Flashback Friday

 

Remember the Chris Coghlan flip? Still one of the craziest things I've ever seen on a field.

SS Equals Shortstop and Silky Smooth: Tony Fernandez (1962-2020)

Mike Slaughter/Getty Images

This is not how I wanted to make my return to the JITH writer pool. In fact, it had reached the point where I wasn't sure if I was ever going to write another post, but Octavio Antonio Fernandez Castro's passing has snapped me out of my stupour, and compelled me to submit this offering that will attempt to put into words the on-field exploits of the man who had four different stints with our Blue Jays. I have no personal first hand accounts of the way he conducted himself off the field, but there's no shortage of them online. Here, here, and here for example. Join me on the other side, as we celebrate the life and career of the late, great Tony Fernandez.

Non-Game Thread for an Offday: TJ's All-Stars and Awards for the 1987 Season

Oh what might have been....

Everything was going very well for the Blue Jays in 1987. They were extremely competitive for the AL East crown throughout the season, as they held one of the top three spots in the division for all but five days, and all of those days came between April 12th and April 19th, which, of course, is the most volatile period of the year. They were never more than 6.5 games out of first, which sounds like a lot, but remember how quickly deficits can be erased in baseball with a good hot streak, and how quickly leads can disappear with a horrible, ill-timed swoon.

They had survived a 13-0, 17-1, and 20-3 start by the Milwaukee Brewers, who were never in first after May 13th, but put up one helluva fight thanks to an 18-11 August, and a 20-9 September. The Yankees grabbed the lead twice in 1987, from mid-May through the first week of June, and from late June through the first week of August, but they faded down the stretch thanks to an 11-17 August, followed by a 13-14 September. It was a four team race, as the Red Sox, Orioles, and Clevelands were never really in it.

Non-Game Thread for an Offday: TJ's All-Stars and Awards for the 1985 Season

Some of you requested that I take a look at 1987, while others wanted 1998. I've also decided to look at seasons where the Blue Jays made the postseason in chronological order, so I'm gonna run with 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, and 2015 for now. 2016 was done in 2016, 2017 was done in 2017, and 2018 will be done somewhere in the playoffs or early in the offseason. Doing the fun historical seasons first gives us a chance to enjoy dessert, before we go wandering in the postseason desert(s) that this franchise has endured over the years. Remember that even in the deserts, great things do and have happened, albeit on an individual rather than a team basis.

I'll look at other seasons as requested, or as I please, but for now that's the order I'm hoping to do things in. The first four will be done on the remaining offdays in 2018, and sometime in the offseason, I should get around to the other four. I should also acknowledge that none of this stuff would be possible without Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs, which are incredible sources as most of you already know.

Non-Game Thread for an Offday: TJ's All-Stars and Awards for the 1981 Season

I'm starting this post just before game two of the Seattle invasion, so I have no idea how that series will turn out/turned out. I only know that Tina got a win in her first ever live baseball game, which is awesome. This post will either find us wishing for a Monday game, glad for a respite from this topsy-turvy season, or somewhere in the middle.

Why 1981 you ask? Blame poster Teddy Ballgame for that. I took requests for various seasons before or during the Blue Jays' history, and his was the furthest removed from 2018, so I chose to tackle it first. When he requested it, I told him he was a masochist, as the Blue Jays were the worst team in all of baseball that season, and he responded by posting that indeed he was, but that he was also a bit of a sadist. There was a team just down Hwy 401 though, that had been teasing Canadian baseball fans, knocking on the door of the postseason, but falling just short, and 1981 was the year they would finally crash the party, so perhaps he's not such a masochist after all.

David Andrew Stieb and the HoF (Part II: Top o' the Mountain to ya!: 1982 - 1985)

From 1977 through 1981, the Jays had stumbled through five seasons of mostly bad baseball. How long could .359 baseball (270 - 482) bring fans out to the ballpark? How long could you sell them on coming to see the stars of the American League, with very little hope for the home nine ever getting their act together? To be fair, they were assembling quite a lot of young talent, but that hadn't translated into wins yet, and let's face it, wins are what bring fans out to the ballpark in droves. The novelty of big league baseball in Toronto and seeing all the different stars on the opposing teams was starting to wear thin with the fans, and it showed. In 1981, they had their worst ranking for attendance in the history of the franchise. They finished 11th in the 14 team American League in attendance. Something needed to change.

David Andrew Stieb and the HoF (Part I: The Early Years: 1979 - 1981)

Yeah, that's right, I put the words "Dave Stieb" and "HoF" in the same title. Am I out of my mind (hint: highly probable)? After all 176 Wins, a 3.44 ERA, a shade over 1,500 K in fewer than 3,000 IP doesn't exactly scream "Cooperstown!" as a body of work does it? The surface numbers just aren't there.

Ok, what about the awards? 7 All-Star selections (1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, and 1990), one 4th place Cy Young finish (1982), one 5th place Cy Young finish (1990), and back to back 7th place Cy Young finishes (1984, 1985). 7 All-Star games in 11 seasons is extremely impressive, but the rest of it doesn't add up either. In fact it's kind of meh for HoF consideration. So what the hell am I on about?