The Changeup: Baseball Junk for October 27, 2018
NB- it’s been way more than a week.
New Manager Charlie Montoyo
Minor league managerial success. (633 wins as manager of AAA Durham Bulls.)
Big league experience.Coached for the Rays, a team that won 90 games in 2018 without any big names for the whole year.
Played in Canada for the Montreal Expos. Friends with Vlad Sr. from their days in Expos minor league system.
Latino and speaks Spanish.
Possessed a quality 1980s ‘stache.
Ok, Charlie, I’ll give you a shot. But if you bring any of that “opener” nonsense to the Blue Jays, we’re going to have a problem.
Alex Cora, who is currently managing the Red Sox in the World Series his first year as manager, was complementary to Montoyo and to the Blue Jays for the hire.
“I don’t put limits, I’m proud of them. I’m proud of them. It’s awesome and I’m glad that people saw Charlie as capable.
I’ve been saying it for five or six years: This is not about minorities. It’s not about him being Latino or Puerto Rican. Charlie Montoyo is a great baseball man and he’s been coaching and managing for a lot of years. He’s in the Hall of Fame of triple A.”
On paper, this looks like a good hire. But good on paper doesn’t always translate, so I guess time will tell.
World Series
Three games into the 2018 World Series, and the Red Sox look more or less like a team that won 108 regular season games- meaning really talented, and also the kind of lucky that comes from being really talented.
It took 18 innings, but the Dodgers finally slowed down the juggernaut with a walk-off homer by Max Muncy.
“In what sort of crazy dream do you go from being unemployed at the end of spring training to hitting a walk-off home run in the World Series?’’ a reporter asked before adding, “That never happens.”
“It happens in this dream right now, this exact one,’’ said Muncy. “No, it's kind of like you said, it's been a dream. This whole year has been a surreal experience that it's hard to put into words.
These calls are great. Pretty sure Rodger Brulotte has the French call (6:04). They should really list who is making what call, but it sure sounds like Brulotte.
Also:
Sayonara Home Run!
Stro Show at Holt Renfrew
Marcus Stroman had an event to celebrate the opening of his HDMH pop-up shop in Holt Renfrew in Mississauga.
Chris Archer hosted and asked Stroman some questions about the brand, what HDMH means, about fashion and social media.
About 150 people were there, which is a good sized crowd. Busy, but not insane.
I had the opportunity to briefly talk to Archer, who is charming as all heck. I told him I have defended his hair on the Internet in the past and will do so again. Archer did seem to appreciate it or perhaps he was just indulging me.
I must say, his current ode to Basquiat is glorious.
I don’t know who DJ’d this event, but she was amazing. I want her to DJ my life.
Bautista didn’t mingle in the crowd like Archer. I was a little disappointed but I suspected it was because he didn’t want to take any attention away from Stroman.
Bautista did join Stroman Friday night to see the undefeated Raptors.