Today is the birthday of a pair of good left handed pitchers.
John Candelaria turns 57 today. The Candy Man pitched in 600 major league games, finishing with a 177-122 record. 13 of those games and 3 of those losses came with our Blue Jays back in 1990. We picked him up at the end of July for the playoff run from the Twins, giving up Nelson Liriano and Pedro Munoz to get him. He didn't help much. We finished 2 games back of the Red Sox, in second place. Candelarria made 2 starts and 11 relief appearances, earning an 0-3 record and a 5.48 ERA. If he pitched as well for us as he had earlier in the season for the Twins (7-3, 3.39 in 34 games, 1 start) we'd have made the playoffs.
John had a long career in the majors, 19 seasons (left-handers can play forever) and has one World Series ring, from the 1979 Pirates.
Ricky Romero turns 26 today. You know all about him. In the last two years he's gone from being the punch line in a "J.P. Ricciardi is so dumb" joke to one of the best starters in the AL. He is 27-18 in his first 2 seasons for the Jays with a 3.99 ERA. Not bad from someone pitching in the AL East.
Happy birthday to both John and Ricky. Hope they both have a good and that Ricky blows out all his candles and gets his wish for a 20 win season and a World Series ring of his own.