Christmas gift ideas for the Blue Jays fan in your life

Cole posted some Blue Jays gift ideas back a couple of weeks ago, but, we have put up the Christmas tree today, so I wanted to share some ideas of my own.

Personally.....well I want a new mandolin, I bought a cheap one a few years ago and didn’t play it much, now I’m trying to play it more but, being cheap, it isn’t nice to play. Something else I’d like, that I saw at the Jays store in Eaton’s Centre in Toronto was Blue Jays table lamps. I thought I’d like one, but didn’t think I could get it home on the plane. Now I look at the http://www.jaysshop.ca/ and I can’t find them.

For others:

I’m a huge fan of OOTP Baseball, and right now it is 50% off. So if you have a baseball fan on your list, who you would like to get addicted to a game, to the point he can’t do anything else of value, this might be the gift.

The same people make a hockey simulator, Franchise Hockey Manager 3, which I’ve played some, but I’m not as addicted too (good thing, or I’d never turn off the computer).

For older fans, like me, who might be nostalgic for the old board game baseball simulators, I recently came across a Strat-O-Matic board game. I used to play the game, years ago, so seeing one gives me a warm feeling. My brother used to play war board games (I thought they were the most boring things I’d ever seen, but he could play them for hours). Through him I found sports board games, and I liked the baseball ones.

I couldn’t play it for the hours at a time that I would as a kid, but seeing it again and playing the odd game, is fun.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I really like Chris Ripley’s Blue Jays art. I have some prints of his. Even if you don’t want to buy any art, go take a look at his Halloween pumpkin cravings on the site I’ve linked to above.

I love baseball books.

Some favorites:

• Shi Davidi’s “The Big 50” is a fun book. I love list books, mostly because you can pick them up and open them to any page and read for five minutes. Shi’s book reminds you of some good moment’s in Blue Jay history. His story about John McDonald’s Father’s Day home run is worth the price of the book by itself. And, at number 50 is Tom Cheek, who I can’t read enough about.
• Brian Kenny’s “Ahead of the Curve” is one of the best reads I’ve had in a while. He has the same sort of history with the game that I had, reading Bill James, and learning much again the game, and has some interesting things to say about the game.
• If you haven’t read “The Arm” by Jeff Passan, you really should.

Minor Leaguer would take me off his Christmas card list if I didn’t mention the Breaking T shirts. But if you know someone that doesn’t own the Walkoff or the Dash, they would thank you for them.

I like this idea, build your own custom bat.

I have a couple of pairs of Blue Jays socks, like these and I think they would be good stocking stuffers.

My son says MLB the Show is good, if you have a PS4.

I got DVDs of The Bronx is Burning, and I really enjoyed it. It is about the 1977 Yankees, a team that had it’s share of interesting personalities. Billy Martin is someone I like reading about, hearing about. He went from team to team, making quick improvements to the team (normally by riding the players hard), but his teams would fall apart after a couple of years because he wore them out. He was tough to take.

As far books outside of baseball, I’ve been on a non-fiction kick of late. I really enjoyed The Daily Show: An Oral History, but I’m a big John Stewart fan. I haven’t warmed up to Trevor Noah yet, but I think he’ll make the show his own if he gets long enough.

Music? My Favorite album of the year was Traveller (I guess it came out last year, but i’m behind the times), which is part of why I picked up the mandolin again, he has a very pretty mandolin song on it. . I enjoyed Blackie and the Rodeo Kings: Kings and Kings. I liked Steve Earle and Shawn Colvin, Joe Ely’s Panhandle Ramble and Paul Simon’s Stranger to Stranger.

Share with us your suggestions for the Blue Jays fan on your list, or let us know what you would like for Xmas.