A lot can happen in a meaningless game

Maybe it will make us look as tone deaf and overly earnest as a Rattle and Hum era Bono, but we wore out the floorboards, pacing through last night's thriller of an 8-7 win over the Red Sox.

Yeah, yeah. We should have perfected our disaffected pose by now, and we should have signed off on the season long ago. But when you check out and declare that you've given up on the team, you might just miss something special.

Like a troika of homers from Adam Lind. And José Bautista still killing it. And Kevin Millar turning a 6-5-3 double play. And six total homers for the good guys. And the bullpen handing back the lead. And Jonathan Papelbon reconfirming what an unmitigated douche he is. ("My bad", my ass!) And the Sausage King locking down the win and getting Kevin Youkilis on a called third strike that umpires would usually give to any Sox player in Fenway.

Some people get too wrapped up in whether if the game they are watching is "meaningful". (Ultimately, aren't they all kinda meaningless?)

But the great thing about baseball is that every day, there's a new game. It's always something new, and it's the greatest game there is. That might not mean anything to you, but it means something to us.

The Crux of our Tweets
We've been getting exceedingly argumentative over on the Twitter lately. Not sure what's up with that. But suddenly, we find ourselves unable to avoid engaging in verbal parries and thrusts, 140 characters at a time.

Here's the gist of what we were bitching about last night:

• We like José Bautista. Especially as a super sub who's the 24th or 25th guy on the roster. And we don't discount his seven homers and 15 RsBI and .932 OPS just because it's September. With regular playing time, he's gotten better.
• We think Adam Lind deserves some consideration for the MVP. Not ahead of Joe Mauer or anything, but maybe further down the ballot. But with his offensive explosion last night, Lind's offensive numbers are on par with Kendry Morales, who's been third or fourth on our ballot for the past few months.
• You don't hit a guy just to hit a guy back. Who do you think you are? Gary Roberts or some other jerk-off fake tough guy? You've got a one-run lead. You gotta protect that. Because moral victories come and go, but actual victories stay in the Win column forever.

If you're interested in watching us go on with this while Polyannaish routine and argue with people for the sake of it, follow us over at twitter.com/taoofstieb.

You know who I miss?....

Aaron Hill. I know, I'm not exactly breaking new ground here. Old news, right? Second base hasn't exactly been the most pressing trouble spot, correct?

Yeah, the Jays are loaded with scrappy gritty solid hustling (any more? Help me out here..) middle infielders who have done an adequate job filling in for the Concussed One, but I can't shake the feeling that the loss of Hill for all but 55 games this season hasn't received appropriate ink (err...keystrokes....err...whatever) in the Blue Jay world. Thus, this post.

Do you mean to tell me the Jays couldn't use a .290 average and 60 extra base hits this season? You don't think the team would love to drop his Gold Glove caliber defense between first base and second every day? You don't think Voodoo Joe, Triple Ecks, My Ninja Scutaro, and waiver wire wonder Johnny Mac would be better served in utility roles tailored to their strengths? Are you going to sit here and tell me the team couldn't use some of this (skip to 2:20)?

Well, you could try and tell me all of the above, but I would reply by calling you a god-damned liar. Here's hoping Hilly (I'm pretty sure that I've heard Matt "Stairsy" Stairs refer to him this way, so let's go with it) shakes the cobwebs and is back to full strength next season. His presence alone will go a long way towards solidifying the lineup.

Heeeeeere's that stretch I was hyping

So, here we are. Fifteen games in a row facing Boston, New York, and Tampa. Stating the obvious, last week I wrote that this stretch was crucial to the razor-thin shot the Jays had at climbing back into the race.

If nothing else, it should be an exciting stretch of baseball, beginning tonight in Fenway. Or excruciating. It's a toss-up, really. Pretty sure you'll be able to tell by my tone next week - if I'm still here, that is. I think my probationary review is coming up.

I like playing with trains

I've caught myself talking about trains a lot lately. You know, like "I'm on the so-and-so train". For the record, I'm a fully fledged passenger on the following trains:

the Brandon League train- I'd like to think I got on this one fairly early, but he's teased us before with late-season surges. Stay off the board this winter, broseph.

the Ricky Romero train - mainly because of all the shit and abuse he's had to put up with early in his career ("Tuuuuuloooooo....hey Tuuuuulooooooo...."), and hey - he's pitching well. I'm pulling for the kid.

the Free Buck Coats train - you know the saying - "the most popular player on the team is the backup quarterback"? Well, in this case, the most popular player in the system is the guy behind Mencherson. Or something like that.

Before I go...

Fuck Kevin Youkilis and his massive chin. Yeah - right back at you there, shooter.

Is there a more detestable player in baseball? I mean, how does the Red Sox Nation sleep at night with the knowledge they worship this guy?