A 21 Hour Mini-Split

Thursday, April 20 2006 @ 09:01 AM EDT

Contributed by: Rob

The Blue Jays couldn't keep it going yesterday afternoon against Mike Mussina, after knocking Randy Johnson up and down Front Street. The result is a simple two-game split, leaving both teams at the .500 mark they entered the series with, and further behind the Red Sox.

Now, while the Advance Scouts are generally some of the best work on this site (he says humbly), I was thinking the other day: do we ever look back at them after the fact? Not to point out the flaws, of course, but to see how helpful it was. The fact that I'm reviewing an Advance Scout that I didn't write is purely coincidental; I assure you I am a fan of Bruce Wrigley's writing -- I actually have a book of his from a few years ago and I endorse it heartily. So that's not the point here -- it's simply a fun exercise in hindsight.

On to the Advance Scout Review!

General: The Yankees came into the series hitting .301 with a .502 slugging average -- it's now down a bit after they went .279 and .471 respectively ... The top-to-bottom offense fell off somewhat, as just six different regulars (plus Kelly Stinnett) got a hit in Tuesday's game and five regulars did so yesterday (plus Andy Phillips) ... Still two games under their Pythagorean record of 9-5 ... Speaking of indifferent defense, how about Gary Sheffield? ... Shawn Chacon was used out of the bullpen on Tuesday, two days after doing so on Sunday, so give Bruce another point ... Whatever "Satan, Lord of Darkness" refers to, I wasn't aware of it yesterday. The only non-baseball person I saw on the diamond was Cindy Klassen, who is possibly the exact opposite of the devil ...

Mariano Rivera: Nothing out of the ordinary here -- though after being held out of Tuesday's game, he was probably coming in yesterday even if it wasn't a save situation ...

Jason Giambi: Went a combined 1-for-6 against Chacin and Lilly, just in line with his now-career marks of 5-for-24 ... Was pretty bad defensively, at least one time, on Tuesday -- where was that throw going, anyway? ...

Randy Johnson: Not so tough to get a hit off this time, with nine base knocks by the Blue Jays ... Alex Rios picked up a double and a homer in the first two frames off Johnson, Johnson singled and walked, and Molina got a hit -- so their past success continued ...

Mike Mussina: Has yet to pitch in Yankee Stadium this year ... Allowed seven hits (six singles) after allowing six hits (all singles) against Minny ... Owned the Jays in the day game ...

Bernie Williams: Rose his average against non-KC pitching to .167 with his 1-for-5 series showing ...

Johnny Damon: Bruce Wrigley went 2-for-3 here ... Damon put up an 0-fer vs. the lefties (check) ... Showed off some Torii Hunter-like moves (hardly like The Maestro/Herbert von Karajan comparison, so nope) and is, amazingly, still a goofball! ...

Alex Rodriguez: No longer in the slump, with homers in both games ... Was better against Chacin than Lilly, as expected ... Still has no hits against B.J. Ryan (but don't look that up or else you'll see why) ... Wasn't up with the bases loaded, but was walked to load them yesterday -- am I the only one who didn't like that move? ...

Gary Sheffield: Had a nice lefthanded pitcher buffet, with five hits in six AB ... Stole another base, even if it was a double steal with Jeter ...

Robinson Cano: Did not walk, and neither did Hill or White -- as of this writing, Monroe was walkless in the bottom of the fifth. (Actually, Rondell White is hitting a lovely .098 and was replaced by Ruben Sierra -- who also batted cleanup! Mike Redmond replaced Joe Mauer, and batted third. The Twins do realize they can change the batting order, right?) ...

Kyle Farnsworth: Faced two batters, got them both out. His lats look fine ...


All in all, a fine job by Bruce Wrigley. Now, as for my thoughts on yesterday's game:

Attending the Game

Believe it or not, this is my first time seeing the Yankees in person. I've at least seen the Red Sox, but that was in Fenway. And I now understand what everyone's saying: Yankee fans are everywhere. I counted six on the GO Train, four more in Union Station, and ten more on the way over. It was easy to tell who was cheering for the New Yorkers -- once A-Rod's homer went over the wall, the pinstriped fans rose, which raises two questions:
Why do Yankee jerseys worn by the fans have names on the back?
Why do ten year olds screech for the Yankees, but simply cheer for Toronto at a level that can be heard by all mammals?

The ten year olds, by the way, were everywhere in 524. It was a school field trip day, but I question bringing the students to a day game, instead of going at night and not using school time for baseball time. As much fun as it is to skip school for Opening Day, "Random Wednesday Game" doesn't have the same pull. And let's be honest, the only schooling going on yesterday was Mike Mussina against Troy Glaus.

I did enjoy reading all the names of the schools in attendance off the ribbon boards, though. There were apparently both "Pope John Paul" and "Pope Paul" contingents in the stands, not to mention "Monsignor Percy Johnson" which I thought was referencing a VIP at the game before it was pointed out to me that a) that's a school in the, uh, non-good part of Toronto and b) when's the last time a "Monsignor" was at a baseball game, anyway?

The 500 level seats are still the best value in baseball. The only issue is that you lose a dimension on the ball. Height has no more meaning, which shouldn't change that much anyway -- you always watch the outfielders not named Gomes to determine where the ball is going. But the kids didn't realize this, and every fly ball was an expected homerun. I'm not disparaging the children, by the way. They do provide noise, a welcome change from the previous Rogers Centre experiences of "let's cheer for the stupid predetermined truck race and shut up when Wells steps in to the box."

It's hard to follow a game in person at Rogers Centre, though. There are a lot of distractions: people standing up (as one person in front of me did FOR AN ENTIRE HALF INNING...ahem, pardon me...), the wave going by, screaming kids yelling about a $4.50 ice cream sandwich, learning about Aaron Hill's bowling trophies, my mom drooling over Johnny Damon's mimboness, subtracting the length of the Skywalk hike from the departure time of the 4:10 train to make sure we get there on time, Sportsnet's Jaysvision hockey update in the fifth or sixth inning, and the bizarre "here's Scott Schoeneweis, so let's show on the scoreboard a black stick man with a red pumpkin-shaped head walking down a fashion runway with roses thrown at his feet to signify the power of a LOOGY" introduction thing.

And finally, I cannot tell you how sad I am that I did not get to witness "The Eric Hinske Experience" in person.

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