(NOTSO) Deep thoughts
A few thoughts for an Easter Weekend and an April Fools Day …
REMEMBER IT WELL
You might want to remember that walkoff home run by Vlad Guerrero Jr. in Montreal on Tuesday because it may well be the high point of the Blue Jays’ season. It’s hard to look at this team and envision a contending season unless absolutely everything goes perfectly. And when does that happen in sports?
On a positive note, you likely will have more outside time this summer, not tied to your TV.
THIRD IS THE WORD
The predictions are in and, well, nobody thinks the Jays are finishing ahead of New York or Boston. Nobody.
Bleacher Report, ESPN, FiveThirtyEight, Fan Graphs Baseball, Fox Sports, the Detroit Free Press, Baseball America, TeamRankings.com, USA Today and three of the six “experts” at Yahoo Sports picked them to finish third in the American League East with the number of wins ranging from 79 to 86. Three at Yahoo actually had them fourth behind the Orioles.
As far as odds of winning the World Series, VegasInsider.com and TheSpread.com have them at 35-1 while Westgate Las Vegas Superbook has them listed at 30-1.
GOOD SEATS AVAILABLE
Here’s predicting Opening Night and Canada Day are the only two sellouts of the Jays’ season.
WHAT A SHOCKER
ESPN recently decided to come up with a list of the most-influential basketball players of all time. Shockingly, they named Michael Jordan as No. 1.
On future lists ESPN goes out on an equally long limb and names mayonnaise that’s been sitting out in the sun for six hours the worst condiment, the Beatles the best band named after an insect to ever come from Liverpool, and Earth the best planet on which to live.
MMMMMM ...
There are all kinds of silly new ballpark foods making their debut this week. Many — OK, most — involve unhealthy amounts of bacon, though pickles are also huge this season.
The mot-ridiculous item? At Texas Rangers’ games you can buy the Home Plate Chicken Sandwich which is pretty much exactly as it sounds. A chicken sandwich the size of home plate. Honestly.
The New York Yankees, meanwhile, will be selling beer at Yankee Stadium with players’ faces printed in the foam. Yes, we live in a strange time when someone decided they had to spend years inventing a machine that could
do that.
ONCE BITTEN, TWICE BITTEN
Going into Friday’s Game 5 of the Hamilton Bulldogs-Ottawa 67’s series, one of the Bitten brothers — Will for Hamilton, Sam for Ottawa — had scored the opening goal in every game.
That’s not shocking for Will, who’s scored the game’s first goal seven times this season. But Sam had only done it once before the playoffs.
WITH THE FIRST PICK ...
If the NHL season ended today, Buffalo would have an 18.5 per cent chance of winning the draft lottery, followed by Ottawa (13.5), Arizona (11.5), Vancouver (9.5), Detroit (8.5), Montreal (7.5), Chicago (6.5), New York Islanders (6) and Edmonton (5).
Which means Edmonton will absolutely win it.
EASES THE PAIN A BIT
Troy Tulowitzki makes $20 million US this season. That’s almost $26 million in loonies. He’s starting the season on the 60-day disabled list which is costing the Jays $159,455 every day he sits out.
If he misses just the minimum amount of time — it could be more since he’s had no spring training and surgery is being rumoured — he will have earned $8,451,115 for convalescing. Which is just a little less than the combined group of Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Nikita Kucherov and Patrick Laine is earning this entire season.
NOT AS STARRY AS THOUGHT
All the Blue Jays news isn’t bleak.
Back in 2015 when GM Alex Anthopoulos was making all those trades, he dealt 16 players and prospects for Josh Donaldson, David Price, Tulowitzki, Ben Revere and Mark Lowe. The fear was that he’d cleaned out the cupboard and bankrupted the Jays’ stockpile of youthful stars.
Eight of those players are no longer in the Major Leagues or never made it there. The others combined for a grand total of 33 wins and 140 hits last season.
With not a superstar among them.
WHO H ’OWNS DA CHIEFS?
In case you’re wondering where you recognize that music from that the Maple Leafs play after each home win, we’ll give you a hint.
Reg Dunlop.
Yup, Maxine Nightingale’s Right Back Where We Started From is played several times in
Slap Shot. Yeah, it probably is time for another viewing.
NO CHANCE
Some people around here are suggesting DeMar DeRozan should get some consideration for NBA MVP. Great as player as he’s become, it won’t happen. Not even a little.
In a league that’s all about star power he doesn’t have the right name, the right team or the right country. More important though, being 10th in scoring, 26th in assists and 133rd in rebounding simply doesn’t make you the best player in the NBA.
WILL LAST FOREVER
It’s always a fun time to debate the most-unbreakable record in a sport. In hockey though, there is one correct answer.
Is it Wayne Gretzky’s 51-game scoring streak? Nope. Darryl Sittler’s 10 points in a game. No. How about Doug Jarvis’ 964consecutive games played. Uh uh.
It’s Terry Sawchuk’s record of most ties by a goalie with 172. Since there are no ties anymore, it will never be eclipsed.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
In case you’ve been puzzled for a while about the first name of the Blue Jays’ Opening Day starter, allow us to help.
While J.A. Happ goes simply by J — or Jay — the initials stand for James Anthony.
He’s not the only Blue Jay who’s tweaked his name a bit. Closer Roberto Osuna’s full name is Roberto Osuna Quintero. Reliever Ryan Tepera’s first name is actually Dennis. New shortstop Aledmys Diaz’s full name is Aledmys Diaz Serrano. New infielder Gift Ngoepe’s first name is really Mpho’. And designated hitter Kendrys Morales is Kendry Morales Rodriguez.