Land of the Leaf

The good people at Baseball Prospectus had a decent chat with Adam Lind.  Lind talked about his start to the season, approach at the plate, and a few other notables.  Worth checking out for sure.

Lind apparently was a big Andre Dawson fan growing up… schweet, me too.  Our beloved DH also enjoys cooking, who knew?

It was a great afternoon in Toronto, although I missed most of it by sitting in a dome for over three hours.  There’s nothing cold draught beer can’t fix, and if you throw in some baseball then you’ve got yourself a pretty solid afternoon.  Brett Cecil was what you call “effectively wild”.  He mixed snappy 93mph fastballs with grooving sliders over six innings only surrenduring one earned-run and striking out six.  Cecil walked no one, but he hit three batters and the Indians were pretty pissed.

Jesse Carlson came in and blew it in the 7th inning.  His slider has looked like shit lately.  It looked like our Jays were going down but Adam Lind and Scott Rolen crushed back-to-back long bombs off of some stiff named Sipp.  “Snakeface” took over for the final 1.2 innings and should list ‘lowering my ERA’ as an activity on Facebook.  10-6 Jays, Lind’s three-run shot and 2-run single earlier gave him five RBI’s on the day.

You can rest assured, Roy Halladay is just fine despite getting hit hard a couple of times.  He didn’t need to be dominant on Opening Night, Adam Lind and Travis “The Franchise” Snider led the Jays’ mashing attack neutering the Tigers 12-5.  Shove lousy weather down a flight of stairs, we’ve got a dome and a dynamite offense.

This year’s uniforms will feature a red Canadian maple leaf on the right shoulder.  It’s a nice gesture, but ultimately a marketing move.  Now, about the crest adorning the sleeve on the left shoulder.  A pompous “Ted” is emblazoned there for all to be reminded of the late tyrannical owner.  Uncle Ted, never one to be outdone as a showman, had his life celebrated on the Rogers Centre jumbotron following the 3rd inning.  To the tune of the opening bars of “Bittersweet Symphony” (oh how bittersweet it is) we were reminded of his accomplishments:

Entrepreneur

Philanthropist

Proud Canadian

Ted Rogers

1933-Not Soon Enough

I can’t believe some righteous jerks actually stood-up and clapped, have these people ever looked at their cable bills?

Justin Verlander started this season right where he left off last year; throwing pumpkins.  Nothing much has changed about Vernon Wells’ approach at the plate, he was hacking at everything but made good contact for a change.  The Tigers teed off on Halladay in the 7th inning for four runs.  Halladay finished the inning and retired to the dugout, face boiling with a blood-rush of anger directed only at himself.

Brandon League looked decent recording a strikeout, but he allowed a couple runners on base after a hussling Aaron Hill just missed picking up a couple hard grounders.  Hill could be shaking off some mental rust, but that’s okay right now.  It was awesome to see him back on the field and in the lineup.  With two men on base and a 4-run lead at stake, Scott Downs came on to nibble at the Tigers’ chromosomes.

After a couple of idiots found their way into Blue Jays’ jail, our guys tacked on three more runs to their lead and wrapped things up in a quiet 9th.  A couple of things of note:

• Brian Tallet spent the offseason watching Boogie Nights and growin’ a stache.
• Magglio Ordonez has to do something about that ridiculous mop on his head.
• Cliff Lee pitched like the real Cliff Lee Today and got spanked by the Texas Rangers.  He should return last year’s Cy Young to its rightful owner.