Jays Roundup - He Was Taking the Whole Thing Personal

Thursday, July 22 2004 @ 08:29 AM EDT

He didn't care about the loot
Jan had told him many times it was you to me who taught
In Jersey anything's legal as long as you don't get caught

In baseball anything can happen. Often it's what you expect.

1. There were a few positive things from yesterday's 10-3 loss to the Yankees. Three innings of scoreless pitching by Justin Speier, 3 hits each from Cat and Reed, and Rios nailing Matsui at home. The rest of the game wasn't so positive, as shown by Spencer Fordin's "Hentgen humbled by Yanks", Mark Feinsand's "Yanks enjoy first look at Jays", Mike Rutsey's "Another Pat-astrophe", Ben Walker's "Jays get beat up in New York", and Allan Ryan's "Yankees manhandle Blue Jays".
   
   
2. Fordin Notes (by the real article) on David Bush's almost no-hitter, the almost non-reaction to Delgado's stance on the war, and Cat's first game in the starting lineup in a month.
   
   
3. Unlike last night, this afternoon's game should be a dandy. It's a 1:05PM EST start! The 7-7 Ted Lilly takes the mound for the Jays against the 2-0 Orlando Hernandez. After reading Fordin's game preview I feel optimistic about our chances.
   
   
4. The Jays are losing money, but they're losing less money than in previous years according to Steve Erwin's "Jays value in decline". The first paragraph brings good news for suffering Jays fans:
   
   
   [The Jays] could raise their player payroll next season with or without Carlos Delgado on the roster, the team's president says.
   
   Many of us were expecting a $48 million payroll for next year. An extra $3 or $4 million could go a long way in shoring up the bullpen or adding another good bat to the club.
   
   
5. It's no longer the Star which is making a tempest in a B-cup (or however that saying goes). Today's Sun has Ben Walker's "Delgado taking a stand" on Delgado's refusal to stand for the playing of God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch.
   
   
6. When a Richard Griffin article starts out with the title "Jays' GM betrays Carlos", you can pretty much guess how the rest of the article is going to go. To save you time, here's how the article ends:
   
   
   The problem is that Ricciardi has never embraced the true meaning of his most talented and popular player the way the fans have. The way he handled the current Delgado situation could not have been more inept, clumsy, badly managed or poorly intentioned.
   
   Godfrey, the good cop to Ricciardi's bad, has since called Sloane to try to clarify the sequence of events with regard to Delgado. J.P. has not spoken to Sloane about a contract or the waiving of any clause since the spring. You might think he would have learned from his thoughtless handling of the Kelvim Escobar negotiations a year ago. He didn't and likely won't from the Delgado fiasco, either.
   
   
   I thought it was pretty class of J.P. not to mention Griffin and Elliott by name last night when discussing his relationship with the media.
   
   
7. An issue that has just come up: The Globe and Mail now requires you to register to visit their site. I quite dislike having to register when similar stories can be found in the Star and Sun. Does registering and logging in each morning bother you enough to stop going, or should I keep linking to their articles?

1. Our own Gerry McDonald did colour commentary for the last three innings of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats game. Way too go, Gerry!
   
   
2. In case you missed it, J.P. announced last night on the Fan 590 that they Jays have signed first round draft pick David Purcey.
   
   
3. I love listening to Wilner's Wednesdays with JP. It's hard to find two intelligent guys who know their baseball on the same show. Because of that the Fan 590 should really consider Thursdays with Kent Williams.
   
   
4. A picture some of you have been clamoring to see:
   
   

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