Friday, February 15, 2008

Bunk and McNulty will not attend Globe and Mail's Spring Training Pajama Party

Tragic news out of Tampa: Jeff Blair blogs that upon arriving at the Globe and Mail's Spring Training digs, he discovered that Globe Junior did not ensure that the condo was fully equipped with HBO. As a result, there's no season five of The Wire for our boys on the beat.

Blair also reports that the temptation to lean on the horn while driving past local golf courses may be too much to resist. (And learning that he'd engage in those sorts of shenanigans is exactly why he remains our favorite Blue Jays beat writer.)

Fasano Wants Respect, Playing Time, Mustache Grooming Kit
In the next episode of the continuing saga of "J.P. Ricciardi: Liar or Full of Shit?", Sal Fasano told Globe Junior yesterday that he had a "verbal agreement" with the Jays GM that he would be the backup catcher this year. Fasano noted that if he'd known that the team was going to sign Rod Barajas, he would have "explored other options".

As much antipathy as Ricciardi has engendered in recent weeks, and as much as Pal Sal is a lovable guy, we're going to have to go ahead and side with J.P. on this one. It's doubtful that any of the 29 other teams would view Fasano as anything more than a third option as catcher. Moreover, J.P.'s job is to put the best team on the field possible, and not necessarily to appease the marginal players on the roster.

It's entirely possible that Fasano heard what he wanted to hear from the Jays brass when signing his deal. And to be completely frank, anyone signing a one-year minor league deal with a team shouldn't view that as a guarantee of a spot on the 25-man roster.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"More to the point ... this will lead to a severe shortage of one of the few real pleasures of being in this cultural wasteland: getting to see smokin' hot Latinas reading the news and sports!"

Oh, Jeff Blair! You even make sexism dreamy!

Anonymous said...

If JP keeps up the pace "monkeyshines" will be tag of the year or something.

Anonymous said...

I know they signed Fasano before Barajas to back up Zaun but they shouldn't have signed Fasano anyway.
He's a likeable, funny looking guy but who gives a shit.
We got 2 not-so-bad catchers that need experience, that are almost as good as Zaun.
I'd throw Fasano out for bitching in the media. Moaning is contagious.

Frank said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Frank said...

Oh, that's the site! I was wondering when you were going to let us know. I could use some extra cash.

Thanks, Jason!

John Brattain said...

Off topic, but...

Just wanted to pass thing along since I used your quote in this MSN Canada column about the Jays ticket idiocy (fully attributed of course).

Here's the blurb:

"As one blogger opined: 'And as much as Godfrey and Kevin Elster's brother are going to come out in the next day or so and spin this and say how much they love the Blue Jays fans, they don't get it. They don't get the fact that this makes Blue Jays fans and Toronto look like second-class citizens. They don't understand that this makes us feel like we're not pretty enough for them, and they don't understand why we're getting so worked up about them catting around with that skank down the road.--The Tao of Stieb'"

Keep up the great work!

Best Regards

John