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I'm going to put up the thread a little early, so we can enjoy the ceremony for Stieb, Hentgen and Halladay (course that's hoping that Sportsnet can drag themselves away from syncro swimming). Each of the three were favorites of mine.
Dave Stieb was maybe the most competitive baseball player I've ever seen. He hated to lose. He had a stretch of 4 seasons where he pitched 288.1, 278.0, 267.0 and 265.0 innings. When old-timers (like me) talk about how terrible inning limits are, I often point out Stieb, who never pitched more than 100 innings after the age of 32.
Pat Hentgen was/is one of those guys who is so likeable. He had an up and down career, some seasons were great, some were ok. His best of 1996, when he went 20-10 (for a pretty crappy Blue Jays team), with a 3.22 ERA. He went from 200 innings, the season before, to 265.2 innings. The next season he threw 264 innings. The next three seasons he had ERAs of 5.17, 4.79 and 4.72. After the age of 31 he was done as an everyday starter.
Roy Halladay was another one that was totally focused on winning, yet he managed to do it without glaring at his teammates if they made an error. He was 148-76 as a Blue Jay with a 3.43 ERA. I'd like to think he'll be an easy Hall of Fame choice but I've learned not to try to out guess the voters.
I'm hoping that today's starter, one day, is considered one of the best all-time Jays, but he's been pretty inconsistent this year. I hope today we get a good start.
GO JAYS GO!
As always, remember we have rules around there. Mostly it's "don't be terrible". If a moderator ask you to stop doing something, please stop, don't debate the rules in the thread. Send Tom a note instead (he doesn't get near enough email).
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