Kid Gets Foul Ball to Young Lady Behind Him

((ht: mlb.com))

Oh to be young and willing to give.

Check out what happened Friday night at the Boston Red Sox/Toronto Blue Jays game in Beantown.

Bottom of the 4th inning and a foul ball rolls down the 3rd base side of the field. The ball girl picks it up and walks over and hands the ball to a little kid sitting on the front row.

Cool. It's what you should do, give a little kid the ball if you get one.

What happened next, well, the little kid (12-year old Ryan) turned chivalrous and hands the ball to a young girl (Reese) sitting right behind him much to the surprise of the young lady and her mom.

Wait, it gets better.

After seeing what happened, the Red Sox TV team (Dan Orsillo and Jerry Remy) decided to send down a gift bag to the young lad.

He proceeded to share it with his new friend.

Awww....

Rays Protesting Blue Jays Win Over Replay Snafu

((HT: MLB.com))

Rays manager Joe Maddon is protesting the Rays-Jays result from earlier today because of how the replay function of Major League Baseball was handled during the game.

Here's how all hell broke loose with the new baseball wrinkle...


Maddon says he would be surprised if the protest isn't upheld because of how the whole thing was run.

The San Francisco Giants became the first team since 1986 to win a protest after it was determined the tarp at Wrigley Field had not been properly put away after its previous use. The Giants beat the Cubs 2-1 two days after initially being given a 2-0 loss.

Fan Loses Beer, Booth Replaces It

((HT: MLB.com))

The HQ has seen the beginning of the story before, but not the ending...

There's always the guy (or more than one) that chases after the foul ball like it is made of palladium or something. He might get the ball, but there will be collateral damage.

Could be a crying kid, could be a piece of food or clothing flying around or off an upperdeck perch, or it could be a spilt beverage.

Happened in Milwaukee...
But the broadcast crew for FS North gets a lot of props for the make good on the back end...

What Is This About 19 Inning Games These Days...???

((HT: MLB.com))

This time it was Toronto and Detroit going 19 innings...
Jose Bautista was the lucky winner this time for the end of a long-day game


Now, the details...the short version...

8 pitchers for each team
Rich Porcello pitched the last two innings for Detroit while Chad Jenkins went 6 for the Blue Jays

39 hits total- 22 for the Tigers
6 hours and 37 minutes total- the longest game in Blue Jays history

Melky Cabrera Exposes The Hazards Of Fenway

((HT: MLB.com/Sportsnet))

If a (predominantly right-handed) batter hits a ball over the Green Monster at Fenway, it can end up on Lansdowne Street, or in the parking deck that is across the street.

Example from 1999:


The Toronto Blue Jays Melky Cabrera had a 2 home run, 5 RBI night in a blowout of the Boston Red Sox. The second home run in the 14-1 win was one like the ones shown above...

The HQ has been where this home run ball landed


Just didn't have any damage done to the rental car when it was parked in the deck...
Remember- windows away from the fence when you park!

Blue Jays Surprise Blue Jays On Father's Day

((HT: SportChek))

The Canadian sporting goods chain was filming a segment on Father's Day and recruited the Toronto Blue Jays Steve Delabar, Brett Cecil, and Casey Janssen to talk about it.

But what SportChek didn't tell Delabar, Cecil, and Janssen is that there was going to be a surprise.


Is it dusty in here, or is it just us...???

Catch of the Night: Kid Makes His Move With Hidden Ball Trick

This is pretty darn funny. Funnier than you think it is if you look closely.

Check out what happened last night in Arlington, Texas at the Rangers/Blue Jays game.

A foul ball hit to the 3rd base coach who scoops it up and does what most baseball players or coaches do during a game. Look for a kid to give the ball to.

He looks into the crowd, finds a young Rangers fan on the 1st row and tosses him the ball. What happens next is hilarious.

The kid, catches the ball and then "appears" to turn and hand it to a young lady sitting in the row behind him.

Here's some Vine video of that:



However....

That Vine video doesn't exactly show what went down....

Here's some video of the "play-a" making his "move".  Look closely. At his glove. There's already a ball in his glove. He catches the ball tossed to him and makes his move knowing--"All good, let's see if she's impressed, I already have a game ball"....

Should this be called a new "Hidden Ball Trick"? Watch the mlb.com video:

ICYMI: Starling Marte with the Sterling Walk-Off HR

Boom goes the dynamite...and the fireworks lighting up the Pittsburgh sky Friday night.

The Pittsburgh Pirates get a walk-off solo home run from Starling Marte to take down the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 in a crazy finish.

The Jays led 5-3 going into the bottom of the 9th. But closer Sergio Santos gave up a 2-run homer to Pedro Alvarez to tie the game.

That's when Marte finished it...(Highlight from MLB.com)

Jays McGowan's Results Affected By Diabetes

((HT: Sportsnet))

The Toronto Blue Jays Dustin McGowan is a Type 1 diabetic...

To date, he's not going as deep into his starts for the team as he would like. But, in analyzing it, McGowan thinks he needs to improve his conditioning in between starts. In addition, he thinks that (maybe) he'll start wearing an insulin pump in games to keep his levels from getting out of control to see if that will help...

Here's the catching-up on McGowan's season to date...

Recovery for McGowan has always been an issue as well- going from injury to treatment to having to balance the diabetes with all of it. But, he thinks that all of these steps will help out over time...

The Most Out-of-Control Half-Inning On The Mound Ever

((HT: Deadspin/MLB))

The HQ has a lot of friends north of the border and all we saw on the Twitter machine was the live responses to this...
It broke down like this... A franchise-record 8 walks in the 8th inning over three pitchers- Delabar, Santos, and JA Happ... A reliever who throws three wild pitches in Santos... The at-bats went this way... Steve Delabar started the inning walk walk sac bunt Pitching Change: Santos for Delabar walk wild pitch walk and wild pitch stolen base walk and wild pitch Pitching Change: Happ for Santos- Santos does not retire a batter stolen base walk walk single walk strikeout groundout John Gibbons got to talk about it after the game and reliever Steve Delabar states the obvious

Kawasaki Getting His English Down

((HT: Sportsnet))

Munenori Kawasaki came over to play for the Blue Jays and became an instant favorite...

It came down to his passion and his wanting to make himself a part of the Blue Jays family...
He's back for another year and his English is improving

Baseball Returns To The Big Owe

((HT: MLB/Sportsnet))

The Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Mets in the first of a two-game tease for baseball fans in Montreal...

One Expo in particular has been trying to get baseball back in town full-time...

Warren Cromartie, who was referenced on the liner notes of the Rush album "Signals" (Look it up, it's true...) spent some time with Buck Martinez and the Blue Jays crew discuss his passion these days...

Kawasaki's World Cup Predictions

((HT: Sportsnet))

Gotta love Kawasaki...

And by that, we mean the second baseman for the Blue Jays and not the motorcycle...

Barry Davis went up to him and asked about the upcoming World Cup of Soccer in Rio...
This is how his predictions went...

Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Japan, and Canada...

That just sings success...

Jose Reyes Can Wrap

((HT: Sportsnet))

This is what you discover at Spring Training- the talents of athletes, hidden or otherwise, since you have a lot of time to fill as a media outlet...

Evidence here from Dunedin with Jose Reyes and talented anchors

The HQ has no idea what Reyes said, but it sounded solid...

ClubberSpeak: You Have To Pay To Play...

((HT: Jim Lang Blog))

It's never too soon to talk baseball... at least, in Clubber's mind...

Hey, let's think warm thoughts...

And here we go...

Veteran Blue Jays reporter Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. ca Tweeted and then wrote about something yesterday that really bothered me:

Alex Anthopoulos on Tuesday: “There has been some speculation about the Blue Jays being a surprise team in pursuit of free agent second baseman Robinson Cano. Unless he’s willing to settle for five years, you can forget about it, as the Blue Jays have no intentions of moving off their policy of contracts for six years or more.”

This has nothing to do with Shi or the quality of his writing. He is a pro’s pro and is very good at his job.

It has everything to do with the Blue Jays archaic team policy of not signing players to any contracts longer than five years.

The price of doing business with the big boys in MLB requires that you have to fork over long term deals if you want to sign star players.

In 2011 the Tigers signed Prince Fielder to a nine year contract. That same year the Rangers signed Yu Darvish to a six year deal.

Meanwhile the Blue Jays are sticking to their “Five-Year” rule.

It is all well and good that Paul Beeston and Alex Anthopoulos want to strictly adhere to their “Five-Year” rule. The problem is that the rest of the General Managers around Major League Baseball are playing by a completely different set of rules.

Every other team, especially the perennial contenders, seem to be willing to hand out long term contracts to free agents.

I’m sure there are times when management and ownership of these respective teams really don’t want to sign a player to a nine year contract. But if that’s what it takes to sign a star player that will make your team a contender, then you bloody well do it.

What if James Shields and his agent contacted Anthopoulos to let him know that they would like to sign with the Blue Jays. Are the Blue Jays going to say no to Shields because he wants a seven year deal?

Apparently they would.

So Shields would gladly sign a deal with another team willing to give him the term he wants.

I am not suggesting for a second that Shields even has a desire to sign with the Jays. The point is that the Jays automatically reduce the number of players they could possibly take a run at in free agency because of their “Five-Year” rule.

So while other teams around baseball are preparing to lock up marquee free agents to long-term deals the Blue Jays are not moving away from their “Five-Year” policy.

But it has “only” been 20 years and counting since they were in the post-season. So why should the Jays change? Apparently they are convinced that their way of doing things will eventually turn the team back into a winner.

Meanwhile the rest of baseball thinks otherwise.

Anthoploulos and the Jays will make some moves and sign some players. Just don’t expect to see elite free agents signing in Toronto anytime soon.

At least not until the Jays decide to scrap their policy on free agent contracts.

Vernon Wells Goes CSI On Nunez Injury

((HT: Sportsnet))

There was a reason that Mark Reynolds had to play his second game ever at second base against the Toronto Blue Jays for the New York Yankees...

Cano- injured...
Nunez- really injured...

So, Yankees outfielder Vernon Wells (back in his old haunt of Toronto) decided to... um... outline the Nunez injury that has Reynolds doing his job at position 4 pregame...
See...???

Funny...

Ichiro Reaches 4,000 Hits

((HT: MLB Network/YES))

There is one of the greatest hitters in this lifetime on display in New York City...

It's Ichiro Suzuki... or, just Ichiro...

Like Madonna, Arnie, or any one of those single-named people... he's reached that status- and rightfully so...

He has now reached 4,000 hits... and the answer to the trivia question is- an RA Dickey knuckleball...


Ichiro had 1,278 hits in Japan before coming over to the continent a dozen years ago. He passed Lou Gehrig on the MLB career hits list Major League Baseball's with his 2,722nd hit that gave him 4,000 on the nose.

The question to you Dear Reader is: Is Ichiro a Hall of Famer...???

The HQ thinks so... and he's only two seasons behind Peter Edward Rose for the all-time hit lead...

Adventures With Kawasaki: Life As A Reporter

((HT: Sportsnet))

The HQ knows about video bombing and photo bombing... and how funny it can be sometimes...

But what happens when one of the more beloved Toronto Blue Jays video bombs from behind the camera to ask questions to his teammates...???

This...

The country is Kawasaki's... and we're all enjoying it...

The Legend Of Kawasaki Continues, Grows, And Otherwise Expands

((HT: Sportsnet))

Munenori Kawasaki continues to be all that clutch and more for the Toronto Blue Jays... getting another hit leaning the team toward another win in the AL East...

FOSG Tim and Sid have gone the next step in the celebrating Muni's Legend...
Adding one of the best jingles of the '80s and the Paul Bunyan-esque feats we're seeing...

And, now, the song won't get out of your head, either...
Great postgame levity and a walk-up tune that has no equal...

And the HQ STILL CAN'T GET THE SONG OUT OF OUR HEAD!!!
Neither the speed-walking of Sid...

Blue Jays Catcher Doesn't Like Blue Jays Broadcasters

This season's JP Arencibia is not last year's Arencibia...

But that doesn't mean he won't fight you back and tell you how mad he actually is...

He alluded to it on his Twitter account last night after the Jays loss to Detroit...
((HT: Sportsnet))


  Look forward to fan590 at 8:40 am tomorrow... You should probably tune is as I will discuss Hayhurst and Zaun #ThisWillBefun He then went on the Brady and Lang show on the FAN590 radio network- which includes FOSG "Clubber" Lang to discuss... The key point is at the 5:35 mark... And, then, Sportsnet/590 FOSG Jeff Blair caught up with Dirk Hayhurst to get his response to Arencibia's response... The HQ went on the "Numbers at Noon" show on NextSportsStar TV with FOSG Eric Cohen to discuss as well...

 And our larger point is that the three of them Zaun, Arencibia, and Hayhurst- if there is to be an airing of the grievances- need to do it behind the scenes. What's said in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse...