The Toronto papers were'nt reporting anything we don't know about yesterday's game, so I thought I'd see what the
White Sox repay Jays 10-2 with Buehrle, hot defense Tony Ginnetti
Chicago Sun Times
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball ... 26.article
''We won the game because of defense by Lillibridge and Owens,'' Guillen said. ''A few good plays and we shut them down, not like what happened [Friday] night.''
Lillibridge's play ended the fourth inning, with his stop of an Aaron Hill liner turning into the last out of the inning and stranding two runners, keeping the scored tied at 2. In the fifth, Owens made a diving, full-extension catch of Vernon Wells' drive that seemed ticketed for extra bases.
Every Sox player had at least one hit, with Ramirez' slam helping the Sox build their biggest inning (six runs) in the fifth. The Sox have scored 10 runs three times this season, but this was the first time the Blue Jays have allowed 10 runs by an opponent this season. The Jays' three-game win streak also ended.
News from the past couple days....
Gaston knows it's only the beginning Ken Fidlin
Toronto Sun
http://www.torontosun.com/sports/column ... 6-sun.html
As concerned as the Jays have been about their make-it-up-as-you-go-along pitching staff, all you have to do is take a look around baseball to see just how pitiful some of the pitching is in the majors. Going into last night's games, there were nine teams with staff earned run averages over 5.00 and five of them were over 6.00.
The Jays, remarkably, had the sixth-best ERA in baseball at 3.83, quite an accomplishment considering all the staff uncertainty.
"If we can just keep our heads above water until we get some pitchers back, then maybe we can make a run," Gaston said. "We've got to keep battling until we get to that point.
One thing in our favour is that our everyday players -- knock on wood -- have stayed healthy with the exception of (Michael) Barrett. If we lost one or more out of the lineup, then we might be exposed a little bit."
Right now, the Jays have the equivalent of two starting rotations: One healthy, one not. In two or three weeks, Litsch, Romero and Casey Janssen will be available again. McGowan and Marcum are long shots to get back any time soon but when they do, the Jays will have a stockpile of pitching.
Teams should let fans in stadium see whole picture Dave Feschuk
Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/624274
Some sports leagues, after all, value their fans enough to allow contentious footage to be displayed to the unwashed. The NFL allows replays to be shown at the discretion of the club; when the game is stopped for a video-replay challenge, the only caveat is that the stadium big-screens can only show the replays from the TV-network feed. The spirit of the NFL's policy, in other words, is that the fans in the stadium should see exactly what the fans at home are seeing. And the NBA allows plays that could be construed as controversial to be replayed precisely once, which is better than zero. The CFL, meanwhile, discourages clubs from replaying controversial plays, but leaves it to the individual club's discretion.
Technology, if you're savvy enough to own it, has already made this kind of in-stadium censorship moot. Anybody with a handheld and a Slingbox, or no end of other configurations, can tap into the TV feed from his seat. But a lot of folks don't own such bells and whistles. What's irksome about the policy is that it treats the game-going fan like a second-class miscreant who can't be trusted to see the high-definition truth.
Beeston said he thinks the Jays should show more replays in general – and hear-hear to that – but he said the club won't violate Major League Baseball's edict, which is not currently under review.
"It's been discussed many, many times," said Beeston, "and I won't say it will never be changed, but it's unlikely to be changed."
This last article is particularly interesting and raises the issue of the fan experience at Blue Jays games. What would you suggest to improve the overall fan experience at the Skydome?
Edited to add link to story.
