An Open Letter to the Buffalo Bisons

Could Buster Bison be warming up the Canadian cross-border shopping crowd soon?

Let me get serious for a moment. The relationship between the NY Mets and their AAA Affiliate Buffalo Bisons has been reportedly strained. On the other side, the Blue Jays are getting tired of all the red eye flights from their affiliate in Las Vegas. Add in the fact that the Pacific Coast League both skews the power numbers of batters and has ruined the confidence of many a pitcher. This has lead to the Jays calling up pitchers directly from AA New Hampshire. This presents a mutually beneficial situation for both the Blue Jays and Bisons organization. With rumors swirling that the Jays and Bisons might actually partner up, I have come up with a few key points that might help seal the deal:

1. Travel time: Toronto and Buffalo are less than 2 hours by car from each other. Any players coming up from or going to the minors would be a hop, skip, and a jump from each respective city- especially when both teams are at home. This would lower travel time and costs for the clubs.

2. Tourism: Since we are so close to each other, any Blue Jays fans could take an easy trip down to Coca Cola Field to check out up and coming prospects or Blue Jays on rehab assignments. This would be a boost to Buffalo, that is still in need of economic development and more Canadian tourism could be just what the doctor ordered. Also, with a stronger link between Buffalo and Toronto, residents of the Queen City might be more inclined to take a trip up to Toronto to see their Major league club and follow their AAA stars when they get called up. The cost of a bus trip to Toronto or to Buffalo for members of each city is fairly inexpensive, so this just sweetens the deal for those who would either can't drive or just don't want to bother.

3. Cross-Promotion, Cross-Promotion, Cross-Promotion: Coca Cola owns the naming rights to Buffalo's home field, Coca Cola provides beverages to the Rogers Centre- no brainer. Also, with a Blue Jays affiliate in Buffalo, you could develop tourism packages that could convince Torontonians to stay awhile and spend more money in the U.S. Area restaurants, hotels, and even malls (Galleria mall anyone?) could get into the action. Baseball/shopping trips? Everybody wins. You could do the same in Toronto offering Bisons fan an opportunity to see the Jays along with some cross border shopping at the Eaton Centre.

4. Because we took some of your Buffalo Bills home games: Giving you a taste of a major league baseball team close to your city is the least we could do right? New York City is much longer haul from Buffalo than Toronto. Besides Dundas Square is almost as good as Times Square right....

Well, that is my case for your fine organization to join ours. I hope you realize the benefit it could be to both our cities.

Thank you,
Steven Pukin
Producer, Sunday Afternoon Baseball

It's Baseball Time and I'm All Jazzed Up

Oh man! I just walked out of the Tokyo Dome woke up at 8am and caught the last several innings of the First Baseball Game of 2012 on mlb.com's game day, and I'm even more excited about baseball than I thought I would be. Here's why:

- This is probably the only time all year 'm going to care about the Mariners and the As. Sometimes I don't know who I'm going to cheer for in a (non-Jays) game until I start watching, and today I immediately started cheering for the Mariners. I actually thought to myself, 'Maybe I'll just cheer for the Mariners all year!' This is a good entry point to baseball this year, otherwise the excitement curve heading into the Jays' opening day next Thursday would be too steep, and I'd flip over on my back like a turtle trying to climb a wall.

If Wins Were Losses and Losses Were Wins: The Blorld Series Part 2

by Dave Barclay

When last we witnessed the saga of the 2011 Blord Series Blayoffs in Part 1, the Minnesota Twins had come all the way back from a 3-0 deficit, losing the last 4 games of the ALCS against the Mariners to advance to the Blorld Series. Meanwhile, in the National League, the heavily favoured 106-loss Houston Astros had easily taken care of the Marlins, and were facing the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS.

NLCS: Astros vs Cubs

The Houston Astros had achieved a team-record 106 losses in the regular season. They were a losing powerhouse, wizards of whiff, lieutenants of being lit up, the high kings of hopelessness. But when you travel down a road leading to baseball sadness and disappointment, that road has to go through the North side of Chicago. The Cubs had squeezed into the playoffs, but they weren't about to be squeezed out, dealing with the Padres in four games and losing themselves a trip to Minute Maid Park for an NL Central confrontation.

MLB FanCave Concession Speech

by Dave Barclay

Hey Everyone,

As you may or may not know, I am officially out of the running to be in the MLB FanCave. I am mildly disappointed, but mostly very happy that I was able to make it to the final 30. This worked out way way way way beyond my most modest expectations and has been a real confidence boost. Here's a bunch of reasons why this really isn't that bad a thing, for me or for you:

1) The 9 people who are going to the MLB FanCave are awesome folks. I've met them all personally and they are some of the sweetest and most spirited fans of baseball you'd every be lucky enough to meet.

2) I'm don't have to worry about random passersby looking at me through the window while I watch baseball games. They will just be the local weirdos I know and love.

3) The 20 people who I met in Arizona who also didn't make it to the cave are also real all-stars, and would have been fantastic Fancavers. When I have a moment of self-pity, I remember that I am in very good company.

4) I can now go back to my original plan for the summer, visiting and rating (out of 6) all of Toronto's TTC stops.

5) I no longer have to abandon my wife, family and friends for life in the mean streets of New York, which I assume has not changed since the time of Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York


6) I still have a mountain of MLB clothing and things that the FanCave folks gave me in Arizona, which I can make a nest out of and not have to leave my house or bathe for several weeks. I have that option.


7) I can use my season's pass to go see live Jays Games.

8) I saw this movie once where someone moved to New York, and he ended up getting really homesick and he climbed the Empire State Building. Then a bunch of planes came and shot him until he fell down. I don't wanna be that guy

9) If you at all enjoyed the humourous content of my campaign, there are lots of options for you to see/hear/read more of it. For example,

- the podcast I do with my good friend Paul Frank, Sunday Afternoon Baseball with Paul and Dave (available on iTunes and here). The podcast will be starting up again in about a week as we release a Best of Season 1 and then we're going to have a live show close to the beginning of the season. Also, during the season we'll try and get some of the FanCave30 onto the 'cast.

- follow me on twitter and facebook for updates on where I'm doing standup,

- and there's also the vaudeville duo I'm in, Parker and Seville.

10) I still get to see the Jays win the World Series this year. Dave for Jays!

Thanks so much to everyone who voted, helped me make videos, came to voting parties, tweeted, posted on facebook, used word of mouth, and just made me feel very special indeed. And also thanks to the folks at MLB, who were great.

Yours,

Dave (for Cave)

Final Essay for MLB Fancave

by Dave Barclay 

During our time in Arizona, all of the FanCave 30 had to write an essay/blog post, with one of the topics being a recap of how the FanCave experience has changed our lives. This is what I wrote (late at night, after a very emotional couple of days)

On Thursday, February 23rd, I went to my hairstylist on College Street in Toronto for a trim. I made the usual small talk and received a very nice haircut, but inside my stomach was churning. For the past two weeks I had been devoting my energies to trying to get into the MLB FanCave, and after voting closed on the 22nd, I put my chances at 50/50 to make it to the Top 30 and win a trip to Arizona for spring training. The odds of me making it to the Top 50 had been so insanely remote in the first place (50 in 22,000, or 1 in 440) that it was really an accomplishment to get as far as I had. At the same time though, I really, really wanted to go to Arizona.

After my trim was done, I left the place and started walking down College. I turned on my phone. I had a tweet from a complete stranger saying “YOU WONNNNN!!!” I ran forward and jumped around with an abandon only partially contained by my typical Canadian reserve. I was heading South.

Since February 8th, the day I was named an MLB FanCave Top 50 Finalist, my life has been substantially different. I still have a wonderful wife and supportive friends and family, but rarely does someone get to see how much support they really have. When I started my campaign, I severely underestimated my competition. I thought to myself “I can beat 20 people at getting internet votes, no problem!” But what I didn’t realize is that the other contestants were forces of nature that had endless reserves of creativity, drive and media contacts. If I had known what I was up against then, I would have immediately given up.

Luckily, I was super naive, and the support started flooding in from friends, family, and complete strangers from across Canada and elsewhere who were hellbent on putting a Jays fan into the cave. They started spreading the message near and far, campaigned on my behalf, and always people were voting, voting, voting, and letting me know they’d been voting 10, 20, 30, 100 times a day and more, until their hands cramped up, all the way up to the climactic final few days when voting parties were held and people were tweeting constantly on my behalf. I wish upon everyone an opportunity some time in their life to see just how much the people around them care for them. It’s probably more than you think.

It’s also pretty rare to have such a tangible goal in front of you and to know that if you really put effort in, you have a decent chance at achieving it. Luck has a lot to do with it, too - I got lucky right off the bat because a) I was the only contestant in the Top 50 that had the name Dave and b) I was trying to get into a Cave. We started chanting “Dave for Cave” during shooting for the entry video and we realized we were onto something. Something that rhymed.

Instead of a cutthroat, bloodthirsty mudslinging fistfight, the campaigns of all the Top 50 melded into a love-in. During the two-week campaigning period, I was traveling through Chicago and was tweeting with Travis Miller, and we realized we were in the same town and both available for lunch. We went on a blind date at Ian’s pizza in Wrigleyville and immediately connected over the shared experience of the first few days of campaigning. It was a taste of what I would come to experience again and again here in Arizona. I meet a Fancave finalist, I think, “Oh my God! It’s fancave celebrity _____!”, and then realize that they are thinking the same thing, and then much connection, warmth and baseball talk follows.

Spring Training in Arizona has truly lived up to the incredible hype I had built up around it. The challenges, free things, and the experience of meeting baseball heroes have been ridiculously great, but the real thrill has been meeting so many great people, both the MLB folks and the other Finalists. It has been worth all the effort and strain to get here, and I’ve been rewarded hundreds of times over. If this is the end, I have no regrets and a feeling of great accomplishment. At the same time, though, I really, really, really want to got to New York City.

Jays Going Down the Old Man River

By Steven Pukin

After an offseason where casual Blue Jays fans were disappointed (see: really pissed off and giving up on the Blue Jays for good) that GM Alex Anthopoulos did not drop a boatload of money on big name free agents like the Angels, Rangers, or even the notoriously spendthrift Marlins. Many were left wondering why the Fielders and Darvishs of the world were not suiting up for the Jays this spring. During the winter meetings, Anthopoulos talked about "payroll parameters" and "boundaries" that he had to work within to put together a competitive club. These choice phrases seem to reinforce the perception that the team's owners, Rogers Communications were just cheap bastards and would never end up spending any money ever.

Day 2 in the Desert For Fancave Top 30

by Dave Barclay

You guys, if you read my post on Day 1 you probably thought, "There's no way this can get better." Well, you were wrong. Day 2 was just as thrilling, surprising and pellmell as the first.

I started at 8am by doing my 60-second pitch for a panel of MLB folks. This is the one thing I missed when my flight was delayed on Tuesday, and MLB was nice enough to let me do my pitch for them a day later (this is also why I'm not in the montage on the MLBFancave site) It involved a lot of graphs and diagrams, and I got almost all of it into 60 seconds. Then I had a longer interview, where I was queried about my comedy influences (I mentioned Monty Python and Steve Martin) and my thoughts on the extra Wild Card (officially against, but excited to see how it plays out).

Top 30 Desert Mermaids Taylor Hensley, Megan Washington,
Kelsey Shea Weinrich and Kyle Thompson up top.

Then Lindsay, Ben and I were taken back to Chase Field for an interview with local morning show legend Yetta Gibson, who we are now friends with. I think I said something about being Canadian.*
After that it was time to go to Salt River Fields, the beautiful spring home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.

Luis Gonzalez, baseball hero.

Here I encountered a brief history of playoff heroes of the early 2000s, first interviewing Aaron Boone, who hit the home run for the Yankees in 2003 that eliminated the Red Sox. We talked about his first career home run (off Kerry Wood), board games, Montreal baseball and the British Royal Family. Then Luis Gonzalez, who got the game winning hit of the 2001 World Series for the Diamondbacks, came and hung out with us. He told us about how to get a hit off Mariano Rivera (look for the cutter) and what it's like being the father of triplets.

Then it was time for our secret mystery challenge, which turned out to be writing and shooting a commercial for mlbshop.com. We created a masterful narrative involving a sandlot pickup game where Eddie Mata delivered an award-worthy performance as the kid who didn't get picked. I had one line ("That kid's not even wearing a hat!") and I gave it all the gravitas I could muster. Oh, I almost forgot, I GOT A JAYS JERSEY FOR FREE AND IT LOOKS AWESOME!!!

In the evening, we went to the swank Lucky Strike bowling alley (or "an experience that also has bowling" as the waitress described it to us). I started off with two straight strikes but it turned out that was just a practice round. In the end the winner was Fun and Togetherness as the bonding between the Fancave 30 deepened. I also got to talk with Anne Occi, who designed the Jays' new look. I told her "Thanks! It's fantastic!"

 All in all, it was a fantastic couple of days. I'm safe at home now and I'll keep you posted on what happens next. Thanks to the MLB FanCave team for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and thanks to you for following along on my fantastic journey.

----

* I got a lot of questions about being Canadian from curious Finalists this week, like "Who is the President of Canada?" and "Do you call normal bacon 'American Bacon?'"

First Day in Arizona For Fancave Top 30

by Dave Barclay

You guys, this whole thing is crazy. Last night I did an interview at 1:15 AM on TSN 990 (You can check it out here; I'm on at 1:56 but the whole show is great) and then left my house at 5:45 to go to the airport for a 9:40 flight to Arizona (I was worried about customs, so I left myself lots of time).

A lady gave me a voucher to use the special Maple Leaf Lounge, which meant free yogourt, but my good fortune turned to bad as the plane had some kind of toilet problem, and we were delayed for three hours as we had to switch to another plane

I arrived in Phoenix, foggy headed and loopy, at 3:30 and was quickly shuttled to Chase Field, home of MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks. There I was greeted with much enthusiasm by my 29 comrades, who it turns out are just as delightful in person as they were via social media. They had all been worried about me, which was very touching, and welcomed me with open arms.

Then things got real, fast, as I was on a trivia superteam with Benjamin Christensen of beard and tattoo fame and Lindsay Guentzel of Minnesota, and we dominated the MLB IQ Fancave Trivia challenge and won the right to be on a morning show in Phoenix tomorrow.

Then we had a lovely dinner in Chase Field and I participated in another all-star team, this time in the arena of Kareoke, joining Cardinals fan (and great singer) Kelsey Shea Weinrich and Angels fan (and great turn-arounder) Ricardo Marquez in a stirring rendition of Total Eclipse of the Heart. Did I mention this was all in Chase Field, the home of the Diamondbacks? It was.

This trip is turning out to be just as fun and mind-blowing as I'd hoped, and I haven't even interviewed 2003 playoff hero Aaron Boone yet. Tomorrow is a crazy busy day, and I'll try and keep you posted best I can as I go. Now I have to manage the difficult balance between work and sleep in the scant hours I have left here in desert paradise.

Top 30 Fancave Finalist!!

by Dave Barclay

You guys, Thanks to your votes and tweets and attendance at voting parties and telling me you're pulling for me I'm going to Arizona on Tuesday to participate in the Spring Training portion of the MLB Fancave competition.

So, an official blog thank you to everyone from close friends to complete strangers who have decided to aid me over the past two weeks. I'll be in 'Zona from Tuesday through Thursday, I don't know much at all about what's going to happen there, and I'm really excited to meet the other contestants for the first time.* There are 30 of us left, and the other 29 are all pretty cool dudes and dudettes.

There is no voting for me at this point, although if I make it to New York there may be some kind of voting process there, I'm not sure. If you feel the need to help the Dave for Cave movement right now, go ahead and keep tweeting the hashtag #daveforcave, or tell someone you know in the media to do a story on me. Or just tell someone about it, or wish really hard. All of this will help me, because the general buzz created back here in Toronto will factor into the judges' final decision.

Anyway thanks again. DAVE FOR CAVE!




* Except Travis Miller. I already met him in Chicago. Helluva guy.

The 10 Best Things About Being a Jays Fan

by Dave Barclay


This is an article inspired by the series on Big League Stew, one of my fave baseball blogs. If you are reading this on Wednesday, February 22nd, please go here and vote for me for the MLB FanCave. It's a fun, popular activity.

1) Memories of the Early 90s

If you are a Blue Jays fan, your mental file of “good memories” is right next to a file labeled “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and, if you are in your twenties or thirties, “awkward conversations with girls/boys”. Everything was weird in the early nineties, because the Jays were the best team in baseball, had the biggest payroll, and shattered attendance records. The ‘90s Jays had swagger too. Everyone hated us (especially Orioles fans) and Todd Stottlemyre told the mayor of Philadelphia to kiss his behind at the victory parade in 1993.

And now, when the team is finishing fourth every year, all Jays fans still connect over shared memories of Alomar, Carter, Gruber, tight uniforms, mullets and box cuts. It’s a hilarious time to be nostalgic about.

Press Release for the Dave Barclay MLB FanCave Campaign

by Dave Barclay


Hey folks, here's a press release I wrote earlier this week for the campaign. If you know any media, feel free to send it their way. Yours, Dave

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                  February 16, 2012

DAVE BARCLAY ENTERS FINAL WEEK 
OF CAMPAIGN FOR MLB FANCAVE

One of two Top 50 Finalists From Toronto 
selected from over 22,000 entries

On February 8th, Major League Baseball revealed the Top 50 finalists for the MLB Fancave, including Dave Barclay, Toronto comedian and a huge fan of the Toronto Blue Jays. The winner of the competition will spend the 2012 baseball season in New York City watching all 2,430 Major League Baseball games on a large wall of big screen Sony televisions, and chronicling their experiences online with social media, blogs, and comedy videos made with some of MLB’s biggest stars, including Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista. 

To be considered for the cave, Dave submitted a 2,000 word essay and a video demonstrating that he is one of the most entertaining baseball fans in North America. This video is posted on MLBFanCave.com and fans can vote on it as their favourite. If Dave gets enough support and makes it into the Top 30, he will go to spring training in Arizona at the end of February and compete in a series of challenges to determine the final group of contestants.

Dave is a comedian who grew up in the GTA and currently lives in Toronto, and has a Blue Jays season’s pass. He co-hosts a podcast, Sunday Afternoon Baseball with Paul and Dave (sundayafternoonbaseball.blogspot.com) with Paul Frank and blogs at Sunday Afternoon Baseball Essays (sabessays.blogspot.com). Dave graduated from the Comedy Writing and Performance program at Humber College. He is a member of the vaudeville duo Parker and Seville and has been performing standup in Toronto for over six years.

Dave wrote and shot his video shortly after seeing the movie Inception, which heavily influenced his script. In the video Dave wakes up from a series of dreams where he is Jays Shortstop Yunel Escobar, a Cardinals fan, in a world where the Jays have won the world series (and his head explodes), and finally as an English Policeman or “Bobby.” 

Since the Top 50 were revealed, Dave has received support on Twitter from Jays fans from all over Canada (and beyond) hoping to put a Jays fan in the FanCave, inspiring the hashtag #daveforcave. He has received endorsements from Jonah Keri, writer of The Extra 2% and the website/quarterly Grantland, and Jays blogger Tao of Stieb, who blogs for Sportsnet and his own blog (taoofstieb.com). 

Dave can be followed on twitter (@davebarc) and you can vote for him at MLBFanCave.com. Voting closes on Wednesday, February 22nd.

# # #

Contact: Dave Barclay at dpbarclay@gmail.com or 647-881-4489

Poster by Tracey MacIsaac (tmacphotography.com)

Video: Dave for Cave Strikes Again

by Dave Barclay

Here is my second video for the MLB Fancave! After enjoying this proceed immediately to http://tinyurl.com/7gz3apd to vote Dave for Cave. Thank you.

Endorsements: People joining the Dave for Cave Revolution

by Dave Barclay

You guys, being a MLB FanCave finalist has been a lot of fun, not only because it has enabled my narcissistic tendencies, but also because of the love and support so many people have given me through social media and whatnot. Lot's of people, including friends and family, Jays fans, Canadians, and people who like rhyming slogans have rallied to the cause. With a few days to go in the campaign, I wanted to share with you some real kind words I've received in two categories: Real and Imagined

If Wins Were Losses and Losses Were Wins: The Blorld Series Part 1

by Dave Barclay

Sometimes I like to imagine what a world would be like if mediocrity were celebrated instead of success.  We all know the story of the thrilling 2011 playoffs, but what if the standings were reversed, and we focused on those forgotten teams that regularly lose over 90 games a year? In that vein, I'd like to call attention to the outstanding losers from 2011 in a Bizarro World Series, or Blorld Series, where wins are losses and losses are wins, hot dogs and beer taste bad and everyone in the stadium eats salad and drinks tonic water.

Now, we can't just give the Blorld Series title to the Astros for having the most regular season losses, oh no. Just like the real baseball world, there had to be some postseason to shake things up and open up the possibility that the worst regular season team might not actually lose it all and have a backwards parade down Shame Avenue. But how did I create this tournament of ineptitude? By taking some regular season matchups between the big losing teams.

Here are the teams that would make the playoffs if wins were losses and vice versa:

Official Platform for MLB Fan Cave 2012

by Dave Barclay

You guys, against the odds I recently became a Top 50 finalist for the MLB Fancave. Now I have to convince the kind folks of the internet to vote for me, with the final goal of putting me in a cave for the entire Major League Baseball Season to watch 2430 games and make sure they are all actually played.

With that in mind here is a full platform of what I promise to do and not do once elected to the MLB Fancave, covering all the major issues. If at any time you are convinced to vote for me, or you want to see a really well edited video, go here and look for me. (Look for a man in a bathrobe and a jays logo)

1) If elected to the Fancave, I will represent Canada and the Blue Jays with distinction and honour (there is one other Jays Fan in the running, and you can vote for both of us. Her name is Sarah Lever) I will do this by dropping the names of former prime ministers into everyday conversations ("I really Diefenbakered this air hockey game")

2) If elected to the Fancave, I will not reveal that I am a weird mutant penguin (see Oswald Cobblepot)

3) If elected to the top 30 finalists in Arizona, I will bring you back a Arizonian souvenir, like a baby cactus or gila monster.

4) If I continue on to NYC, I will bring you back a New Yorkian souvenir, like a broadway playbill or a slice of pizza that someone used as an ashtray.

5) During my Fancave campaign, I will not use a thirty foot poster of myself prominently featuring my double chin. (It didn't work for Citizen Kane)

6) In the fancave there's a crazy 3D map of north America featuring all the MLB stadiums. If elected, I will fill those little stadiums with even littler people made of toothpicks and embroidery floss.

7) If elected to the MLB fancave, I will have the ability to reach things on the top shelf, as I am above-average in height (6'3")

8) If elected to the MLB Fancave, I will maintain a cool demeanour around my favourite MLB players and other celebrities, and refrain from kissing them full on the lips.

9) If elected to the MLB Fancave, I will bring back the Montreal Expos. (Through expansion, don't worry Nats fans!!!1)

10) If elected to the MLB Fancave, I will fight any crime that wanders into the fancave with my bobby stick (see video)

11) I'll do whatever you want. I am that desperate/powerful.

Please vote early and often, and if you want to know more about me check out my podcast, Sunday Afternoon Baseball with Paul and Dave that I do with my good friend Paul Frank, or look at some of the other articles on this blog.

Yours,

Dave Barclay

Mr. Team Name: The Most Representative Player of Each Franchise (Part III of III)

by Dave Barclay

And now the thrilling conclusion of the story of Major League Baseball as told through the most representative player/manager/owner of each team. (See parts I and II for the first twenty teams.)

Mr. Philadelphia Phillie

Mike Schmidt (1972-1989)
The Philadelphia Phillies are another team mostly known for losing, having the most losses in professional sports history, the longest losing streak (23 games) in baseball history in 1961, and in 1964 suffered a historic collapse to lose the National League pennant. I don't get the feeling they were lovable losers like the Mets or Cubs, though, they were just losers.

So it must have come as a great relief when the 1980 Phillies won the World Series for the first time in the team's 98 year history. And the unanimous MVP that year was Mike Schmidt. There are a lot of Phillies heroes with more personality, but Mike Schmidt was the one who represents them turning from losers into winners. He also had a handsome mustache.

Runners Up: Mitch Williams, John Kruk, Steve Carlton, the Phillie Phanatic, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Roy Halladay, Richie Ashburn

Why Yunel Escobar is the Best

by Dave Barclay

I was looking at the Toronto Blue Jays' promotional schedule today, and my eyes lit up on two items in particular: every friday is Lester's Grand Slam Combo, which seems to indicate some kind of hot dog discount, and Sunday June 3rd is Yunel Escobar Bobblehead Day.

Yu guys, ever since Roy Halladay left Toronto, I had been holding my heart in my hand waiting to find another Blue Jay to give it to. I had some dalliances with Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista and Kyle Drabek*, but when it came time to buy a new Jays shirsey this year, there was only one choice. Yunel Escobar.

Here are the reasons why Yunel Escobar is the best:

Mr. Team Name: The Most Representative Player of Each Franchise (Part II of III)

by Dave Barclay

And now part two of the alphabetical journey through major league baseball, where we discover which player best encapsulates the qualities of each franchise. (Here is Part One)

Mr. Houston Astro

Craig Biggio (1988-2007)
For some teams, it's difficult to pick a representative player because there are so many options. And some teams, even though they have been around as long as the Mets have and have found nine players to retire the numbers of, can  never escape the shadow of their super flashy uniforms and space-age stadium. Okay one team.

What do I know about Craig Biggio? That he was a Houston Astro and got 3,000 hits. Which is one more thing than I know about any other Houston Astro. (With the exception of Nolan Ryan. But he clearly has affiliated himself with the Texas Rangers.)

Dave's Official View on the Hall of Fame

by Dave Barclay

There few more enraging things in baseball than the Hall of Fame. Going to the Hall of Fame is a lot of fun, but arguing about who should be in the Hall of Fame is not. Starting with Shoeless Joe Jackson, then Pete Rose, and now Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, and Jeff Bagwell (soon to be joined by Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens), you could start a brand new Hall of Fame filled with baseball legends that are barred from the real Hall of Fame for moral reasons. This creates feelings of confusion, embarrassment and tummy upset for everyone associated with baseball, and I think it should change.

In what way, you ask? Well, the solution's all there in the name of the place. Why don't we put people in the Hall of Fame who are famous?

Don't misunderstand me, I don't mean players like Nelson Liriano should be in the Hall of Fame just because I know who he is because he played baseball. The BBWAA should use the same process they do now, where there has to be at least 75% agreement before a player is admitted, but instead of using moral or statistical criteria, make it 100% subjective. Is a player, manager or 'builder' more famous than his peers? Into the hall they go. Easy.

Mr. Team Name: The Most Representative Player of Each Franchise (Part I of III)

by Dave Barclay

Hello and welcome to Sunday Afternoon Baseball: Essays, the sister blog to the podcast Sunday Afternoon Baseball with Paul and Dave, which recently wrapped up its first season. In this blog I (Dave) and possibly also Paul (and maybe even Steve) will be writing down some of our thoughts on matters baseball. This first post will be the answer to a question I sometimes pose to myself in line at the grocery store: What is the most representative player of each of Major League Baseball's 30 franchises?

Now we're not talking about who is the best player in a franchise's history, because that's something you could figure out with statistics, and statistics are not what Dave Barclay is all about. I mean what is the face that pops up when people think about a baseball team? Who represents the soul of each team? Often it is the best player the team has ever had, but sometimes it's whoever was the best player when the team was at its most successful, or someone who played their whole career in that team's uniform. If you could imagine a parliament or group picture or pageant where each of the 30 teams, outside of the restrictions of time and mortality, could send the player that represented that franchise at its very best, whom would you send?