Monday Bantering: Swanson’s Back

It is Monday again. It seems like Mondays come around far quicker than they should. I was going to put together a ‘Jays History’ post and then realized the date. That day, my son woke me up saying a plane flew into the World Trade Center, and I thought it was a Cessna or some other small plane. Spent the rest of the morning watching the news.

The Blue Jays ended up taking a 12-hour bus ride from Baltimore to Toronto, as all the airports were closed. They wouldn’t play their next game until the 18th, hosting the Orioles.

The Jays now hold the second Wild Card spot (of course, holding that spot on September 11th doesn’t buy you anything). FanGraphs has them at a 78.9% chance of making the playoffs.

This series will likely change that:

Let’s have a poll:

There is a roster move today. Erik Swanson has been activated from the IL. Jay Jackson is on his way back to Buffalo. That is Jackson’s fifth option of the season, which is the limit, so he either won’t be back up or stay for the rest of the season. But then there isn’t much season left—the life of a reliever with options.

It is too bad for Jackson. He’s had a very good season. And pitched some critical innings. Batters hit just .179/.243/.337 against him. Considering what he and his fiancé have been through this year, that makes it doubly impressive.

This stuff that sports commentators say drives me nuts:

Of course, back in June, when the A’s came to town, Buck said that if the Jays didn’t sweep the A’s, they couldn’t make the playoff. The season was over when we lost the first game of the series.

I know there is always a rush to be the first to say the season’s over. I used to give an award to the first one I saw do it. The prize was given out every year in April (if not March).

But then, those are fans, and they are supposed to be over the top. Buck he played the game, he managed the game, and he has been in the broadcast booth for a long time. He’s got to be smarter than this.

Can you imagine him as a manager telling his team this stuff?

Thankfully, the players don’t buy in.

If there is one thing I wish I could get rid of it is that rush to claim season’s over. We hear it almost every loss of the year. I think we should be smarter than this by now. And Buck should definitely be more intelligent than this.

This is great:

The great thing about baseball is there is always something you haven’t seen before (Angel Hernandez would have called these strikes):

Once again, we got good plate umpiring yesterday: