Twitter Baseball

I admit it:  I am a guilty Tweeter.  I feel slightly guilty when I use Twitter.  I generally think that Twitter is a bunch of people that are sort of using the internet as a dumping ground of verbal/textual diarrhea.  Of course, one could say the same for Facebook, and I am quite a diligent Facebooker.  (But Facebook is way more about social networking, photos, videos, etc. whereas Twitter is just endless status updates of "Time to walk my dog.")

I use Twitter mainly as a way to avoid annoying my Facebook friends with my incessant rantings/gushings about the Braves.  And then I realized, "Oh my... there are baseball players on Twitter.  Lots of them."

Today, Gaby Sanchez, first baseman of the Florida Marlins, joined Twitter.  Lauren and I, by the way, LOOOOOOOOOOVE Gaby Sanchez.  I feel guilty about it, like I'm secretly cheating on the Braves.  But come on.  The guy's a beast.  Seriously.  I told him as much, too.
Update:  I also told him to be nice to his new teammates, Omar Infante and Mike Dunn.  HE ACTUALLY RESPONDED!!!  It was short.  But I don't care.  I'm taking him at his word.  He promised he would be nice to our lovvies!!  In return, I'll be nice to Dan Uggla, too.  (Not that I was mean to him since he became a Brave....)

And here's the thing.  There are SO many pro baseball players with Twitter.  SO MANY.  And I'm all like, "Dang it!!  Where are all the Braves tweeters?"  There are three known ones for the Braves.  And as much as I love J-Hey and Fweddie, and as much as I am very very amused by Moylo, their tweets are boring.  BORING.  And as much as I adore and respect DOB and Mark Bowman (*retch*  *gags self with spoon*), they're not the players!

Examples--

Fweddie:  "On my way to church."

J-Hey:  "Cereal.  [insert picture of his breakfast]"  or  "Keep the faith.  [insert link or RT to a Rev Run tweet.]  Follow my boy Fweddie and Moylo."

Moylo:  "misspellings of every kind.  grammatical errors galore.  misplaced punctuation.  not funny.  hey guys here's a blog post including all of the above, but with more funny.  [insert link].  PS I love Ski he's my boy so glad we signed him whoo."

Official Braves:  "Hey, check out J-Hey!  Oh, look, there's J-Hey!  Did we mention J-Hey???  Oh, we suppose we should also mention Fweddie and Moylo." 

Don't get me wrong.  I have no problem with you telling me that you're going to church or posting pictures of your cereal or promoting your blog.  BUT YOU'RE STILL BORING.  And occasionally, they WILL post funny things... but only occasionally.  For instance, Freddie posted about waiting in line at midnight to get the new Call of Duty game.  GEEK.  Love it.

The Blue Jays tweeters, by contrast, are AWESOME, pretty much always.  [See Ian's blog, The Blue Jay Hunter for an awesome and more superior write-up about the Jays tweet-peeps.]

Travis Snider (hitherto known as "Lunchbox" on this blog):  "MEAT!  FOOD IS AWESOME!  I will discuss the intricacies of certain foods and answer fan questions about food and ask for suggestions related to restaurants.  Then, I will go into BEAST MODE and tease my fellow Blue Jays, especially VDub."

JP Arencibia:  "I'm super cute and excited about playing next year!  See this picture of me setting a good example for my nephew?  [insert disgustingly cute picture of nephew.]  It's time to go into BEAST MODE!!  [insert picture of beast mode]  MIAMI RULES!  Sometimes, I discuss food.  CUBAN FOOD IS DELICIOUS.  Stop teasing me, fellow Blue Jays!  I can't help being the most-good-looking.  The fans ask for pictures, I'm just trying to connect with them!  I misspell many things, lolz.  When I grow up, I want to be like VDubs."

Ricky Romero:  "Son, you don't know what Cuban food is until you eat it at the Romero household!  BEAST MODE!!  Time to work out!  Excited about next season!  Bring it AL EAST.  I ain't skurred!  VDubs is slow on this Twitter thing, let's make fun of him, boys!  Hey, JP, you post too many pictures of yourself."

Brett Cecil:  "I love my wife.  I love my kid.  I'm going to clean the entire house now.  Then, I will go into BEAST MODE!!  Can't wait for Spring!!  My kid is cute, did I mention that?  My wife is awesome.  How cute am I?  PS I like hunting."

Jesse Litsch:  "Dude, I just ran into [insert celebrity name] at this charity dinner for [insert awesome cause].  I'm kind of starstruck.  BEAST MODE!!  Occasionally, I talk about food, too.  Toronto is awesome!  So much good food.  Our fans are the best."

Vernon Wells:  "I might be old compared to you young kids, but I ain't that old yet!  I'm still capable of BEAST MODE!!!  AL East is boasting 2 All-Star teams, eh?  THAT'S JUST MOTIVATION TO KICK MORE ASSSSSSSS!!!!  Thank God for everything I have.  Now I'm going to condition and teach these kids a thing or two.  BRING IT ON BOSTON AND NEW YORK.   WE GOT THIS."

Official Blue Jays:  "Look at our awesome players with their awesome Twitter accounts!  We will actively engage our players in Twitter-conversations!  We will also talk to the fans!  We are WAY RAD!"  

UPDATE:  So, one of my favorite Jays has signed up for Twitter now.  JP apparently went on a campaign to recruit yet another Jays player to Twitter.  [Complete with on-going negotiations, deal finalization, and Ricky's stamp of approval.]  Say hello to Jose Bautista, boys and girls.  He's ready to turn on BEAST MODE in the Dominican Republic.  :D

See the difference, y'all?  I'm sayin'.  Other tweeters to mention:

Dirk Hayhurst (aka Garfoose):  "I am a bestselling author.  I am well-spoken and insightful.  I used to play for the Blue Jays.  I am, in fact, the first Jays tweeter, and look what has happened now.  And they used to make fun of me.  By the way,  I am a wonderful writer.  Feel free to check out my blog.  Hi friends on my former team!  You guys are rad.  I have BEAST MODE, too.  I have all sorts of modes.  I can't seem to turn off Dork Mode, though."

Mike Stanton:  "I do not appear to possess spelling or grammatical skills of any sort.  But that's forgiven because I'm pretty dang cute, I'm not gonna lie.  I like food, and I'm gonna talk about it.  I like partying with mermaids.  Time to go to the beach.  I'm going to condition and work out!"

John Axford:  "I have a crazy mustache and I'm Canadian.  I am also a photographer.  Trevor Hoffman is a great man."

CJ Wilson:  "I like cars.  I am straight edge.  Occasionally I will express outrage over something.  I will also post funny things.  Wanna see some pictures?  [insert link of pictures]"

Drew Storen:  "I'm a college student.  I REALLY should be studying/writing this paper... buuuuuuuut Call of Duty keeps calling to me.  Maybe I'll play just for a little bit... WHY DO I PROCRASTINATE LIKE THIS???"

Braves PR, in case you are reading this... We demand more of this.  MORE.  Thank you.

Blue Jaysin' It Up

I love Toronto.  It's the city where my cousins grew up, the city with the awesome Chinese food, in the land of maple syrup and poutine.  I pretty much love everything about Toronto, and no, not even the winters would make me think twice about moving there, if given the chance.  I mean, seriously.  The Chinese food alone is incentive enough.  Also, I love Canadian accents and cool Canadian currency... and Canadian boys.  Mmm... Canadian boys... with their accents... and access to excellent Chinese food... and legitimate cold weather... *swoon*

I meant, I love Atlanta!  (You can't call me a traitor, I DO love Atlanta.  But Toronto = VACATION NO WORK SLEEP EAT DRINK BE MERRY DREAMY MEN CITY, and Atlanta = Where the Players Play.  And I'm pretty tired of the players playin', ya know what I'm sayin'?)

So as I mentioned before, I was planning on going to a Jays game while in Toronto, though, I'm pretty sure nobody in my family wanted to go at all... I'm the baseball fan in the family.  *shrug*  Sorry, guys?

Besides!  It was my first Blue Jays game since June 22, 2004.  And in 2004, I saw the Jays play Tampa Bay, as well.  (yes, I cheated, and looked up the box score.  I wasn't as into the Jays then as I am now.)  BUT I did remember that Fred McGriff was the DH in that game (for the Devil Rays), and I also remember that the SkyDome was still the SkyDome, and the roof was open.  I could see CN Tower.  :)  Also, Eric Hinske was still a Jay at that point, so I saw Hinske play in a Jays uniform 6 years ago.  :)  I also saw Jose Bautista play in a Rays uniform.

Jays fell to the Rays that day, 5 to 1.  But to be honest, nobody expected otherwise.  (I say this with all the love in the world for the Jays... but they were not very good.  Howie Clark, who now plays for the Twins, scored the only Jays run, I think.)

However, the Jays game that I attended six years later was different.  I could choose between a Tampa Bay game or a Boston game.  As much as I wanted to do both, it just wasn't possible because there were 7 of us cousins... And also, limited funds.  For some reason, we thought that the Sunday game (August 8, 2010) was going to be a Ricky Romero game... even though my phone disputed this.  But I figured that Ryan would know since he lives in Toronto, and follows the Jays a bit more than I do.  Nope.  It was Brandon Morrow.  The boys (not my brothers or cousins) seemed displeased.  I was a little bit disappointed, myself.  Ricky Romero is awesome.  But I had watched (on MLB.tv) Morrow pitch against the Orioles, and he got himself out of whatever trouble he got himself into, every time.  I was impressed, and that was enough for me.
Plus, he's cute.

Reuters Pictures

So of course, we get there late.  Look.  What can I say?  I'm the baseball fan, but I also like sleep.  Plus there were 7 of us... and 2 more meeting us at the game.  We got seats overlooking left field.  NICE view... but the the roof was closed because it was overcast.  I wish it had been open because it felt really still in there... like the air was dead.  (I like moving air... it's a thing.)  Also, no pictures of  CN Tower like this, so boo.

We were walking towards our seats when there was sudden cheering.  Want to know why?  Because Yunel Escobar (who Ryan likes to call my boyfriend) had scored a run in the bottom of the 1st, driven in on a single by Vernon Wells!  (Yay, Yunel! <3 <3 <3)  It was the only run that would be scored during the game.  The previous game was a 17-11 monstrosity (8 homers by the Jays, there), and the roof was open.  With the dead air and the offensive outburst the day before, the bats were relatively quiet.  

Meanwhile, Brandon Morrow had already had himself a 1-2-3 top of the 1st... 3 strikeouts, and that's including Evan Longoria.  Andrew then proceeded to explain to me that if a Jays pitcher has 7 Ks, then you could present your ticket at a Pizza Pizza (see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) for a free slice.  

Yes, that ticket.  It's pretty.

Brandon Morrow had his 7th strikeout by the 4th inning.  He didn't stop there, though.  Jays fans should have been able to get two-and-a-half slices of pizza, because Brandon Morrow struck out 17 Rays.  That was not a typo.  SEVENTEEN.  One-Seven.  Against Tampa Bay.  The Toronto Blue Jays SWEPT the Tampa Bay Rays.  They won the series against the Yankees (in New York, no less!) coming into the Rays series.  How awesome was it that I got to catch this?  And I watched a BEAUTY of a game.  Pitchers' duels are boring for casual baseball fans or ... non-baseball fans.  But for people like me, it's super exciting.  (Or distressing, depending on which team you're rooting for...  Le sigh, Braves... le sigh.)

He had a no-hitter going up until the 9th inning, with 2 outs.  :(  And of course, it was Evan Longoria who broke it up.  And Aaron Hill looked absolutely distraught over not getting to that ball.  Honestly, though, I don't think he would have had a play.  Poor guy.  He clearly wanted very badly to help Morrow to that no-no.  BUT!  Brandon Morrow had his first 1-hitter, and his first complete game on August 8, 2010.  The only hit he gave up was a single by Evan Longoria.  There are really worse things, don't you think?  :)  The Jays players gave him a Gatorade shower and not one, but two shaving cream pies to the face after the game.  This video doesn't show the second pie, which involved Shaun Marcum hiding behind a lawncare vehicle and sneaking up and getting Morrow in the face after he'd already been doused and pied!  :)

Gatorade Shower! (AP)

Shaving Cream Pie #1 (Reuters)

Shaving Cream Pie #2, Courtesy of Shaun Marcum (Reuters)

Vernon Wells, I should mention, made a spectacular catch which I saw live... !  He's awesome.  

I'm sad that I didn't get to see any particular Yunel acrobatics or any Jo-Bau homers... but really, what could Yunel do?  Morrow had taken it upon himself to give everybody a nice relaxing day.  

OH!  And I saw Jose Molina steal a base.  Standing up.  IT WAS AWESOME.  I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I'm not a very diligent photographer, in spite of my penchant to stick cameras in everybody's faces.  The Jays dugout was practically rolling around laughing when they saw what had happened.  Jose Molina stole a base, dude!  Get real! 

Another interesting thing (which I also failed to take a picture of):  the beers had lids on the cups.  There were LIDS on the cups of beer.  No beer spillage!  EXCELLENT.  :)

I'm still trying to get my pictures organized.  I have fuzzy iPhone photos, decent (and blurry) point-and-shoot photos, and disappointingly wobbly and blurry dSLR photos.  I promise that when I get those sorted out, I'll post them here!  I got a couple of decent Yunel shots (but he looks tiny in them).  And I got a couple shots of Jose Bautista, before he shaved off his beard.  Didn't get any of Aaron Hill or any non-blurry Brandon Morrow photos though... le sigh.