Nostalgic Righteous Indignation

I don't often have feelings of nostalgia combine so perfectly with feelings of righteous indignation. But I felt that today. A classic Roy Halladay victory in the Rogers Centre made me nostalgic for a time when Jays' fans got the opportunity to see him systematically dismantle the oppositions' offense for a full 9 innings every 5 days. The only difference was that this time, Doc was dismantling the Jays' offense. Except Eric Thames , who got two hits and John McDonald, of all people. I think JMac got pitches to hit in thanks for all those years he vacuumed up ground balls over the years after Doc decided to start pitching to contact.

I never bought into the idea that Doc was a robot on the mound, never showing emotions. More often than not, Doc had the look of wanting to eat kittens when he pitched. I'm not surprised he didn't acknowledge the crowd who cheered for entrance, because it would totally show up the Jays. In the pre-game show, Gregg Zaun, who caught Doc for 5 seasons, said he used to try to loosen him up from his pre-game intensity. I bet that was well received.

I think people complaining that Doc was getting cheered for need to get over themselves. Judging by the loud cheer that went up when Eric Thames singled off Doc in the first, these people were just clamouring for a great show. And what did Roy Halladay do for Toronto for all those years if not give them that?

When Jose Bautista took Halladay deep in his second at bat, he took him very, very deep. Bautista homered in a place he never homers, and it was one of those moments that makes this game so unbelievable. I had tears in my eyes. Yes, I cried in baseball.

Carlos Villanueva, to his credit, was nearly as good as Halladay and kept the Jays' in it. This guy has been one of the great surprises for this team.

And then the righteous indignation. Halladay got some calls that Jays' pitchers did not get. I'm pretty sure Halladay got calls Halladay didn't get when he was one of them. I knew something was brewing when Bautista struck out looking in the 1st, and had an extensive conversation with Alfonso Marquez about it. And Marquez got a pretty extensive earful from the Jays' dugout, who were chirping all afternoon. The pitch fx showed the pitch was there, but on the low end of the zone.

The zone was one way in favour of Doc to the point of utter ridiculousness. His strikes were in the strike zone, so the game was well called, but similar pitches from Jays' pitchers were not called. Handy info over Twitter from Parkes at Getting Blanked stated that 1 pitch in the zone was called a ball for Halladay, and 10 in the zone were called balls for the Jays.

So when Rauch threw a borderline pitch to Howard in the 9th that was called a ball and then walked him on a non-called strike that was very similar to the Bautista one in the first, things started to unravel. An RBI single, with a close play at the plate and Rauch was unleashed. I wonder if Marquez was at all alarmed to see a 6'10" tatooed wall of man come at him. Post game Rauch said, "I am not a small human." This was especially evident when he tossed John Farrell aside when Farrell, also not a small human, tried to subdue him. It took Wakamatsu, Butterfield, Farrell and Arencibia to get a hold of him, after his jersey was ripped off. It was quite the display. And then Farrell got right in Marquez's face and took over giving him a piece of his mind. Farrell's first toe to toe, hat brim touching screaming match as a big league manager.

If Bautista's role as face of the franchise was evident when he homered off Doc, his role as team leader was evident when he trotted in from 3rd to try and help subdue Rauch. One thing that made me chuckle in the video of the ejections was the look on the pitchers' faces when Rauch stormed through the dugout. They looked away or down, like "Don't make eye contact. He might eat us."

That got the crowd well into it, and the atmosphere got heated and stayed heated while Doc came out to finish out the 9th, for a 5-3 complete game victory. He finally acknowledged the cheers with a hat tip to the Rogers' Centre crowd and that was that.

So far it's been a really intense, tight and exciting weekend of baseball. I just wish the Jays' would quit ending up on the short end.