Left Field's world this week. Now Garth Snow me a iced cappucino, with skim milk.

SUNDAY: It was high time, someone suggested, to let Bell Globemedia annex Hockey Night in Canada away from the See Bee See; fellow Napaneean Avril Lavigne got married, like seemingly all girls from Napanee do, before turning 22; and there were things that someone had to say about the Middle East.

MONDAY: A Blog Blasts Past retrospective gave a frightening glimpse into what it's like to be a Minnesota Vikings fan; Rogers Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell was taken to task for being a little too apologetic over B.J. Ryan blowing a save.

TUESDAY: Garth Snow had just become general manager of the rogue franchise that is the New York Islanders, and already someone could detect the sickly scent of NBA Commissioner David Stern (this was only half-kiddingly) pulling some strings to make the N.Y. Knicks look good in comparison. Plus: yours truly wondered about new Leafs forward Mike Peca's hat trick and got a little prolix about the Blue Jays: "If the Jays can make the playoffs in the AL East, against the Evil Empires, the U.S. can get out of Iraq." Did I really write that? Guess the spirit moved me.

WEDNESDAY: A night of minor-league baseball made it easier to forgive the Jays when the bullpen failed to lock it up yet again in Tuesday's game against Texas. Which it's since done both of the two games since.

THURSDAY: The Jays seemed to be in disarray after the Shea Hillenbrand incident, but hey, this cooler head noted, "this is baseball, where you're only as good as tomorrow's starting pitcher." Meantime, a new verb was coined: Garth Snow me some coffee, will you?

FRIDAY: It was all about revelling in Vernon Wells' walk-off homer against the Evil Empire -- which even made the Blue Jays the lead item for Deadspin's "The Closer" feature. A friend of mine is really concerned about whether Wells wants to be in Toronto past 2007 and says they should be signing him now. Thing is, Wells is typically such a placid, even-keel kind of player that it's really hard to tell if he's upset or just being his usual toned-down self. The feeling here is the Jays should lock him up long-term and announce it near the end of the regular season.

That's all for now. Off to work, then it's a sleepless night before heading to T-Dot on the early train for the Jays vs. the Evil Empire.

Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca, and have an average weekend.

VERNON DOUSES SHEA'S BRIDGE-BURNIN'

Various things you noticed as you Garth Snowed your buddy a six-pack of Sleemans.

If Blue Jays centre-fielder Vernon Wells was upset about the Jays dumping his buddy Shea Hillenbrand, he chose a very good way to channel his anger, crushing a Mariano Rivera pitch in the 11th inning last night for a 5-4 win over the New York Yankees in what must rank as the most biggest Toronto win since ... by gar, it's been a while.

This had a little bit of everything -- Mike Mussina falling apart, A-Rod making an error that opened the door to a big Jays rally and the Jays bullpen ultimately keeping them in the game after the damn Yankees tying the game late off B.J. Ryan. The Jays showed a lot of fight, and fortunately for most of the 42,000 on hand, it didn't involve the manager fighting one of his (ex) players.

In the end though, Wells did what he's supposed to do: made the game all about himself.

This space has talked before about V-Dub needing to be a leader, both in action and deed, and he seemed to have come through on that count big-time last night. (Wells also had a hit during a four-run Jays rally in the sixth inning before delivering against the future Hall of Famer Rivera in the 11th.) Some cynics might remark that he can save the casual approach for 2008 when he signs with the Texas Rangers as a free agent and finds out what it's like to play for a team where no one cares, but let's leave for a little later.

It's a little hard to outdo this week for the Jays, what with the Hillenbrand firestorm, three extra-inning victories and the normally reliable bullpen blowing five straight save opportunities. Oh, and there's still three more games against the Evil Empire to be played? You don't say.

Related:
Shea Ya Later (July 20)
Wells Sounds Off Like He's Got A Pair (June 11)

OTHER BUSINESS

• Tyler Dellow of mc79hockey dug up a photo of Oilers rookie Rob Schremp that makes you wonder how it ever got out in the first place. (Via James Mirtle.)
• Happy anniversary to the Official Parents of Out of Left Field, Dan and Kathie Sager.
• Have you read about Girlfriend-Friendly Sports Movies? If not, why?
• Garth Snow that link to all your friends.
• Note to readers: in addition to this space, yours truly will now be posting regularly at Armchair GM. Sooner or later, people will start reading my bon mots.
• Bill Simmons has picked his English Premiership team, and in doing so provided a handy-dandy primer for anyone who's decided to take the next step as a soccer fan by finding a team in Europe to follow. Yours truly is still split; my friend Neil Acharya is actually suggesting I pick Celtic in the Scottish Premership.

That's all for now. Just a note that Out of Left Field may not be updated much over the weekend as yours truly takes in the Jays-Yankees games in T-Dot. Have an average weekend. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

THE BREAKUP, BLUE JAYS-STYLE

Subject to the earlier post about Shea Hillenbrand, who as one Deadspin commenter put it, has caused major traffic snarls in Toronto today with his bridge-burning.

The Toronto Sun's Bob Elliott basically gets it down to brass tacks: this was just about a ballplayer upset over lack of playing time, and no one should really be surprised given the exit Hillenbrand made in Boston in 2003 -- as Richard Griffin made note of in the Star. (Griffin, by the way, played this surprisingly even-handedly, but just wait 24 to 48 hours.)

Here's Elliott:

It had a lot to do with Hillenbrand writing: "This is a sinking ship" on the chalkboard where batting practice times are written.

The team was having a players-only meeting, called by Vernon Wells, when in stormed irate manager John Gibbons.

According to one unnamed Blue Jay: "The manager said: 'You're gone! I'll be gone before you ever play another game in this organization.'

"It was as hot as I've ever seen (Gibbons) and that includes all of his ejections."

What was that I said about Gibbons having played for Davey Johnson and the fruit never falling far from the tree? Other highlights:

Hillenbrand's sense of humour included ripping the Canadian flag crest off the hat that the Jays wore Canada Day in a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, according to a team official. Hillenbrand had been taken out of that game in the seventh inning.

Well, as Dana Carvey's Church Lady character on SNL used to say, Isn't that nice. Bottom line, the Jays are now missing a designated hitter who some teams believe can help them, and it's only 11 days to the trade deadline for this flawed team.

As for the Jays-Yankees outlook.... ah, to hell with it. It's too hot today. Roy Halladay really has to be a stopper tonight against the Evil Empire, which is starting noted crybaby California suck Mike Mussina. At least yours truly will get soused at the Saturday and Sunday games.

Related:
Blue Jays' happy family? (Toronto Star)
Chalk-board message the last straw (Toronto Sun)
Shea Ya Later (July 20)

SHEA YA LATER: JAYS DUMP HILLENBRAND ... IS THE DREAM DEAD?

Ted Rogers has his wish. The Jays are water-cooler talk today. Better to be despised than ignored, right?

Some will call disgruntled DH Shea Hillenbrand everything under the sun in the wake of last night's incident which got him fired from the Blue Jays. Others -- not to name names, but the double standard in the Toronto media means you never pull a punch where the Jays are concerned, even if it's a sucker punch -- are going to try to spin this as being 100% the fault of John Gibbons and J.P. Ricciardi for trying to make Hillenbrand the fall guy for their own failings as manager and GM, respectively.

Digession: It's almost fun, in a twisted kind of way, to watch your first, truest, longest-lasting sports obsession go from being on pace for its best season in years to being on the brink of completely unravelling.

In 72 hours the Jays have gone stoking plaintive hopes to looking like a total gong show. Naturally, this comes just before a weekend where the Evil Empire is in town and myself and good buddy Neil Acharya have tickets for the Saturday and Sunday games. But of course...

Here's some of the anticipated takes on the whole mess, with rebuttals.

Hillenbrand is a traitor, a baseball Benedict Arnold, an ingrate. If he doesn't want to play for us, to hell -- or Kansas City -- with him.

No, not really. He's just the latest in a long line of ballplayers who have overvalued their own abilities and reacted to a reduction in playing time in somewhat less than heroic fashion. No one should think that he should have gladly sat on the bench and collected his money. However, his big mistake was losing his temper and not saying, "No comment," when his cellphone rang in the Jays clubhouse during the game last night. If he had kept his cool for 24 hours, he would still be a Blue Jay this morning.

The Jays should have shown more class in the days leading up to this outburst.

Who are you, Emily Post? The Jays didn't owe Hillenbrand anything other than what's required in his contract and the basic collective agreement. Ricciardi probably shouldn't have called out the players a couple weeks back -- especially since it apparently didn't make Vernon Wells any more eager to sign a long-term deal with the Jays. Wells apparently took Hillenbrand's axing harder than most; if that's the legacy of L'Affaire Shea, that's a pretty big anvil hurtling toward J.P.'s head.

The only quibble is whether the Jays' reaction to Hillenbrand's absence from the lineup last weekend differed from what it might have been if the new arrival in his family had been a biological child rather than the baby girl he and his wife adopted. Sure, that's a side issue, but if that's the case, then shame on the Jays for such backwards thinking.

What a dumb move -- cutting a .300 hitter.

News flash: batting average is meaningless, and .300 ain't what it used to be. Yes, Hillenbrand was batting .301, but with limited secondary average (i.e., walks and extra-base hits). In fact, according to the Hardball Times, Hillenbrand has earned zero Win Shares Above Bench this season, meaning he was no more productive than any average bench player(s) would have been. This from a guy who's notoriously less productive in the second half of the season. Maybe the Jays shrewdly gauged his expendability.

This wrecks team chemistry, and thus, ruins the Jays' chances in an AL East race the Yankees and Red Sox.

Chemistry is one of things that holds a lot of fascination to fans, but many columnists will actually level with you and saw that chemistry is way, way overemphasized. Players pull together because they win, not the other way around; they find ways to bury their differences and mutual dislike.

Gibbons should have just put Hillenbrand in the lineup, and been done with it.

That's only assuming the decision came from Gibbons himself. If that's the case, well, this space has noted the similarities between Gibbons and his former manager in the Mets organization, Davey Johnson. Strategically, it means going with the lineup you thought would work on a given night, whether it means Troy Glaus at shortstop, or sitting out Hillenbrand when Glaus and Alex Rios are already sidelined with injuries. If Hillenbrand didn't like it, tough. He is what he is -- a player who fills a role.

Johnson wasn't an ego-stroker -- that's why he got fired everywhere he went -- and he certainly wasn't hesitant to sit someone who wasn't performing. He also understand that in a clubhouse of very large egos, the manager's has to be the largest. (It must be a Texas thing.) From afar, it seems Gibbons, who's only in his second full season, felt his authority was being challenged, so he "reamed out" Hillenbrand after an incident he saw as insubordination.

It's worth noting that 20 years ago, when Gibbons played for the '86 Mets, Johnson fired veteran George Foster after he publicly criticized the organization. The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.

The Jays brought this on themselves by not trading either Hillenbrand or Eric Hinske.

That's revisionism. Very few people expected Rios (before his injury) to win the right-field job outright and make Hinske the odd man out. By the same token, Hinske had almost become the forgotten man; back in the winter, when it became known the Jays were going to bring him back and switch him to the outfield, all the know-it-alls made jokes about his "so-called bat."

Meantime, it was assumed the overrated Hillenbrand would be pencilled into the lineup every day, since he had good enough first impression early in '05 that most people overlooked his low on-base percentage and penchant for punchless second halves.

Ricciardi is making Hillenbrand the scapegoat, since he hasn't done enough to give this team a chance at contending.

Well, hard to argue with that, but what would you expect the GM to do if a player started throwing stones from a glass house, going on about how management was the reason for why the team doesn't win?

Not to play shoot the messenger, but when did Shea Hillenbrand become the big expert on what it takes to win at the major-league level? Here's a guy who played on a couple mediocre Boston teams, got traded, and saw the Red Sox reach the playoffs three straight years (and win a World Series) without him. The Diamonbacks had won 95 games in 2002, the season before he arrived, and went from there to 84 wins to 51, got rid of Hillenbrand and rebounded to post 77 wins in '05. So in other words, while there were many other contributing factors, both of Hillenbrand's previous teams he played for improved after he went elsewhere.

The Jays are toast.

In and of itself, losing Hillenbrand doesn't ensure that, but it means that any lingering possibility of deadline deal for pitching help -- possibly one involving Hinske, as touted here since May -- is completely kaput. Without that, the Jays won't have the pitching to stay in the race, or to spare their overworked bullpen.

So yes, it's about 95% likely the Jays are toast, but not due to getting rid of Hillenbrand. It was happening already.

The Jays are toast, since this whole distraction is coming right as the Yankees come in for four games.

It seems almost ridiculous right now to talk about a split, let alone taking three out of four against the Yankees this weekend. From here, it looks like everything has turned to mud. As for distractions, well, let's concede that the tension might have played a small part in the bullpen blowing the last two games.

However, this is baseball, where you're only as good as tomorrow's starting pitcher. On that note, fortunately for the Jays, it's Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett pitching these next two nights.

And that, sports fans, is the very thin thread the Jays are hanging by today.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

CARE TO JOIN ME IN A SIX-PACK?

... but it's 11 o'clock in the morning.... Yeah, but I haven't slept in DAYS.

• Reports suggest the Leafs are interested in signing free agent Mike Peca. Again, if they're getting the playoff Peca, fine; otherwise, it would mean paying $3 million for a declining player and being forced to rely on some newcomers.
• Another Leafs note: James Mirtle says the Andrew Raycroft signing is an "uncalculated risk." There's not total disagreement here, but the original sentiment here two weeks ago was that it was a praiseworthy move since, if nothing else -- and that could be the case -- it wasn't the standard posterior-covering the Leafs engage in. There's always a lot of risk. Of course, as James himself points out, you can separate the risk of acquiring Raycroft from the risk of signing him; those are two entirely different things.
• Girlfriend-Friendly Sports Movies. Learn it, live it, love it.
• Batter's Box makes a case that the Blue Jays might be more productive if, once Alex Rios is cleared to play, having lefty-hitting Eric Hinske and righty Shea Hillenbrand share the DH duties. The feeling here has always been is that either of these two players would have to be sacrificed in a trade for another pitcher -- assuming the Jays still have a shot at the playoffs at the end of his month -- and that Hinske might be the more attractive option due to his versatility, youth and lower salary. Hillenbrand's a decent player and I can't summon anything to back this up, but he just seems like someone who can improve a bad team to mediocre, but won't help a good team become very good. Perhaps the Jays should champion Hinske — although you wonder if they really have enough prospects down in the minors to make a deal after all the cutbacks the organization has made in its scouting department.
• More proof that the way baseball picks its All-Star teams is flawed came when Chicago's A.J. Pierzynski and L.A.'s Nomar Garciaparra were added in the Final Man balloting. Pierzynski's having a decent season, but how can Twins rookie Francisco Liriano, who's 9-1 with a 1.99 ERA, not be selected? In the National League, few will see anything wrong with Nomah being added since he is fourth in the league in OPS (1.008) and second in batting average (.358), but did fans select him more because of his play or because they recognized his name? It seems the whole purpose of the Final Man is to recognize an unknown player, someone whom the casual fans and the players themselves tend to overlook.
• Not that it's a knock on Garciaparra, who's already sewn up Comeback Player of the Year, so long as he can stay healthy. He's vying to become the first player to win a batting title in both the American and National leagues (a couple 19th-century sluggers led multiple leagues in batting). He's also trying to become the first L.A. player -- either team -- in more than 40 years to lead the league in hitting.
• Of the top of my head, there's only one player I can think of who's come close to the batting crown double: John Olerud. He led the AL with the '93 Blue Jays, and five years later with the Mets, was runner-up to Larry Walker. Eddie Murray finished second once in the National League -- the year that Willie McGee was the absentee batting champ after being traded in August -- and had two top-5 finishes in the American League.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca. Enjoy the World Cup final.