The Great Divide?

Pssst - the Jays are 24-17.

You know, the team predicted by most to finish in the basement of the AL East? Behind the Orioles? The Baltimore Orioles? It's still early to predict - yet having passed the quarter-pole, not unreasonably early - but I think it's safe to say this team will exceed expectations. Let's face it - it's a fun team to watch. Exciting young arms. An offense that relies on the long ball. A manager we all love to hate (OK....not as much fun). It seems to be a good group, and you can sense a camaraderie within the dugout.

And yet, an all too familiar phenomenon is occurring once again down at the 'dome. The fans have turned on one of their own, and it's not sitting well with The Player (h/t Ricciardi) or his teammates.

And why should it? Lyle Overbay has been on the receiving end of vitriol not seen since the '09 version of Vernon Wells. You all remember '09 Wells, don't you? The cat on the $20M contract (the nerve!)? The dude who fished for sliders down and away and seemingly enjoyed popping up a good fastball? "GODDAMNIT!" That Vernon Wells? Remember him?

If you're confused, it 's the same Vernon Wells who was among the team leaders in most offensive categories for the better part of a decade before '09, and has re-emerged as such this season. The same Vernon Wells who will hold most of the Jays major all-time offensive records given another season or two in uniform. And yet, the combination of awful season and untradeable contract left the fans calling for blood. It was hard to watch, man. And while I understood the sentiment - I did watch about 150 games last season, y'know - I could never understand the hostility. While I can't track down the exact quote (but I swear I'm not making this up), I recall a line from Wells that left me uneasy: "I can forgive, but I won't forget". Or something along those lines. Stone cold.

And here we are again. This time, Lyle Overbay feels the wrath. Perhaps on a smaller scale (have you seen the crowds? Heyo!), but on the receiving end nonetheless. And Lyle is none too happy about it:

Overbay, jeered after making two errors on the same play in Monday's 8-3 loss, silenced his critics by driving in three runs, including an RBI double in the first. The game drew 27,981, Toronto's biggest crowd since opening day.

Overbay refused to answer questions when approached after the game.

"I'll make it easy on you guys," he told a media crowd waiting at his locker. "No comment."

Evidently, neither are his teammates:

"I've been there and done that," Well said of being booed. "For me to go through it is completely different than watching someone else go through it. I can deal with it. It's tough for me to watch someone else go through it, but he's handled it well and he's going to come out of it a better person. I know I did. You learn a lot from your struggles. But like I said, it would be nice to come in here and have it feel like a home park and be supportive, no matter what," Wells said.

Lest you think I'm just a total shill for the players - I'll repeat: I understand the sentiment. I really do. Overbay has had an awful 2 months to start the season, just as Wells was awful for most of 2009. Fans are clamoring for change, and they see Brett Wallace slugging in Vegas. Buying a ticket to the game gives you the right to express your feelings however you see fit.

But that doesn't necessarily make it right.

Likewise, Overbay could probably have handled today's post-game better. It can't be an easy thing to throw your hands in the air and say "you know what? I've been lousy. The fans want more. I get it. All I can say is that I'm trying." Instead, Overbay's comments only serve to create an even bigger "story", and perhaps drive a deeper wedge between the fans and the players - because you know that lockerroom is tight.

It shouldn't be this complicated. The Jays are playing good baseball. They're exceeding expectations. They're fun to watch. Alex Anthopoulos has the club headed in the right direction. Wallace will be here soon enough, and in no more than 120 or so games, Lyle Overbay will be on his merry way.

In the meantime, can't we just get behind them?

Beautiful Lazy Sorta Long Weekend

We hope to god that most of you have had the good sense to make a long weekend out of this Canada Day tomfoolery. What sort of idiot would be at work on an utterly beautiful day such as today? (Well, aside from us?)

Celebrating our Confederation...in Seattle?
Seriously, this whole business of keeping the Jays out of Toronto on holidays (Victoria Day and Canada Day in particular) has gotten out of hand. Who do we have to blow in order to get ourselves a home series for the Jays over the weekend of our national holiday? Maybe Paul Godfrey didn't want to ask for such frivolities as he was angling for the All-Star Game (and settling for the World Baseball Classic, or Festival, or Jamboree or whatever the hell they are calling it.) Still, we miss the days when the Jays came out in sweet red caps and jerseys with "Canada" on the back.

Maybe we didn't appreciate the last Canada Day home game because on that day, the Jays wore quite possibly the ugliest uni's ever sported by the Toronto nine.

There's always next year, we suppose. Regardless, we fully expect that the Jays fans in beautiful British Columbia will make their way down to Safeco this week to represent. And possibly strip to the waist and make really bad puns on player's names. (This is what too many hours in front of collegehumor.com has done to our youth.)

Make us proud, left coast Canadians.

Blue Jays Fan of the Day: Mike Williston

Cheers to Mike of Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia for being brave enough to step into the breach, and represent the Jays in the midst of a Red Sox Nation celebration in Halifax yesterday. (Also, there's video!)

The BoSox brought the World Series trophy to the Maritimes to recognize the team's rabid fan base in the region. And believe us when we say that some of them are literally rabid, frig wha!

Our hero Mike attended the celebration (at Boston Pizza, natch) in full on retro Jays gear. And if history is any guide, we're sure that he's still wringing the beer out of it today.

Cheers to you Mike Williston for brining the noise and representing. You done us proud.

Shortwaveboy Goes To Philly: A Stranger In A Strange Land

Business took me to Philadelphia this week and, as luck would have it, the Phillies are in the middle of an honest to god pennant race. A quick visit to Stubhub.com and I bought myself a ticket to a drama that I haven't lived as a Blue Jays fan in many long years.



As I entered the ballpark I couldn't help but think back to '93 when the Phillies last reached the playoffs. A playoff run that ended when the team faced the class franchise of the day, the Toronto Blue Jays. Since that eventful year, the Jays and Phils have followed a pretty similar path --- year after year of mediocrity. But all of that is forgotten in Philidelphia this year. Even Mitch Williams is a distant memory in this city. The images of Schilling burying his face in a towel as the Wild Thing served up the series losing pitch to Joe Carter have been replaced by the hope of this season. Proof of that was the lack of reaction to my retro Blue Jays cap as I walked through the crowd. It made me realize how long ago it was since Jays fans had felt this way this late in the season. It was a bittersweet experience for sure.




A few other notes about my experience:

• While some teams in Philadelphia rise and fall in prominence from time to time, people in Philadelphia care about ALL of their sports teams. Every conversation that I had --- from the flight in, the cab ride to work, the business meetings, dinner before the game, at the game -- reflected a general love of the city's teams as an extension of the peoples' identity. They talked ball one minute -- jumped to hockey the next ---threw in a couple of points about the Sixers -- and got into the Eagles' chances. This was a refereshing change from the seemingly single minded interest in the Leafs reflected in the Toronto media.
• Phillies fans know their ball. And not in the obnoxious Beantown manner of flapping gums and getting in each others faces (that is reserved for eagles games apparently). No, they were plenty vocal but it was pretty positive. They cheered at the right times and --- to my surprise --- gave the loudest cheer of the night to the out of town scoreboard when it showed that the Nationals had pulled ahead of the hated New York Metropolitans in the seventh. Torontonians could do a bit better in this department.
• Citizen's Bank Park is not a stadium. It's a ballyard. And not one of those phony Camden Yards deals. It is just right. I walked the whole perimeter of the place and there was not a bad seat or a misused space. No need to cover seats with tarps in this place. And the out of town scoreboard is out of this world. At some point, the Blue Jays organization will need to build a place like this in Toronto's downtown.
• JP is no Pat Gillick. While it could be argued that the Phillies benefit from being in a weak division and that as a team they aren't significantly better than the Jays, it's pretty apparent that Gillick has some abilities not seen in Toronto GMs since he left. Since leaving TO, Gillick's teams (Baltimore, Seattle, and --- God willing --- the Phils) all hailed from different divisions and made the playoffs at least once each.

So, while it was a lot of fun to be dead smack in the middle of a pennant race, it got me more than a little bit disallusioned about the state of our beloved franchise. My hope is that if we aren't in first place by next May, that big changes are going to happen fast. Because JP's contracts are turning into pumpkins soon and I'm not sure that I can wait another 5 years for the team to be "rebuilt" once again. But who am I kidding? I'm not going anywhere. Bring on the misery.

More fans from hell

We don't know if it is the beer, the sun, the bruised "chimichangas", or what...but there's something clearly not right with these girls.

If you were sitting anywhere near these goofballs, and managed to stifle your murderous impulses, we salute you.



Ohhhhhkaaayyy...



Is it worth noting that these videos were posted by "littlehoho"?



And the pièce de résistence:



(BTW, who the hell posts 10 second videos of themselves acting like idiots?)

Mets Fan Gets Banned For Shedding Light On Pitching

Only in New York. 40 year old Bronx resident Frank Martinez was banned for three years from attending Mets home games after pleading guilty to shining a laser at Atlanta pitchers during a game on April 20. Read the story in the NY Post. Hard to beat the tabloid spin.

Catch the mist, catch the myth, catch the mystery, catch the drift

The AOLSportsblog has tipped off the rest of the baseball world to what observant Jays fans have been hip to for a while: Rush lead singer and bassist extraordinaire Geddy Lee is a huge Jays fan, and he can be seen on TV in the premium seats right behind home plate at most home games.

And while we're not huge Rush fans, we'll give the man credit for staying off the goddamn phone and not waving to his friends watching at home. Also, for limiting the length of his his cheering solos to under five minutes.

Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug

"Keep yer eyes on the bahl, Wily Mo!"

Wow. Now there's a tonic for what ails the Blue Jays fan's gullet. So where do I order my playoff tickets?

Great news pretty much all around tonight, although Zaun's early departure with the owwie on his hand is worrisome. We couldn't stomach game after game of Jason Phillips.

But how can we worry about those sorts of things when we we're still giggling about that crazy throw Manny (sort of) uncorked.

We loved watching Doc with a 7 run lead go out and mow hitters down. If he really wanted to, we're sure he could strike out 200 per year, but he's a much smarter pitcher than that.

How yah like them ahpples!: For all the abuse we heaped on Red Sox fans over the past week - and really, that was a wicked pissah of a video - let's take a second and tip our caps to all of the drunken Fitzys and Sullys for their extended version of Sweet Caroline, which continued well beyond the 7th inning stretch. A Toronto crowd would have been out of there before the Ace and the creepy Pizza Pizza mascot finished their OK Blue Jays choreography. (Actually, wouldn't that be the civilized thing to do?)

So, to recap: Jays SWEEP Boston (we don't care...we're calling it a sweep even if it is two games), Manny being Manny, Yankees lose their fifth straight...can life be this good?

Classy Boston Fans Enjoy 2-1 Loss Last Night

And the moral of the story is, if you see a member of Red Sox Nation return from the concessions stand with a full beer, slice of pizza, corn dog, nachos, cracker jacks, ice cream, cheese steak, or anything else...DUCK!

(Update: Welcome Deadspin!)

Nothing says "Patriots Day" like hucking a $9 slice of pizza at someone

At the Red Sox annual Patriots Day matinée, the superior douchiness of Red Sox Nation was in full effect.



I'm not sure what's funnier: the slow-mo replays of the flying slice, or Jerry Remy and Joe Orsillo cackling like schoolgirls.

Unbelievably, the Boston Herald has the full story. So, Matt Madore of Presque Isle, Maine, tell us why you launched your full slice at this ersatz Boston Bartmann:

“They had been giving us (expletive) about (having the pizza),” Madore said. “Next thing I know, there’s a fly ball to left field and it goes foul and my buddy says, ‘You want some pizza now?’ And he hits him right in the face. Hey, the guy wasn’t paying attention. When you’re in the stands you’ve got to be ready for anything - a foul ball, a flying slice of pizza, everything.”

Words to live by.

Fan from Hell

Imagine having to sit beside this fan the entire game.