The Toronto Blue Jays regret to announce the passing of former coach and team executive Al Widmar. Albert Joseph Widmar died on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma after a battle with colon cancer at the age of 80. Widmar first joined the Blue Jays organization on November 1, 1979 ... Read the full media release.
Latino naming conventions are somewhat different, of course, so we will make some allowances for what "surname" means by focusing on those players who commonly used the name as the "second" or "family" name -- you know, the one that appears on the back of the jersey. That means that former All-Star middle infielders Carlos Jesus Garcia Guerrero and Damaso Domingo Garcia Sanchez are eligible. They'd better be ..
I regarded the results as very good news for the 2006 Blue Jays. If the Jays score 775 runs and allow 705 next year, they're much more likely to go 89-73 than to put up another 80-82 record. I may not have been Named for Hank, but I know when the glass is half-full.
Of course Martin, the 16th-most common North American surname, is literally only 75 percent of the name that Martinez is (the first six of eight letters is three-quarters, or 75 percent, natch) and Martinez is the 19th-most popular North American surname (though there have actually been more big league Martinezes, 33, than Martins), so we'll visit Hall of Names team for both ...
Additionally, the Jays have outrighted Jason Arnold and Raul Tablado to Syracuse.
No truth to the rumours that Chuck Finley is starting the second game.
But for baseball? Well, the biggest name is that of a Hall of Famer, sure, but a manager -- Bucky. Actually, like his (Sparky) Anderson predecessor, Bucky Harris was also a starting 2B in the big leagues, but where the Andersons had Garrett and Brady and a few other guys to populate the lineup, the case can be made that Bucky, at .274 over parts of 12 seasons, is actually the best hitter -- even the best player -- on an All-Harris team.
