Was at the game last night, congrats to Cheer Club, happy b-day to Aaron, heard the drum very clearly from 532. I was thinking, all we need is another drum on the other side, stereo.

Thoughts on last night's game:

- Menechino is a real JP guy, long at backs, takes lots of pitches, hits a lot of foul balls. Plus, at the top of the 7th he makes a neat spin move to get the runner at first: a play Hinske only dreams of making. Hinske needs the bench.

- Dave Berg, though he made a nice sliding catch, was an anchor in the lineup again. I think Catalonotto's earned the right to start everyday, in fact it's insulting he's not considering who the reserve outfielders are.

- Terry Adams was frightening.

Finally: this rotation is all right (Hentgen being the weak link). Plus: it's good to see Tosca has finally been able to give more concrete roles to the bullpen pitchers.

Finally, Finally: O-Dog is an odd #5 hitter.

Rumour has it that the Red Sox are trying to trade Kim to anyone that will take him, and will pay part of his salary.
Think they'd trade him within the division? I think he'd look pretty good in place of Hentgen or to set up Adams. Or maybe let Adams set him up.
We don't really have much in terms of salary to send back to Boston, which could be an issue.

I'm really liking this new guy Frank Menechino(sp?). I know that he's hitting above his usual average but he looks scrappy out there. No lame first pitch ground balls and then a leisurely stroll back to the dug out. He looked good a third too. I don't want to this to seem like I have a personal vendetta against him, but is Berg finally sh**canned once Woodward comes back from the DL. Gomez looks fine, Menechino can play 3 infield spots and if Pond can hit a little then Berg is surplus to requirements.

Is Hinske going to put more effort into his at bats now? Pretty obvious to all that an average major leaguer can replace him.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6282
Dan Shulman and David Justice have the game on ESPN today. Ugh, Justice. Monday's game with Shulman and Kyle Peterson was a true pleasure to listen to-it's incredible how much better Peterson (a Stanford guy-pitched with the Brewers briefly-COMN-but why is he broadcasting at 28?) is than Justice. Very insightful and intelligent, complimenting Shulman perfectly.

Rumour has it that the Red Sox are trying to trade Kim to anyone that will take him, and will pay part of his salary.

You have heard right, and the best offer they got was Juan Encarnacion...so that shows you how much value Kim has right now.

Unfortunately, the problem with Kim seems to be more psychological than mechanical. Granted there is some degree of the mechanical issue when he lost 8-10 mph off of his fastball, but he seems to have lost any desire to pitch. He just looked really defeated when he came back from his "injury". Never a good thing when your pitcher has mental issues.

The Sox are planning on keeping him in Pawtucket and pitching him in short stints until he gets 1. significantly better or 2. traded. The general consensus though is that he is a lost cause.

During last night's telecast, I believe that one of Pat Tabler's comments about Batista was his consistent arm angle or release point, or some such thing.

I found this to be entirely contrary to what I have been witnessing this season.

I hadn't seen Batista pitch for a while prior to this season, so I forgot what he looked like on the mound. I am continually surprised at just how hard he throws and how nasty his stuff can be, but I am also continually dismayed at how his mechanics seem to change pitch to pitch. On a 3-0 count, I have no confidence that he can just mechanically throw an automatic strike. It seems that every pitch is a struggle with his legs and hips flying every which way, but never the same way twice.

He has been likened to Escobar (maddeningly great stuff but seeming inability to fully harness his talent), but I think where Escobar was often his own worst enemy with all his annoying nibbling, Batista hurts himself with wonky mechanics. I get the feeling that his wildness is not due to a resistance to challenge hitters, but due to an ability to, plain and simply, throw strikes.

It's easy to imagine that we will witness games where Batista is untouchable and games where he is terrible.

Do others have a different take on his mechanics?

Even if It's Raining Again, the fact the Jays play in a dome should prevent a weather postponement

Dan Shulman and David Justice have the game on ESPN today.

Have we reached a point in sports broadcasting history where the need to have an ex-player serve as the colour man is no longer necessary? (he asks rhetorically).

Historically, I can see that having an ex-player's "insight" would have been appealing to fans. But so many non-players are such students of the sports they follow that they likely know more than the ex-jocks who have the jobs. They are certainly generally more articulate.

While an ex-player can provide the "I was there and this is what it was like" insight, too often those are pat cliches that tell us nothing.

How many sports broadcast crews, radio or TV, don't carry an ex-jock? Tom and Jerry are one example, though Gary Matthews was their third wheel for a while. Who did Jerry replace? I can't remember. Was it Early Wynn?

mathesond wins! As long as Moffatt's away, you'll keep getting subjected to my angst-ridden early-'80s Britpop lyrics collection.

re: Jocks as broadcasters

The worst I've ever heard is Jay Buhner.

I was watching Sportsnet news (sportsnetnews) this morning and they were showing RJ in the 9th and the colour man said "woo-hoo" when RJ got the first out and screamed when he had the perfect game.

"woo-hoo" is a sound no man paid to be on a mic should make. I'm wondering if that was Buhner behind the mic.

I don't know why this site is so hard on Cerutti, he's the exception of jocks on TV, he's exceptionally better.

Joe Morgan drives me crazy. Why does he have to have THE ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING? His reasoning is plain moronic.

In yesterday's game thread whoever said the TSN crew is better than that RSN crew doesn't know what they're talking about. Rod Black couldn't comment his way out of a paper back. He's the kind of guy you don't want sitting beside you on an aeroplane. Pat Tabler is still living off 1987.

Rod black couldn't comment his way out of a paper BAG.

Jordan, I think the only angst that Supertramp felt when they penned It's Raining Again was that their Crime of the Century days were a thing of the past. They were a fastball pitcher resorting to knuckle balls in the twilight of their career.

Monday's game with Shulman and Kyle Peterson was a true pleasure to listen to-it's incredible how much better Peterson (a Stanford guy-pitched with the Brewers briefly-COMN-but why is he broadcasting at 28?) is than Justice. Very insightful and intelligent, complimenting Shulman perfectly.

I agree. I like Peterson a lot. I've heard him do a couple Jays games in the past couple weeks.

Justice just spouts cliches, says scuffle way too much, and can't sit up in a chair when they do a quick segment from the booth.

Thanks, KT. We had a good crowd there last night, and lots of people ended up coming over to sit with us. We also had a bit of a friendly rivalry going with the old-school Jay crew one section over (wearing dark blue V-neck jerseys and old style hats, one with Stieb on his back and a goofy fake mustache, another with a cowbell and a gigantic afro wig), trying to out-noise each other. We need more of that. Rock on, Bloor Jays.

Menechino played great last night, and the crowd seemed to love him. And actually I felt pretty good about Dave Berg overall yesterday, especially the way he held on in that at-bat until Santana finally nailed him with a pitch.

Santana, Santana, Santana... he looked so distracted, and we will take some credit with that. The drum shook him -- that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Plus, we let him know that we were directing it at him with our intermittent Johaaaaaaaaan, Johaaaaaan cries (especially loud after the Berg HBP).

How did the crowd sound on TV? I thought they were one of the best crowds I've been in all of this year and last, the best being for Roy's 15th consecutive and again for his final game of the season last year. It wasn't quite as good as those crowds, but it was a good, noisy, mostly enthusiastic crowd.

Behold: Keith Talent is 5-0 at SkyDome this season.

I have a burned collection of Supertramp's greatest hits in my CD player right now. I'd have been all over that, if I was here. Do more Supertramp.

I was impressed with how Menechino has looked in the field, as well. For a guy I thought was more-or-less a 2B only, he's filled in nicely at SS and 3B, and while he's not had any exceedingly difficult plays, he's made a couple tough ones.

I don't find Morgan nearly as annoying as a commentator than I do as a writer. As a commentator he's servicable and he's much better than Tim "Mrs. Derek Jeter" McCarver.

Tim "Mrs. Derek Jeter" McCarver

Ah, but McCarver does things for Jetes that *no* wife would do. He's more like his backup mistress.

I don't know why this site is so hard on Cerutti, he's the exception of jocks on TV, he's exceptionally better.

I think a lot of it stems from last season, KT. I personally think that both Faulds and Cerutti have improved a whole lot from last year, when they were easily the most negative, down-on-the-home-team pair of broadcasters I've ever heard. I don't know how many e-mails and phone messages I left, but I left a lot of 'em, especially when the team was having that magnificent May and the two of them couldn't shut up about how it wouldn't last. Let us enjoy the May, okay? We won't think you're a better broadcaster if the team subsequently tanks and you say "See, I told you so back in May" -- we'll just think you're a jackass.

They are not doing that this year. They sound like they're having a lot more fun up in the booth, and I've been enjoying them.

I like Candiotti, too. If he gets a little more comfortable behind the mic and smooths out his delivery just a tad more, I think he has the potential to be a really top-drawer colour guy. As I said back when he and Faulds were doing the broadcasts from Minnesota, I really liked the way Candiotti packaged information in simple but not simplified terms, and made me see things in a new way, and very clearly, without talking down (but I should point out that I am a not really baseball educated person, just a fan).

Did anyone catch J.P. on the post-game last night? One caller was addressing the drop off in attendance at the Dome and was saying that it was partially due to bad feelings still from the strike. Mike Wilner thought that it was ridiculous for anyone to still harbour ill will over something that occurred a decade ago, but let me tell ya, Mike, I didn't snap out of my anger at baseball until the end of the '02 season, when a supplier of mine gave me Jays tickets and I went to see these wicked young guys named Phelps and Hinske play. We bought tickets to another five games that year, and then in '03 I went to 66 home games. I've decided not to keep track this year (because it makes me feel a little like a maniac, plus I know I won't be able to hit 66 again), but I've definitely made it to more than half of our home games, I'd say about two thirds at this point.

It took me seeing with my own eyes that the people who made me so angry in '94 had nothing to do with the Jays of '02 to turn me around. And I can totally believe that there are still people out there who haven't had that eye-opener. I don't think it's ridiculous at all to think that the strike is still impacting attendance.

It was great to meet some of you guys last night. I'm looking forward to some more games up in 518.

My favourite part of the evening was Bird Droppings telling me that they expected 'Grand Funk Railroad' to be an old fat guy with a long white beard. High comedy. I hope I didn't disappoint the masses!

I agree, NFH - the drum definitely had Santana coming apart at the seams.

Sorry Mrs. Grand Funk Railroad and I had to leave early - those cold winds really whip up after the sun goes down up in the 500 - it isn't so comfy if you've only got a t-shirt on. We found a nice warm corner downstairs.

I feel like I'm having angina every time Adams pitches.

One last comment. Something UNBELIEVABLE angered me beyond belief last night. Mrs. Grand Funk and I stopped into the Jays Bullpen Store last night before the game to do a quick browse. I was hoping to find something nice that didn't have the new logo on it. To my HORROR, there is an entire section of YANKEES jerseys, caps and shirts in the BLUE JAYS team store. This, in my mind, is a personal affront by the Blue Jays organization. I'm dumbfounded.

http://neweracap.com/Cooperstown/ShowTeam.cfm?TeamName=Toronto%20Blue%20Jays&Team=TORJAC
Yowch, GFR, that's new from last year. They did have a rack of hats from all the teams (and I almost bought a fitted Oakland hat when they were half price last year, but then I asked myself "When will I ever wear this?"), but a Yankees section?

Sadly, there must be a market for it. I see a lot of people out and about wearing Yankee gear.

Did you find anything you liked with the old logo on it? COMN for the New Era Cooperstown Jays cap, which is just gorgeous (and I think it's $35 CDN at the Bullpen Store, so don't pay $35 US to buy it on the internet).

Last year they had a "Garage Sale" of stuff they found when they cleaned out the storage rooms etc, and the best items I saw were game-ready, un-numbered, un-named white Blue Jays home V-necks in a variety of sizes -- the real player jerseys, extra ones that were around in case of a trade or callup, waiting to have someone's name and number stitched onto them, which went into storage when the Jays changed to a button up jersey in the late '80s. The ones that didn't sell at the charity garage sale ended up in a display case in the Bullpen Store, for $199 each. I was seriously tempted.

I don't know what state Kim is in as a pitcher but if the Jays are looking for a boost in attendance then Kim might be the answer. Toronto has a huge Korean community which is a big supporter of its sporting heroes. Kim might be invigorated and the marketing potential is definately there. The only question is how much would it cost to get him and how much would they have to pay him.

They were a fastball pitcher resorting to knuckle balls in the twilight of their career.

Famous Last Words was more of a splitter -- the band broke up immediately afterwards, and I understand Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies have had little to say to each other since. It's a darkly melancholic album, unlike their previous brightly melancholic efforts. Crime of the Century was terrific, but Even in the Quietest Moments was underrated, and Crisis? What Crisis? wasn't as bad as all that. Breakfast in America was basically radioplay.

Both Hodgson and Supertramp continued releasing albums afterwards, of course, but the results were not pretty.

I saw Supertramp (the current incarnation) at the Amphitheatre last year. they still put on a fantastic show for a bunch of old farts. Of course, that's coming from a HUGE 'Tramp fan (SECOND BEST BAND EVER!!)

re: The Strike

Well, at least the 1994 strike only saved the Blue Jays the embarassment of going from World Champions to the cellar.

Think of Montreal. Summer 94, I was still living in Vancouver, I bought non-refundable plane tickets to Montreal, to stay there for 10 days during a long homestand where they had a 4-game series with the Braves. STRIKE, no baseball. I still had a good time in that city but was really bitter about settling for the lame Olympic Stadium tour.

That strike killed the Expos franchise. No debate, no speculation: it's Cause and Effect.

Sadly, there must be a market for it. I see a lot of people out and about wearing Yankee gear.

True - I don't dispute that.
But, the LAST place on earth that should be selling Yankees paraphanelia is the BLUE JAYS team store.
I felt violated when I saw that rack.
Turncoats...

I'm with ya, GFR. Though if it means the Jays make money, I don't care if they sell Mop'n'Glo in the Bullpen Store -- I don't have to go into the Bullpen Store, after all. The field, now that's different.

The Bullpen Store is too crowded, anyways, so I usually visit the little stands in the stadium.

By the way, are you Supertramp fans into The New Pornographers?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-reds-graves-wallet&prov=ap&type=lgns
Although I didn't get to meet you directly, it was nice to see you there GFR. I expected a little more funk, though.

Alright, let's get everyone's 5 favourite Supertramp songs. I'll throw mine in in about an hour and a half, when I'm on lunch.

COMN for a nice story about a stranger and Danny Graves.

Re: the "woohoo" you heard on the broadcast. That was new Diamondbacks color man Mark Grace who has a reputation of being a witty guy but I have found him lacking in the analysis department. But it is just his first year and he was a teammate of most of those Arizona players last year. He was pretty much gushing all of the last four innings. Strangely enough, he replaced Joe Garagiola Sr. of NBC Game of the Week fame, who did the color on many Arizona games the last couple years.

Alright, let's get everyone's 5 favourite Supertramp songs.

1. Hide In Your Shell
2. Rudy
3. School
4. Ain't Nobody But Me
5. Give A Little Bit (although the Gap almost ruined it for me by having it in a commercial a few years ago)

Tosca's coming up on the Fan 590 after the break.

Give us a report of what he said. JP was on Marsden and Landry today, but I didn't get to hear it. Anybody know if he'll be doign a call-in show today, and if so, when? It's a getaway day today, so I'm not sure if he will.

Thomas - 'Wednesday with J.P' was on Tuesday this week

1. Give a Little Bit (commercial didn't ruin it for me)
2. The Logical Song
3. Bloody Well Right
4. School (quite underrated)
5. Dreamer

Honourable Mention to:
Ain't Nobody But Me
Breakfast in America
Hide in Your Shell

Not much of substance -- it's hard to replace Bordick's presence in the locker room, Menechino is a good, hardworking guy, Randy Johnson is a good pitcher.

1. Hide in Your Shell
2. School
3. Rudy
4. Crime of the Century
5. Asylum

See a trend?

Honourables:
A Soapbox Opera
Fool's Overture
Logical Song
Child of Vision
Waiting So Long
Cannonball (I may be alone on the planet in liking this album)

Richard Griffin has an excellent column on Shannon Stewart in The Star today. I would have thought such a contraversail piece would have been included in the round-up. Anyhow, COMN.

I think its pretty fairly balanced. However I am certain the Jays are not going to like it. Shannon is definelty one of the good guys and I agree he was railroaded. I am not denying his contract fell outside the magic fifty mil. But most certainly the organisation lacked class and that has an effect on attacting free agents as well alienating fans.

The COMN didn't work, I must have pasted the link in the wrong box. For those interested though it is The Star's Waymoresports baseball section on thier site.

10. Don't Leave Me Now
9. A Soapbox Opera
8. School
7. Rudy
6. Give a Little Bit
5. The Logical Song
4. Dreamer
3. It's Raining Again
2. Take the Long Way Home
1. Fool's Overture

Brother Where You Bound had its good moments, in particular Better Days, but the 14-minute B-side title-track was about two decades too late to catch the Prog Rock wave. The Eye of the Storm was pretty good but suffered from an earnestness overload, while Hai Hai was just embarrassing for all concerned.

Richard Griffin has an excellent column on Shannon Stewart in The Star today.

From the article (which I totally disagree about being excellent):
The criticisms of the man were: not tough, no defence and lousy on-base percentage.

Huh? Lousy OBP? Who ever said that? I don't recall talk about his toughness but I certainly recall the media frequently denigrating Stewart for being quiet, aloof and not a rah-rah guy.

All they offered was a one-year deal, while inking teammates Vernon Wells and Eric Hinske to multi-year contracts.

Yeah, $3M per year for guys in their early 20's rather than $6M+ a year for a guy in his 30's. Sounds nutty to me.

When JP said that he'd like to have Stewart back but that he was too expensive, I don't believe he was being disengenuous. Were he available for Catalanotto money, that would be one thing. But $6M per year? No way.

This article, to me, is more evidence of Griffin's axe to grind with the organization. That a once humble Stewart now believes he was truly deserving of his absurd 4th place finish in the MVP voting may be evidence enough for Griffin that Stewart was railroaded. I don't see it. He was a good, not great player looking for money beyond his worth. And he's a 30-year old player whose speed is rapidly diminishing. Good guy or not, it was time to cut bait.

Reading this thread makes me realize I have a giant hole in my musical education... very little exposure to Supertramp. No kidding!

I need a good Supertramp mix. I will trade a mix CD of anything I have with any of you Supertramp fans who want to burn me a CD's worth of good Supertramp stuff. COMN for the e-mail.

First of all, guys, I am thrilled to have found this forum (Scott Carson referred to it in his column).
I am jealous of those of you in Toronto that can go to all those home games. Being in Victoria, the only option is Seattle (going on May 31st).
Chuck, there are two of us, Canonball is one of my favourites. When I started to learn alto saxophone, I had no idea how much sax was used in pop/rock music. Their guy was great.
About last night's game: so Frasor has an era of 1.00 and Terry Adams has an era of what? Am I missing something here? It is nice to see someone pitching where it doesn't look like batting practice for the other team.
Tosca seems to have no feel for pitching at all. Mind you, that was always the knock on Cito and he won two World Series, so what do I know?
Anyone remember the home game where the game was tied, they had the bases loaded with no one out in the bottom of the ninth and they ended-up losing in extra innings. Someone should teach Carlos to bunt for God's sake!

WE LOVE CAR-SON... clap clap, clap clap clap...