Friday Bantering: more on Alison Gordon and some links

Brendan Kennedy,the Star has a nice tribute to Alison Gordon.

Alison was the Star's Blue Jays beat writer from 1979  to 1984. She was also the first female member of the BBWAA. It really is amazing that such a short time ago the BBWAA was still an all men's club. It also makes me sad that the Writers tried to keep women out of press box.

I still have a copy of her book 'Foul Balls'. There wasn't much for books about the Blue Jays back then, so I was happy to find anything about them.

As you might imagine, not all baseball players greeted her with open arms. George Bell was particularly bad to her. The Texas Rangers locked all sportswriters out of their clubhouse, since they weren't allowed to just lock her out.

I have nothing but the highest respect for any woman who would get into into the world of baseball journalism. They had to put up with stuff that would have turned me off sports forever. There is a story about Dave Kingman sending a female reporter (not Gordon) a live rat in the press box. Then said "if someone can't take a simple joke they shouldn't be in the game". It really is unfortunate that a subset of men are such idiots.

These days, players treat female reporters better, but then, with the internet, it still isn't an easy ride for female reporters. There are still idiots out there that figure any woman with a twitter account or an email address is a target for their stupidity.

Alison deserved more praise when she was around to hear it, but then that's the way the world works. Alison helped pave the way for the female reporters that would follower her. She did it by doing her job well and professionally. How she could go through what she did and keep a sense of humor (which was needed if you followed the Jays back in those days) and keep keep her love of the game, I'll never know. I wouldn't have been able to do it, I hate conflict. If I ran into the types that she did I'd grow to hate the game.

David Schoenfield, at Sweet Spot, ranks the Jays as the 7th best team in the MLB.

Which makes them his choice for best team in the AL East. He predicts a 87-75 finish. I'd take that.

Most intriguing player: Donaldson comes over in a blockbuster deal, and I can't wait to see how the middle of the order fares with Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Donaldson.

Yeah that should be fun to watch. He also likes Marcus Stroman (don't we all).

Go take a look.

MLB Network is ranking the top players at each position and they have Josh Donaldson as the 2nd best third baseman and Russell Martin the 5th best catcher. You can look at their video recaps, the third basemen are here and catchers are here. Or perhaps I could post their lists:

Top 10 Third Basemen Right Now:
1. Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers
2. Josh Donaldson, Toronto Blue Jays
3. Josh Harrison, Pittsburgh Pirates
4. Anthony Rendon, Washington Nationals
5. David Wright, New York Mets
6. Kyle Seager, Seattle Mariners
7. Matt Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals
8. Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays
9. Juan Uribe, Los Angeles Dodgers
10. Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies

Top 10 Catchers Right Now:
1. Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants
2. Jonathan Lucroy, Milwaukee Brewers
3. Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals
4. Yan Gomes, Cleveland Indians
5. Russell Martin, Toronto Blue Jays
6. Devin Mesoraco, Cincinnati Reds
7. Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals
8. Brian McCann, New York Yankees
9. Derek Norris, San Diego Padres
10. Wilson Ramos, Washington Nationals

And, if you are looking for a new ball glove, Wilson may have you covered:

I could use a new glove. And designing it looks fun.