2007 season not good enough for ya?

Love the shoes though.

Yeah, I figure you meant 2007 - unless I missed a year somewhere in there. I might have.

I have a secret weapon, which I have used off and on for years. It's directed against opposing pitchers when they appear in closeup on the TV screen. I call it the Intense Triple Whammy. To direct the Whammy, I curl my open hands and flick them at the screen, as if directing beams of pure malevolent energy at my unsuspecting opponent. This has proven effective at times.

By the way, if J.P. Ricciardi still reads Da Box, I have some words of advice for him:

Re-sign Vernon Wells.
Re-sign Vernon Wells.
Re-sign Vernon Wells.

Thank you.

I guess shoe magic only works every two years.

P.S. J.P.?  Perhaps you've heard,  but let me make it clear : RESIGN VERNON WELLS!

I'm going to wear them every day from now until the season begins.

I dunno, man. If the offseason doesn't go so hot, will evil mojo be cast upon the shoes for the season?

 

This year I inherited my grandfather's 1905 American Waltham pocket watch from my late father.  It probably hadn't run for close to 60 years but it is gold filled and has my grandfather's name inscribed on it. There was only one man I knew who could fix it; Manfred Meyer in Nanaimo. He was about to close his downtown business in October and retire when I presented him with my last great challenge to his watchmaker skills.  When I returned the next week from my niece's wedding in Toronto, the watch was waiting--and running. It had been in my grandfather's vest pocket when he rallied the Nanaimo coal miners from his pulpit at Haliburton Street Methodist Church during the Great Strike of 1913.

It's going to be in my pocket when the Blue Jays win the Championship in 2007.

Secret weapon:  My wife and her pretty pink Yankee's cap.  She said she was going to get a Jays hat but she came back with a pink Yankee's cap because it was "cute".  At first I wouldn't let her sit with me while she was wearing that hat but of course, after having a little fun, I eventually conceded.  We won. (It was against the Redsox by the way, not the Yankees).  The Jays are 5-0 at the Roger's Center when I've gone there with my wife and her pink Yankee's cap.  Maybe I should try having her put it on when watching the games at home on TV.

What happens when you write up an article as soon as you wake up, while a rambunctious two-year-old runs around you shouting "woo-HOO" as loud as he can?

Yeah, you forget what year it is.

Dave Perkins in The Star believes that Ted Lilly signed with the Cubs because the Jays resigned Greg Zaun.  He suggests the two don't see eye-to-eye.

If true, that could help to explain the focus on Barajas when many of us believed Zaun was better. Perhaps it was as much as a matter of pleasing Lilly as it was saving a couple of million bucks or signing a roughly comparable (as some argued), but younger, player.

It seems a bit strange that JP would make a decision based,in part, on a free agent's preference for Toronto's catcher when there was no guarantee he would resign in Toronto. However, maybe JP strongly believed that Lilly would come back if Zaun was gone and if he didn't believe there was a big difference in Barajas and Zaun, he decided to try to make returning to Toronto more appealing to Lilly.

Some argued that Zaun wasn't well liked in the clubhouse and this may support that conclusion. However, I suspect, based on his reputation as a bit off a headcase and someone who is very difficult to coach, that Lilly is as much to blame in this relationship as Zaun. Or more.

This Griffin article a few days ago (this is a bit old) made me laugh a bit. 

"He talks the language like Ted likes," Lilly's agent, Larry O'Brien, said of Piniella. "He's going to give you every opportunity to win the game ... let the bats tell you when you come out....In Lilly's mind, Gibbons had often taken him out before he felt that he was out of gas. Maybe it was not the blowup that prompted Lilly to walk. Perhaps it was the way he was used all season — 20 of 25 starts with six innings or fewer from April 11 on — that made him seek a new manager. "

Um, Eeeyore, if you really left T.O. because you think Pinella is gonna give you a long leash, you are one dumb boy.  I remember more than one Lilly start where he would blow through 90 plus pitches through 5 innings, often because he would lose the strike zone or get two outs, and then start walking guys, for who knows what reason.  This is the essence of the Tease.  If you go 120 pitches every start, you are going to be cooked by July. He probably didn't like Zaun because Zaun probably told him more than once to stop f-ing around, and Eeyore needed his ego stroked or something. 

Silly.

What happens when you write up an article as soon as you wake up, while a rambunctious two-year-old runs around you shouting "woo-HOO" as loud as he can?

Yeah, you forget what year it is.

That doesn't make any sense.  If this was last year, Named For Ted would only be one year old, and he would be too young to be running around shouting.  You're going to have to do better than that, I'm afraid.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to do back to daydreaming about that sandwich.

Someone asked me how old I was the other day and I had to think about it.  Then I had to ask what year it was and do the math.

And Theo wasn't even there, so I guess I can't blame him.

"Someone asked me how old I was the other day and I had to think about it.  Then I had to ask what year it was and do the math."

Aging does have some strange effects ;)  But I sure do like the shoes. :)

Someone asked me how old I was the other day and I had to think about it.

I get this question wrong all the time.  Thankfully, once you start making mistakes about this, it's pretty much too late for those mistakes to make any difference.

I've got an enchanted jockstrap.

...and we don't wanna hear about it.

I love the shoes. What was the price tag on them?

Pricey, but covered by extended health insurance -- they're custom orthotic footwear.  E-mail me for details (click on my name and then click the e-mail link).