I've got four walls around me
The sun in the sky, the water surrounds me
I'll win now, but sometimes I'll lose
I've been battered, but I'll never bruise
I's not so bad
John Gibbons is smiling today, improving his franchise-best record to 4-0 as manager of the Blue Jays (1-0 as officialy grand poobah). Jason Frasor and Hideki Matsui made it close, but Josh Towers, pitching for next season's contract, and Gabe Gross with his first big-league home run, led the way. Read all about it:
The Star: Jays rally behind new boss
The Sun: Perfect start
MLB.com: Jays snap five-game skid
The Globe & Mail: Jays manage a win
Ladies and gentlemen, the quotable JP Ricciardi:
Players discuss Tosca's dismissal --"I'm not afraid of someone saying my (rear-end) is on the line. I didn't take this job with the understanding that this was going to be cookies, cake and ice cream"
J.P. goes on defensive -- "We didn't hire a manager to come in here and implement his plan. We hired a manager to implement our plan and I think last season it worked pretty successfully. This year it didn't."
Gibbons takes flight with Jays -- "[Gibbons is] here because I brought him here. In that sense, he's one of my guys. Tosca was, too. I don't think he's auditioning. I've seen Gibby manage a lot in Double-A and Triple-A, and I know what he's capable of doing. I know the respect players have for him."
"It's tough replacing a good friend" -- "He just grabbed me as I was coming through the clubhouse and said, `Stick around, I've got to talk to you later,'" Gibbons said yesterday. "So then, I kind of knew something was up."
Elsewhere around the e-baseball world:
Weekend of firsts for Gross -- "I don't think I could ask for a better weekend," Gross said. "First callup, Yankee Stadium, get a home run in my last game to go with a win."
Ricciardi's selling a one-way ticket to nowhere -- Really, the most anti-Blue Jay person in the Star's editorial department is the headline writer, because in fairness, that's not the thesis of Garth Woolsey's column. But with descriptions like "his stats-driven, my-way-or-the-highway style," it isn't exactly a paean either. Memo to every sportswriter in the world: Ricciardi is not a stats guy. He's a baseball lifer with a lengthy and decorated scouting and player development background. Criticize the man all you want, but at least get your facts straight first.
'Sluggish' excuse doesn't hold up -- the Griffin-Ricciardi war continues, as the columnist discovers that professional ballplayers and coaches don't like agreeing on the record that they gave up on the season and on their manager. As Griffin's columns go, this wasn't so great; I'd give it a 4 out of 10 on the attack scale.
Team Canada loses ace -- Jeff Francis will be in Denver, not Athens, this summer. Another sharp blow to the Canadian Olympians' hopes of a medal.
Finally, there's this item: Ricciardi says he's in the crosshairs -- Jeff Blair does the unthinkable: he brings up the war of words between the Jays GM and the city's two most prominent baseball columnists:
Ricciardi knows that what he is faced with this morning is a consumer confidence issue, just as it was on the morning he fired Martinez. He was ripped in the Toronto press for the firing, but that's hardly surprising, because it's no secret he has been involved in a bitterly personal dispute with columnists Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star and Bob Elliot of The Toronto Sun.
Some of it is philosophical ? by this point, you'd like both sides of the tiresome Moneyball debate to just shut up and enjoy the game ? and some of it stems from the fact that in cleaning out the Blue Jays' scouting and player development staff in order to tighten expenses, Ricciardi likely weeded out a few sources in the process.
Daily Diversion: Hey! It's that guy from that movie!
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20040810094722999