Sure would be nice if the Blue Jays laid a good, old-fashioned, UFC-style beatdown on A.J. Burnett Tuesday, wouldn’t it?
I spend half my summer in the United States watching and listening to the myriad of so-called baseball experts that the ESPN sports TV monolith throws at us. We get the same in Canada, although it's on the hockey front where Sportsnet and other networks hire a cadre of experts to beat us over the head with analysis and defend players who sucker-punch others. But that's a different column for a different time from a different columnist (if they've got the stones, of course!)
My point is that as well as the Blue Jays have played so far this season -- and believe me they have played very well and all Jays fans have enjoyed this run to 10 games over .500 -- the time has finally arrived for them to enter the belly of the beast and play the three teams they have to beat before they can dream about playing meaningful games in October.
Starting Tuesday night, the New York Yankees come to town for a three-game series. The following week, the Jays will go to Fenway Park, and then the week after that the upstart, defending American League-champion Rays finally appear on the Jays radar. We will finally see, firsthand, just how good the Jays are. Nothing against the teams they have played to date, but none of them are considered favourites to win the AL pennant this season.
The opener against the Yankees has almost a "Hollywood" appeal to it, with ace Roy Halladay (15-5 career against the Yankees) facing off against his former protégé, the multi-talented A.J. Burnett, who opted out of his deal with the Jays to sign for big bucks in the Bronx. It will be interesting to see the level of vitriol the normally staid Rogers Centre crowd lays on Burnett. After all, they booed Gregg Zaun last homestand upon his return.
Sure A.J. made amends with them by winning 13 of his last 21 starts in a Jays' uniform after they hooted him off the field following an embarrassing performance (4.1 IP, 10 H, 8 ER, 4 BB, 100 pitches) on June 7 against the bottom-feeding Orioles. His response to the booing was to mockingly tip his cap, something he later said "was called for." Go figure.
The Sunday Nighter between the Rays and Red Sox, where Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon struck out the final three hitters with the tying and go-ahead runs on base, was a perfect indicator of just how good these two teams are. The Yankees, on the other hand, I don't hold up to the same standard. As I have written many times over the years, age and injury are the great equalizers, and the Yankees currently have ample doses of both.
Sure they have some of the top earners in the history of the game -- Alex Rodriguez ($33 million this season), Derek Jeter ($21.6 M), Mark Teixeira ($20.625 M), Burnett ($16.5 M), CC Sabathia ($15.285 M), Mariano Rivera ($15 M) and Jorge Posada ($13.1 M) -- under their employ, but their bullpen, save for long-time closer Rivera, is a joke and their reserves, the caulking of all championship teams, don't scare anybody anymore.
Along with the booing of Burnett, it will also be interesting to see how the crowd reacts to A-Rod in the wake of admitting to using his performance-enhancing drugs this spring. Rodriguez hasn't exactly enamoured himself with Toronto crowds in the past by calling Howie Clark off a pop up while running behind him and getting photographed going into a T.O. hotel with a stripper while his estranged wife was sitting at home tending to his young brood.
Rodriguez, now sitting on the Mount Rushmore of alleged steroid users along with Manny Ramirez, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, will be playing in just his second series of the season after he conveniently skipped the opening of the new Yankee Stadium due to a bum hip (sorry, did that sound a tad sarcastic?)
The Blue Jays can really make the U.S. media sit up and take notice if they slap around Burnett like they have others so far this season and take the series from the Yankees. Cito Gaston has the Jays playing their best baseball since, well, he last was managing them and this squad appears ready to take on any team.
I'm expecting a playoff-like atmosphere this week and hope that several of you will make the trek down to the Rogers Centre to see what the fuss is all about. Sure would be nice if they laid a good, old-fashioned, UFC-style beatdown on Burnett, wouldn't it?
