As the Blue Jays struggle to even get back to .500, yesterday’s 3-2 victory against the Red Sox was a welcome relief after losing three straight.  Jose Bautista celebrated the win by going out for dinner in Boston and taking the time to pose for a photo with a local couple:

You can tell you’re in Boston because there’s no airs and graces, hence why the other guy didn’t even bother to stand up for the picture.  Either that or he has that arrogant sense of self importance you normal associate with Boston sports fans.

I guess we’ll find out how justified it is today, after the Blue Jays complete their series against the Red Sox and the Leafs play the Bruins in game 6.

Photo credit: @TrishKennedyCEO

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• By paul.taylor
• May 12, 2013
• Comment

Ho hum. Another game and another loss for everyone’s favourite professional Canadian baseball team. The Blue Jays 5-3 loss to the Yankees also means they stay firmly rooted to the bottom of the AL East. (Or at least as firmly rooted as you can be with 139 games still to play.)

Despite the current erratic performances, one player you can count on to give 100% every game is Brett Lawrie, who had his first home run of the season last night.  And if the following photo is anything to go by, it appears Lawrie isn’t the only one currently laying it all out:

Now we could all sit here accusing Paige Brendel of rubbing our noses in it, but at least she’s still paying attention to what’s happening with her boyfriend.  As you can see, she knows enough that Lawrie had two hits against the Yankees.

Unless of course she’s ordering a couple of Martinis, in which case she is rubbing our noses in it. Brett! Control your woman!

Photo credit: @PaigeBrendel

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• By paul.taylor
• April 26, 2013
• Comment
• 6

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!

Avicii! #VegasBaby #Marquee twitter.com/PaigeBrendel/s…

— Paige Brendel (@PaigeBrendel) April 14, 2013

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…….

Photo credits: @PaigeBrendel

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• By paul.taylor
• April 15, 2013
• Comment

For my money, baseball is the sport that best encapsulates both the best and worst aspects of social media and 24/7 coverage.  On the positive side, playing virtually every day for six months means there is always a frequent turnover of fresh content.

However, this is counteracted by a tendancy to over-analyse every single incident, which can sometimes look ridiculous when put into the context of a 162-game season.  Case in point is the Blue Jays 0-2 start.

You can already sense (or more to the point read, listen and watch) the grumblings within certain sections of both the media and the fanbase.  Yes, no one anticipated a season-opening loss or the cold bats, but it’s not all bad.

Brandon Morrow looked good last night, coming out smoking hot (almost literally) and finishing with eight strikeouts in six solid innings.  And if this is anything to go by, Jose Bautista looks primed to have another explosive year:

For my money, the way Bautista swings that bat and reacts whenever he hits a home run is one of the most exciting sights in all of sports.  If that doesn’t get you pumped up, nothing will.

Overall, the Blue Jays will be just fine this season.  Don’t forget folks, it’s going to be a long year……………hmmm, that actually sounds bad doesn’t it?  Errr……..how about ‘it’s a marathon not a sprint’!  Yes, that works much better.

Of course, I appreciate that no matter how positive you try to be, this won’t stop some people worrying and that’s fine.  As such, here’s something to help put things in perspective:

If someone could tell me what she actually looks like, I’d appreciate it.

Photo credit: @miizzrussell

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• By paul.taylor
• April 4, 2013
• Comment

Amongst all the hype surrounding the Blue Jays, this is a big year for Jose Bautista and Brett Cecil, who are both looking to have bounce-back campaigns for different reasons.

With his left wrist appearing fully recovered, Bautista will be confident of returning to the top of the home run charts.  Meanwhile, after making the opening day roster, Cecil is just hoping to contribute from the bullpen and rediscover the form that helped him lead the Blue Jays with 15 wins in 2010.

In that respect, maybe going to last night’s Tampa Bay Lightning home game against the Buffalo Sabres was appropriate.  After firing coach Guy Boucher, the Lightning are also looking to find the form that took them to within a win of the Stanley Cup final in 2011.

Bautista and Cecil, pictured above with a couple of fans, watched on as the Lightning defeated the Sabres 2-1, hopefully providing a good omen for the duo.

Initially, I was concerned to see Bautista wearing a Miami Heat cap to the game, especially in a rival city.  However, I quickly remembered most people in Florida have jumped onto the Heat bandwagon these days anyway, including Orlando Magic fans.

Photo credit: @AdamGontier2010

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• By paul.taylor
• March 27, 2013
• Comment

Congratulations to the Dominican Republic, who beat Puerto Rico 3-0 to clinch the World Baseball Classic Championship.  In the process, they became the first team to go through the tournament undefeated.

Amongst those helping the Domincan Republic win were Blue Jays stars Edwin Encarnacion (who had two RBIs’ in the final) and Jose Reyes, seen here posing with the trophy:

Actually, talking of trophies, here’s another two I’m sure Reyes and his teammates wouldn’t mind getting their hands on, in the form of two Dominican Republic fans:

With fans like that, it’s no wonder the Dominican Republic went undefeated.

Hopefully Reyes will get his hands on another trophy come the end of October/start of November.

Photo credits: @MarcHochman & @lamelaza_7

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• By paul.taylor
• March 20, 2013
• Comment

While Canada may not have advanced from the group stage of the WBC, one team that did is the Dominican Republic.  They finished top of their group after beating Puerto Rico and decided to go out afterwards to celebrate.

Amongst those celebrating were several Blue Jays players, including Moises Sierra, whose doing well here to resist the temptation to look downwards:

Maybe Sierra should have copied Jose Reyes, who made the smart decision to wear sunglasses to avoid being caught out in the event he fancied a sneaky look:

Also out was Edwin Encarnacion, who contributed an RBI in the 4-2 win against Puerto Rico:

Let’s hope his vision isn’t as blurred as ours, otherwise he’ll be in no fit state to play in tomorrow’s second round game against Italy.

Photo credits: @j12bichara

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• By paul.taylor
• March 11, 2013
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Professional athletes WAGs’ (wives and girlfriends) are often characterised as attractive women who love the lavish lifestyle but have little interest in sports.  Fair or not, one WAG who can’t be (totally) accused of this stereotype is Brett Lawrie’s girlfriend, Paige Brendel.

Whatever the preception may be of Brendel, she actually appears to have a passion for sports. (As well as regularly watching Blue Jays game, Brendel used to play soccer.)  And to top it all off, despite being American, she’s been attending Canada’s games at the WBC.

Here’s a photo Brendel took from Canada’s opening fixture against Italy:

And here she is with her dad at yesterday’s game versus Mexico:

Lucky break for the guy behind them.  A couple of seconds earlier or later and he would have been caught in a more compromising position.

It’s a pity Brendel couldn’t have gone down onto the field.  She might have been able to stop the massive brawl between Canada and Mexico…………….Come to think of it, she may have just made matters even worse.

Today could be a big test for Brendel, when Canada faces the United States in a MASSIVE elimination game.  I wonder who she’ll be more loyal to; her country or boyfriend?

Photo credits: @PaigeBrendel

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• By paul.taylor
• March 10, 2013
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The Blue Jays murderers’ row death-march, a.k.a. the 2013 Winter Tour, continued yesterday as they arrived in Saskatoon.  Are the Blue Jays really that desperate for new fans?

I’m not saying any of the players didn’t want to go, but Drew Hutchinson apparently tried to force a relapse in his recovery from Tommy John Surgery.  And rumour has it that Ace the mascot wished he really was a bird, so he could have migrated South for the winter.  Or at least for a few days anyway.

I’m joking of course (mostly).  The local media and fans turned out in their droves to meet the team.  The day started extremely early for GM Alex Anthopoulos, as you can tell from this picture of him with Global Saskatoon’s Taylor Shire:

In the afternoon, Anthony Gose and Ace went to Granite Curling Club for the chance to embrace some Canadian culture by taking curling lessons:

Colby Rasmus also took part but I’m pretty sure this isn’t in the rulebook:

But hey, what do I know? Maybe Rasmus can help actually put some fun into the game.

Finally, it was on to Credit Union Centre for an autograph session and photo opportunities with the fans:

As you would expect, there were some ‘interesting’ people in attendance, hence the ‘I’m really scared but I’m going to have to pretend I’m having fun’ expression on Gose’s face in this photo:

I know Rasmus is considered a bit of an eccentric character by some but I really hope he swapped baseball caps with the other guy before posing for this picture:

After the signing session, the players finally got a chance to relax and take in the Saskatoon Blades game against the Red Deer Rebels.  Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out as hoped, with the home side going on to lose 3-1.

Overall though, the third leg of the winter tour can be considered a major success, in large part thanks to the fans.  The Blue Jays now move on to Edmonton for the final stop on the tour.  And I’m sure the players will be delighted to hear they will be there for a whole two days.  Good luck!

Photo credits: @BlueJays, @SparrowBats & @TShireGlobal

• By paul.taylor
• January 12, 2013
• Comment

It’s the news that all Blue Jays fans feared.  After the previous rumours surrounding Jose Bautista and the use of performance enhancing drugs, we now have concrete evidence that he does in fact use booster juice.

Fortunately, this is quite literally the case as the Blue Jays slugger is an official spokesperson for the company Booster Juice:

Here he is meeting some of the staff at one of the branches during  his visit to Winnipeg:

Of course the question is, what the hell was Bautista even doing in Winnipeg in the first place, especially in the middle of winter?!  You’ll be glad to hear he didn’t voluntarily make the trip of his own accord.  He was forced to go.  Winnipeg is the second stop (after Toronto) for the Blue Jays as they embark on their third annual winter tour:

Also accompanying Bautista on this leg of the tour were pitchers Aaron Loup and Brett Cecil, who looks like he could use a few plates of poutine:

The tour is actually a really good idea, as the Blue Jays look to expand their popularity throughout Canada.  It also provides an opportunity for fans who wouldn’t normally get the chance to meet the players.

Of course travelling around, meeting people and signing lots of autographs can be tiring at times.  However, while looking for a pick-me-up, Bautista decided to turn to something a little more potent than Booster Juice:

Next stop on the Blue Jays winter tour is Saskatoon this coming Friday, followed by Edmonton at the weekend.  I bet the players can hardly wait.

• By paul.taylor
• January 8, 2013
• Comment