Happy Birthday Ryan Goins

Ryan Goins turns 35 today.

Ryan played with the Blue Jays for five seasons. He played 448 games for us, hitting .228/.275/.335. But he wasn’t a Jay for his bat. Instead, his glove got him to and kept him in the majors.

Let’s share some of his highlight plays.

The hidden ball trick:

And:

And:

And a favourite:

Ryan has played eight seasons in the MLB, playing for the Royals and White Sox, after leaving the Jays, with stops in the Phillies minor league system. He spent the last two seasons playing in Triple-A in the Braves system. Ryan signed a minor league deal with the Royals at the end of January.

He did have a great time with RISP in 2017, hitting .330/.368/.540 if he could have just hit like that all the time.

Happy Birthday, Ryan. I hope it is a good one. I always enjoyed watching you play defense. I know you don’t need career advice from me, but, as well as keep playing as long as you can, after your playing days, I’d think you would make a great coach. If you can show how your hard work on defense turned you into a terrific defensive infielder, you could make a great coach.

Howie Clark turns 49 today.

Howie was a utility infielder for the Jays in 2003-2004 and then again in 2007.

The Orioles drafted him in the 27th round of the 1992 draft. He spent a long time in the minors, finally making it to the Orioles in 2002 for a handful of games. He hit .302/.362/.396 in 53 at-bats.

The Jays signed him as a free agent before the 2003 season. He hit .357/.400/.429 in 70 at-bats. He played more in 2004, getting into 40 games, but didn’t hit as well, .217/.292/.348 in 115 at-bats.

Over the next couple of seasons, Howie bounced around from the Pirates to the Orioles and the Padres but only got into a few MLB games with the Orioles. Then he returned to the Jays in the middle of the 2007 season, playing in 31 games, hitting .204/.298/.245.

He played 134 games (109 with the Jays) spread over 6 seasons. He hit .262/.329/.358.

The moment everyone remembers is the pop fly that dropped because Alex Rodriguez said something behind him that made Howie think that he was being called off. It was a jerk move by Rodriguez (and illegal by MLB rules).

I always had a fondness for Clark. He made it to the majors with hard work and kept playing and working in the minors.

Happy birthday Howie. I hope it is a good one.

Joe Lawrence turns 46 today.

Joe was our first-round draft pick in 1996 (R.A. Dickey was chosen two picks after him). He played in 55 games for us in 2002, hitting .180/.262/.247 playing second base for us. That was his MLB career.

Happy birthday, Joe.

Mike Nickeas turns 40 today.

He came to us in the R.A. Dickey trade but only made it into one game for the Jays in 2013. After that, he played 73 games, spread over 3 seasons for the Mets.

Happy birthday. Nick.