This Stupid-Ass Game: Notes from a Weekend (and Monday) of Baseball


That was an incredibly irritating weekend of baseball that almost perfectly illustrated the extreme strengths (with this offence they are never, ever out of a game) and the alarming shortcomings (inconsistent pitching) that make up the 2015 version of the Blue Jays so far.

I've been hanging out on Stoeten's Game Threats, making comments and flagging the trolls that come out any time the Jays are trailing in a game. When it was 7-0 and the mood was distraught, I reminded them that this team can bludgeon with the best of them. Eight runs is cake. Also, later in the game, I pointed out that while the pitching did seem pretty dire, the Orioles lit up a spot starting pitcher from low down in the depth chart and the Jays lit up a guy that the Orioles were counting on to lead their rotation.

In general, it was a pretty crazy weekend of baseball between the Orioles and Blue Jays.

On Friday, there was a near no-hitter by Marco Estrada. It also featured Gibby being tossed, later to be followed by Roberto Osuna and DeMarlo Hale and the Orioles deciding to make it tense late in the game.
I was at the game Saturday with my parents. My dad is the one that taught me about baseball. He pitched himself, he coached my brother (who was a talented pitcher) and loved Sandy Koufax as a kid. My mom finds baseball stressful, usually argues balls and strikes with the tv on the rare occasion she actually watches it and kind of decided I should marry Russell Martin after being impressed with him in the Stephen Brunt narrated documentary about him that played on the Jumbotron pre-game. (Courage, mon brave.)

I had a perfect view of the just missed grand slam by Dioner Navarro from Section 231.

“I knew when I hit it, it was just a matter of being fair or foul,” Navarro said. “It kind of hooked at the last second. But it’s part of this stupid-ass game.”

Ending an inning without scoring when the bases were loaded and no one was out was frustrating and they really lost the game there, even though a Loup hit by pitch was the decision.

“It’s interesting that a hit-by-pitch played into the winning run scoring,” O’Day observed.

Oh, shut up.

My in-game reactions:

Sunday was an amazing display of what happens when stupendous hitting meets terrible, terrible pitching. 

Brett Cecil, who had some issues with walks, suspects he might be tipping his pitches.

“I’ll have to back and see if I’m still doing it,” he said. “I thought I made some pretty good pitches, especially to Hardy. He just spit on them. They weren’t even offering at them. I thought that was kind of bizarre.”

I just really hate the Orioles.




My connection with my dad (who actually inadvertedly named this blog) and baseball is something that I think is a reality for lots of people. Both positively and negatively.

R.A. Dickey pitched a gem on Thursday vs his former club, two days after his dad died. Reading Dickey's book (which I fully recommend), I remember being struck by the things R.A. said about his dad:

“I want to believe my dad is proud of me and that he loves me, but it’s rarely spoken. I want him to tell me. I want him to hug me. It’s not that I’m angry with him so much as I miss him. I want it to be the way it used to be. I want him to be the most important man in my life.”

Brendan Kennedy, John Lott and Andrew Stoeten all wrote about this. Go read. It's all good stuff.


That is pretty amazing. I have always accepted the fact that men, particularly pro athletes, are physically stronger than women and having them compete head to head isn’t necessarily the greatest test at how talented a woman is at a particular sport.

I have often argued that women, if they can’t compete as players, should be encouraged to participate in the league in other ways. I see no reason why a woman couldn’t be an umpire, a scout or the general manager of a big league club. More female sports writers (in mainstream and new media) should be encouraged. And I would say that Mo'ne Davis is one of the best young ambassadors the game has right now. But if Michelle Mayeux wants to do this, I say have at it.

Until very recently, I didn't even know that grown women played baseball in leagues. Alexis Brudnicki wrote in May about the women's baseball team Canada is fielding for the Pan Am Games. 

“People can expect great baseball,” veteran third baseman Ashley Stephenson said. “The game is the same. That’s the one thing we want to make sure people know, that the game is the same. We play seven innings, so that’s the only difference.
“The locker room banter is the same, the dugout chatter is the same. We might not hit as many balls over the fence, although we have a couple girls on our team who could probably do that, but we understand the technical side of ball, we play a lot of small ball, we have to find ways to manufacture runs, defence is critically important, you can’t give up extra bases."
“I really hope people understand that we know the game, we understand the intricacies of the game; that’s what makes baseball a really fun game. You have to be a smart ballplayer – not only an athlete, but a smart athlete. People will see that when they come and watch. They might be pleasantly surprised.”

As often occurs when it becomes clear a female human is going to look at, approach or participate in something dominated by male humans, petulant manbabies have issues.



Hold up. The NFL has been feminized? Why? Because they suspended a player for beating up his wife? What?
Lane Adams, outfielder for the Kansas Royals, totally became my favourite Royal for a series of tweets about the Confederate flag and South Carolina.




That kid is my Royals All Star.

Finally, perhaps throwing a wrench in the works for the possible plan for new commish Rob Manfred to reinstate Pete Rose (possibly before the All Star Game in Cincinnati) is the fact that old notebooks were released revealing that Rose bet on baseball as a player. It was widely known that Rose bet on baseball as a manager, but betting as a player is  new information. Given the timing of this release of information, I suspect Pete Rose has some enemies. Including my dad. Who really dislikes him, dating back to before all the betting stuff. I think trying to kill a guy to win an exhibition game soured my dad on the whole Pete Rose thing.