Candide

let the cat out of the bag - it's you, isn't it, Heather Collins?

I'm hoping anthem is by Drake and first pitch by Avril Lavigne.

this is a very fair point. considering their performances in champions leagues, euro, and world cup tourneys, it's probably also why the UK has one of the fastest growing atheist populations in Europe. funny side note: lacrosse is actually the fastest growing sport in the UK. i started a baseball league with my company and we play other tech companies in central london. it's catching on quickly - people love the game as it's quite similar to cricket and rounders, so keen interest among guys and girls. there's potential for popularity for baseball here; people are already mad for the NFL and NBA.

why isn't it comparable? if you take the the fanbase of West Brom or Norwich, it's significantly lower than the potential fanbase of the Toronto Blue Jays.

oh ok, good. i was worried for a minute there. we have to make the Jays cool and cater to the younger demographics of the population - I'm all for inclusion of the Jays bandwagoners seeking to join the ranks. Looked like the fanbase was in decline for quite a while there - need some new blood for when this team starts to suck again in 2018. I left Canada eleven years ago and lived in 5 countries and a dozen cities, so I feel like I have some credence to what I'm about to say - Toronto sports fans are among the best in the world, but their loyalty is often lacking. You look at these crappy teams in the Premier League in the UK who are annually at risk of relegation, and their fans support them for life irrespectively. These fans attend the games, follow the team ardently, wear the team colours, and cheer them on through good and (mostly) bad times. Would love to see that with the Jays and Raptors - that in 2019, if the Jays had a finish like the A's or Tigers did this season, that there are still 30,000 strong each game cheering on the team.

I do like the part near the end of the track though. where it flashes towards dickey, cuts, and then goes straight to Bautista and Encarnacion pouring white, foamy champagne over their faces while the singer screams 'come together' in the background.

this is like a crappy Bon Jovi-Nickleback rendition. couldn't they have got some half-decent local artist like Drake to put out a more contemporary track that's somehow relevant to Toronto?

i'm loving the game 1 and game 2 start times, being in Europe and all. going to catch game 1 after work in London and game 2 in Amsterdam. trouble is finding a place that will show the game in Amsterdam, so I'll probably just go to a coffeeshop, hide in the corner, huddle over my 14" laptop and watch the game.

I think if the Jays beat the Rangers, they win the world series. I think if the Jays win Game 1, they beat the Rangers. I think if the Jays score first in Game 1, they win Game 1. I think if Jose Bautista hits a home run, they will score first in Game 1. I think if Jose Bautista has a favorable 3-1 count, he will hit a home run. I think if the roof is open and there's wind on Thursday, Jose Bautista will have a favorable 3-1 count. I think if I get enough likes for this poast, the Rogers Center roof will be open.

sad, but it's only 7-0 in the bottom of the 1st. wouldn't be surprised to see the Jays end up winning this game given the lineup and what they've done all season

Buehrle is pitching horribly. If I were him, I would retire from baseball for good after this start.

no man. JAYS WIN. they beat KC in head-to-head season series.

now my day feels incomplete

what's the latest status on the match? i live in London and the game starts at midnight. want to watch Stroman for an hour before I go to bed.

true love. or at least, a new identity and new personality to help me find true love.

thanks. but don't want to out myself - don't want to make this message board all about me. infer from that as you will

do Gold Gloves even factor into the Hall of Fame discussions? I think of Jim Edmonds, who likely won't even get the minimum number of votes this time around but he won 8 gold gloves, was a 4-time all star, has a career WAR above 60 and a career OPS of .900+. I think he should be a shoo in for the Hall of Fame but I admit that I am a bit biased because he is my dad.

i hope he wins. he seems like a good guy. winning manager of the year is like graduating from harvard - it's a lock to set you up for next job, irrespective of how incompetent you might actually be.

don't man... or at least, consider what I posted on the Red Sox board first. I was in attendance for the 5-1 Jays's win on sept. 8th in gorgeous Boston. First observation, on a beautiful tuesday night, in a close pennant race, half the seats were empty when the game started between the a top team in the AL east. By the 3rd inning, one could say 3 seats out of 4 would have found takers. How many of those were occupied by us Jays's fans? 15%? 25% more? Hard to say at this point. Very dissapointing in a presume baseball town, a beautiful tuesday night with perfect weather, with the home team only 14 games back. Second though: very silent home crowd. Only showed support for home team when something ALREADY happened like a run scored, a hit...No support at all for the home team. I was surronded by BoSox "fans" until the 7th and I would have though I was alone with my wife in our section (Grandstand right behind home plate). Speaking of the 7th, Red Sox's fans deserted the premises like a fire alert was on. If you threw the towel on the pennant (way to early to do so), at least don't you like baseball enough to hang around? BoSox fans who attend home games are like Canadiens's fans in Montréal, they leave early if the home team is on the way to loose. No apparent love for the game, only winning counts. Last observation, I can certainly say that, beginning with the top half of the 8th, at least 60% of the remaining spectator on hand were Jays fans. We were so dominant that when we began chanting "Let's go Blue Jays", there was not enough Red Sox fans left to try to counter. Bottom line, maybe the Red Sox players deserves at shot at the post season, but, from what I could see, the average Yankees fan do not. You are, as a whole, only interested in winning, baseball is an afterthough for you. Case in point, look at your own forum right now, all the top topics aren't about baseball. Boy, you deserve no post-season.

too lazy to check the back threads, but was there any poster who hated the Reyes contract at the time of the Marlins trade? I wonder if people will feel the same about Tulowitzki in about 2-3 years time

so what happens in the offseason when Donaldson wins the MVP and demands a massive contract? the Jays have control for another four years - do they give him a massive 7 year contract (that he arguably deserves) or keep on singing one/two year deals with arbitration as a last resort until trying to sign him heading into the 2018 season? sucks for Donaldson. if he broke into the league a season or two earlier, i don't think it would have stunted his potential. but it possibly cost him tens if not hundreds of millions by coming into the league full time at 25 years of age.

wow, what a game by Stroman! he's a legitimate #2 guy (would be an ace if he wasn't too street) and would look really good pitching behind Jordan Zimmerman next season if Price and Buehrle leave in the offseason.

if we extrapolate Goins' post-all star game numbers to a full 162 game season and extrapolate it by 15 seasons, with his superior error-free defense, is he HOF caliber?

It'd be so cool of Kawasaki gets called up and plays in the playoffs. He could be the first Asian on a World Series winning team since John Olerud.

the worst outcome is not the Jays missing the playoffs (that seems very unlikely at this point) - it's the Jays losing the division by 1 game in the final day of the season, Osuna blowing his first 9th inning save in the wild card game, and Encarnacion striking out with the bases loaded. i would seriously commit sooicide by skinny dipping in a vat of honey and knock down random beehives in the forest if this happened.