They're doing it again...

Four wins out of five = a really nice night for the farm teams. The offense was especially impressive - as were the performances from two catchers.

Veteran Bauxite and original roster expansion choice Mike Green wrote it recently ...  "the RC team ... would be very competitive in the all-initial league (Campanella, Connor, Carew, Chapman, Cey, Colavito, Cullenbine, Clemente, Clemens).  Robinson Cano is a good recent addition to the  bench."

Hm. I could have sworn we did an All-RC club at one point, but apparently not ... we're "limited" in Hall of Names annals, to every single double-initial, from AA to ZZ, as well as G.M., P.R., J.R., M.D., T.O., B.S., M.O., J.V., P.M., K.B., G.B. and M.B. -- and a few others we may have missed -- but never an all R.C. team. So let's see if Mike has it right as we attempt to royally crown a new HoN roster we can only rightfully dub ...

One of the few highlights in Thursday night's 10-5 debacle to the Damn Yankees was turned in by this first-year Blue Jay who began his big league career with the Expos in 1996.  He's the subject of our POTD.

As the season winds down in the minors the affiliates won two of five games last night. Las Vegas won on the strength of a one hit-around inning while some of Auburn’s bats came to life, at least temporarily. Meanwhile, Lansing and Dunedin both lost by two and the Fisher Cats lost a tough game. Players with the initials A and M turned in the two best performances on the farm.

That is the combined score of the games last night (not in the Jays' affiliates' favour), as they combined to go an opposite of perfect 0-5.

The top two minor league affiliates swept a doubleheader of sorts against their San Francisco counterparts and number three laid the smack down on a Yankees affiliate.  Those are the highlights of a 3-2 night on the farm.

In our recent Perry-themed return to the fun and games of the Hall of Names (after an absence of more than four months), the first reader comment, from long-time Bauxite lexomatic, opined, "I was thinking we needed a hall of names team to break things up. I tried coming up with a the Hill's themed one ... but that's a pretty bad team."

Gauntlet thrown! Challenge accepted! A hill to, if you'll pardon the pun, climb! And lex, far be it from me to say you're wrong, but this isn't a pretty bad team. It's a really bad team. Oh well, at least we built a full roster (with some leftovers, even) ...

He "only" had eight RBI, falling one shy of the club record.  I think that qualifies him for our POTD!

The theme of the evening was... well, I sort of already told you in the title, so I really don't need to elaborate here. But I have to write something, or else it won't let me post the story. So... blah blah blah, watermelon watermelon. Is that enough? Okay.

The beginning of September is usually when I start paying close attention to division races and Wild Card standings.  In looking at where things stand this morning, there really isn't a whole lot to talk about, is there?

Four wins in six tries for the affiliates.  But you'll have to read the details to believe some of the stuff that went on.

In a shocker of a trade, the Tampa Bay Rays traded two-time All Star Scott Kazmir to the Los Angeles Angels for three minor leaguers.  As it turns out, the 25 year-old lefty made his last appearance as a Ray last Wednesday at Rogers Centre and he's the subject of our POTD.

Not sure what got me thinking about the name "Perry" recently, but it's one of those names that has been a first, middle and last -- all of the above! -- in major league lore. You've already thought of the brothers, Gaylord and Jim, right? And if you were paying attention in the 1990s, maybe Gerald and Herb have crossed your mind.

But the truth is, we have to violate Hall of Names tradition to build a full roster -- and even then, we can't quite do so without ignoring a long-standing HoN rule and accepting roster applications from more than just the last-named amongst our Perry-atric crew.

The name "Perry" has appeared in big league ledgers more than 30 times, including 12 times as a last/family name (apologies to RHRP Parson Perryman, 2-4 with the 1915 SLB, who is not eligible), twice (just twice?) as a given/first name and 15 more times as a given/middle name. Three managers, including two who were also players, bore the name "Perry," including one of our two Hall of Famer pitchers. So we'll struggle along, employing our best fencing moves, in building a roster for (sorry about this) ...

The affiliates one-upped themselves from Friday night and won four games on the Saturday.