Saturday, August 1:
It's hard to believe when the Toronto Blue Jays have done in a matter of days. A perceived defensive weakness at shortstop? Enter Troy Tulowitzki. An ace short in the rotation? Hello, David Price. A lack of speed in the line-up and a hole in left filed? Say hi to Ben Revere. A shutdown righthander in the bullpen? Introducing Mark Lowe. The cost of acquiring these trade deadline studs was steep but the Jays are all in, in regards to making the playoffs. A wild-card berth may not seem like much, as you're only guaranteed one playoff game, but don't forget that last year's pennent winners were both wild-card teams. Like, the Stanley Cup playoffs, just getting in is the goal.
Sunday, August 2:
On the other side of the trade deadline coin are the Detroit Tigers. Years of doing what the Blue Jays did -- "going for it" with deadline deals in an effort to reach and win the World Series -- left the farm system barren. With a playoff spot little more than a pipe dream, it was time to sell off some assets and rebuild. Whether the talent coming back is worthy remains to be seen but if general manager Dave Dombrowski has proven one thing over the years, it's that he's an astute judge of baseball talent. I have no problem with the Tigers' self-proclaimed "reboot."
Wednesday, August 5:
OK, I did not see Dave Dombrowski’s dismissal coming. If he was going to be cashiered, why did the Detroit Tigers allow him to wheel and deal last week as sellers before the trade deadline? Having said that, it sounded as if he received top quality in return, regarding the prospects that went to Motown. It seems Dombrowski had two failings with the Tigers. He never built a decent bullpen and he never won the World Series, and yes, those two things go hand-in-hand. But there will be no shortage of suitors for his talents. And it would be a gas if he replaces Paul Beeston as president of the Toronto Blue Jays, where he will have David Price in his stable once again, and will try hard to convince him to be more than a two-month rental.
Friday, August 7:
With the Toronto Blue Jays deadline deals and the fact they've won eight of nine, more than a few people have asked me if it all reminds me of 1992 and 1993, the Jays' World Series title years, teams I'm familiar with having covered their championship runs for Broadcast News. Obviously yes, but it actually reminds me more of 1985, when the Jays made the playoffs for the first time. There had been mild pennant races for the Jays the previous two years but the 1983 run died with a painful August series in Baltimore. A year later, no one caught the Detroit Tigers after their 35-and-5 start. So in 1985, the Jays played meaningful September baseball for the first time ever. I was in Toronto then, too, covering the team for local radio, and my assignment for our affiliated news agency from Labour Day was to cover the Jays, home and away. That included a mid-September four-game series in New York against the challenging Yankees. It was the series that included the "Mary O'Dowd" O Canada butchery and the George Steinbrenner "Mr. May" tag on then-Yankee Dave Winfield when the Jays took three of four. Now, it's the Jays doing the chasing of the Yanks as they open a key weekend series tonight in the Bronx. It's still early for comparisons but if I had to make one, I'd say this season reminds me most of '85, when a true Toronto pennant race was brand new to a generation. Remember, by 1992, the Jays had already gone to the playoffs three times without success and were trying to shed the label of underachievers. This feels different. At least it does today, acknowledging that there still is plenty of baseball left on the calendar.
Saturday, August 8:
It got a bit cool after sundown but Memorial Park was rocking here last night for Stouffville's weekend ribfest. Bands, beer, happy people and some true southern ribs, with four American firms vying for trophies. We joined the closest line for Uncle Sam's ribs from Albuquerque. Mighty fine! And the good weekend eats will continue tonight when we join our friends Michelle and Roy for her birthday dinner.
A long way to go but, unlike a year ago, a good start for Manchester United to the regular season. A 1-0 win over Tottenham was nervy but successful with all three points secured.
Sunday, August 9:
A tale of two cities, or at least, two franchises. The Toronto Blue Jays are on a tremendous tear and go for a sweep of the Yankees today in the Bronx. Win or lose, they've already won the weekend series and if they do the same to New York at home next weekend, then Toronto will be insane with excitement, if it isn't already. Friday night in Detroit, shortstop Jose Iglesias gave up on a ground ball that scooted into the outfield, and that runner eventually came around to score. That was likely the conversation in the dugout when Iglesias and catcher James McCann engaged in a shoving match. It's been a frustrating season in Detroit but manager Brad Ausmus has to take care that he doesn't lose the clubhouse. Blue Jays' skipper John Gibbons has no such worries.
It's been a few years since I saw a ballgme at Milwaukee's Miller Park, so I'm adding Saturday night's game against the Phillies to next weekend's Chicago trip.
Tuesday, August 11:
I kept wondering why there was no buzz about the Chicago White Sox honouring Minnie Minoso in a throwback game Sunday against the crosstown Cubs. The Northsiders did the same last month for Ernie Banks, a game I attended. And I have a ticket for Sunday's game at U.S. Cellular Field. Simple explanation. The throwback game is Friday afternoon. Thankfully, I found out about it in time to snare a ducat for that game, too. It will be a long drive west after a late shift Thursday night, but isn't what they call seizing the day, or something? So, two Cubs-White Sox games sandwiched around a Phillies-Brewers tilt Saturday night.
Thursday, August 13:
Say hello to your first place Blue Jays, Toronto. That's 10 in a row, to go with an 11-game winning streak earlier in the season. I just shake my head at how well this team is playing right now. On July 28th -- that's just two weeks and two days ago -- the Blue Jays were eight full games behind the Yankees. Now they lead New York by half-a-game. Astonishing. But here's the caution: It's only mid-August. Just as teams can go on great runs, the best of teams hit the skids from time to time. The 1927 Yankees lost four in a row at one point of the season (admittedly in mid-August when they were up by 15 games). In May of 1961, those Bronx Bomber champs also lost four straight and nine of 12. So while first place looks great right now, there is still a lot of baseball to be played.
And I will see some of it in Chicago and Milwaukee over the weekend, meaning I'll miss the madness in Toronto when the Yanks come to town. That's OK. Much as I love the team, I still hate the ballpark. My Rogers Centre visits are few and far between.
Saturday, August 15:
CHICAGO -- I had forgotten how powerful midwest thunderstorms are. A dandy of a blaster came rolling through yesterday evening, and lit up the night sky as I was driving to a restaurant for dinner. I was in semi-awe but this is old hat for locals, who just yawned through it.
I haven't seen a Mets-Yankees game so I don't know the dynamic of the Big Apple rivalry but here in Chicago, it's fun. There were Cubs fans a-plenty at The Cell yesterday for the latest installment of the Crosstown Series, as there were White Sox fans in attendance at Wrigley five weeks ago when I was there. And while they yelled at one another, it was always with a smiling face, with good-natured banter being tossed back and forth. Fun to watch. As an out-of-town observer, I did the best thing I could to appear to remain neutral -- I wore a Bears jersey.
They did the throwback thing again yesterday, this time to honour the late Minnie Minoso of the White Sox. So all Sox players wore number 9. And both teams sported 1959 uniforms. A gorgeous sight!
Sunday, August 16:
MILWAUKEE -- I don't know what it is about me and Wisconsin, other than to say that it agrees with me. It even provides perfect weather, every time I visit. I've been here maybe a dozen times and I've never seen a raindrop. Yesterday on the drive up from Chicago, it was spitting rain until I got to the state line -- and I mean, right at it. The second I crossed, the rain stopped and 10 minutes later, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it stayed perfectly clear into a marvelous evening for a ball game.
I love landmarks and are few finer than the Allen-Bradley building in south Milwaukee. That's the one with the huge, four-sided clock that's especially striking at night when you're driving by on I-94. Seeing it is always one of my favourite things about visiting this delightful city.
Tuesday, August 18:
It wasn't the wisest move in my life, forgetting to bring a cap on my midwest road trip. The heat wave was one thing, the brilliant sunshine, quite another. I was loathe to spend $30 on a cap at the ballpark, so I went lidless for the three games. All that gave me was a pretty solid sunburn on my face and shaved head. It was only a day's worth of grief as the red has already started to turn brown but it was kinda dumb nonetheless.
Why on earth would Toronto's powers-that-be extend the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games' HOV lanes into Monday when everything had wrapped by by the weekend? Unless it was the usual reason, to screw up drivers.
Wednesday, August 19:
One of the joys of travelling on baseball road trips is listening to baseball games on radio. Nothing makes the miles fly by faster. And having satellite radio is a must, as you can access the broadcasts of all home games going on at any given time. It was wonderful hearing Jerry, Joe and Mike bringing in the Blue Jays as clear as a bell whilst driving in the streets of Chicago and Milwaukee. Coming home Sunday night, I had the choice of the ESPN radio broadcast or Denny Matthews on Royals radio for the Angels-Kansas City game. No contest, especially since Dan Shulman is now doing ESPN TV. Matthews is a hall-of-famer with a dry wit. When partner Steve Stewart praised him on his longevity (he starting doing Royals games when the franchise was born in 1969), Matthews quipped, "Starting to get the hang of it, too!" Actually, he's been one of the best in the biz for a very long time.
Vin Scully had a cold, so he only worked the TV side of the Dodgers' weekend broadcasts against Cincinnati (less words are needed with TV providing the picture -- many play-by-play announcers never get the hang of that). But the radio side without Scully is just fine, in the hands of Charley Steiner and Rick Monday. On Friday, Steiner bemoaned the lack of production from the players Los Angeles picked up at the trade deadline by saying, "not a boffo beginning." How many baseball announcers use "boffo?" Only the superb Steiner. And Saturday, he suggested the free-falling Washington Nationals were doing their "Thelma and Louise act." Makes me want to plan all future road trips around Dodger home games.
Friday, August 21:
It was so nice this week to have the restrictions on the area highways lifted now that the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games are over. But the war may not be over. There are rumblings that the Ontario government may want to re-impose the restrictions on a full-time basis, the difference being that they will be HOT lanes as opposed to HOV lanes. Drivers without the required number of passengers will be able to pay to drive in the HOT lanes, should they desire. All of which means a tax on a road already bought and paid for with taxes. To force such a plan on the people of this region without a substantial improvement in current transportation infrastructure is irresponsible. I would actually be in the favour of it -- grudgingly -- if the cash collected went to, and only to, Toronto transportation projects. But with this corrupt provincial government in control, I have zero confidence that will happen. The money will just go to pay off the costs of the terrible decisions Queens Park has made over the past decade. If that worst case scenario (for me) comes into being, the day the HOT lanes are implemented is the day I retire. And I will refuse to willingly drive into Toronto for any reason whatsoever from that day forward.
Tuesday, August 25:
It is obviously as trite a cliche as exists in the sport to suggest that auto racers die doing what they love. Of course they love it, there can be no other reason for strapping themselves into a four-wheeled rocket and sling-shooting themselves around a racetrack at breakneck speeds. And I've never once met a racer who felt he was going to meet his maker whilst on the track. So, it's hard -- again -- to hear of the death of another, Britain's Justin Wilson, who was critically injured in Sunday's IndyCar race at Pocono, and never woke up. It was the unluckiest of incidents -- debris from a car that crashed up the track, flying into Wilson's helmet at the exact second he happened to zoom by. The sport's safety-wringers are already out demanding canopies be placed around the cockpit of open wheel racing machines. Maybe. But sometimes the need to have a driver escape his car in immediate fashion makes that a questionable idea. In fairness, with the move decades ago to implement fuel cells and to move away from gasoline to, first methanol and then ethanol, the threat of fire in the cockpit is hugely diminished. So a canopy is a question that needs to be considered. With one unpleasant truth. Racers race. And no matter how much safer the sport is -- and thank God it's much, much safer than it was half a century ago when you could almost count on at least one fatality somewhere every weekend -- the unpleasant truth is that Justin Wilson will not be the last driver fatality in motor sports. Not by a long shot.
Thursday, August 27:
Maybe the miserable jerk who killed nine innocent African Americans in June succeeded in spreading hate after all. Because a useless, waste of flesh decided that moment was the flashpoint for his anger yesterday. That was the message he sent to ABC News as the reason behind blowing away a female TV reporter and a cameraman in Virginia -- both former colleagues -- while they were doing a live report on the morning news. Thankfully, the filth decided to off himself when police arrived. He later died in hospital. I doubt it, but I hope there were at least a few moments of agonizing, searing pain before his body shut down.
Friday, August 28:
I don't understand the newspaper business anymore. It's never been my media calling but I know so many outstanding print journalists that I like to think I have a rudimentary knowledge of what goes on -- especially since our newsroom at The Canadian Press is set up like a newspaper's, not a radio or T-V newsroom. So I was stunned when the Toronto Star treated the Virginia shootings this way: A column from the always readable Rosie DiManno. And that was it. No main story. No sidebars. No pictures. Nothing on the front page. I was stunned at the omission. And I'm not the only one. Still, I suppose it was better than despicable New York Daily News, which decided to lather its front cover with three stills from the shooter's own camera, pictures of the shots from the gun and his targets. Sensational, over-the-top and so very, very wrong. On social media the other night, someone defended the cover, saying it was exactly what was needed to shock America into realizing it has a serious problem with guns. I'm not buying it. If the shock of the slaughter of 20 children and six school staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School 11 days before Christmas three years ago didn't spur action, pictures on a tabloid newspaper won't either.
Sunday, August 30:
Some more thoughts on canopies for open wheel race cars. I'm not against it for the sake of tradition. I'm not against it, period. But while the knee-jerk reaction is that a canopy may have saved the life of Justin Wilson last week at Pocono, it's something that has to be carefully considered. First of all, what will it do to the heat level in the cockpit? At least stock cars have open windows. On a blazing hot track, a closed IndyCar cockpit could provide a serious danger to drivers. And what will a canopy be made of? Obviously, something that wouldn't shatter or create a spider-web of cracks at the front. Few things could be worse than virtually blinding a driver going 230 miles-per-hour down the main straightaway at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You may argue that there's no problem in this regard with NASCAR, but stock cars don't disintegrate in a crash the way IndyCars do, a safety feature that dissipates the energy away from the driver. Debris is strewn everywhere, and last week a flying nose cone ended Wilson's life. Again, I'm not against canopies in open wheel racing machines but a lot of thought has to go into the idea in the off-season to make sure they get it right.
Are the Toronto Blue Jays slump-proof? I've never seen a baseball team that's not but this collection appears to be something special. I covered the Jays in their glory years from 1985 through 1993 but I've never seen anything like this team. And I'm glad to say I'll see them again live tomorrow night against Cleveland.
Monday, August 31:
With our vacation in mid-July instead of mid-August, I never got a chance to head north to Lake Simcoe for a day of swimming in the middle of a heat wave. It's been something of a mid-summer tradition for me for a few years now. But all is not lost. With a fresh heat wave arriving today and a Monday off, I believe I'll head north this afternoon before the ball game in Toronto tonight. Should be a dandy pitching duel this evening -- David Price for the Blue Jays, who has never lost a game in his career at Rogers Centre, versus Danny Salazar of the Cleveland Indians, who arrive on a five-game winning streak.
