Breaking News: Hardcore Blue Jays Fans Lose Their Minds

Yesterday Blue Jays General Manager Alex Anthopoulos made a deal to obtain the recently acquired Anthony Gose from the Houston Astros for Blue Jays Superstar first baseman of the future Brett Wallace.

For the most part fan reaction across various Jays forums and comments sections has been a little on the extreme side.
Which is somewhat fair considering that Wallace was part of the Halladay deal, noted for his special bat and very much hyped to be our first baseman in the near future.

As for Gose this is a player that AA has been high on for a long time. They tried to make him part of the Halladay deal and have failed to acquire him in spring training and during the season.

AA has been quick to mention that Gose is "an athletic center fielder with outstanding competitiveness, makeup, leadership skills. He's someone who's in a tough league at a young age, but really a guy who is a game changer."

Something must be up with Wallace for AA to sour on him so quick. His stats in AAA Las Vegas haven't exactly been jaw dropping and he is a player that has been included in three blockbuster trades before he even hits the majors.

Gose isn't exactly lighting the world on fire either. He has 103 K's in 103 games and has been caught stealing 27 times already this year.
He is however noted for his defensive skills and his arm, which has been clocked in the high 90s off the mound.

He has been compared to both Michael Bourn and Carl Crawford already in his young career. Needless to say at the age of 18 he still has a lot of developing to do and is at least 2-3 years away from making any impact on the big league club.

I don't expect first base to remain a problem in the near future. Adam Lind has made a lot of progress in his training in first base and played first in college.

I would like to give the benefit of doubt to AA on this one. He hasn't steered us wrong yet when it comes obtaining players via trade.

The trade deadline isn't over yet either and AA might be obtaining a new first basemen of future in the next few days. Let's just hope that it isn't Mike Jacobs.

Edwin Jackson's Effectively Wild Ride

Two pitchers have already thrown perfect games this year - three if you include Armando Galarraga. That’s incredible considering there have only been 20 perfect games in the entire history of the MLB. Maybe it's because we’ve witnessed two of these incredible feats already this year but I was thoroughly unimpressed with Edwin Jackson’s no-hitter on Friday night. Or maybe I was unimpressed because it was so patently brutal.

Jackson no-hit the Tampa Bay Rays, the same team both Mark Buehrle and Dallas Braden threw perfect games against. But instead of dominating the Rays, like Buehrle and Braden did, Jackson walked an astonishing eight batters, hit one, and threw a wild pitch. Additionally, two Rays stole a base. There was even a moment in the third inning where Jackson had walked the bases loaded with none out, yet somehow managed to escape unharmed. Despite his no-hit bid there were relievers warming up for almost the entire game. It wasn’t pretty.

By the time the game ended Jackson had thrown 149 pitches, the most thrown in the majors since 2005 when Livan Hernandez threw 150 against the Marlins. As a result, Jackson will have his next start pushed back from Wednesday to either Friday or Saturday. This is a good decision considering over Jackson's last 10 starts he has averaged over 7 innings and close to 116 pitches per game.

As the Diamondbacks recorded the final out and Jackson’s no-hitter was preserved the team rushed the pitcher and he let out an exuberant cry. I understand that no-hitters are fun, but celebrating something this wacky seems more than strange.

We’re living in the Sabrmetrics era where there is such an emphasis placed on OBP, so why do we still cheer for no-hitters, especially ones as poor as this? The no-hitter just seems to be archaic in today’s game. Sure, I guess it’s a fun thing to celebrate when it happens since they won’t happen every week, but they’re nothing to lose it over.

This isn’t actually the worst no-hitter ever thrown. A.J. Burnett threw a no-hitter in 2001 when he was still on the Marlins, except he walked 9 batters. And Doc Ellis no-hit the Padres in 1970 while walking eight and hitting one – all while high on LSD. Sorry, that’s actually the best no-hitter ever thrown.

Freak Injuries or Stupidity?

Baseball players are athletes…barely. Baseball is easily the least physically demanding out of the four major North American sports, and pales in comparison to the rigours of soccer.

John Kruk, who was never the poster boy for gym memberships, was a three-time All-Star and a career .300 hitter (with an OBP close to .400) over 10 major league seasons. He even titled his autobiography I Ain’t an Athlete, Lady.

Kruk certainly isn’t representative of all major leaguers, but his success suggests that you don’t necessarily have to be in good shape to be a good baseball player. In fact, the old adage was that working out would actually hinder a baseball player’s ability. The conventional wisdom was that increased muscularity would affect a player’s ability to hit inside fastballs because it would take away from their bat speed. I suppose the steroid era changed that thinking drastically.

Because of baseball’s less than athletic requirements I always find it funny when players injure themselves in hilarious fashion. This year there have already been two prime candidates for hilarity. However, I haven’t really been laughing considering both players were supposed to be integral parts of my fantasy baseball team.

Jimmy Rollins injured his calf with stretching before an April game against the Nationals. Seriously? Stretching? Come on Jimmy. He re-injured the same calf mere days after he was activated from the disabled list. He’s been limited to 12 games this year. He’s supposed to return from his second DL stint at the end of this weekend, but I’m not holding my breath.

The other funnier (for everyone but me) and more debilitating injury happened to Angel’s first baseman Kendry Morales. Morales hit a walk-off grand slam against the Seattle Mariners and proceeded to fracture his ankle while celebrating at home plate. Yes, he slipped on home plate and snapped his ankle. He is out for the rest of the season. This is unfortunate because Morales had appeared in every game for the Angels and was hitting .290 with 11 home runs and 39 RBIs.

Blue Jays pitcher Brett Cecil had a set-back this spring when he cut his hand while making food, which actually turned out to be a fortuitous injury. The injury forced Cecil to throw only fastballs and change-ups. The development of his change-up has turned Cecil into a more effective pitcher. Cecil is 7-3 with a 3.58 ERA and is a big reason for the Jays’ surprising success this season.

Cecil’s injury isn’t nearly as bad as Ricky Romero’s first stint on the DL last season. Romero strained his oblique while sneezing. He attempted to pitch through the injury, but left during his next start as a precaution. You know baseball is hazardous when you have to be careful how you sneeze.

These injuries aren’t necessarily aberrations. It seems like the history of the MLB is littered with tales of major leaguers who are placed on the disabled list for bizarre reasons.

Wade Boggs once missed seven games after he strained his back while putting on cowboy boots.

John Smoltz once scalded himself while ironing a shirt… that he was still wearing…

Bret Barberie, best known for being the husband of TV personality Jillian Barberie, missed a game because he accidentally rubbed chilli juice in his eyes.

Rich Harden, now of the Texas Rangers, once strained his shoulder turning off his alarm clock. This is a man who has only once started more than 30 games and pitched in less than 75 innings in 2006 and 2007 combined, so maybe it isn’t entirely surprising that the alarm clock was his undoing in this instance.

During the 2006 ALCS flame throwing reliever Joel Zumaya of the Detroit Tigers missed three games because of inflammation in his right throwing wrist. This was caused by excessively playing Guitar Hero.

Sometimes teammates get in on the fun as well. Doc Gooden missed a start because his teammate struck him with a golf club in the locker room. It was allegedly accidental, but if Doc Gooden was involved then there was probably some drug money owed (oh, that’s just hateful of me).

Then there are the countless times a player (most often a pitcher) breaks their hand or wrist attacking a water cooler or punching a wall. What are these players thinking! That’s their money-maker! Example: John Tudor, upset with his performance in the 1985 World Series, punched an electric fan and tore up his hand.

Speaking of anger, Milton Bradley once tore his knee confronting an umpire over a dubious call. There was allegedly some racial remarks said to Bradley, which is what caused his ire, but we’ll never know for sure. What we do know for sure is that Milton Bradley is certifiably crazy.

These may all sound stupid, but often players make up stupid excuses to hide what they were really doing. Yes, it’s possible telling people you fractured your wrist washing your car is less stupid than something else. That’s what Jeff Kent told team officials, except rumours are he broke it doing tricks on his motorcycle (which was a breach of his contract).

There are literally hundreds of these injuries that plague baseball players. Yes, Bobby Baun can score an overtime goal on a broken leg in the Stanley Cup Final, but certain baseball players can’t seem to put on a pair of boots or eat a donut without taking a trip to the DL.

A Day At The Ballpark

June 5th, 2010

        It was a warm, sunny day in Southern Ontario. The skies were clear and spirits were high as the Toronto Blue Jays were riding high on the previous day's victory over the New York Yankees. Today would be the perfect day for a big game. Taking the mound, for the Jays, was the immaculate Ricky Romero, ready to Rick Roll the Bronx Bombers and give the Jays a chance to take the series win ahead of Sunday's finale.

        After slowly rolling through an hour and a half of construction-induced traffic, we pull up to our regular parking lot... full. The game must be packed, I pronounce this a good sign... my girlfriend says she's getting a headache.

        Getting to the box office around the bottom of the first inning, I meet my sister and her boyfriend, who thank me thoroughly for my lateness and tell me that the entire outfield is sold-out and they are unwilling to sit in Outer Mongolia (see: the 500s). I bid farewell to my beer money as I pay $60 for a 3rd base-line 100 seat, I'm broke but excited, cause if the outfield is completely sold-out, then man, this joint is gonna be jumping.

        We make our way inside the stadium, just in time for the top of the 2nd, and the score is 0-0, obviously waiting for my attendance before the real action starts. Taking our seats, I notice there are only a few vacant spots in the lower bowl and outfield stands, probably the biggest crowd I have seen all season. Despite the large attendance, the crowd is murmuring quietly, with only a few breaks in the silence from a couple loud smack-talkers one section over. Little did I know, these two gentleman would soon change the course of my life for hours to come.

        The Jays didn't wait long to get a hit, with Vernon leading off the bottom of the 2nd with a typical Jays hit; a just-over-the-wall solo home-run. Ok, I was now officially ready for a blood-bath, I'm talking a bombs away, no-holds barred, Ken Griffey Jr's Slugfest... Griffey, Griffey, Griffey! Today, I would be disappointed.

        Around the 4th inning there was a disturbance in the next section over as the two heckle buddies in the next section over, were informed that they had mistakenly sat in seats for which they did not have tickets and would have to therefore move. They scanned their surrounding area, and their eyes locked on two empty seats a couple rows ahead of me. As everyone in our section groaned, the two squawkers moved into the seats, asking everyone they passed if they were Yankees fans, because they were Jays fans and would not be willing to sit with Yankees fans. I was tempted to take off my Jays hat and announce that I was Jeter and A-Rod's forbidden love child, but I resisted the urge.

        Besides, I was interested to see what these two guys were going to pull out in their jeers, maybe tap into the fact that A-Rod gets a lot of money or did steroids, you know, the old classics. Or how about the fact that Jeter is old and over-rated? Those have been good for the last 4 or 5 years now. Alas, no, their material consisted of one line "HEY A-ROD!", two minutes of silence, "HEY A-ROD!" and this went on and on. I'm all for heckling, but these guys were obviously not on their game... unless their game was enforcing public misery

        To compound matters there was a group of 4 or 5 Yankees fans sitting a few more rows ahead with a Jeter-jersey-clad ringleader constantly attempting to start "Let's Go Yankees!" chants, to which the two Toronto fans had no response, no witty repartee, just "HEY A-ROD!" whenever the feeling struck them. Actually the best response we had was from an old, bigoted hillbilly behind me, telling one of them to "Shut up, Bin Laden!"... yes, very classy, sir.

        Just as I was beginning to feel like these Yankees fans were getting too cocky, they were put in their place by a guy in a backwards Red Sox hat, who walked a good 10 rows down to stand across from the Yankees fans and simply said "Yankees suck!" and flipped them off, to great applause from the entire section. I guess we really do hate New York more than Boston.

        The game progressed with Jeter hitting an effeminate home-run and then shaving and sweating in reverse I assume, and Alex Gonzalez doing his thing in the 7th... striking out constantly but hitting a dinger to make up for it.

        The 9th inning was stressful (Downs), and the 10th mortifying (Gregg). By this time the "Hey A-Rod!" twins had drunken themselves to sleep, so the entertainment had turned to other fans trying to bribe the middle-aged man behind them to slap, pinch or somehow physically wake them. I turned to my girlfriend to ask her for waking ideas to find she had followed their lead and was looking like she had gone into the clubhouse to grab a jacket.

        Knowing my time left at the park was now growing short, I promised one more inning and we would leave. After breaking and re-making that promise at the end of the 11th, I was praying for some kind of offense. I wouldn't be so lucky and had to leave before the game was decided, a shameful situation for sure, but some things are more important than staying at the SkyDome for 4 hours... and alright, I was getting pretty freakin' bored myself.

        As we drove back into the traffic over the horizon, I thought to myself how it would be great to go to a Yankees game in New York and see what kind of heckling I could get away with, but I then remembered that I valued my legs, and switched to contemplating how the Jays could win a battle of the bullpens. The baseball gods answered by presenting Chad Gaudin, the vulnerable exhaust vent on the Yankees Death Star. Game: Blue Jays.

Gotta love a nice day at the park...

Baseball Mascots: The List

There is truly much to be said about a man (or woman) who masquerades around in a foam costume for hours doing fist pumps and high-fiving kids, and probably half of those things are not good. I mean, when you get down to it, these are people willing to wear a thick furry suit for 3-4 hours at a time, through the dog days of summer, all while not speaking, and getting no notoriety for their suffering. Whether this kind of masochism should be respected or concerning is uncertain, but either way there are quite a few interesting mascots and some good stories to go with them.

1. Mr. Met


A normal human body... with the head of a baseball. Fucking genius! There is something very creepy about his immobile facial features and his deep penetrating stare, but Mr. Met is one of the most well-known mascots out there. Mr. Red tried to emulate him, but his shit was weak.

As the first live mascot back in 1964, Mr. Met was an innovator of the mascot profession, but that didn't protect him from the marketing department, who axed him in the early 70s, and he didn't actually return until 1992, when an impassioned Mets fan spear-headed a revival effort.

If you're looking for disturbing/hilarious footage of a mascot, Mr. Met will be right at the top of the list, with many parody videos popping up on youtube, including classic Conan O'Brien sketches that involve Mr. Met in several, shall we say, compromising situations (here).

2. The Philly Phanatic


The Phanatic has been another iconic figure in the mascot scene, after the disappearance of Mr. Met, the Phanatic and his junk-gyration started the real insurgence of MLB mascots. He was designed by the same team behind Expos mascot Youppi! as well as the Muppets, hence the familiar furry face appearance.

Some of the Phanatic's crowning achievements include getting a beat-down from Tommy Lasorda (here) as well as a good showing on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, that involved getting beat-down by Green Man (here).

Across the ocean, there is even a Japanese version of the Phanatic called Slyly, who works as the mascot for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, a team also noted for employing Micky, a dog that brings umpires new balls from the dugout... revolutionary stuff.

3. BJ Birdie


Romping through Exhibition Stadium and later SkyDome, this Birdie was the only BJ that mattered to scores of young Jays fans (too crude?). BJ was cool because he looked kind of worn, and wasn't based on the "too cool for skool" model like current mascot Ace, y'know, bad ass reputation, might just tell you to "Sit On it", Ala Poochy from the Simpsons. BJ was bad ass, he just didn't brag about it, at one point he was even ejected from a game, when the umpire determined that BJ was trying to "show him up" in a 1993 game.

In 1999, BJ was unceremoniously dumped in favour of Ace and Diamond, a brother-sister duo that would rival the Gyllenhaals in gag-induction factor, and also in the fact that most people can tolerate the brother, and hate the sister for trying to ruin The Dark Knight... bitch failed. There have been many efforts to get BJ the credit he deserves (there's even a blog named in his honour), but to many new Jays fans, they will just never know the greatness they missed.

4. Youppi!


The story of Youppi is the stuff of legend. Created, like the Phanatic, by a former Jim Henson puppet designer, Youppi was best known for pushing the boundaries of mascotry (new word!). Yes, BJ Birdie was ejected from a game once, well Youppi invented that shit! He was tossed for taking a running leap onto the roof of the visiting Dodgers' dugout and landing with a loud crash, raising the ire of Dodgers' coach, Tommy Lasorda (seriously, was this man molested by a stuffed animal as a child?!).

Youppi is also the first mascot to ever cross-over between sports. When the hapless Expos franchise moved to Washington, they looked for a new mascot, more representative of their new community's spirit, settling on an eagle named Screech (y'know, like the iconic TV loser, great idea). This led Youppi to the mean streets of Montreal, where he was luckily taken in by hockey's Canadiens. Youppi now has a real home in an adequate arena, and is awaiting the call back to the bigs. (I would trade Ace for Youppi in a heartbeat)

5. Bernie Brewer


Another great story behind the mascot. Back in June 1970, when the expansion Brewers couldn't pull much of a crowd, 69 year old fan Milt Mason, announced that he would camp out in a trailer over the Brewers scoreboard until the Brewers drew a crowd of 40,000. About 40 days later, a 'Bat Day' promotion led to a crowd of 44, 387, and after the game Milt came down from his perch by sliding down a rope from the top of the scoreboard, sustaining serious burns to his arms and legs. The next year, Milt would pass away, but a character was formed in his honour.

After each Brewers home run, the mustachioed Bernie Brewer would come out of his beer barrel chalet, beyond the outfield wall, and ride a slide down into a mug of beer. Why? You might ask. Well, why the fuck not?! It's what a dude with a lot of beer should do. This would be the equivalent of Ace building a nest in the centre field bleachers and protecting it from the visiting teams' center fielder, it would be both true to it's origins and entertaining as fuck.

From 1984-1993, Bernie disappeared when his chalet was replaced by a sound tower, but he was back, thanks to massive fan demand, and has been back ever since. In today's conservative society, Bernie has to be a better role model, and now slides into a pool of water rather than the beer mug, but I've heard that he has a reputation for somehow only splashing coquettish coeds... the old rascal.


Other mascots worth checking out:

-The San Diego Chicken (a renegade pioneer, mascot for hire)
-Wally of the Boston Red Sox (cast as a hermit-like Sox fan who lived in the Green Monster for 50 years, totally sounds like I want my kids around this mascot)
-Dandy of the New York Yankees (extremely short-lived, as he was beat up by fans who didn't want a mascot... New York fans officially crazier than Boston fans)
-Souki (Youppi predecessor, think Mr. Met-in-space).

Blue Jays Mirage About to Fade?

The Blue Jays have been a pleasant surprise this year. They have 30 wins, which ties them with the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds for second most wins in the entire league. At this point only the Tampa Bay Rays have won more games than the Jays. The Jays are playing so well that they are actually only one game out of the Wild Card. That’s shocking considering the Jays traded their best pitcher and readily admitted they were a re-building team.

They’ve amassed their 30-22 record on the strength of a solid pitching staff and the long-ball. The Jays lead the league with 88 home runs – 21 more than the Red Sox and Reds who are tied for second. At this point they really should be known as the Swinging Blue Jays because they’ve never seen a pitch they didn’t like. They have a paltry team OBP of just .310 to go along with 421 strikeouts. Only the Arizona Diamondbacks strike out more and they have strikeout king Mark Reynolds.

I’m not sure the Jays can continue to rely on the long-ball to win games considering Jose Bautista, John Buck, and Alex Gonzalez have accumulated 33 home runs. Only Gonzalez has hit more than 20 home runs in his career and that happened in 2004. I’m not sure these players will be able to continue their prodigious pace.

That’s one reason I’m not fully convinced the Jays record is for real.

Also, the strong Blue Jays record is very deceiving because they have only played one series against the Rays, two against the Red Sox, and none against the Yankees. Over those three series against the Rays and Red Sox the Jays have gone 2-8.

Most of the Jays’ wins have come from beating up on the weaker teams in the league. They have yet to face many of the league’s better teams. That’s about to change.

While the Jays are playing well at the moment, a prolonged losing streak seems imminent.

After concluding a weekend series with the lowly Baltimore Orioles today the Jays’ level of competition will greatly increase. They start a series with the Rays on Monday, followed by a visit from the Yankees for a three game weekend series, which is then followed by a trip to Tampa Bay to once again face the Rays.

The Jays won’t even receive a respite during inter-league play (something they are notoriously poor at historically). Following their stretch against the two AL East powerhouses the Jays play Colorado, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Philadelphia – none of whom have a losing record.

The month of June mercifully concludes with a trip to Cleveland, but by that time the Jays could quite possibly be battling the Orioles for the basement of the AL East. Although, considering the Orioles have only won 15 games it looks like the Jays will be safe.

The Rise and Fall of the Ginger Jays

       This year's edition of the Jays has been reaching far beyond the usual humiliating predictions of a last-placed finish, and at this season's quarter mark things are looking good. There have been many articles, blogs, tweets, faxes, etc. about the secrets to the Jays reasonable success and most of those have focused on the long ball (chicks dig it), and the associated free-swinging nature of the team, as well as "The Ace-Off" starring Shaun Marcum and Ricky Romero. These are definitely key to the team’s winning ways, as the home run has been the catalyst for the team, with 66 dingers already counted (1st in MLB), and more surely on the way, when last years' Silver Slugging duo of Aaron Hill and Adam Lind come back into form. The pitching duo likewise has been key to Jays’ victories, as anyone outside of those two has been unpredictable, mixing gems with turds and leading my Toronto-based fantasy league into a frenzy of adds and drops of Brett Cecil and Dana Eveland (some even tempted fate on Brandon Morrow).

       These points are well made, but there is one trend that has gone over-looked in most analyses, and that has been one common thread between players (and other important Jays figures) who have either come, gone or otherwise fallen from grace, in the last year, and I want to clarify that this is in no way a judgment on the characteristics of these people, or the certain crimson-follicular demographic that they represent.

Article 1: Roy "Doc" Halladay


Roy was the Jays most dependable and likable player of the past decade, and without a doubt cannot be looked at as anything but a demigod (no, I don't know what that is). His intensity and commitment are legendary and he will no doubt wrestle at least one more Cy Young award from the lanky grasp of Tim Lincecum. But the bottom-line is that Doc is gone, and this team is drastically different without him, so far, in a good way. Many of the Jays young pitchers cited a more relaxed approach amongst the Jays pitching staff, and seemed to suggest that the presence of the stoic ace was so intimidating that many of them wouldn't even approach him to try to gain from his considerable pitching knowledge.
In the first year AD, Shaun Marcum and Ricky Romero are performing considerably better than expected, and some have said this may be due to the vacated ace spot, and the search for a new staff leader. Obviously, Roy has been pitching amazingly for Philadelphia, but at the end of the day, it seems more likely that the addition of Brett Wallace, Kyle Drabek, and Travis D'Arnaud, will do this team more good in 3 or 4 years than having Doc around for only one more year.

Article 2: Lyle Overbay

His bat has been quiet, his strikeout face has been prominent, Lyle is definitely the odd-man out on this swashbuckling crew of mashers known as the 2010 Blue Jays. Sure he's got 4 long-balls but Lyle has not looked pretty as he tries to join in the Jays "swing first, ask questions when you don't hit a homer" approach. More often than not, he's hit untimely pop flies with men in scoring position or come up with a clutch strikeout. This has lead to the hometown crowd jumping all over Overbay, with the jeers coming fast and plenty. Things got so bad that a group of Jays players all wore Overbay jerseys to the annual season-ticket holder BBQ, as a show of support for Lyle... this was only 13 games into the season! What are they going to do if he continues to slump into June? Take him out for ice cream, and tell him that sucking builds character?!
I'm not a big fan of Lyle's but I know Brett Wallace needs more time to ravage the Pacific Coast League, and I'll give Lyle credit for sticking in there, and he's really not all that horrible if you look at his career stats, but in a town that had to put up with the outfielder-formerly-known-as-Vernon Smells from 2007-2009, the rope is very short for an under-producing player with an over-producing bank account.

Article 3: Jamie Campbell




The voice of Jays TV broadcasts from 2005-2009 was unceremoniously relieved of his play-by-play duties in the off-season, as Rogers decided to go with former Jays catcher/colour-commentator/manager Uncle Buck Martinez. This seems pretty logical, Buck is a respected figure in baseball, and especially to Jays fans, Campbell meanwhile was a Rogers employee with no professional sports background. To add insult to injury, Campbell was redistributed (see: demoted) to a position in the Sportsnet studio where he simply throws to commercials or to the games that he used to commentate. The problems with Campbell were never glaring, but the flubs, missteps and other miscellaneous boners were aplenty. He was often excited for routine deep flies, and asked painfully simple questions to his colour-commentators, as if viewers were watching a baseball game for the first time. There was also a cringe-worthy occasion I remember, where a foul-ball bounced off the facing of the Sportsnet broadcast box, causing Campbell to jump backwards in sheer terror, to which the opposing team’s broadcasters quipped “I thought these hockey guys, were supposed to be tough?!” For shame, Jamie Campbell, for shame! Personally, I took great pleasure in deriding Jamie Campbell, as did most of the Jays blogging community, but the reality is that he is probably the broadcaster that is most similar to ourselves, but this unfortunately means Campbell was often just spouting stats, as he had no background to give specific insight into the game. To round things out, here are some good Jamie Campbell lines found by scouring the many anti-Campbell pages out there:

“I'm really puzzled with the defensive positioning of the SS Zobrist, he seems to be between 2B and 3B”

"and thats a fair ball down the first base line...oh sorry a foul ball...got a little confused after Overbay dove for it"

"And Rogers Sportsnet... has done it! They’ve done it! They’ve done it! No more play-by-play for Jamie Campbell! Oh relax Canada, you can breathe easy now, this great country finally has a credible play-by-play announcer right here at home!"