Top Of The Third: August 2015

Monday 31 August 2015

Jays Sweep Tigers; Fifth Series Sweep This Month

Photo courtesy of Canadian Press

Another day, another game and another blow out. It’s starting to become routine with the Toronto Blue Jays. On days they don’t score a lot of runs, we’re going to wonder if there’s something wrong with the bats. Sunday afternoon, it was a 9-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers to sweep the weekend series. The unfortunate thing is that the Yankees swept the Atlanta Braves this weekend as well, so the gap between the two teams is still the game and a half that it was after Thursday’s games.

And while they couldn’t put any distance between themselves and the Yanks this weekend, the gap between the Jays and the Minnesota Twins, the team that leads those on the outside looking in, is now at seven. Even though there are still five weeks to play, the Jays’ Magic Number to clinch a playoff spot is 26. I know it’s silly to even think about Magic Numbers this early but considering we haven’t done so with this club in 23 years, I couldn’t resist.

On Sunday, it was another strong pitching performance and a quartet of home runs that took care of the Tigers. Mark Buehrle pitched six innings for the victory, his fourteenth of the year, allowing two runs, only one of them earned, while striking out two Detroit batters. In relief, Mark Lowe, Aaron Sanchez and Bo Schultz pitched scoreless ball for the last three innings, allowing only two hits in total.

Josh Donaldson opened the scoring for Toronto with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning, his 36^th of the season. Donaldson would another RBI later in the day to push his season total to 106. Edwin Encarnacion also went deep in the first, his 30^th, and extended his hitting streak to 25 games, the fourth longest in Blue Jays history. He now only trails John Olerud (1993) and Shannon Stewart (1999) at 26, and Shawn Green (1999) at 28 straight games.

Kevin Pillar hit the third home run of the day (his 9^th) with a man on to make the score 4-0. Pillar also narrowly missed an amazing Devon White-type play when he leaped up against the fence in the sixth inning, snatched the ball, but had it jar loose from his glove when he hit the turf.

Russell Martin hit his 17^th of the season, a two-run shot, to make the score 6-0 in the fourth inning. The Jays added their final three runs of the day in the eighth inning, high-lighted by a two-run double by Ryan Goins.

On Monday the Cleveland Indians come to town for a three-game stint while the Yankees head to Boston to take on the Red Sox, also for three games.

Toronto is 21-5 in the month of August and have a chance, with one game left in the month, to win 22 games in one month for the first time in franchise history.

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Sunday 30 August 2015

Encarnacion goes deep three times; Jays Smash Tigers

I guess it would be a bit of an understatement to say that Toronto Blue Jays’ designated hitter/first baseman Edwin Encarnacion has been swinging a hot bat as of late. During Toronto’s 15-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon at the Rogers Centre, he slugged three home runs, drove in a franchise-tying record nine runs and extended his career-long hitting streak to 24 games.

Encarnacion hit a three-run shot in the bottom of the first to give the Jays an early 3-0 lead. His second homer came in the sixth with a man on to make the score 9-1 and he smashed a grand slam in the seventh to extend the lead to 13-1. The nine RBIs tied the franchise mark set by Roy Howell back in the Jays’ first year of existence, 1977.

The hitting streak is the longest in MLB this season and is four games short of the team record of 28 set by outfielder Shawn Green in 1999. During the 24 games of the streak, Edwin is hitting .400 with ten home runs and 34 RBIs. His season totals are now 29 homers and 90 RBIs. And as I mentioned in a post three weeks ago, with MVP-candidate Josh Donaldson at 35 home runs and Jose Bautista at 31, there’s a good chance we could see three players from the same team crack the 40 homer plateau in the same season.

But Edwin is not the only Blue Jay with a hot bat right now (another understatement). Donaldson smacked three hits this afternoon, as did Ryan Goins. Justin Smoak had two and Ben Revere, one of the trade deadline pick-ups, had four.

As fans, we have to step back and observe what we are seeing here. It’s not normal, not only for the Blue Jays, but for any team. In their last ten games, dating back to the two-game set with the Philadelphia Phillies, they have scored 75 runs. That’s an average of 7.5 per game and keep in mind they only managed one against Texas on Thursday.

They’ve touched home plate 709 times this season, easily leading the league with 105 more than any other team. Saturday was the 21^st time they’ve scored in the double digits. Since the trade that brought Troy Tulowitzki and LaTroy Hawkins from Colorado, their record is 23-5. They’ve gone from one game under the .500 mark to 17 games above it.

And don’t let the pitching miss the credit. Saturday’s starter Drew Hutchison, pitched seven innings, allowing only one run to improve his record to 13-2. Friday night’s winner, R.A. Dickey, had a record of 3-10 at the All-Star break, causing me to write in my mid-season analysis that he was the biggest waste of money on the team. Since then, he’s won six and lost none. And hey, I’m more than happy to look foolish after writing that statement.

Bottom line is the talent on this team is showing, has been for over a month now. The trade deadline acquisitions have injected life into the other players on the team. Bautista and Encarnacion seem to have turned it up a notch in their quest to play in the postseason for the first time.

With one more game left against the Tigers on Sunday afternoon, the Jays will have a chance for their fifth series sweep in the month of August. The way they’ve been playing, the runs scored, the pitching, the comebacks, the demolishing of the other team's pitchers, I’ve never seen a stretch like this in the thirty years I’ve been watching this team, even the championship years.

September is just days away and for the first time in more than two decades, September will mean a lot more than just the start of another football season.

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Saturday 29 August 2015

This Day In Baseball History: August 29, 2004

August 29, 2004

It was on this day in 2004, that the Toronto Blue Jays honour radio broadcaster Tom Cheek by putting him on the their Level Of Excellence at their home park, SkyDome (now known as the Rogers Centre.) During the first 27 years of the team’s existence, Cheek called 4306 consecutive regular season games, as well as 41 playoff games and countless Spring Training Games.

Earlier in the year, his consecutive games streak came to an end when he missed two games to attend his father’s funeral. A few days later, doctors discovered he had a cancerous brain tumour. Despite undergoing chemotherapy treatments, Cheek passed away in September 2005.

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Friday 28 August 2015

Coming Up In September on "Top Of The Third"

The Toronto Blue Jays dropped the finale of their three-game series against the Texas Rangers on Thursday afternoon, by a final score of 4-1. However, after taking two of the games in the series, and with the New York Yankees dropping two of their three games to the Houston Astros this week, the Jays head into the weekend with a game and a half lead in the American League East.

The Detroit Tigers come into the Rogers Centre for a three game weekend set, the final weekend of August, and if Toronto can take at least two of three, they’ll head into September still in first place in the division.

And speaking of September, it’s going to be a busy month on “Top Of The Third.” Here’s a look at what’s coming up:

First of all, the divisional races. Obviously, we will be focused primarily on the AL East, but there’s plenty of good battles going on in the other divisions as well. The Houston Astros have to be the biggest surprise of the season. They were in first place for most of the first half before beginning to fade near the end of June. They’ve bounced back in August and now lead the AL West by five games over the Rangers.

In the National League East, the New York Mets are beginning to pull away from the Washington Nationals and in the NL West, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants seem to be locked in a race that will probably not be decided until the final week. The NL Central is the most intriguing division race in baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates are separated by four games and the Chicago Cubs hold a five and a half game lead for the final Wild Card spot. It’s possible three of the five playoff teams in the NL could be from the Central Division.

Besides the MLB races, “Top Of The Third” will also keep up-to-date with the progress of the Quad City River Bandits of the Midwest Class A League as their playoff season will begin on September 9. We will also keep tabs on Delhi, Ontario’s Brock Dykxhoorn in his first full professional season.

And there will be a tribute to the 1985 Toronto Blue Jays, in celebration of their first division championship that they captured thirty years ago. There will be a five-part series that will document their first serious charge for a World Championship in only their ninth year of existence.

Finally, “Top Of The Third” wants to get you involved. There will be surveys and trivia and a chance to win prizes. In order to qualify and participate, you must enter your email for our mailing list. As per our privacy policy, we will not share your email with any third parties and you will not receive any promotional email from us. By entering your email, you will only receive links to the new posts entered on the blog straight to your inbox.

September’s going to be a great month, both in Major League Baseball and on “Top Of The Third.”

Thursday 27 August 2015

This Day In Baseball History: August 27, 1982

August 27, 1982

It was on this day in 1982 that Oakland Athletics outfielder Rickey Henderson, breaks the Major League record of most stolen bases in a season when he swipes base number 119 against the Milwaukee Brewers. The old record of 118 was held by Lou Brock. Henderson steals a total of four bases in the game, a 5-4 Athletics’ loss, to end the day with 122. He would steal 8 more before the season ended, setting the new stolen base record at 130, a record that still stands to this day and has never really been challenged in 33 years.

While Henderson’s record is the one recognized by Major League Baseball as the modern-day record, Hugh Nicol of the Cincinnati Red Stockings of the American Association, swiped 138 bases in 1887 and is the actual record for thefts in a season. The reason for the discrepancy is because the stolen base wasn’t considered an official stat until 1898 and therefore box scores and scorecards from the era are difficult to decipher when it comes to stolen bases.

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Wednesday 26 August 2015

The Hottest Ticket in Town

If you’re a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays and you’re looking at getting some tickets to go see a game in September, good luck--you're going to need lots of it--and be prepared to pay more than face value. Go to Ticketmaster and all you’ll get are singles. You can get tickets through Stubhub, but it’s going to cost you. The 500 Level, tickets usually $16 a game are selling for more than $20 already, and as the long as the Jays continue to do well, that price will rise as we hit the stretch drive.

It’s been a long time since admission to a Blue Jays game was the hottest thing in town, but here we are. Toronto’s baseball team is dominating the headlines in the city’s newspapers. You don’t hear much about the Leafs and Raptors, and considering training camps for the NHL and NBA clubs open in the next month or so, that’s saying something. The Argos are in first place but the CFL has not, unfortunately, been a big league sport in Toronto for quite a few years.

It’s the early nineties all over again. For those of you who are two young to remember, or just plain forgot those handful of years when Toronto was a baseball town, I’ll fill you in on what it was like to be a Jays’ fan twenty-five years ago.

The Rogers Centre (previously known as SkyDome) was electric. Sold out crowds pretty much every night were the norm since it opened in June of 1989. The Jays won the American League East title in 1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993. The Jays were able to attract big-time free agents like Jack Morris, Paul Molitor, Dave Stewart and Dave Winfield. All-star players wanted to come to Toronto because they wanted a shot to win a championship. The David Price, Troy Tulowitzki deals are reminders of other hired guns such as David Cone and Rickey Henderson who both came to Toronto and won championships.

And tickets were hard to come by. I remember, as a family, going to one game a year, usually on a Friday night during my Dad’s vacation in July. We would have to order tickets in March to make sure we got seats. And I was usually the one filling out those old ticket application forms (there was no internet to buy tickets back then and the cost of a stamp was a lot cheaper than the cost of a long-distance phone call to Toronto) and then dropping the envelope in the mail and hoping we wouldn’t get a reply stating the game had already been sold out.

With the team winning and in contention for the post season this late in the year for the first time since 1993, it has that feeling again. And if you didn’t have your tickets a few weeks ago, well, see what I said in the first paragraph of this post.

It’s good, though, I don’t mind. That means the team is winning and I can remember when I lived in Toronto from 2002 until 2014, the team wasn’t winning and you could pretty much go to a game whenever you wanted (Opening Night was usually the only sellout). I’d get home from work, have a quick nap and get back on the subway and head to the stadium, confident that I would have no problem getting a ticket at face value.

I hope those days don’t come back for a while. It’s good to see the Jays the talk of Toronto again, even though it may be for a moment. Let’s hope they ride this wave late into October and we don’t hear anything of the Leafs, Raptors or Argos until the second week of November.

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Tuesday 25 August 2015

This Day In Baseball History: August 25, 1985

August 25, 1985

It was on this day in 1985 that New York Mets’ pitcher Dwight Gooden, becomes the youngest pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball to post twenty wins in a season. The man nicknamed Dr. K is twenty years, nine months and nine days old, 27 days younger than Bob Feller was when the Cleveland hurler won his twenty games in 1939.

Gooden pitches six innings, giving up two earned runs while striking out four, in a 9-3 win over the San Diego in New York’s Shea Stadium. He would finish the season with a National League leading 24 wins and capture the NL’s Cy Young Award.

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Sunday 23 August 2015

Jays sweep Angels; bats doing just fine, thank-you.

In their weekend sweep of the Los Angeles Angels, the Toronto Blue Jays set a club record for runs scored in a three-game series as they dented the plate 36 times. I guess my concerns about quiet bats against a strong Angel pitching staff in my post on Friday were unwarranted.

Combined with the Yankees losing three of their four games with the Cleveland Indians, the Baltimore Orioles being swept at home in a four game series against the Twins, this weekend’s sweep has strengthened the Jays hold on a playoff spot.

First of all, they’ve hopped over the Yanks into first place by a half-game. Baltimore is now six and a half behind and the Angels have dropped behind the Texas Rangers by a game and a half in the race for the second wild card spot.

R.A. Dickey had a rough start today as he allowed five runs in the first inning, but five shutout innings followed, good enough to pick up his eighth win of the season. The Jays bats bombed the Angels pitching staff for 17 hits, highlighted by back to back home runs by Jose Bautista (his 29^th homer of the season) and Edwin Encarnacion (24) in a three run third inning that helped erase the early four run deficit. The Jays scored in seven of the game's innings en route to a 12-5 win.

MVP candidate Josh Donaldson was at it again, as he was all weekend, with two hits and two runs scored. Troy Tulowitzki, Bautista, Encarnacion, Kevin Pillar and Ben Revere also had multiple hit games. With the exception of the bottom of the first inning, the Jays were in complete control of the game and never looked like they were in any danger of losing the finale of the series.

Saturday’s game was much the same. Three runs in the third inning and another seven scored in the fourth, put the Jays up 10-0, and they cruised to a 15-3 wing. Again, Donaldson led the way, going four for five, including his 34^th home run of the season and six RBIs. Bautista was three for five including his third triple of the season, and Chris Colabello was also three for five including his twelfth home run of the season. Marco Estrada picked up his 11^th win of the season allowing three runs in five and two-third innings pitched. The bullpen held the Angels scoreless in this one as well.

On Friday, it was also Donaldson leading the charge with two hits in three official plate appearances with three RBI. For the weekend, Donaldson was 8 for 13 with a home run and nine RBI, which brings his season total to 100, the first time in his career he has reached that mark.

And it was David Price who picked up the victory, his twelfth of 2015, tossing eight innings, allowing only two runs and striking out nine in the 9-2 win.

This weekend was pure dominance against a team that many considered a contender for the World Series just a short month ago. The Jays are a legitimate contender and have been since the Kansas City series back in July. There’s still six weeks to go and after a day off on Monday, they will head to Arlington, Texas to take on the Rangers who have been on a bit of a roll as of late.

With just over a week to go before September, the Jays are giving their fans something to look forward to as we get closer to the stretch drive: post season baseball.

In my Friday post, I also mentioned that another big series happening this weekend was an interleague match-up between the AL West leading Houston Astros and the NL West leading Los Angeles Dodgers. The Astros ended up sweeping this series, including a no-hitter being thrown by Astros’ hurler, Mike Fiers on Friday night, a game that ended in a 3-0 score. Fiers struck out ten while walking three in what was the first no-hitter at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. Game two was won 3-1 on Saturday with Scott Kazmir out-dueling Dodger ace Zach Greinke and on Sunday it was a walk off tenth-inning homerun by Jason Castro that game the Astros a 3-2 win.

The sweep now gives Houston a four game lead over the Rangers in the AL West, while the Dodgers’ lead in the NL West has shrunk to one.

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This Day In Baseball History: August 23, 1989

August 23, 1989

On the lighter side, it was on this day in 1989 that “Youppi!” the beloved mascot of the Montreal Expos, became the first mascot in the history of baseball to be ejected from a Major League game. The game between the Expos and Los Angeles Dodgers at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium would eventually be the second longest shutout in MLB history (the Dodgers won 1-0 in 22 innings). In the eleventh inning of the game, Dodgers’ manager Tommy Lasorda complained to the umpires about the noise Youppi! was causing when he leapt onto the roof of the LA dugout. The umpires, in turn, tossed the orange ball of fur from the game.

On a more serious note, it was also on this day in 1989 that Pete Rose, baseball’s all-time hits leader, was given a lifetime ban by MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti for gambling on Major League Baseball games. For the better part of two decades, Rose vehemently denied the accusations before doing an about-face in 2004, finally admitting to betting on baseball. While Rose has applied for reinstatement several times, former Commissioner Bud Selig (unfairly) refused to consider reversing the ban. Hopefully new Commissioner Rob Manfred, who took over for Selig earlier this year, will have an open mind and reverse the decision that has kept Rose out of baseball for more than 25 years.

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Saturday 22 August 2015

Ranking the Remaining Ballparks From the Mid-80s: Part 6

Today, we finish our look at current ballparks that were in use in the mid-1980s. For #1, we go to the east coast and the best of the old parks.

#1. Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts

Home of: Boston Red Sox since 1912

Built in: 1912

Baseball Capacity: 37,673

Previous Names: None

History: Built in 1912, Fenway Park is the oldest park in use in Major League Baseball. On March 7, 2012, during its centenary year, the park was added to the National Register of Historic Places. While playing at Fenway, the Bosox have won the World Series in 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004, 2007 and 2013. The Sox clinched the World Series at Fenway in 1912, 1916, 1918 and 2013. All-star and Hall-of-Fame Red Sox players who have played in Fenway include Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice, Luis Tiant, Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Mo Vaughn, Nomar Garciaparra, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia.

Charm: What’s not to love about the best ballpark in baseball? Fenway has so many features to it. We can start with the “Green Monster”, the 37-foot wall in left field. Then there’s the “Triangle”, the spot in centrefield where the walls meet to form….well, a triangle. “Williamsburg” is the name of the area where the bullpens are located, named after Ted Williams who had many of his homeruns land there, and “Pesky’s Pole”, a quirky spot down the right field line where balls are hit for homeruns that might be foul balls in other parks. About ten years ago, seats were added above the Green Monster that make for great spectating areas for fans.

Great Moments:

October 17, 2004: The Red Sox trailed the ALCS 3-0 to their heated rivals, the New York Yankees. They also trailed Game 4 by a score of 4-3 going to the bottom of the ninth and had to try and comeback against Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer on baseball history. Kevin Millar led off the inning with a walk. Dave Roberts pinch-ran for Millar and stole second base. Bill Mueller singled, scoring Roberts and tying the game at four. In the bottom of the twelve, David Ortiz drilled a two-run homer into the right field stands, giving the Red Sox a 6-4 win. They would win the next three, becoming the first team in MLB history to win a series after being down 3-0 in games. It hasn’t been done since.

October 30, 2013: In Game 6 of the World Series, the Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of 6-1 to claim their third World Series championship in ten years. It was the first time the Sox won the World Series at home in 95 years (1918). It would cap off a worst-to-first year for the Red Sox. After finishing last in the AL East in 2012, they fired manager Bobby Valentine and brought back former pitching coach, John Farrell, as their manager. They finished the regular season with 97 wins, defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in four games in the Division Series, and knocked out the Detroit Tigers in six games in the American League Championship before disposing of the Cardinals.

October 21, 1975 : Even though I wasn’t watching baseball in October of 1975 (I wouldn’t be born for another 25 days) Game 6 of the 1975 World Series is too big a moment to leave off the list. The Red Sox trailed the Series three games to two to the Cincinnati Reds and trailed the game 6-3 going to the bottom of the eight. Pinch-hitter Bernie Carbo slammed a three-run home run on a 2-2 pitch to the left of dead centre field tying the game at six. That would set the stage for the dramatic bottom of the twelfth inning, when catcher Carlton Fisk, pulled the first pitch he saw down the left field line that curve, but just stayed on the fair side of the foul pole to give the Sox the victory. They would lose the Reds in the seventh game but images of Fisk waving his arms trying to will the ball to stay fair would be stamped in the memory of baseball forever.

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Friday 21 August 2015

This Day In Baseball History: August 21, 1931

August 21, 1931

On this day in 1931, New York Yankees’ slugger Babe Ruth becomes the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit 600 career home runs. The Yankees defeat the St. Louis Browns 11-7. The Babe would end his career with 714 dingers.

Only seven other players have hit 600 or more since Ruth did it 84 years ago. Listed in order of career home runs: Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Alex Rodriguez (679—still actively playing), Willie Mays (660), Ken Griffey Jr (630), Jim Thome (612) and Sammy Sosa (609).

Playoff Chase Starts To Heat Up: Jays and Angels clash tonight.

After splitting a two-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies earlier in the week, the Blue Jays are in Anaheim starting tonight for a three game series against the Los Angeles Angels. David Price (11-4, 2.41) is scheduled to start for Toronto while Hector Santiago (7-6, 2.86) gets the nod for LA.

With 41 games left in the regular season, it’s too soon to say that this is a make-or-break weekend series for the Jays, however it is a very crucial one. Since their eleven game winning streak that propelled them into first place, the Jays have won only two of five games and have slipped to 1 ½ games behind the New York Yankees.

While it would be foolish to press the panic button just yet, it’s important the Jays win at least two of the three games in Anaheim. Not only to try and keep pace with the Yankees, who seem to be on a role in the past week having swept the Minnesota Twins at the beginning of the week, but lost the first game of their four-game set against Cleveland on Thursday, but also because the Angels are one of the teams the Jays have pushing them in the Wild Card chase.

The two games against the Phillies raised questions about the Jays pitching again. After giving up twelve runs in the two games against the worst team in the National League, it’s important Toronto gets three solid starts from their pitchers this weekend.

It was good to see the bats start to come back to life, but again, it was the Phillies. A better test will be against the Angels this weekend, whose pitchers are much better than Philadelphia’s.

At this point of the season, as we start the last ten days of August, the Jays must stay within shouting distance of New York when the calendar switches to September and the pennant races get heated up.

As well as the Angels, the Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins are also in pursuit of the wild card. But even though the Jays have a decent lead in the top Wild Card position, they should be focused on catching the Yankees and winning the division.

By winning the division, they would automatically be playing in the American League Division Series, whereas winning either of the Wild Card spots would be a one-game sudden death playoff where there’s no margin for error. In a best-of-five or best-of-seven series, you can have a bad game and know that you can make up for it. In the Wild Card, that doesn’t happen.

However, as mentioned before, if the Jays have trouble this weekend, there will still be a slew of games left and they’ve already managed to go on an eleven game winning streak twice this season. There’s no reason why they can’t go on a similar run again.

Other exciting series in MLB this weekend include the National League Wild Card leaders Pittsburgh Pirates hosting the San Francisco Giants, who are on the heels of Chicago Cubs for the second spot (Pittsburgh won the first game of the series, 4-0, on Thursday night). Minnesota plays Baltimore, with both teams chasing the Angels for the final AL Wild Card. And the most intriguing matchup is a battle of West Division Leaders. The AL West leading Houston Astros, who could solidify their contender status with a good showing this weekend, host the NL West leaders, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who also have to worry about the Giants who are only two and a half games behind.

The first of many more exciting weekends to come as we get closer to the stretch drive.

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Thursday 20 August 2015

This Day In Baseball History: August 20, 1919 and August 20, 1945

August 20, 1919

On this day in 1919, the longest hitting streak in professional baseball history ends. Joe Wilhoit, playing for the Wichita Jobbers of the Western League goes hitless against the Tulsa Oilers to end his hitting streak at 69 games, 13 games more than the Major League record that will be set by New York Yankee outfielder Joe DiMaggio some 22 years later in 1941. During the streak, Wilhoit had multiple-hit games 50 times and had a .512 batting average (153 for 297.)

August 20, 1945

On this day in 1945, Tommy Brown, shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becomes the youngest player in Major League Baseball History to hit a home run. When Brown hits his homerun, he is 17 years, 8 months and 14 days. The player nicknamed “Buckshot” is the only Dodger to dent home plate as Brooklyn loses the game to the Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of 11-1.

Wednesday 19 August 2015

Minor League Baseball: Canadian Kid a River Bandit

Photo by houseofhouston.com

On a cold and wintery day this past February, I was shoveling out my driveway, cursing winter and longing for the spring and the beginning of baseball. I had just finished cleaning out my dad’s driveway and was starting to feel the sting in my muscles of too much exercise.

A young man was using a snow blower to help some of my neigbours clean out their driveways and I was praying that he would help me with mine. He stopped at the end of the drive and asked if I needed help. I said yes, even though I was about three quarters completed. As I waited for him to finish so I could thank him, I noticed he was wearing a Houston Astros sweatshirt and ball cap. I began to wonder how someone in this area could become a fan of the Astros.

When he finished, I walked over and thanked him and asked him where he lived (I had just moved into my house the previous autumn and was still getting to know everyone). He pointed to the house across the street from mine and said that’s where his parents lived.

“I have to ask you,” I spoke. “How did you become a fan of the Astros?”

He said that he wasn’t a fan, he played for them. He had been drafted the previous June and had pitched in the Astros minor league system for several months in 2014. Having been invited to attend Houston’s Spring Training, he said he was looking forward to heading down to Florida and away from the wintery weather.

It clicked in my mind who he was, as I had been reading about him in the local newspaper. His name is Brock Dykxhoorn and he is currently playing with the Quad City River Bandits, a Class A team in the Midwest League.

Now, before I go on, I have to mention that I don’t get star struck. I worked in a four-diamond hotel in Toronto for more than eleven years and during that time we had the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels stay with us every time they were in town to play the Blue Jays. I pretty much spoke with every superstar those teams had between 2003 and 2013, including Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Ichiro and Mike Trout. I’m not trying to name drop, I’m just stating facts.

However, the fact that a professional ballplayer is a neighbour of mine is actually quite cool.

I’ve been following his season since that moment in the snow and the rest of this story will be a brief history of his career and a review of the River Bandits’ season so far.

Brock Dykxhoorn was born in Goderich, Ontario. He is twenty-one years old, stands six feet eight inches tall and weighs 250 pounds. He’s a right-handed pitcher and was drafted in the sixth round of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft (166 pick overall) out of Central Arizona College in 2014.

After he signed with the Astros, he pitched for the Astros farm team in Greenville, Tennessee, which plays in the Appalachian League, a Rookie-level minor league. Brock pitched in twelve games, starting four, and finished with a 3-3 win/loss record, and a 4.31 Earned Run Average (ERA). He struck out 36 batters in 31 1/3 innings pitched.

For the 2015 season, the Astros assigned Brock to the Quad City River Bandits. Heading into Tuesday night’s action, he had pitched in nineteen games, starting fifteen, has a 7-4 win/loss record and a 3.42 ERA. He has struck out 124 batters in 123 1/3 innings. He last pitched on Sunday and picked up the win after giving up two earned runs in five and a third innings while striking out three in a 6-2 River Bandits victory over the Lake County Captains.

In July, he pitched for Canada’s gold-medal winning baseball team at the Pan-Am Games, held in Toronto. He saw action in two games, allowing only one run in this two innings pitched.

Now for those of you wondering where the Quad Cities River Bandits play, here you go. They play in Davenport, Iowa, which is one of four counties known as the Quad Cities (the others are Bettendorf, Iowa, Rock Island, Illinois and Moline Illinois). They play in Modern Woodmen Park, which has beautiful scenery around it, including the Centennial Bridge that can be seen behind the first base stands and extends far past right field. The bridge crosses the Mississippi River.

Photo by bostonsportscounsel.com

The River Bandits have had a successful season thus far in 2015. The Midwest League divides its season into two halves, with two division winners and two wild cards for each half making the playoffs. Quad Cities finished the first half in first place in the Western Division with a record of 45 wins and 23 loses, five games ahead of the Cedar Rapids Kernels. In the second half, the Bandits are in third place, six games behind division leaders Kane County Cougars but already have their playoffs spot locked up.

There are three weeks left in the regular season before the playoffs being on September 9. The Bandits will play Cedar Rapids in the first round, a best-of-three series.

Top Of The Third will keep you updated on the progress of the River Bandits in the playoffs, and will give more updates on Brock Dykxhoorn’s first full season in professional baseball as the season winds down.

For more information on the Quad Cities club, check out their website.

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Tuesday 18 August 2015

Ranking The Remaining Ballparks From the Mid-80s: Part 5

Today, we continue with part five of our look at current ballparks that were in use in the mid-1980s. We are still in the Central Time Zone as we look at #2

#2. Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois

Home of: Chicago Cubs since 1916

Built in: 1914

Baseball Capacity: 41,160

Previous Names: Weeghman Park (1914-1920)

Cubs Park (1920-1926)

History: Built in 1914, Weeghman Park was, originally, the home of the Chicago Whales ball club of the Federal League. After the FL folded, the Cubs moved in for the 1916 season and have played there ever since. In 1918, chewing gum manufacturer William Wrigley bought the Cubs and changed the name of the park to Wrigley Field in 1926. Unfortunately, the Cubs have never won the World Series while playing at this charming park (their last title was in 1908) and the last time they even played in the World Series was 1945 when they lost to the Detroit Tigers in seven games. Famous Cubs who’ve played at Wrigley include Canadian-born Ferguson Jenkins, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, Rick Sutcliffe, Kerry Wood, Sammy Sosa, Mark Grace and Greg Maddux.

Charm: One word: ivy. The outfield walls are covered in it, making Wrigley unique in this aspect. The park offers a beautiful view of downtown Chicago and the manually operated scoreboard in centrefield has been a staple for years. Atop the scoreboard is a flag pole. When the Cubs win, a white flag with a blue W is raised. When they lose, a blue flag with a white L hangs there instead. Wrigley is now 100 years old and, thankfully, it doesn’t look like it’s being replaced anytime soon.

Great Moments:

May 6, 1998: In just his sixth Major League start, Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood has a pitching performance for the ages. Still a month away from turning 21 years of age, Wood allows one hit over nine innings against the Houston Astros. He doesn’t walk a batter and ties Roger Clemens’s Major League record by striking out 20 batters during the game. Wood would finish the season with a 13-6 won/loss record and despite missing the last month with a sore elbow, would win the National League Rookie of the Year award.

September 28, 1998: In their quest for a spot in the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade, the Cubs would finish the regular season with a record of 89-73, the same record as the San Francisco Giants. A tie-breaker game was required in order to determine the National League’s Wild Card team and the game was hosted at Wrigley Field. The Cubs scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth and added two more in the bottom of the sixth. After they added a fifth run in the eighth, it looked like the Cubs would easily win. But the Giants mounted their only offensive threat in the top of the ninth. After scoring their first run, they loaded the bases with none out. Two sacrifice flies later made the score 5-3 Cubs. Closer Rod Beck was able to get the final out and put the Cubs in the playoffs.

October 2, 1984 : Game 1 of the National League Championship Series was the Cubs first postseason appearance since the 1945 World Series. And they didn’t disappoint their fans. They beat the San Diego Padres 13-0 to take the first game of the series. Rick Sutcliffe was the starting pitcher for the Cubs and he limited the Padres to just two hits over his seven innings pitched. Sutcliffe also homered to help the Cubs' offensive charge. The Cubs would win game 2 of the series, but lose all three games in San Diego and missed their chance to go back to the World Series.

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Monday 17 August 2015

This Day In Baseball History: August 17, 1933

August 16, 1933

It was on this day back in 1933, that New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig played in his 1309^th consecutive game, breaking the previous record of 1308 set by Everett Scott. Gehrig would go on to play 2130 straight games before being forced to retire in 1939 after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). His record earned him the nickname “The Iron Horse”, and it would go unbroken for 56 years before the Baltimore Orioles’ Cal Ripken would pass it in 1995.

The Yankees lost the game to the St. Louis Browns by a score of 7-6.

Sunday 16 August 2015

Jays Avoid Sweep; Back To Within a Half-Game of Division Lead

Photo Courtesy of The Canadian Press

The Toronto Blue Jays were able to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees by winning the final contest of the weekend series on Sunday afternoon at the Rogers Centre by a score of 3-1. The victory moves the Jays within a half-game of the division leaders from New York, and has averted a panic that was starting to be felt (unjustly) in the city of Toronto.

As has been for the past few weeks, it was the Jays pitching that was able to provide the necessary performance to win as starting pitcher, Drew Hutchison, pitched 6 2/3 innings of three-hit ball, allowing only one run to pick up the victory and improve his record on the season to 12-2. In relief, Brett Cecil retired the only batter he faced, Aaron Sanchez pitched a perfect eighth inning and Roberto Osuna pitched the ninth to earn his thirteenth save of the season.

The offense, which didn’t score as much as they usually do in the weekend set versus the Yankees, relied on a three-run third inning, highlighted by a two-run home run by Jose Bautista, his 28^th of the season.

As mentioned earlier, it avoids a panic and brings some relief to the Jays’ fans that the Yankees weren’t able to turn the tables after the Jays swept the three game series in the Bronx last weekend.

But was there any reason to panic? Absolutely not.

First of all, there was no way Toronto was going to go on a 50-game winning streak to end the season. Really. After the Jays’ sweep a week ago, they were a game and a half back heading into Monday’s action. So, despite the two losses on Friday and Saturday, they’ve actually picked up a game over the past seven days. Secondly, three weeks ago, they were eight games out. It’s not usual to pick up that much ground in such a short period of time, but a lengthy stretch of well-played baseball has managed to pull it off. And finally, they still hold down the first Wild Card spot. Even though a division title would be better, a Wild Card is still something that gives you a shot at postseason success. Just ask the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals how their wild card berths turned out last year.

This week, the Jays get two well-deserved days off, sandwiching a two-game set against the Phillies in Philadelphia. Then they head out west for three against the Angels in Anaheim over the weekend.

With seven weeks in the season to go, there’s much that can happen. The Jays have set themselves (and their fans) up for an exciting ride. There are going to be bumps in the road like the two losses this weekend. But if the offense regains its stride and the pitching continues to be more than solid like it has been since the end of July, there’s no reason why we won’t be chatting about the Jays chasing a division title throughout the course of these seven week.

Keep enjoying the run.

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This Day in Baseball History: August 16, 1948

August 16, 1948

It was on this day in 1948, that Hall of Famer Babe Ruth died of throat cancer at Memorial Hospital in New York City, at the age of 53. The Babe changed the game of baseball forever with his power hitting and became the most popular player in the game during his tenure with the Yankees. He retired as the all-time home run king with 714, a record that would last until April 8, 1974 when Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves would pass him.

Ruth also retired with at .342 career batting average, good enough for ninth on the all-time list.

Saturday 15 August 2015

Is Barry Bonds Hall Of Fame Worthy?

On July 21, the United States Department of Justice announced it would not ask the Supreme Court to review the decision that overturned Barry Bonds’ obstruction of justice conviction.

Bonds, in an interview on Thursday night at AT & T Park in San Francisco, said he feels a huge sense of relief since the prosecution dropped the case against him, a case that lasted nearly ten years.

He also took the opportunity to state that he believes he belongs in the Baseball Hall Of Fame. In his third year on the ballot, Bonds received 36.8 per cent of the votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), not even close to the 75 per cent that is required for induction.

It appears that the steroid and performance enhancing drug (PEDs) accusations that have been following Bonds around for the past fifteen years have jaded the eyes of the BBWAA, blurred their vision and obscured to them what Barry Bonds really is: the most talented, the most successful and the greatest baseball player in the history of the game.

Let me be clear: Barry Bonds belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Now before I continue, I just wanted to say that I am not a Barry Bonds fan. I never liked his attitude, his arrogance, his cockiness, his selfishness. They are not qualities I look for when choosing my favourite players and they certainly are not things I will have my son focus on when choosing his favourite players as he grows up.

However, having said that, it doesn’t take away from the fact that Bonds was a great player. He is one of three players I’ve seen in my lifetime that I expected to hit a home run every time he was at the plate (the others being Jose Canseco and David Ortiz).

The numbers don’t lie: a fourteen-time All-Star, an unprecedented seven-time National League Most Valuable Player, an eight-time gold glove award winner, a twelve-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and MLB record holder of career home runs (762), home runs in a season (73), career walks (2558) and career intentional walks (688).

And speaking of intentional walks, Bonds was so hot in 2001—the year he broke the single-season home run record—he was intentionally walked with the bases loaded in one game.

In 1998, Bonds became the first player in MLB history to hit 400 home runs and steal 400 bases in his career. He would end his career with 514 stolen bases, therefore becoming the first player to hit 500-plus homers and 500-plus stolen bases.

So now we’ve looked at what we know. Now let’s look at what’s been speculated.

There have been suggestions that Bonds was on PEDs when he broke the single-season record of home runs and that he continued to use them for the duration of his career. He was indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, with the indictment alleging that he lied under oath about his use of PEDs. He was linked to the BALCO scandal. (Get caught up on BALCO here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BALCO_scandal).

However, all of these accusations are merely hearsay. There has never been any proof that Bonds took PEDs. He never tested positive. Circumstantial evidence is NOT fact. End of story.

Now let’s examine the prejudices against Bonds a little closer. Let’s say for a moment—even though we have no proof, of course—that Bonds was on steroids or some other PED. Keep in mind that he played in what is now being referred to as “The Steroid Era” of baseball. It would be naïve of Bonds’ critics to think that Bonds—juiced up, in their minds—hit all his homeruns off pitchers who never took a PED, stole all his bases against catchers who never took a PED, and made all his defensive plays that won him gold gloves against hitters who never took a PED.

So if Bonds was on PEDS, hypothetically of course, he was competing on a level playing field because many others were doing the same thing. I’m not justifying the use of PEDs (if he did it) I’m just stating it would be hypocritical to think his stats shouldn’t count because he was cheating, but certain pitchers he faced should have their stats count when they were cheating, too.

Now that we’re done with our little hearsay silliness, let’s get back to the point of this article. Barry Bonds is a Hall of Famer. The fact that he is not there is a joke. Hopefully, the BBWAA will get their act together and vote for him in the next few years. The numbers don’t lie. He is the greatest.