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Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Apr
6
2009

200-robertoToday, April 6th, is the official opening of the 2009 baseball season for Toronto Blue Jay fans (aren’t we all?), but you would never know it by looking out the window this morning. Of course this is nothing compared to the snowstorm of April 6th, 1982 that dumped up to 60 cm of snow across northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Of course in 1982 many of the ballparks were outdoors, resulting in delays in many cities for the start of baseball.

If you are under 36, the following won’t apply to you but on this date in 1973, the American League started play with the Designated Hitter. For the record New York Yankees’s DH Ron Blomberg was the first in Major League history, and as luck would have it he walked with the bases loaded (off Boston Red Sox Luis Tiant). Opening day, 1973, was also a somber day at Three Rivers Stadium as the Pittsburgh Pirates retired Roberto Clemente’s No. 21 in front of 51,695 fans. Roberto Clemente, you may remember, was the Hall of Fame Pirates outfielder who was killed in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve 1972 while delivering earthquake relief supplies to his native Nicaragua (and one of my childhood idols).

So what is in store for our Blue Jays this year? Gone are A.J. Burnette,  fan favourite Greg Zaun and Joe Inglett (the last hopefully only temporarily). Travis Snider is up with the big club to stay (I think) and a bulked up Adam Lind is ready to take on the DH rule.  On the mound Doc will get the ball for tonights season opener against the Detroit Tigers.  Good to see Scott Richmond slotted in as #5 in the rotation, especially after he was held out of the WBC in a classic Ernie Whitt blunder!

Officially this will be a rebuilding year, as the chances of beating out the bulked up Red Sox and Yankees will be slim (although a part of me wants to see the Jays take apart Burnette for about 10 runs when first they meet). But the Jays may surprise you. With a full season behind the bench this year Cito Gaston will get a proper chance to work his magic with the team after his .580 record in 88 games last year.

And now I need to go find a big box of CrackerJacks… and a snow shovel.

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The Teeswater.Ca Team are a group of people interested in providing local news of interest to everyone without needing the instant gratification of their name in (cyber)print.

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This work by Mark W. Law & The Teeswater.Ca Team is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.