Happ shares all-star experience with his dad
Pitcher gives up homer to nemesis, but earns first career save, Rob Longley writes.
WASHINGTON, D.C. It figured that the first batter J.A. Happ would face in his first all-star game would be Canadian Joey Votto.
Being in the American League now, the Blue Jays starter doesn’t see much of the Cincinnati Reds first baseman these days, but his father, Jim, certainly remembered the damage inflicted on his son by the Toronto-born star in the past.
“He’s always had a lot of tough battles with Votto,” Jim Happ said in the wee hours Wednesday following Tuesday’s game.
Yes, in his career Votto had mashed Happ pretty good, going nine for 23 with a homer and four doubles. So what was Happ’s reaction when Votto took him deep over the right-field wall on the first pitch of the bottom of the 10th inning and the American League leading 8-5?
“What are you swinging on the first pitch down three for, Joey?,” Happ said with a grin. “I’m sick of it. I was glad to get the next three.”
Truth is Happ wasn’t sick of any of this all-star experience. In fact, he was thrilled with it. And thrilled to share the long evening with his family.
After the game, in which he recorded the first professional save of his career, Happ talked about the relationship with his father and what this night meant to both of them.
“I remember my dad building a mound in our backyard,” said the 35-year-old Happ, recalling his childhood growing up in Peru, Ill.
Jim Happ’s memory of his son’s career is pretty sharp as well. While J.A. couldn’t recall ever making a save in a game, his father didn’t hesitate, citing 2002 when Happ was a freshman at Northwestern University. According to Wildcats observers, that was indeed the case.
HEDGING THE BETS
With sports betting now legal in several states — and more expected to get in on the action — MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says it’s crucial that baseball be involved both in a participatory and a regulatory role.
Given baseball’s long and sometimes sordid history with gambling, it’s a potentially touchy subject, something the commissioner appears to want to get ahead of.
“The fact of the matter is the commissioner’s office was founded in order to defend the integrity of the game,” Manfred said. “We’re not going to delegate that responsibility to anybody, and we want to make sure the legal framework (of wagering in each state) allows us to do that job. That’s the challenge.”
NAME OF THE GAME
While the 89th edition of the Midsummer Classic had plenty of power with a record 10 home runs hit at Nationals Park, it also had 25 strikeouts. In other words, welcome to Major League Baseball circa 2018.
“Standard operating procedure nowadays, right?” said AL manager A.J. Hinch. “In the beginning of the game, it was, are we going to have a game other than a homer and at the end it was, are we going to have enough pitching to get out of this mess? There’s a love affair with both results.”
As for using Happ as his last of nine pitchers on the night, Hinch showed his respect for the game by his reaction after the Reds’ Scooter Gennett tied the game with a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth.
“Obviously, I didn’t want to get to that point, but my first thought was directed at J.A. Happ,” said the manager of the World Series champion Houston Astros.
“… I told him before the game I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to get him in it unless something unique happened, just the way we had it lined up. I was thrilled for a veteran like him. He waited a long time for this stage.”
VLAD RETURNS TO NEW HAMPSHIRE
In what is expected to be a short return stint in Double A before being promoted to Triple A Buffalo, Jays prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been activated by the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
Guerrero has been in Florida recovering from a strained left knee, an injury sustained in early June with the Fisher Cats. He did most of his rehab work in Florida where he suited up this week for the single A Dunedin Blue Jays.