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 #133 - Toronto Blue Jays (53-79) vs Seattle Mariners (55-75)

Rather than blather on and on, let's simply look at a pic or two and get straight to the point!

A selection of Topps Heritage and Archives cards of Jays from the last 16 years

These three cards are interesting because they remind us that baseball is, in a way, sort of random.  Phelps was a can't miss power hitter who ended up missing.  Carpenter was a mediocre starter for the Jays for a number of years before he was given up on, only to become a star once he left.  I was fully on board with letting him go.  Lawrie set the world on fire when he came up with the Jays but he was never able to keep it together and he ended up flaming out.

I've spent a lot of years reading Jays blogs and sites, as well as various other sources, and one of the common themes has been the failure of great, can't miss prospects.  It's like this for every team.  What does this mean?  It's all a crap-shoot, there's no point trying to predict what will happen, and we might as well not watch in the first place.  Why bother when we know the Jays will ultimately fail?

I absolutely, steadfastly, refuse to watch Blue Jays baseball for at least three years!  I won't watch any games on cable, satellite, MLB.TV, at sports bars, any illegal streams, or any other method yet to be devised.  I absolutely, 100% refuse to listen to games either.  I will remain resolute in my convictions and will even avoid reading about the Jays on any form of printed or electronic media.  

I cannot be induced, by any means, to change my mind!  mk, please shut down the site - this will be the last post.  It's been a good run but it's time to close it down.  I urge all readers to join me and stay away in droves!  Don't give even one more cent of your hard earned money to the Blue Jays, Rogers Media, or any other entity that benefits from Blue Jays baseball.

I will paste in the lineups below only to fulfill my final obligations, and will even add some daily commentary, due to contractual reasons.  However, this is goodbye.  Goodbye Forever!

So...............Jayssssssssssssss Wiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnn!  Who saw that coming?  I guess anything can happen in baseball.

Last day of #BlueJaysInvade ✔️
Last day of #PlayersWeekend ✔️

Let's end it with a W! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/DbfJ5wO7dL

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) 25 August 2019

#Mariners Lineup 08/25/19

1. Mallex Smith RF
2. J.P. Crawford SS
3. Austin Nola 1B
4. Kyle Seager 3B
5. Omar Narvaez DH
6. Tom Murphy C
7. Jake Fraley CF
8. Dee Gordon 2B
9. Dylan Moore LF

Starting Pitcher : Marco Gonzales

— Daily MLB Lineups (@DailyMLBLineup) August 25, 2019

Go Jays!

Game #27 - April 29 - Texas Rangers (11-17) at Toronto Blue Jays (14-12)

Sunday April 3, 2018

1:07PM Eastern / 10:07AM Pacific - Rogers Centre, Toronto

Martin Pérez (2-2 9.82 ERA) vs JA Happ (3-1 3.72 ERA)

Game #26 - April 28 - Texas Rangers (10-17) at Toronto Blue Jays (14-11)

Saturday April 2, 2018

4:07PM Eastern / 1:07PM Pacific - Rogers Centre, Toronto

Bartolo Colon (0-0 2.59 ERA) vs Jaime García (2-1 4.57 ERA)

State of the Franchise

Against my better judgement, in an early season moment of weakness, I suggested that I could contribute an article to the site.  Those of you who know me will realize that I shouldn't be doing this, as I have already sworn off all Jays related activities, including watching or listening to games, following along on Gameday, or even so much as checking in for scores.  However, I made a commitment, which I will now reluctantly keep.