Blue Jays 5, Angels 4 (F/10): Baseball is The Greatest and I Love It

Walk-off E5

Right in the middle of yesterday's really, really awesome game, Tom Henke was on the radio with Jerry Howarth and Alan Ashby, and he was pretty much just telling stories. The best was the one about his only at-bat in the major leagues, which came right at the end in St. Louis. Joe Torre was the manager at the time, and he must have got into some kind of strange predicament with either the bench or the bullpen, because he had to send Henke to the plate in the eighth to hit for himself, and then come out to pitch the ninth. It was cold, and Torre didn't want Henke's arm to get cold, so he told him to just go up there and take three pitches and get ready to pitch the ninth. "But I got a little stubborn up there," Henke said, and he fouled off eight pitches before flying out to right. His hands got so cold, though, that he didn't have any feel for the ball at all when he went back out to pitch, and ended up walking the bases loaded before getting out of it. "I understand what happened, Tom," Torre calmly said Henke after the game. "But when I tell you to take three pitches, you take three pitches."


Baseball stories.


Also there was a game, a rad one! The Blue Jays came into the ninth trailing by a run, but with Frank Francisco on the mound, which is the equivalent of losing by like a million. The man made no effort to keep Bobby Abreu anywhere near first, or, after he stole second, second, which was even more galling. But Brett Lawrie and J. P. Arencibia caught Abreu in a rundown between third and home, which then turned into a rundown between first and second -- don't try to do too much out there, Mark Trumbo -- and the Blue Jays headed to the home half of the inning still trailing by just that lone run. Colby Rasmus very nearly tied it up with a double high off the wall in centre, which brought Lawrie to the plate, fresh off his head's-uppery earlier in the inning. He took a pretty funny looking strike -- home plate umpire David Rackley had a miserable day out there, and it hurt the Angels probably more than it hurt the Blue Jays, so I am not saying that out of some kind of loathsome homerism --  to make the count 3-2 before ripping a double of his own to tie it. 


One way your team can greatly increase your enjoyment without actually being all that good is by performing well in extra-inning games, and the Blue Jays I believe came into yesterday's game 10-3 in games that go beyond nine. I am very pleased to report that this trend continued. Escobar and Bautista drew walks (also Bautista went 3-4 with a HR and a BB, and is back on top of the WAR leaderboards, haters, so just forget it) before Adam Lind, who is unbelievably bad right now, popped out, and E5, who has been incredible lately, knocked in Bautista to win it. 


Just tremendous stuff, man. 




Also I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to extend a most sincere "what it do" to Angels first base coach Alfredo Griffin, of whom we here at Baseball Feelings are the official sponsor, in the admittedly somewhat limited Baseball Reference player page sense. He was, is, and forever shall be awesome. He was probably all, "Hey Bobby Abreu, steal a couple of bases here," and then Bobby Abreu was probably like, "sure thing coach; I am inspired not just by your words but by the baserunning heroics of your playing days" and Alfredo Griffin was like "back." I only had the game on radio so I don't know if that's what happened but I'm pretty sure.


Finally, if you were wondering what Tom Henke looks like in 2011, know that Tom Henke in 2011 looks exactly how you would think Tom Henke would look in 2011. As seen here, in 2011:

I absolutely despise those hats, by the way, and I wish I could get excited about the rumours of a redesign coming next season, but whatever they come up with I'm going to end up wishing they'd just go back to the uniforms from the late 80s/early 90s, which were clean and simple and should have been left more or less alone forever. They could go to those tomorrow and look great. They're not retro; they're classic. Look how great Romero looked in a 1992 uniform when they wore those last year:

That just looks like baseball right there, you know what I'm saying? 


Anyway. The Blue Jays are out west this week so I will pretty much have to take it on faith that ballgames are being played because I'll be in bed. Perhaps I will listen to them the next day! Got to make the most out of that twenty dollars I have given MLB.


KS