I'm hoping Roy is immune to any Tampa bay curse. Do any of you guys know if Roy is starting saturday or sunday for his last start?

I think that the so-called Tampa Bay curse is just about the last thing on HLH's mind as he heads in to tonight's start. I don't think anyone expects anything less than domination this eve'.

I heard that Doc will go for 22/23 Saturday, but who really knows. It could all hinge on the outcome of tonight's start.

Craig has officially shattered the record for most threads started in one day. And it's only 5:20 pm! I hereby rename him Craig "Big-Hittin'" Burley.

...Or we could just call him the Poster Boy of Da Box.
I know it's wrong to make puns *that* bad, but just to rub it in, the pun was definately intended!

No Cat, no Woodward for tonight's game. Tosca is supporting Doc with the best defence he can muster.

Or we could just call him the Poster Boy of Da Box I know it's wrong to make puns *that* bad, but just to rub it in, the pun was definately intended!

Gee, in reading this sentence the first time, I thought it was a really obscure Corey Hart reference. Of course, then I remembered that A probably wasn't born when that album came out...

Part of me is really hoping that the "other" Corey Hart is at AAA long enough next year to make a trip into Ottawa...

Corey Hart? Er, gee, I have never heard of him, and I certainly have never heard of Dexy's Midnight Runners, Def Leppard, Quiet Riot, or other 1980s MTV bands ...

How's Doc look tonight?

"Don't switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh no!
Don't masquerade with the guy in shades, oh no!"

According to Mssr. Hart's web site, he has written and produced songs for Celine Dion.

So, now I like him even less.

Is Rob Bell the next SkyDome Nate Cornejo?

I'm sorry, are the Blue Jays being no-hit by Rob Bell? Rob Bell? Rob Bell? ROB BELL??????!!!!!

Indeed they are, and now it's through 5 complete.
JINX!

I can't believe they just tossed Doc. Get me Selig's address or his direct line. Even the Tampa broadcasters think this is absurd.

Is there any recourse. Can the umpire be fired?

I have _never_ seen that happen before. Ever.

Although I did like Kevin Cash's animated reaction, which was not censored by Rogers Sportsnet:

"you've got to be f**king kidding me!"

Why Reichert? Why, of all people, Reichert?

From The Simpsons:

Homer: That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college! [leaves]

Bart: I don't think any of us expected him to say that.

I just thought it was rather apt, for some reason. Oh my, that was an absolutely horrible call.

Nice makeup call Cuzzi - that makes it all better...

Now he won't toss Reichert out of the game. Reichert clearly pitched inside

I can't freakin' believe this!

I hate to be overly dramatic, but if Doc doesn't beat Cleveland and then doesn't get the Cy Young, you might be able to blame Phil Cousy. 22 Wins shoulds cement the award for him and his chance was just stolen.

What kind of recourse does he have? Nothing.

Can someone please explain what, exactly, happened with the ejection? Had warnings already been issued, etc?

Nope, no warning at all. Just smack Baldelli in the middle of back with what was clearly a pitch that just tailed out of the way, and bango, your gone.

HR, single, HBP, ejection - no previous warnings - although a D-Ray was hit (barely) earlier in the game

No excuse for what the ump did

http://economics.about.com
I have _never_ seen that happen before. Ever.

It happens more often than you'd think. I saw it happen to Joey Eischen of the Expos last year in a game in Philly. The situation then was a bit different as both teams were issued a warning an inning before. But Eischen hit a Philly on a 1-2 count with a slider that was going at most 80mph. I couldn't believe it when Eischen got tossed. So of course Robinson argues it and *he* gets tossed. I swear I thought Robinson was going to have a heart attack. He was really, really mad.

An article on the game is here.

They've really got to get the umpires in line. Some of these ejections are just insane.

Mike

One of the most unbelievably unfounded and incredibly disgusting decisions of the past five years.

No reason whatsoever for Halladay's ejection. Does the outcome of D-Rays' season matter? No. Does the outcome of the Jays' season matter? No. Does the outcome of the Doctor's season matter? F*** yes! So tell me, why, in the name of honour and dignity would Phil F***ing Cousy make that call for the sake of making that call? To flex his little muscles? To show that he's not going to let anything slide? That's enough Phillip.

I hope that you go home, have a good look at that replay and hang your head between your fat, stubby legs. Congratulations, my former friend, you ripped a victory from Harry Leroy Halladay, the Toronto Blue Jays, and most importantly, justice.

Ben NS

Can we play this game under protest and send a game tape into MLB offices in hopes of a well-deserved change.

Cuzzi knew he was wrong, or else he would have tossed Tosca

I'm watching this over GameCast...Is Faulds position on this that it caught the outside corner for a strike?

Lets see some Toronto-style justice and let this ump know exactly what we thought...This means one of two things, hiss really loud or run on the field. The latter is just obnoxious.

It just makes it worse that he tossed Toby Hall. Now they can point to that and say that they were just trying to keep things under control and that it was a good thing that they did or things would have gone so much worse.

Just get out of town, Phil.

How about that fan who threw the ball onto the field!

C'mon Carlos, jack one here!

Wow, thanks for the updates, guys. Not sure if it ranks with the stupidest ejection I've ever seen* but it's got to be up there among the worst.

* KC vs. Sea. this July (both teams in 1st place at the time), Jason Grimsley hits Ichiro -- his first batter faced -- on an 0-2 pitch (after a couple fouls) with runners on 1st and 2nd, in a tie game in the 10th. Warnings had stupidly been issued earlier in the game after Jamie Moyer hit a couple batters with 70 MPH curveballs. Pena and Grimsley (not the calmest player at the best of times) went ballistic.

The most amazing thing is that there were no warnings issued earlier.

I must say that I am most pleased with the reaction of Kevin Cash. I wasn;t thrilled, though, with Jerry Howarth's lack of passionate disagreement and fury towards the scapegoat known as Phillip Martin Cuzzi. (I just made up the Martin part, but it sounds pretty good) As always, I was pleased with Mike Wilner's eloquent delivery of dynamite points.

Anyone know how much this is going too be talked/written about outside of T.O.? It could be important because 96.67 % of Cy Young voters live outside of Toronto and could be influenced by their media.

Is it on the highlights? Are the other sportscasters as perturbed as we are? Is it on other websites? Will it be covered in the paper tomorrow?

Sure hope someone like ESPN picks this up with the same take as Jays' fans.

Both Wilner and Howarth have called it a curveball on the radio, but to me it sure looked like a fastball. It was up and moved way in to the right-handed batter (Baldelli). I believe it was intentionally inside. Halladay had been throwing almost exclusively strikes, and a couple of D-Rays had just got hits off Halladay, including a pulled home run by a right-handed batter. It's normal for good pitchers to move back the hitters in those circumstances. It's not normal to eject pitchers for doing that, even when it looks intentional. (I've seen pitchers left in after hitting batters even when warnings had been issued, including Stieb on opening day in '83.) It looked like Cuzzi was punishing Halladay in part because his control had been so good to that point.

The fans did not litter the field, but booed after every pitch for several batters.

The ump lost a lot of credibility as a mind reader when he couldn't tell 4 batters later that Hall was hit by a pitch (it was 6 inches from the bat, but ruled a foul ball). Later Hall, a catcher catching a no-hitter, was ejected for arguing. That sure looked like a weak attempt at an even-up call. Cuzzi will probably get in more trouble for that than the initial decision.

Well analyzed, Stephen T. I haven't seen the pitch, but I wouldn't put it past Doc to plunk a guy. (Not that it's a bad thing if executed with honour)

It would be great to see some witty signs taking down Cuzzi tomorrow. Any ideas?

JOHN CERUTTI rocks! I've been listening to you guys blast CERUTTI all season when he's been the best colour man I've heard in a while. He's no BUCK MARTINEZ but (thankfully) he's also no JOE CARTER or PAT TABLER. Even around the league he's above average. Here out west we get Seattle games which have the worst colour commentary (JAY BUHNER, DAVE VALLE, DAVE HENDERSON). Or how about the nationals? JOE MORGAN, the most irritating, self-important voice in baseball. STEVE "PSYCHO" LYONS who distracts with his often inappropraite humour and mis-information. You got it good with CERUTTI, enjoy him.

How about this, Ben :

Cuzzi, you are absolutely not worth our time. We all know how wrong (and old, and ugly, and fat, and unintelligent, and...) you are so quit making such obscenely unfai calls and then trying to justify them by making calls that are... words fail me... just F***ing wrong!

Yeah, it's kind of long, but it's pretty accurate, don't you think?

Dave

I think it was called inside and he missed his spot badly (rattled after the two hits?). No way Halladay would throw at Baldelli with a man on first and nobody out. He's not an idiot.

To be fair, we don't know what was being said on the field before the ejection. It's still highly unusual to run a pitcher directly instead of issuing a warning. You can issue a warning on any pitch inside, really; no need to wait for a hit batter. In point of fact, you could even issue a warning any time... say between innings.

The Hall ejection was also inexcusable. Cuzzi knew, he *knew* that he was wrong. The worst thing is that it's not even a comedown to walk to third and ask for clarification. He had an out, and instead of doing the right thing and taking it, he made things worse by running a player who was legitimately questioning a call.

You know what pissed me off most, though? That Tosca, knowing that Halladay was already down 1-0, and knowing that there were two runners that were Halladay's, and knowing that every run and every loss dents Halladay's Cy chances, still called for Dandy Dan
Reichert from the pen to try to snuff out the D-Rays. That pisses me off... it's almost like Tosca was deliberately spiting HLH.

Halladay's scoreless innings streak ended at 41, by the way, with the Lugo homer.

Not to disagree with you, Craig B, but out of curiosity, who would you have brought in?

Craig,

I think it was a consecutive inning no earned run streak - there was that unearned run in Tampa Bay, I believe.

Robert, you're right. It was no earned runs, not no runs

I have Robert Dudek's back on this one.
It doesn't make the record any less impressive, though...

I thought he would go to Vinnie right away. Chulk's decent performance tonight was overshadowed by the gross ineptitude of Cousy.

I think it was called inside and he missed his spot badly (rattled after the two hits?).

I think his control was getting off before the hit-batter; in particular, the home run pitch caught more of the middle of the plate than he presumably wanted.

It's possible this turn of events could end up helping Halladay's Cy Young chances. While he lost a chance for a win, he also lost a chance for an "earned" loss (maybe he was destined to allow a bunch of runs before Tosca would have reluctantly pulled him). He'll get considerable publicity over this event. (My feeling is that Halladay was likely to win the Cy Young regardless, given his lead in wins and innings pitched.)

Wilner is still calling it a curveball. Cerutti called it a 95-mph fastball after the game. (I was watching in HD; it was a fastball.)

You know what pissed me off most, though? That Tosca, knowing that Halladay was already down 1-0, and knowing that there were two runners that were Halladay's, and knowing that every run and every loss dents Halladay's Cy chances, still called for Dandy Dan
Reichert from the pen to try to snuff out the D-Rays.

He probably would have brought in one of his best relievers except they are no doubt "gassed". Now, why would that be, Mr Tosca? Could it possibly be because you have been working them inning after inning in meaningless games defending huge leads? Nah, you wouldn't be that stupid, would you? You'd save your best relievers until you needed them, wouldn't you?....

Dan, I'm not exactly sure who I would have actually called for if I had been on the spot. I do know that I would be treating the two Halladay starts as the most important games I had, and managing my bullpen and lineup accordingly.

If you ask me now, I'd say Kershner, especially with Lee as the first hitter due up. Lopez pitched 1.1 yesterday and two full innings on Friday, and he's probably tired, I wouldn't have gone for him at all today.

Politte would also have been an acceptable choice.

I also thought "Bowles?" but Bowles must be hurt... he hasn't pitched in two weeks.

Understand... I don't object to bringing Reichert into this game. Not at all. I object to using him in that particular situation... nobody out and two of Halladay's runners on base. In this game, the important inning is RIGHT NOW. Yes, it's only the 6th, but if the Jays get out ofthis inning unscathed, they have a good chance to grab HLH a no-decision, and limit the damage against him.

Could someone explain the HLH abbreviation to me? I'm not in the loop regarding this particular method of shorthand for Roy Halladay.

Halladay's full name is Harry Leroy Halladay III, so HLH are his initials. Interestingly, 'Harry' is the first name of the Sundance Kid (Harry Longabaugh) and 'Leroy' is the middle name of Butch Cassidy (Robert LeRoy Parker).

Wilner announced at the end of the post game show that both teams had been warned before the game.

Holy crap. Well, I got a doozy for my 60th game of the season.

It would be great to see some witty signs taking down Cuzzi tomorrow.

What's the correct spelling of his name? Suggestions to my e-mail (above) are appreciated, otherwise I'll just go with CUZZI: HOW MUCH MONEY DID YOU MAKE LAST NIGHT? Eight feet long.

Where will he rotate to? Third base? I'll go sit in left field.

Hey, two bits of news: first, the Blue Jays Cheer Club (current members: me) will shortly have a recruiting website. Hopefully by tomorrow.

Second, I will have some spare tickets to tomorrow's game, possibly as many as 14. I'll give 'em to the first Batter's Box readers who e-mail me. They're cheap seats, but that really doesn't mean much in the Dome. My one request is that you come out and scream and shout with me, so we can make this a sort of trial run for the Cheer Club...I'm hoping to maybe have the first "official" Cheer Club outing on the weekend, probably Sunday as not to conflict with the BP Pizza Feed thing.

Wilner announced at the end of the post game show that both teams had been warned before the game.

Why would this be? I don't recall there being a lot of hostility between these two teams. And there's no pennant race to get heated up over. Or were the umpires just warning the teams that they were in a pet tonight and less likely to put up with anything?

Halladay just threw 5 pitches in top of the 6th:

A 93-mph fastball missed outside (to the right-handed batter Lugo).

The next pitch was fastball over the middle, a bit up. Lugo pulled it on a line over the left-field fence. Cerutti didn't consider the location of the pitch typical for Halladay, a groundball pitcher.

The next pitch was missed by Sportsnet showing replays (what were the odds). It was a foul ball, but I couldn't see the type or location.

The next pitch was a curve that the left-handed batting Huff lined to right-field. Cerutti again criticized the location (a breaking ball he left up).

The next pitch was the fastball that hit Baldelli in the back. Baldelli staggered to the ground. Cuzzi ejected Halladay. Cash's swearing at Cuzzi was heard on Sportsnet. Cuzzi warned Cash, who walked away as Tosca picked up the argument. Tosca somehow stayed in the game.

That was disgusting. Of all the games I've seen this year, this was the most disappointing. Gross incompetence and incredible arrogance is a common characteristic among big-league umpires, and Phil Cuzzi leads the way. Whether it was a curveball, as Mike Wilner suggests, or the tailing cutter I thought I saw, is irrelevant. There was no intent, therefore no cause for ejection.

When Josh Phelps faced Roger Clemens for the first time on Opening Day, the Rocket, still smarting from the approximately 1000 feet of homers Josh blasted off him in their previous meeting months earlier, zipped a fastball between the 1 and the 7. No ejection for an obviously premeditated beanball.

That's three games decided by the umps this year against the Jays. Kerwin Danley signalling an out which led to a triple play, then reversing his call into a bases-loaded, no-out situation while Hendrickson sat for 15 minutes was an appalling strike one. The gutless non-call when Manny Ramirez interfered with Greg Myers on a throw to second with two outs in the ninth at Fenway was strike two.

To those who jumped on the selection of Dan Reichert in a situation that never should have existed, keep in mind that nobody was warming up. Vinny Chulk has been a starter all year; it would have been foolish to rush him into action on short notice. If Tosca thought Reichert could get ready quickly, that's good enough for me. Truth is, it never should have been an issue, and criticizing the manager is missing the point -- Phil Cuzzi ruined a perfectly good ball game, and should not get the chance to do it again at any level above beer-league slow-pitch. The earned runs on Doc's record are the ump's. He should be ashamed.

According to reports on The FAN 590, Cuzzi did issue a "warning" to the managers before the game, supposedly based on previous bad blood between the teams, or some other ridiculous assumption. Carlos Tosca issued a statement saying, in part, that he chose not to tell Halladay, as it might have been a distraction. This one isn't going away quietly.

I've heard Named For Hank yell, and I guarantee you Cuzzi will hear him tomorrow. I think everyone who can get there should join him and the Cheer Club should start as the Jeer Club.

We were in 123...it was certainly a heater. Delgado stood twenty feet up the first base line throughout Reichert's warm-up, arms folded, staring down the umpire.

Frankly, if the Jays wanted to hit somebody it would have been Carl Crawford [who could still use a fastball in the back, say tomorrow, for his comments in the last series about the Jays being a two-man offence].

Cuzzi was wrong, and he knew it. It had the potential to be a very long argument on the field between Cuzzi and Tosca. Remember back in the St. Louis series when the umpires overturned themselves and Tosca had to argue until he was thrown out. But of course the umps knew that the Jays just got screwed, so they didn't want to toss Tosca. It was funny, how long it lasted. That could have happened tonight, except that Tosca gave up talking to that idiot Cuzzi.

Hey Coach, remember when Bordick tagged the basestealer clearly out in Tampa Bay in early August (was it?) for what seemed the game-ending third out? The Jays and Senor Acevado lost that game in 10. So that's 4 games blown by umpires.

You know, you don't have to exercise your imagination too much to construct a scenario where the Jays win this game 2-1. Could Halladay have gotten out of the sixth without further damage? Sure. No guarantees, but it's certainly possible. Could he have thrown another scoreless inning or two? Don't see why not; he's been doing it all month. Could the bullpen have taken care of things from there? Well, if the Rays couldn't score off Chulk in three innings, I don't see why the frontline relievers couldn't have handled things about as well. Could the Jays have scored their two runs in a different game situation? There's no basis to say they couldn't. Hey, if they weren't so mad, they might have been able to score more.

5-2 doesn't look like a close game, but this is probably the closest 5-2 game I've ever seen.

My apologies. I've been checking out this site for a while, and really enjoying your commentary. Since I've messed up twice in three days, I feel obligated to post on here and fess up.

It was a fastball that hit Baldelli, not a curveball as I (embarrassingly) said all night. That's been confirmed by Kevin Cash. I thought I saw a lot of break on it as it approached the plate, but it was a cutter.

And I re-iterate my on-air apology for messing up the Braves-Marlins score the other night, that was a cbssportsline.com screw-up (never trust them!) but I should have investigated instead of just reading the score.

I enjoy this website, and appreciate all your kind words!

Mike,

Thanks for dropping in. By the way, everyone, we have an interview with Mike being published sometime in the next few days. If you feel brave enough to learn the terrifying truth about the most decadent and depraved baseball postgame radio show in the entire city of Toronto, don't miss it.

But Mike, you really don't need to apologize for that. It happens.

...but it was a cutter
Nice call Coach.

Hey Coach, remember when Bordick tagged the basestealer clearly out in Tampa Bay in early August (was it?) for what seemed the game-ending third out?

Right on, Jason. Marlon Anderson didn't slide and ran right into the tag. Umpy blew it bad. So that's four this year. Four game-altering calls out of a million I could live with. Four out of 156 is unforgivable. And MLB doesn't hold these clowns accountable.

the most decadent and depraved baseball postgame radio show in the entire city of Toronto

Damn, what channel is that on? I've been listening to Wilner all year.

Kudos, Mike, for admitting your "mistake." Good grief, you call well over 162 games a year; I think you're entitled to miss one or two curveballs/cutters per year. And I second what Craig says: no need to apologi(s)ze.

On one of my usually completely unrelated note, it is bizarre for me to see "Cuzzi" mentioned so many times without pausing and wondering: oh for goodness sake, what are they saying NOW about me?

Why would there be a pre-game warning issued? Did it have anything to do with the incident (last year?) where Huff was hit in the helmet? I'm pretty sure that Tampa retaliated at the time, but my memory is fuzzy.

Thanks Mike. We're lucky to have Tom, Jerry and yourself on the radio.

The pitch broke in toward the right-handed batter (the opposite direction of a cutter). I believe it was his 2-seam fastball. Halladay's is hard and moves a lot.

I have to second Coach's impression. It was probably a tailing cutter because it had quite a bit of movement to it. It seemed faster than Doc's hard curve.

Why would there be a pre-game warning issued?

I have no idea, Justin. Presumably the crew had heard of bad blood between the two teams and wanted to try to ensure themselves a trouble-free series. Way to go, guys.

I *do* know that it's a bad idea to issue a pre-game warning. Why? Because it derogates from the umpire's control over the game. Warn teams for events that didn't happen on the field of play, and now suddenly you face a situation where you have to do something to protect your control of the game, that you otherwise wouldn't have to.

As an umpire, you need to remember that the only thing you can control (and the one thing you need to establish control over) are the events inside the dugouts and the field of play. Nothing else, as an umpire, is a matter of concern to you. But when you issue a warning in the clubhouse before the game, you have brought a whole passel of unrelated events to bear on what goes on in that area... and so you've lost a bit more control.

Halladay's ejection was a perfect example.

I don't think that Cuzzi had any choice, in the actual circumstances, but to run Halladay. He had already issued a warning to both managers. Halladay had hit Rolls in the fourth, and he had let it slide. Now Halladay hits Baldelli in the back on the first pitch, two batters after giving up a home run. What can he do? If you let it slide, you're telling both dugouts - especially Tampa Bay - that your word isn't worth the paper it's not printed on. It might not be intentional, but it looks identical to an intentional plunking. You *have* to run the pitcher, or you've utterly lost control of the game.

Now what could you have done if you were worried about the game flaring up? Let them start, and wait for the first sign of aggression. Maybe it's Halladay hitting Rolls... though that was obviously unintentional. Maybe it's words on the field, or from a dugout. You do not have to wait for a hit batter, or even a pitch inside. Just give the warning when you feel the circumstances warrant it. That way it's public, it's unquestionable, and nobody hops up and down when there's an ejection. And you keep control over the game.

Plus, as we know now, Tosca did get the warning from the umpiring crew but chose not to tell Halladay, so as not to upset his rhythm or give him unnecessary worries (something I entierly approve of). That's another risk you run in going to a manager... that the word won't get through to the people you want to reach - the players. As an umpire, you don't issue a warning so you can throw people out easier. You do it to put players on their guard and keep them on the straight and narrow. That doesn't work if you tell the manager in private, because you have no way of knowing whether their players will get that message.

I thought that after a general warning is issued, if a pitcher is thrown out of the game for intentionally throwing at a batter, the manager is AUTOMATICALLY thrown out as well.

I'm puzzled as to why that didn't occur.