BIRD S**T

Hi Jays fans. Hope everyone's outside enjoying the sunshine instead of stuck inside feeling sick and downing NyQuil like me.
So this is the first of (i hope) many weekly contributions to this great site. i chose the name "Bird Shit" cuz i thought it was vaguely amusing and in typical fashion i came up with the name and graphics long before i had even the slightest idea what to write about.
So i'm just gonna keep it off-beat, sometimes off-topic and always off-the-top-of-my-head.

Feel free to hijack 'Bird Shit' for your own nefarious purposes.

This week's topic is:

Da Big Hurt

Now, as some of you may know, i am a huge Oakland Athletics fan first and a Jays fan second. When i heard last year that the A's were taking a flyer on the mastadon with the glass ankles, i was elated. With the way the contract was structured, it was pretty much win-win for the Athletics- and a chance for a career resurrection for Frank.
It worked. For both parties.

G   AB  R  H   2B HR RBI BB SO  OBP  SLG  AVG
137 466 77 126 11 39 114 81 81 .381 .545 .270

Now, as nice as these stats are, it's still a long way from the Frank Thomas of the 1990s. Which makes sense given that he's a lot older and years of 275lbs running around will take its toll on the body.
Still, he was the best hitter on the A's team all last season- that is until the Tigers started throwing 100mph at him and he started to look like a bigger, blacker version of myself at the plate (i.e. lost).
But i held out hope that Frank would give the A's a break on another one year deal and hit his 500th in the green and gold.
When i heard other teams were talking to him too i still held onto that hope.

But i gotta say, when i heard the details of the contract with T.O., i was astounded.
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061117&content_id=1742394&vkey=news_t or&fext=.jsp&c_id=tor

i'm no mathematician (in fact, i can barely spell the word), but to me:
275lbs + injury history + artificial turf = BIG RISK.

Frank Thomas may be the Big Hurt but i'm Frankly Dubious that he won't get Hurt Big.

And if anyone wants to get into Chicago Mafioso gambling conspiracy theories i'm game.....