Rough Seas In A Rickety Boat

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Lonely. This was the word R.A. Dickey used last year when asked about the process of re-making himself as a knuckleballer. Lots of learning the hard way - trial and error with endless reps, pitches pitches thrown against a brick wall in pursuit of something elusive. His career as a conventional pitcher was all but over, so he forged a new path.

When asked about the pieces coming together in 2010, as a member of the then-New York Mets affiliated Buffalo Bisons, Dickey explains there wasn’t one precise moment when it all clicked:

It was the culmination of a lot of days where I thought “Okay, I can repeat this. This is good.” And then another day would come along and I would say “Oh, so my stride needs to be a little short!” or “Oh, my glove takeaway needs to be a little up.” It was just a bunch of things, all of them coming together.

Five years later and it all feels like it’s happening in reverse. The self-talk and tinkering are attempts to hold something together, papering over the cracks of age and deterioration of skill. Dickey is in the middle of his worst season since the light switched on in 2010, sitting decidedly below replacement after ten starts of bad luck, bad location, and few glimmers of hope.

Timing is everything

It is not yet August so it is not yet a pennant race, but the Toronto Blue Jays are in a situation they haven't been for a long time - they matter. Their games matter, dripping with primordial playoff implications as they do. Given the AL East warzone, these future implications are more than just tiny glimmers of hope reflecting off the brass ring that is the second Wild Card game.

For the first time in a long time, people are very excited about homegrown talent that contributes to Toronto Blue Jays playoff positioning. People are excitedly watching on TV in record numbers. People are excitedly watching the scoreboards, cursing opponents of the Yankees and Orioles for seeming incapable of scoring runs or protecting leads. People are excited.

Fun with the TV Production Truck

Smart enough to stay away from the FOX broadcast of the All Star festivities, I smartly and luckily chose the international feed. O Canada started playing and something strange happened to my TV. Somehow I was getting the banter between the TV truck and the camera operators broadcast into my home! What fortune! Here's what transpired:

Producer: Okay, as soon as the schmaltzy video piece is finished, we're going to the Canadian anthem. Who's singing it?

Lowly PA: Um, nobody. It's a recording.

Producer: What? Fuck me. Meh, I'm sure we can fill the time somehow, just get me some shots of smug self-righteousness and clo&mdash OH NO!! THE PLAYERS ARE MINGLING WITH THE COMMON FOLK!! HOW WILL WE KNOW WHO'S WHO???? THIS IS TV CHAOS!


Producer: Oh sweet Jesus the players are randomly strewn across the field. ACK! The song's starting. Quick, get me a shot of the Canadian flag!

[Cameramen vainly search stadium, finally spot one underfoot]

Producer: Christ, gimme a shot of Bay or...or...the other one? You know, the guy with the hair and the brain-injured monotone of a hockey player. This is hell, honestly. Fucking Canada. WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO DO?????

Camera Guy A: I've got a nice shot of Halladay in the bullpen, he plays in Canada.

Producer: Mutherfucking right! Take it and push in after 30 seconds. HOW LONG IS THIS FUCKING SONG?? Anybody else???

Camera Guy B: I've got the side of some dude's face. I think it actually might be Morneau. Let me pan acr&mdash

Producer: NO TIME! Shit, is that him there??? ZOOM THE FUCK IN!!!! I need Canadians!!! Damn their oily-but-unfailingly-yet-somehow-disingenuously-polite hides! They're so bland and nondescript: they blend right in!

Camera Guy C: I think I've Jason Bay, or it could be a security guard. Perhaps a volunteer or...

Producer: Just get it up on the damn screen! Is that him? He looks like mayonnaise might give him an ulcer, that's GOT to be Jason Bay.

Camera Guy D: Boss, I've got a nice shot of Aaron Hill, he also plays for the Ja&mdash

Producer: Who? Might as well frame-up a shot of Jeter's crotch; more people have seen that damn thing up close than Aaron Hill.

[we stand on guard....for....theeeee]

Producer: That was a living nightmare. I can't wait until we annex their asses.

Damning with Faint Praise

I talk a lot about players I like (or love) yet I would be hard pressed to define what it is I like about them. Sometimes a player's uniqueness catches my eye, sometimes their greatness. Sometimes it's about personality, other times it is just their goofy name. Brandon League doesn't really fit it into any of these categories. Watching him last night, I sort of got it: he's completely unpredictable.

Unpredictability isn't something I inherently enjoy; Scott Rolen and Roy Halladay are certainly predictable. Predictably awesome and predictably resolute in their pursuit of next-level achievement, traits that certainly have their place. Brandon League isn't unpredictable in a boring way either. Shawn Camp or even The Sausage King give you that feeling in your stomach, that "Jesus Christ just don't fuck it up" unpredictability born out of their bland crappiness and/or serviceability. Brandon League doesn't have that.

I've probably linked to Professor Hale's post on Brandon League's wacky sinker a half-dozen times, mostly because it continually blows my mind. I'll let the man himself explain:

Brandon League has a pitch that nobody else in the majors throws, that I would venture to say nobody has ever thrown- a 97 mph sinker. It boggles the mind...but hear this: League is not just a promising youngish power arm. He’s a total freak who could be a one-of-a kind pitcher.

Amazing. That is why I like Brandon League. Every time he takes the hill, I know I'm seeing something unique. Something weird and wonderful. That originality combines with, you know, the actual baseball game he's competing in to tease me in incredible ways.

Every Blue Jays fan asks the same question when the bullpen doors open:

Which Brandon League will show up tonight?
Will he be unhittable? Will he have any clue where the ball is going? I alternate between expecting him to be untouchable and just hoping he will, always knowing that a misplaced slider or inevitable bout of wildness is waiting to derail the outing. What about a poorly timed hit by pitch! League's always good for one of them a month. It's all great. The possibility that Brandon League will come out, blow away three consecutive hitters in a completely unfair way will have me cutting him slack long after Cito grows tired of dangling League on a leverage yo-yo.

I'd like to say "baseball needs more guys like Brandon League" here, but it just won't happen. Oppressive coaching, the quest for return on investment, and normal human musculature prevent too many guys like League from making their way down the pipeline. Having a wildcard in the mix, someone I'll remember long after he's moved on has value beyond a win or loss in late June.

High on the Hog

Things are so good in Blue Jay Land right now, we can afford to noodle around on the internet without a care in the world. During such a noodle session this afternoon, I came across an article on Slate that was shockingly interesting.

The premise is this: explain baseball in 150 words or less. The author needs to help his 6 year old son understand and appreciate baseball, so he opened it up to the contrarian public that reads Slate. The results varied from the wistful ("apple pie and the smell of the grass brother!") to the thoughtful ("it's like tag") to the negative ("it's boring.") One I liked in particular:

All of the little league coaches who told kids to go up there hacking and made them ashamed to strike out have fostered generations of people who can't comprehend the value of driving the ball. The worst myth ever put upon us was the idea that baseball is about putting the ball in play. It's about putting hard-hit balls in play. Extra-base hits win games.

Right on the money, friend. Anyway, how would YOU describe baseball in 150 words or less? Of course you would, that's easy. Let's make it interesting, can you describe baseball in 15 words or less?

Here's my first attempt:

Hit ball, run until you can't. Touch plate. Wear glove, run after ball. Throw. Spit.

How about a second try:

Solo glory plus team achievement equals douchemagnet. Learn to be left handed or fuck off.

As for the Blue Jays

What, there's still debate? Don't they just show up and win? That's just what happens now, isn't it? I like what I saw from Travis Snider last night, hopefully he can smash some Jered Weaver gawkballs around the yard for good measure. Thanks to everyone that came out to the glog last night, shit was real. Melongate!

A Digressionary Digression

It's easy, when caught up in the day-to-day grind of baseball season, to lose focus on what's important. On what really matters to me and why I started doing this in the first place. My inborn nerditry sends me diving headlong into the numerical abyss, searching for truth or falsehood or an answer to a question nobody asked. My natural state of cynicism finds me picking nits and looking for chinks in the Blue Jays armor as that is my way. Just as it was last year when I repeatedly sought proof of the Jays greatness in the face of a fourth place finish and the perception of a lost or pointless season.

It's easy to get too close to a team, especially when things are going as well as they have been, and ride the wave of unexpected offense and incredible early season results. Strangely enough, a basketball game brought me back to my lazy, safe center.

Watching Ray Allen shoot spot-up jumpers with hand(s) in his face reminds me of glorious architecture. The perfect balance of form and function, of angles, forces and artistic flourish. His jump shot is as aesthetically pleasing as anything anywhere. I don't have a vested interest in the Celtics, the Bulls, or the NBA playoffs in general. I just know I could watch Ray Allen alone in a gym for hours without complaint.

We Blue Jays fans are lucky enough to have Roy Halladay: our very own aesthete here in Toronto. His precision and execution marvels us all, opponents and fans alike. It's not just because he wins, or because he increases the teams chances of winning. By watching him; we all win. A 1-0 Jays loss with Halladay on the mound has more value, to me, than a 10-2 drubbing with Scott Richmond or some other middling/slight effective starter. If that makes me a shitty fan then fine. I'll be enjoying the madness and uniqueness of Ichiro and the uncanny skill of Manny over here in my pretentious little corner. Until then, let's all enjoy watching the master work, starting tonight against the goonish Texas Rangers. They're a modern J-Horror rip-off movie: startling not scary. Minus the C-list starlets inevitably in her underwear. I guess you can't have everything.

Little bit of Housekeeping

• Speaking of pretension, check out the latest addition to the blog roll Joy in Mudville. From the Free Darko school of thought, so you know I'll be ripping them off in no time.
  
• The Walkoff Walk Furious Five Podcast jumped off again last night. Blue Jays content!
  
• Speaking of Blue Jays content, Rob took Marco Scutaro's hot start as an opportunity to laugh at the weakness of the Oakland A's. Coming off a series in Toronto that sort of stuff should be expected.
  
• The Onion's AV Club takes a good look at the baseball literary classic Ball Four. I'm currently reading Moneyball for the first time (I know!) and it's great. SO great in fact, I missed my stop on the subway yesterday. That's high praise.
  
• I'm not good at fantasy baseball.
  
• With Texas coming to town, it's important that we reflect on the value of pitching. We've got it, they don't. Be thankful.

Understanding GROFappeal

This is a most interesting time of year. The GM meetings and all the rumours they entail nicely coincided with the dawning of a new epoch in North American politics and hopefully life. Watching a man do what he does best, what he does better than anyone else is what Ghostrunner on First is all about.

Yes, I love the Blue Jays and they are the base point and reason this space exists. I love when they win and die a little when they lose. But for me, it is really about the individuals. The players that jump off the screen and perform to the peak of their unique abilities. The convergence of skill and effort, the rare combination of skills that so few can claim as their own. These are the types of players I am often drawn to, the kind I wish I could watch every day.

The glorious bastards at The Southpaw have an excellent eye for talent. They're often proposing and suggesting potential Blue Jays targets that are either players I've considered myself or players that I've long admired. They were stumping for Milton Bradley all the way back in May. They share my great love of Khalil Greene. These players, despite their obvious differences, have one big thing in common: value added. Milton Bradley is more than just a guy with 160 OPS+, he's an enigmatic timebomb that has been misunderstood and maligned his entire career. Khalil Greene's potentially explosive bat and once great defense hit all my key points.

As I said, it is important to me that the Jays win, but perhaps more important is that they're interesting. They don't have to be "characters" to be interesting, they can just be great. Even at just one thing. John MacDonald is (or was) as one-dimensional a ballplayer as you'll find. One thing he is not? Boring. As this Hot Stove season wears on, I'll be hoping the Jays can land a key piece that might improve their fortunes. I'll also be hoping they bring in somebody that make me scratch my head and wonder if I believe my own eyes.

Quickly

As you might assume, there isn't much baseball happening on the weekends during the offseason, so I won't be doing my regular weekend gig at Walkoff Walk. I'll still be contributing regularly there all winter long, hopefully 3-4 posts during week until the horsehide is tossed in anger once again. So keep checking it out, every day!

Also, the good people at Mop Up Duty have launched a new look and a new, more Jaysy focus. The layout looks much better and the writing's as strong as ever. Head their way to learn what a real man looks like.