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Thanks to rodent (who spilled the beans on the Bandwagon thread), we now know that today is not just any day -- it's the 50th birthday of Coach Kent Williams! No time to arrange anything like a card or celebration, so this thread will have to do -- please sign in and wish a very happy milestone birthday to the man who has done far more than anyone else to make Batter's Box not just a reality, but a top-notch close-to-100,000-visitor Blue Jays Weblog.

Coach shares this birthday with quite a few ballplayers, including Dave Goltz, Tom Haller, Marty Barrett, Jim Deshaies, and the Blue Jays' very own Mark Hendrickson.
Posted by Jordan on Monday, June 23 2003 @ 04:56 AM EDT.
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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Pepper Moffatt - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:18 PM EDT (#99715) #
http://economics.about.com
Happy Birthday Coach! The Jays should give you front row seats for tonights game for the way you've helped promote the team!

Mike
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_John N. - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:25 PM EDT (#99716) #
How about a skybox? According to the Sunday Star, only a fifth of them are actually leased. I think Coach deserves a complimentary skybox for the rest of the year.

Happy Birthday, Coach, and thanks for all the hard work.
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_Mick - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:25 PM EDT (#99717) #
Deer Couch,
Thanks you fore edting and correctiing all the stuff that Gitzi and me writes for this blag. Happy Birthday.
Mick
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_Mick - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:27 PM EDT (#99718) #
Deer Couch,
Thanks you fore edting and correctiing all the stuff that Gitzi and me writes for this blag. Happy Birthday.
Mick
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_Mick - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:28 PM EDT (#99719) #
And fore leting us dubblepost sometime.
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_Dr B - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:29 PM EDT (#99720) #
"Happy Birthday to you!"
"Happy Birthday to you!"
"Happy Birthday Dear Coooooach!"
"Happy Birthday to you!"
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_Brent - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:32 PM EDT (#99721) #
Happy Birthday Coach. All the best.

Let's hope the Jays can pull one off for a nice birthday treat.
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_DS - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:35 PM EDT (#99722) #
Cheers Coach!
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_jason - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:37 PM EDT (#99723) #
Happy Birthday Coach. Hopefully, the Jays will win one for you tonight.
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_King Rat - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 05:56 PM EDT (#99724) #
Happy Birthday Coach, and thaks for creating such a great site.
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_Lefty - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:14 PM EDT (#99725) #
Well lets make this from coast to coast to coach.
Happy Birthday man. Thanks for such an excellent site.

Honestly, I had become quite a jaded baseball fan over the past ten years playing roto-ball. Cheered against the Jays when my SP was facing them. Wanted homers off of Clemens in 99 when Canseco was facing him. See what I mean scydzoid.

But the BB has brought me home again. I am becoming slightly less mercenary and the credit is yours.

Thank you and all the best on your Birthday from a much younger man than thee.
Lefty
Vancouver
ps. i see some others are hoping for a jays win for you today. well if davis can do it your are a certainly blessed. mora's out so ... perhaps.
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_DS - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:18 PM EDT (#99726) #
Lefty,

Davis isn't pitching, Escobar is.

I'm sure Coach is loving the irony.
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_Ken - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:19 PM EDT (#99727) #
happy b'day coach

thanks for making the #1 site on the web
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_DS - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:20 PM EDT (#99728) #
Oops, my bad. 'Tis Davis that art pitcheth.

I thought Escobar was going on three days' rest?
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Pistol - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:29 PM EDT (#99729) #
Happy Birthday Coach.
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_Lefty - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:33 PM EDT (#99730) #
Phew, I just turned all red, but my excuse woulda bin that I'll still at work while all you central canadians are in your living rooms with your feet up having a "cherry pop".

I think they were going to go with Kelmin the Destroyer but he has a very humaniod problem with a split fingernail they want healed.
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_benum - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:36 PM EDT (#99731) #
Happy B-Day.

So out of the ZLC, who shares a birthday with the best player?
I don't even share one with an All-Star or Hall of Famer :-(
Baseball-Reference.com
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_Ken - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:37 PM EDT (#99732) #
sorry to hijack a birthday thread

but the jays sent Jason Perry to the A's to complete the Lopez-Arnold/JFG deal.............i'm a bit dissapointed, oh well.
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_DS - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:43 PM EDT (#99733) #
Perry seems like he can hit a little, but I don't know if he was any better than Griffin. His power numbers seem way down from last year. His playing time seemed real inconsistent, I wonder if he has any lingering injury problems?
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_Lefty - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 06:48 PM EDT (#99734) #
Sorry Coach,
With respect to my Birthday wishes to you, I am afraid the mercenary spirit remains -- in spite of your best efforts-- alive and well within me.

I have Wakefield v. Bonderman tonite.

Thats it, this is the last year I play roto-ball. For sure. Right?
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Pepper Moffatt - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 07:17 PM EDT (#99735) #
http://economics.about.com
So out of the ZLC, who shares a birthday with the best player?
I don't even share one with an All-Star or Hall of Famer :-(
Baseball-Reference.com

Kirby Puckett is exactly 16 years older than I am. I'm sure someone can top that.

Oddly enough, Sam Moffett was born exactly 120 years before I was. He has also one of the worst winning percentages by a pitcher ever (with more than 25 decisions) at 6-29.

Mike
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Joe - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 08:22 PM EDT (#99736) #
Just a simple "Happy Birthday, Coach" from me. Hope it was a good one!
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_the shadow - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 09:08 PM EDT (#99737) #
Happy 50th birthday coach,(I can just barely remember my 50th)
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Craig B - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 09:18 PM EDT (#99738) #
Happy Birthday, Coach. You're an inspiration.
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_Donkit R.K. - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 09:29 PM EDT (#99739) #
Happy Birthday Coach! You have a great site here that keeps a Cape Breton boy well informed of all the happenings in Jay land. Maybe we'll be wishing you all the best in another 50 :-)
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_Jonny German - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 10:02 PM EDT (#99740) #
Happy Birthday Coach!
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_A - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 10:21 PM EDT (#99741) #
Happy Birthday Coach, hope the next 50 are as good (or better) than the first.

Speech, speech, speech...!
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Coach - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 10:22 PM EDT (#99742) #
Thanks to one and all for the kind wishes. I'm not even angry with "rodent" for blabbing, mostly because he bought lunch. It was a great day, thanks to my family and friends. My library has grown substantially; somehow, people knew I'd enjoy Moneyball and Triumph and Tragedy In Mudville, the collected baseball writings of the late Stephen Jay Gould. Even though I didn't see much of tonight's game, a 19-hit attack is a nice present from the Jays. It goes so well with a Tampa win over the Yankees.
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_Shrike - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 10:47 PM EDT (#99743) #
Some belated birthday wishes from the West Coast. I'm hopeful that a trip to Toronto is in my future so I can finally take in a game at SkyDome, complete with some wise members of the ZLC.
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robertdudek - Monday, June 23 2003 @ 11:55 PM EDT (#99744) #
Congrats Kent,

I'm not too far behind you.

See you at the ZLC "bash" on Wednesday.
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Dave Till - Tuesday, June 24 2003 @ 09:41 AM EDT (#99745) #
Happy birthday, Coach! Thanks for letting me become part of the ZLC, and for giving me lots and lots of space to rant about baseball.

Hope you got a chance to catch at least some of Monday night's slaughter of defenseless Baltimore pitching. :-)
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_Mick - Tuesday, June 24 2003 @ 09:42 AM EDT (#99746) #
Cool link.

Apparently the best player I share a birthday with is Hall of Famer Heinie Manush. It's fun to say "Heinie."

My lovely bride shares a birthday with the inimitable Satchel Paige. She is, uh, somewhat younger.
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Dave Till - Tuesday, June 24 2003 @ 12:15 PM EDT (#99747) #
I share a birthday with Eddie Gaedel! Cool!

Others born on my birthday include a generation's worth of Baltimore shortstops (Mark Belanger, Lenn Sakata) and a whole squadron of mediocre pitchers (Kevin Gross, George Brunet, Don Robinson, Kevin Ritz, Dave Mlicki).

I am also exactly two years older than Jays coach John Gibbons.
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Craig B - Tuesday, June 24 2003 @ 02:50 PM EDT (#99748) #
The best players born on my birthday are probably Firpo Marberry, Ray Durham, and Bo Jackson.

Of course, I also share a birthday with Winston Churchill (98 years later), which pleases me to no end.
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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.