Mind Your Outrage

Trust me, there isn't anybody around here who wants to see Roy Halladay return to Toronto more than me; even if he's wearing a different uniform. When the inevitable happens and the series is moved, I'll be pretty upset.

But please, please, please do not let a displaced baseball game distract from what's really important: this G20 event turning our fair city into a complete police state. A preemptive police state, with foreign governments dictating the movement and ability to gather and speak freely in our own city.

I'm hardly a keffiyeh-wearing class warrior, but the real bullshit is "free speech zones" and an entire city on lockdown. Baseball takes a distant backseat to glad-handing politicians and their dog and pony shows.

Update: It's official. The games moved. So did the Designated Speech Zone. It's a doubleplus good weekend all around!

Pall Lifts, Bullshit Lingers

Hooray everybody! Roy Halladay's gone so everyone can finally relax! Good for Jeff Blair for getting someone with some damn sense (Barajas!) to dispel this line of utter horseshit. To suggest the Jays clubhouse is a better, more relaxed place without Halladay patrolling it is garbage.

Maybe last year the rookies were excessively deferential to Halladay, as the only veteran starter on the squad. But remember not that long ago when the Jays much-older clubs were constantly derided for the overly relaxed, country club atmosphere? Where was Halladay then, on hiatus?

At the risk of making way, way too much of this, are the kids relaxing because of a lack of accountability? Without bullpen maven B.J. Ryan and rotation deity Roy Halladay, it's just a bunch of dudes. Dudes who can exhale & not worry about doing right by the game or any such nonsense.

While the Phillies and their fans breathlessly eat up eat up every note of Halladay lore that drifts their way, we're supposed to be thrilled that the Jays staff can recommence hotfoots and DP contests? The former teammates of a guy they listed, to a man, as the best in the biz at their position last year are now glad to see him go? I don't buy, but if it's true, it doesn't say a lot for the economic acumen of this bunch of minimum wage earners.

To follow the path of The Righteous One is, if nothing else, the path to great riches. "Don't stay out on the piss" isn't good advice for ballplayers looking to help their team, it's for players looking to maximize their earnings. When Roy Halladay says starters are assured "five good and five bad starts ... it’s what he does in the other 25 which determines how good he is" he uses "good" interchangeably with "how well paid." Treating every single one of those starts like a job interview is just good business. The window is open only briefly; reach on through when you have the chance.

So if the Jays rotation hopefuls are glad he's gone, that's their mistake. If Ricky Romero is the newest hard-working gym rat, then good for him. As fans, their gain is our gain. They pitch better, we reap the benefits. EVERYBODY WINS.

Image courtesy of David Peliott

Who are they kidding

I sure as fuck can't figure it out. Joe Torre seems to think that "baseball appeals to a broad demographic group and travels well." Me, still not giving a fuck. Los Angeles Dodger chairman, Frank McCourt feels that "this great country is ready to embrace baseball." He probably knows that because he personally surveyed the more than a billion people currently residing in this "great county." Fucking clown, I'm pretty sure most of China could give two shits about your baseball team.

McCourt also hopes the Dodgers are the first into India and other parts of the world. Yeah, I'm quite positive everyone in India is chomping at the bit for the MLB action. I'm all for the growth of baseball and getting as many people to watch and to play the game, but don't fucking sit there and say it isn't for the money. You sure as piss aren't fooling anyone. McCourt was also quoted as saying he was "really impressed by the speed with which things get done in China." This was following completion of the stadium which was built in four and a half hours by a crew of 375,000 workers. I liked Torre's brilliant quote "with the number of people living in China, you know there's got to be a number of potential Major Leaguers".

Current Chinese Population - 1,324,473,496