May 1st was my second ‘baseballiversary,’ or more comprehensibly, the second anniversary of the day I inexplicably sat down and started watching this strange and beautiful game. It seems like a weird thing to commemorate, but I’ve realized that’s partially because nobody really knows when they started watching a sport; It’s just something that’s always there. I guess if I wanted to I could theoretically come up with the date I started watching hockey—if my parents told me the date they brought me home from the hospital, and I found the date of the Calgary Flames’ first game after that. You know?
So it’s fascinating to be able to pinpoint the exact date and time and say “This is where it started.” For me, it started with the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium, Litsch vs Nova, a 5-2 loss for the visitors but nevertheless remarkably thrilling for someone who had no idea what was going on. The first Blue Jays home run I ever saw was off the bat of Adam Lind. So it goes.
This is especially interesting to me this month, because merely days before that odd milestone I visited Yankee Stadium for the first time—to see the Blue Jays. The Jays lost that one, too; still, the coincidence of the date was not lost on me.
Boy, we needed that.
I was faced with the world’s most wonderful scoring conundrum in the first inning when the Blue Jays sent eleven batters to the plate against floundering Barry Zito, scoring six runs—Melky Cabrera and Jose Bautista had two at-bats each in the frame, which had me frantically scrambling to figure out what to do. No one at the ballpark could quite believe what was happening. Six! Runs! In the first! (Yelling!)
In the end I used the boxes in the second inning—sure feels nice to be on the happy side of a card like this for once.
When Zito finally got Bautista to line out to Sandoval for the third out of the inning, the Rogers Centre was on their feet applauding the team’s ridiculous first (or perhaps standing for Zito?), something I don’t think I’ve ever seen. In the end, the Blue Jays scored ten runs for a second game in a row but without hitting a single home run, which is easily the weirdest part of this whole wild night. Ten runs on eighteen hits, all in the ballpark!
Maybe things are getting better.
Dickey: 6.0 IP 6H 2ER 2BB 10K!
Zito: 5.2 IP 12H 8R/5ER 2BB 2K
Dickey, might I add, got Buster Posey to strike out swinging twice.
And first star Melky Cabrera went 4 for 5 with a double, scoring twice and reaching base the fifth time on an error by Pablo Sandoval. Can he get a ring every day?
Guys, I forgot what winning decisively was like and the Blue Jays have done it twice in a row against teams doing much better than they are. This is actually fun. I haven’t been so relaxed at a Blue Jays game in ages.
Tomorrow, Ramon Ortiz vs Ryan Vogelsong … a duel for the ages.
Did not edit this much. Sorry for the errant tooltips and so on.
This is (a sample of) Twitter when Patrice Bergeron scored the tying goal to force overtime in Game 7 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Hockey is crazy.
Rays 5, Blue Jays 4 (10)
April.
Decent view. (at Yankee Stadium)
Double Switching is a year old!
(Well, a year and a few days—true to form, I forgot to write a post on the actual day. Of course.)
I started writing here on April 19th, 2012 on a total whim, after having watched baseball for just shy of a year. It’s been fun collecting all my longer baseball thoughts in one place, supplemented by Twitter, and I’m pretty happy you have stuck around to read them. So thank you.
Here’s some of my favourites from the past twelve months:
Eight Thousand And Twenty, about the Mets’ first no-hitter ever. (June 1)
Writing About Writing About Baseball, thoughts about playing catch-up. (August 12)
Rest in Peace, for the fan who passed away after a heart attack at the Rogers Centre. (August 16)
This game which matters least matters most, on the last day of the Jays’ season. (October 3)
Bandwagon in the Ditch, on not judging new fans. (April 8)
On top of those, there’s also While the Men Watch: Sports Sexism At Its Worst about the CBC’s Hockey Night alternative broadcast, and a guest post for Infield Fly called Baseball Is Boring, Baseball Is Not Boring.
Baseball’s the best! And so are you. Thanks for being the best. This is a lot of fun.
- A fan running onto the field and sliding (rather well) into second base.
- Another fan running onto the field and immediately getting tackled.
- Paper airplanes flying down from the stands to land on the field.
- R.A. Dickey surrendering seven earned runs, eight total.
- Dave Bush surrendering four home runs.
- Jon Lester pitching seven shutout innings.
- A Blue Jay baserunner advancing past second base.
It was a rough day at the yard. R.A. Dickey had none of his usual mystifying stuff, instead allowing five earned runs before the first Red Sox out. (I can imagine some jovial Jays fans walked in with their beers in the middle of the first inning, laughed at the scoreboard error, and then realized with horror what was actually happening.) Dickey ended up lasting 4.2 innings, surrendering eight runs (seven earned) on 10 hits and a pair of walks. He struck out five. Lester, on the other hand, gave up only five hits while striking out six, and neither he nor Clayton Mortensen gave up a run. The Blue Jays didn’t put up much of a fight in trying to bail out their starter, and the crowd started chanting “Go Leafs Go” in late innings … it was a mess.
Home.
Yu Darvish loses his perfect game bid with two outs in the ninth. Twitter explodes.
