So Once Again, We Have Reached That Point

Travis Snider is at times surprisingly dainty

The point, that is, at which my elation at (and gratitude for) the mere fact of spring training baseball is replaced by my need to see real games that count, pretty much right away, thanks. This is especially true this year because the weather is really nice here, and when this happens, the season should be started early in my view. Pretty much everything the Blue Jays wanted to see out of pretty much everyone has materialized this spring, and the excitement surrounding this 2012 edition of the club has me poised for a summer of unusually bitter disappointment, and I'm ready to get that going, basically.


Also in case you were wondering just how mind-blowingly awful Adam Lind has been, you might enjoy this Drunk Jays Fans post: "The Mind-Blowing Awfulness of Adam Lind." I know I did!


KS

Phillies 7, Blue Jays 0; Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 3; Blue Jays 6, Yankees 1; Blue Jays 11, Astros 1; Blue Jays 5, Astros 2: Not Enough of These Were On the Radio

Joseph Batstista, pondering haters 

I get that not everybody is going to listen to every inning of every spring training game and it might not make sense to broadcast every last one of them, but at the same time, I mind this fact more than you might think. Like, this week, even my admittedly and perhaps enviably bohemian life did not allow me to listen to as much of one of the games that was in fact broadcast as I would have liked, but I caught some of it, and even that felt pretty good, you know? Even if I can't really settle in for more than an inning or two, that inning or two can be pretty transporting, if I may be so bold as to say that about this. And a bro of mine who just signed up for Gameday Audio on the strength of my recommendation found on the first night of his subscription nothing available but a Spanish broadcast of the Marlins game. Finding it unlikely he would learn the language in one evening, he tuned out (also it is complicated because he is a bitter Expos fan and still understandably has feelings in the direction of Jeffry Loria who is undeniably evil, an aspect of his character not sufficiently examined in the recent Miami Marlins cover story in Sports Ilustrated in my view).


Putting all of that aside, in a triumphant return to the airwaves this afternoon Jose Bautista hit two home runs and Travis Snider hit another and Dustin McGowan pitched or two innings without his shoulder erupting into flames so that is a win in the fullest sense. Go Jays.


KS

Tigers 4, Blue Jays 2; Phillies 7, Blue Jays 0; Blue Jays (split squad) 8, Pittsburgh 6; Blue Jays (split squad) 3, Red Sox 3: Spring Training Rolls On!

what's up, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine's sunglasses

Almost unforgivably, there was no Toronto radio coverage of the Blue Jays game against the Tigers the other day, so I was reduced to following along on the actually totally good Detroit broadcast, which was kind of cool in that it gives one an outsider's view on what is happening with a team I am otherwise too close to see from the proper perspective, probably. Or so I thought, until it turned out the Detroit guys liked the Blue Jays' revamped bullpen, thought there was a lot to like in the lineup, and that with the extra wild card team this year they had a shot, but it's all going to hinge on what happens with this young rotation. Me too! That's totally what I think! Also they said that they liked the new uniforms because the old ones had numbers on the back that were way too italicized so it was hard to see who was warming up in the bullpen or whatever if you are not the kind of person who can just look and be like "fuck, it's Brian Tallet" by horrifying body type alone. Anyway, this was a good game, and Chris Woodward played, and I was like "oh hey Chris Woodward again." The next day they played the Phillies, and although they gave up seven runs, all seven runs came off pitchers who aren't coming north with the club anyway, so what do I care? Not at all! Then today there were a couple of split squad games. Whatever man everything is cool!


KS