With the Blue Jays in New York to take on the Yankees this weekend, you’d expect the players to take every opportunity to enjoy the sights, especially when it’s 17 degrees and sunny outside. Unless you’re J.P. Arencibia.
For some reason, the Blue Jays catcher instead decided to stay indoors, after heading over to the MLB Fan Cave on 4th Street and Broadway. I suppose you have to throw the ‘cave dwellers’ a bone and give them some outside human contact every now and then, especially when they have to watch every.single. baseball game during the season.
One cave dweller who would have been particularly thrilled to see Arencibia was April Whitzman, who hails from Toronto and is a big Blue Jays fan:
While he was there, Arencibia also took the opportunity to show his musical talents on the guitar:
I’d say a bit of “the blues” is in order for Arencibia and his teammates at the moment. And not because it’s the colour they wear.
Another close loss for the Blue Jays last night and, more crucially, it was to a divisonal opponent. The 4-3 defeat to the Baltimore Orioles means the Jays are still looking up at the rest of the AL East.
Amongst all the early season issues, it doesn’t help that Jose Reyes is currently sidelined with an ankle injury. However, while the shortstop is not expected to return until the All-Star break, the following tweet should at least offer some encouragement to Blue Jays fans. (If they have time to take a break from their unruly behaviour at the Rogers Centre of course):
I didn’t realise the road to recovery involved lying around, holding balls and looking up to the ceiling. If anything, it reminds me more of another scenario that often involves grinding it out. (I’m sure Blue Jays can relate to this, given that they must feel like they’re currently being screwed for their hard-earner money. And not in a good way.)
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the behaviour of Blue Jays fans this season. Certainly, the mainstream media has also been all over this lately, causing embarrassment for the organisation.
Now former Blue Jays catcher Gregg Zaun has entered the discussion, after contributing to a Toronto Star article about the unruly behaviour of fans. Unfortuately, the Sportsnet Analyst felt the backlash on Twitter.
Here’s a selection of some of the comments, together with Zaun’s responses:
@cbarks9 feel better now that you got to take a shot at me?
Now I’ll readily admit Zaun’s one of my favourite sports media personalities, but I still feel objective enough to say I found the reaction to his comments uncalled for. Unfortunately, with social media tools like Twitter around, we now have an avenue for people, some of whom should not be allowed out in public, to spew their hatred and irrational thoughts.
Having said that, I’m confident Zaun is smart enough (and big enough) to take care of himself. In fact, I’ll leave the final word to him:
i condemn people for being too drunk and creating a dangerous situation at RC and get accused of hating on Torontonians, as if I could
I appreciate the Blue Jays Brett Lawrie is perceived as a polarising figure by players and fans alike. However, I’m personally glad to see him back in the starting lineup.
And I’m sure the majority of Blue Jays fans feelt the same way after Lawrie played a key part in yesterday’s victory against the Yankees at the Rogers Centre. The third baseman contributed two RBIs, as the Blue Jays came from 4-2 down to win 8-4.
Fortunately, it wasn’t only Lawrie bringing his A-game yesterday, as his girlfriend, Paige Brendel, got dressed up for a night out:
You may well have heard of the saying ‘nothing tastes as good as victory’. However, I think we can all agree the Blue Jays have taken things a step too far:
Talk about trying to find different ways to convince Blue Jays fans to part with their hard-earned money. While designing post-modernism versions of their jerseys was a good idea, doughnuts is slightly presumptuous, especially with a 7-9 record.
Don’t Rogers realise only the Maple Leafs can get away without challenging for the playoffs in Toronto and not have their profits take a hit?! Let’s just hope the Blue Jays starting winning more regularly in the near future so we can all enjoy the sweet smell of success.
On more than one occasion, I’ve wondered out aloud if there’s any situation when the Blue Jays Jose Reyes doesn’t smile. Unfortunately, we got the answer as result of his severe ankle sprain last Friday.
Thankfully, if the following photo is anything to go by, normal service has been resumed:
Seriously, the dude is on crutches and will likely be out until the All-Star break. To top it all off, Reyes is having to go to Charlotte and yet he’s still smiling.
Let’s hope his teammates can give the fans a reason to keep smiling as well.
The road back from injury can be long, arduous and, at times, downright boring. Fortunately for the Blue Jays Brett Lawrie, he has the company of his girlfriend, as he continues his rehab.
Oh, wait a minute. Scrub that. It appears Paige Brendel is currently ‘larging it up’ in Las Vegas!
As we all know, a lot of crazy stuff goes on in Las Vegas. However, I still wasn’t expecting to see Lawrie’s girlfriend appearing to hit her friend in the face with an astronaut-shaped balloon:
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. It is Las Vegas afterall. Which might explain why the DJs’ in this particular nightclub were also dressed up as astronauts.
Judging by the look on the guy’s face, I bet he’d like to take Miss Brendel to the moon and back…….
Past met present (and hopefully the future!) yesterday, when Roberto Alomar hooked up with Brett Lawrie. Hopefully Lawrie made the most of the opportunity and picked up some valuable tips, including:
1) What it takes to become a Hall of Famer
2) How not to rush into marriage
3) Makings sure both parties sign a pre-nup if you do get married
4) How spitting at umpires is most probably not a good idea
5) And most importantly, embracing the city of Toronto
Certainly, if the Blue Jays third baseman can have even half of the success the Hall of Famer enjoyed, I think we’ll all be happy.
It’s often said that sport reflects society. If this is the case, then Toronto isn’t doing itself any favours at the moment. We’re only a week into the MLB season and Blue Jays fans are dominating social media for all the wrong reasons.
Here’s just a few examples of what you can currently find on the internet, although I feel it’s my duty to warn you the content may be deemed inappropriate to some people! (More to the point, my grandmother may be reading this.)
Some of that is pretty shocking isn’t it? And it’s crazy to think that this is all happening at a game of baseball!
So what’s going on and why is this type of behaviour apparently more prevalent at Blue Jays games compared to other sporting events in Toronto? I have a few theories if you’re willing to indulge me:
1) Baseball is the least aggressive and slowest moving team sport you can watch in Toronto at a professional level. Translation: It can get boring sometimes. And the Blue Jays poor start to the season doesn’t help.
Now combine this with today’s ADD generation and you’re pretty much asking for trouble. The kids’ are basically resorting to getting drunk and entertaining themselves.
2) The Blue Jays are so far averaging attendances of over 37,500 at the Rogers Centre. The Argonauts could only dream of having that many fans turn up for every game, while the ACC, BMO Field and Ricoh Coliseum have smaller capacities.
In other words, the more people you have crammed into one place, the higher the likelihood of having morons in the crowd. Now if you have a group of them sat together or at least in the vicinty of each other, then you’ve really got a situation on your hands.
3) Hopefully you’ll appreciate the irony of this last theory, but another reason this type of behaviour is more likely to happen at a Blue Jays game is money. In essence, sport is again reflecting society.
Everyone may (quite rightly) complain about how ridiculously expensive it is to go to a Leafs game in comparison, but at least you’re less likely to see troublesome incidents. While you can’t entirely stereotype people into categories, the chances are that the more money you have, the odds of loutish behaviour decrease.
Fingers crossed the Blue Jays start performing better soon to pacify the fanbase. Mind you, if they don’t improve, at least the bandwagon jumpers will soon bail out, thus leading to less incidents. I hope.
An 0-2 record, 12 runs and 15 hits given up in two starts against the Indians and Red Sox, an ERA of 8.44. Surely not even the most pessimistic of fans imagined such a disastrous start to R.A. Dickey’s career in a Blue Jay uniform.
As such, the following picture of the reigning NL Cy Young winner seems appropriate, with some people wondering if he’s gotten away with daylight robbery in respect of the contract he signed with Toronto.
Actually, while we’re on the subject of Dickey’s (and indeed the Blue Jays) less than stellar start to the season, there was an interesting call to ‘Jays Talk’ after yesterday’s 13-0 ass-kicking by the Red Sox. I think* the caller was talking about the right to boo at sporting events, something which Mike Wilner vehemently disagreed with.
* Yes, I may have had a few drinks by that point to ease the pain.
Anyway, I just thought I’d throw my two-cents worth into the mix. Now normally, I’d agree that booing doesn’t do anyone any favours. I just don’t see how it helps.
In fact, I feel Toronto sports fans are a bit too free and easy with their booing. Everyone makes mistakes at some point, whether it be in work or wherever.
However, even I will admit the fans were well within their rights to boo yesterday. The odd error here and there is one thing, but to be down 5-0 in the top of the first with no outs is unacceptable.
Overall though, it’s still way too early to start ringing the alarm bells. The bandwagon brigade should at least give it another week before bailing out.
