My weekly opinions, observations and rants about some Canadian baseball stories (Please follow me on Twitter: @kevinglewsports):
Being Bud Selig’s second-hand man from 1997 to 2002, Paul Beeston should still have some clout in the commissioner’s office. If I’m Beeston, I’m doing everything I can to ensure that the Jays have a home game on Canada Day every season moving forward. With 45,512 on hand at the Rogers Centre on Friday, the atmosphere was electric.
Has Yankees manager Joe Girardi stopped changing pitchers yet? In his team’s 5-1 win on Friday, he used seven pitchers in a nine-inning game. It’s no wonder it’s getting harder to get kids to watch baseball. Using this number of pitchers is a ridiculous waste of time – not to mention over-managing at its finest.
Two Canadian big leaguers celebrated Canada Day in style: Rich Harden (Victoria, B.C.) recorded his first win of the season in his 2011 debut and Matt Stairs (St. John, N.B.) had the game-winning hit for the Nationals in the bottom of the ninth.
I still don’t understand the Jays’ decision to release DeWayne Wise from his Triple-A contract on June 9. Isn’t Wise exactly the kind of late-inning defensive replacement the Jays need for their outfield? There’s little doubt that Wise would’ve caught the ball that Juan Rivera botched in the ninth-inning on Friday.
Congratulations to Chris Leroux (Montreal, Que.) who was recalled by the Pittsburgh Pirates on Canada Day. The 6-foot-6 right-hander pitched a scoreless inning in his 2011 debut with the Pirates against the Nationals today.
It’s inevitable that a worthy player or two will be left off of the all-star squad each year. But anyone who has watched Jays ace Ricky Romero this season knows that he should be making the trek to Arizona for the midsummer classic. It’s appalling to me that ex-Jay Brandon League was named to the team ahead of Romero.
Now that Jays legend Tom Henke is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, isn’t it time for his No. 50 to be added to the Blue Jays Level of Excellence at the Rogers Centre?
Right on– on your comment about Romero vs. League. Sometimes its where you are that counts!
Kevin
An excellent post as always…
Totally agree with you regarding De Wayne Wise. It seems that just as they resolve some defensive problems (shifting Encarnacion to DH) the Jays could use Wise’s defensive nous late in the game, especially given the defensive performances of Patterson, Rivera and (on occasion) Davis in recent weeks. Fortunately Snider is back for the Red Sox series and Rivera is on his way out, which goes some way to rectifying the situation.
Having said that, there does seem to be a huge amount of errors creeping across the team in recent weeks with Yunel, Hill, Bautista and even the normally reliable Johnny Mac making some glaring errors. In the last few years, the Jays have played great defense and is it just me or does it appear that this season is unravelling that notion fast??
The greatest failure a Yankee manager can endure is losing a series to the Mets. That may have been at least part of what was behind Girardi’s obsessive use of his pitching staff last Friday.
I didn’t know about LEroux. Thanks.
George Bell is the only Jay on the wall of excellence not on the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. I for one, think he belongs!