May 2013
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Blue Jays 10, Giants 6
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...
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April 2013
6 posts
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Happy blogday to me.
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...
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Bandwagon in the Ditch
Things seen yesterday at the Rogers Centre:
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...
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March 2013
1 post
February 2013
4 posts
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On the Money: Blue Jays offseason chat →
I got to go on the It’s About the Money radio show/podcast last night to talk about the Blue Jays’ offseason and the expectations and excitement brewing for 2013. I feel pretty good about it.
I come in around 19 minutes, but listen through, because Brien and Stacey do a great job on this thing. I’m thrilled they had me.
Click above or here to listen.
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“I just let the umpires call the balls and I take care of the strikes.”
– Hank Aaron (via mightyflynn)
January 2013
2 posts
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Lockout-Shortened Season Begins Saturday, Chaos To... →
I write some things about the Calgary Flames for Book of Loob now, and this is my first post! Includes requisite Flames grumpiness, lots of exclamation points, SVEN, Martin Gelinas, and some digs at most teams in the Northwest division. Have at it!
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Old friends, new loves.
When I moved to Toronto in the fall of 2006, I was 17 years old. I’d grown up in suburban Calgary, independent to some degree but far enough away from things that my parents would often have to drive me to the C-Train station. Calgary was familiar; I spent most of my time doing the same things in the same neighbourhoods, and I never really thought anything of it.
Toronto was uncharted...
December 2012
2 posts
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Baseball Is Magic: Elimination Game →
My friend Greg Wisniewski asked if I’d contribute to his 2012 wrap-up series over at Baseball is Magic. I wrote a little piece about Barry Zito’s insane performance in Game 5 of the NLCS. It’s up now and you can go read it! Hooray.
In case you are interested, here’s the box/play-by-play of NLCS Game 5, and of Zito’s other postseason appearance, NLDS Game 4.
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Anthopoulypse Now
I ripped that title off from Matt English, who is much funnier than I am. And he made this:
A selection of Blue Jays transactions over the past month:
October 21: Manager John Farrell released from contract, traded to Boston with David Carpenter for SS Mike Aviles.
November 3: Mike Aviles & Yan Gomes traded to Cleveland for RHP Esmil Rogers.
November 8: Free agent Maicer Izturis...
November 2012
2 posts
A note
In case you’re into that kind of thing, I have a personal tumblr now, which you can check out at http://blog.ruhee.ca.
Come hang out.
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October 2012
10 posts
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“Entering Game 4, only one postseason game in the previous 15 days had...”
– Thomas Boswell, Washington Post (via sheeshapie)
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Game Seven
Virtually every sports fan has a story of a Game 7 that broke their hearts.
At least, those sports fans who enjoy games incorporating a best-of-seven round somewhere — baseball, hockey, basketball … There’s Game 5 do-or-die contests in baseball too, in the Division Series, but “Game 5” doesn’t quite come with the same gravitas. Game 7 is the ultimate. Six...
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The improbable
It’s the bottom of the ninth at Great American Ball Park. With one out, Joey Votto is at second base, Ryan Ludwick at first. The score is 6-4 in favour of San Francisco, Zack Cozart having crossed the plate moments before to stoke the fires of Cincinnati’s last hopes.
Jay Bruce, representing the winning run, steps up to the plate.
This game shouldn’t be happening, really. The...
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Twitter the best
The Yankees trail 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth. Alex Rodriguez gets pinch-hit for by Raul Ibanez.
And …
I love baseball and I hate it. 2-2 heading to the tenth. Go Baltimore.
EDIT: Raul Ibanez II, Electric Boogaloo
Yankees 3 - Orioles 2 (12). Baseball, man.
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Goodbye, 2012 Blue Jays. It’s over, and...
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This game which matters least matters most.
The Blue Jays won again last night.
“Again” isn’t a word we get to use in that sentence much these days—winning hasn’t been much of a trend here since July, when the injuries really caught up with us and stomped on the last bits of hope. But they won twice in a row against the visiting Twins, both a 4-3 scoreline, one in extras and one in nine. Not very many people...
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“While playoff baseball is fun, there is always something missing from the game...”
– Old Time Family Baseball
September 2012
10 posts
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Game 156: A Sigh of Relief
(photo: ESPN)
Last night was like a breath of fresh air in Blue Jays land—a game where virtually everything went the way we daydreamed it. With Brandon Morrow at the helm, the Jays shut out the visiting Yankees, adding to the chaos in the AL East and making up for the two games they took from Baltimore (why yes, I am firmly on the Orioles-for-the-division bandwagon).
Winning at home...
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BREAKING: Edwin Encarnacion Is Awesome
(Photo: james_in_to)
Yesterday we learned of the possibility that Yunel Escobar might not be very awesome. I’m staying out of this on this blog, but you can read some great things on the above linked post as well as here, here, and here.
Instead of throwing my own piece into the fray (mine would assuredly be less polished and significantly less timely, now), I am going to talk about...
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Bird's eye view of Blue Jays from comfort of... →
The excellent Brendan Kennedy graciously included me in a Toronto Star article about the Renaissance Hotel, which is located right inside the Rogers Centre and offers a view of the stadium. You may also recognize Andrew Stoeten of The Score’s DJF.
Click the link above or here to read! If you prefer paper, it’s on the front page(!) of today’s edition, and continues on A20.
And...
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“A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.”
– Earl Wilson (via baseball-heaven)
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The weird paralysis of rooting for a good team
Today we have a guest post by my good friend Gareth Simpson, who’s been watching baseball much longer than I have, and tells us why it’s sometimes more difficult to root for a great team than a bad one.
“I’m not quite sure why I like sports.” This is something I actually thought the other day. I was at a baseball game, appropriately enough, and the team I was rooting for was winning....
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Winning When There Is Nothing Left To Win
Last week, the Toronto Blue Jays won their first series in a month against the New York Yankees.
Before that win, the last series the Blue Jays took was July 27-29 at home against Detroit. Since then, the Jays have been swept by the Mariners, Rays, and Tigers, and lost two games to the Orioles (the third was rained out). They have dropped series to the Yankees, White Sox, and Rangers, and split...
August 2012
10 posts
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(I Wanna Be) On A Boat
Earlier last night I tweeted about how I really wanted to go to San Francisco to watch a game ON A BOAT, because you can do that — out in McCovey Cove during games, there are always people on boats waiting for home run balls.
Then my sister, who you should follow on Twitter immediately, decided to write parody lyrics despite a minimal knowledge of baseball. I got a bunch of hilarious...
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Blue Jays Therapy
The Toronto Blue Jays are fourteen games under .500. Just sit back and let that sink in for a second … fourteen. That’s a record of 56-70, tied with Kansas City (who are currently still battling the Red Sox in the 12th inning) for third worst in the American League, and works out to a winning percentage of .444.
It hasn’t been pretty.
I’m getting tired of all this...
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Humble Brag: The Four-Month-iversary
Double Switching is four months old today.
It truly feels like it’s been exponentially longer than that. It’s hard to believe that so many people have taken an interest in things I dump on the internet, both here and on Twitter, in such a short time. I’ve learned a great deal from all of you: thanks for reading, commenting, engaging in discussion. You are making this a lot of...
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Rest in peace.
Tonight at the Rogers Centre, during the White Sox/Blue Jays game, a fan had a heart attack in the stands in left field. Kevin Youkilis noticed another fan performing CPR and alerted others; stadium paramedics arrived and did CPR in the stands and on the field. They continued to perform chest compressions as the man was wheeled off on a stretcher.
Reports are now circulating that the man has...
Anonymous asked: What spurred you to start watching baseball?
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Writing About Writing About Baseball
This is kind of a third-hand commentary, but some time ago, Mighty Flynn posted some comments on something that was said on the Baseball Prospectus podcast Up and In. Boiled down, it was this:
If your baseball knowledge comes exclusively from reading books and blogs and listening to podcasts—even if you read and listen to all of them—you still don’t know much.
[…] To paraphrase Goldstein...
