Congrats to V-Dub on tying the Jays' single-season mark for hits. Almost as impressive is that the fans seemed like they knew it was going to happen by the immediate ovation.

Stanford is sounding very impressive this evening. Tom and Jerry can't get over his off-speed stuff and we've heard about it how great it is atleast 8-10 times.
Second time around might be telling for this young pitcher.

Did EVERYONE go to the game this evening?

Hi Adam. I posted this thread hastily, as you can probably tell, and have just begun to really watch the game. There were some complications today in Mrs. Coach's recovery from the car accident. A small blind spot in her left eye turns out to be a detached retina. She's having surgery on Sunday, but the prognosis is good because they caught it early.

I did excuse myself from the dinner table to see Delgado's first at-bat. Stanford got him with a gorgeous changeup down and in after Carlos fouled off two fastballs with mighty rips that were just late. This kid held the Twins and Red Sox to two runs each in his last two seven-inning starts, and can sue for non-support -- he lost both games 2-0. I'm not surprised he's doing well, but at least the Jays are taking him deep into counts.

Lidle's been pretty good, too. Eight K's through five, but he's thrown a lot of pitches and Tosca always seems to give him the quick hook. Looks like the bullpens will decide this one.

Wow. Great pitching by Stanford to leave two more Jays on base (that's eight so far). Because he's got them thinking about the off-speed stuff, he was able to blow a letter-high 87-mph fastball by Hinske for strike two, then went up the ladder with an eye-high heater that Eric chased.

Oh, well. Kielty's solo HR in the ninth wasn't enough. Time to regroup and get the bats going tomorrow afternoon in support of Doc.

Did EVERYONE go to the game this evening?

I met Mike M. and Jacko there, as well as Mike's girlfriend and one of her friends.

The MIKE: DON'T RETIRE sign got on the JumboTron while Jacko was off buying more beer. No such luck for CARLOS DELGADO: GREATEST JAY EVER. I'll bring them both tomorrow.

Our LOUDER! sign was donated to a group of rowdy high school students who were making more noise than us. They got it on the JumboTron at least twice.

Suggestion for the cheer club: Try to come up with themes for particular players or particular moments (like HRs or Ks), like the Phillies' fans do for Randy Wolf for example.

Costumes and dances always go over as well.

The Philly fans have a ton, I'd love to see a group similair to that in Toronto.

Wolf Pack (Randy Wolf)
Duck Pond (Brandon Duckworth)
Padilla Floatilla (Vincente Padilla)
Mesa's Faces (Jose Mesa)
and apparently for one game there was
Roa's Rich Guys (Joe Roa)

We were tossing around the Fan-O-Tron system, which involves having big boards with signs on them that are for specific events -- certain players coming up to bat, home runs, intentional walks, etc. I think we're going to do it. I'll make a few over the summer and see just how much they cost me (current estimate: $12 to $14 each, which would mean I wouldn't be making a lot of them -- player cards alone would cost me $300). I'm also looking for some sponsorship, which would help.

There are some great brainstorms for the Fan-O-Tron cards on Baseball Primer, in the Cheer Club clutch hit: http://www.baseballprimer.com/clutch/archives/00008868.shtml

And silly dances are a must. I think we could learn a lot from Philly -- maybe we should hire some Philly Phans as consultants?

Forgot: we also need an artist who'll donate some time, who can make simple, easily recognizeable line drawings of things like a baseball with flames coming from it, and Bud Selig (for the ERROR card).

Did anybody here happen to notice "Vote Greg "Crash" Myers. OPS (whatever his OPS happened to be that day)" sign in the week before the all-star game?

I was jealous of that sign. Didn't they do live updating of his OPS during the game?

That was awesome. Those guys need to join the Cheer Club.

Thomas, yeah. Coach, Robert, Jordan and I all saw that one, as I recall, when we went.

But the sign was WAY cooler than you let on.

The actually updated it *between at-bats*. We saw the sign, and I cracked that it would be really good if they updated it between ABs. Surely enough, after his first time up, the damn thing changed to reflect the current number!

Thomas wins sign of the year, hands down.