I Had To Take Action!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 It's Thursday!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, what's been going on lately?!? What has Atkins done for us in recent times? NOTHING!!!!!

We demand action! Something must be done!! I officially call for trades, signings, movement!!! Anything less will result in me forever abandoning my fanship of the Toronto Blue Jays! I would never again watch the game of baseball, at any level!!!!

Good Day!!!!!!

p.s. this post pre-empted a scheduled one that contained inappropriate content (redundant "this is your thread" comment!)

First Random Jays Thread After Season's End!

1985 Blue Jays Fire Safety Set

The old thread is getting jammed up with comments and is threatening to destroy lesser computers and phones.  Desperate times call for desperate measures so here is a new random thread.  It's still early in the off-season but hopefully most have had a chance to decompress and are feeling, if not better, then less angry about this year's elimination.  I was able to transfer my anger from the Jays to the Canucks, who managed to blow a 3-0 lead to lose their season opening contest.

There are lots of interesting storylines to consider for this off-season:

• How will Atkins make this club take the next step?  It's a good club but not good enough to win it all unless they get lucky and everything falls right (and we squint?)
• Will Kikuchi be back?  If he is, how will Dabbles react?
• Is it time to move Bo to 2nd or trade him?  Who would replace him that would offer more value?
• Can the club upgrade their Outfield and perhaps also optimize which players are at which positions?
• Will the bullpen be strengthened to hopefully match up better with some of the stronger ones other clubs clearly had this year?
• Can they risk not upgrading 1 or, hopefully, two of the #4 and #5 starters?

Things tend to slow down a bit around here over winter but hopefully folks will continue to show up to discuss baseball, a bit of hockey, and life in general.  I will definitely be posting some baseball card articles over the winter, starting with a discussion on the 1909-1911 T206 set, which boasts the rare, valuable, and notorious Honus Wagner card.

Baseball Cards!

Baseball Cards!!!!!!

As most of you surely know by now, I am a "lover" of baseball cards (as well as hockey, basketball, and non-sports!) and spend a significant amount of time thinking about them, reading about them, and collecting them.  I was born in the late 70's and ever since I first spotted the 1982-83 OPC hockey stickers in my local, small-town pharmacy in Saskatchewan, I've been hooked.  I moved on to other interests in my teenage years and 20's but came back to it more recently, stronger than ever.  With the lockout there is essentially no real-life content to discuss at this time so I plan to create a series of articles about baseball card history, with some other sports mixed in, to a lesser degree.  There is no specific plan other than starting in earlier days and making my way to modern times, discussing only topics that interest me, while ignoring those that don't.

Game #11 - New York Yankees (5-5) at Toronto Blue Jays (4-6) - Tuesday April 13 @ 7:07pm EST

 New York Yankees (SP Jameson Taillon)

vs.

Toronto Blue Jays (SP Hyun Jin Ryu)

There is a single area where we can agree that the Yankees have been a better franchise than the Blue Jays - they have had better and more iconic baseball cards!  This is strictly because the franchise has been around for longer - no other reason!

We start with Babe Ruth.  He is featured in the 1933 Goudey set, one of the card issues considered a pillar of the hobby.  Babe was featured on 4 cards in the set and it is for this reason that I will never be able to afford to finish it

Here's Lou Gehrig, pictured on his 1927 W461 Exhibit card.  These were produced to be sold out of vending machines

That's it - I don't feel like typing or grabbing pictures anymore!  I absolutely, 100%, steadfastly refuse to do it!  I cannot be induced, by any means, to do so!  I'm out!

Jays News

After last night's horrible loss, the Jays look to get back on the saddle and put things right in the Universe by toppling the Yankees and getting back on even footing in the standings.  Speaking of the Universe, it is so large as to boggle the mind.  It's almost impossible to conceive of it.  Given the trillions of stars and planets, I suspect there are other planets where events have unfolded in an almost identical way as on Earth but Joe Mcd. and Dabbles play for the Jays instead of Bo and Vlad Jr.  I wonder if they could have pulled this one out for the Jays?

This will be my last game thread - I'm going to get my dog to write the next one