Not always, because the word ‘Jays’ can pertain to the fan’s preference, not the Jays’ possession. You might say something like ‘The Red Sox’ fans were much rowdier than the Jays’ fans.’ And in that sentence the possessive apostrophe would be appropriate. But if I say ‘I am a Jays fan’, then I am not referencing the Jays’ ownership of me, I am referencing my own description of who I am and I am using the plural ‘Jays’ rather than the singular ‘Jay’ because they are always referred to that way. So no possessive grammar point needed. Yes, ‘Jays’ is a noun not an adjective. But it’s being used as an adjective in that sentence.

MW: Cool.

No, it isn’t. But I think he was the predicate reason for all those hitters going on the fritz at the same time. You were the one who kept saying ‘these guys are better than this’. And you were right. They are. They’ve proven that recently. So the facts are these: We have a reasonably good offensive team. We fire the batting coach and hire a new one. All the hitters go ice cold immediately afterwards. We fire that batting coach and his boss and bring in a new batting coach and a manager that used to be a batting coach. Slowly but surely our offense improves.

You will say that is a simplistic approach and you’d be right. I don’t think the earlier coach was the whole reason for the Jays’ problems this season but I think he was a contributing factor in those problems. Add all the other stuff I’ve complained about tirelessly, and you have an unhappy, insecure bunch of position players and a squad of exhausted pitchers tired of fruitlessly trying to keep their team in the game. It’s a recipe for disaster. I’m amazed that the team has recovered so quickly and that does bode well for next season.

MW: You’re never going to change my mind and I’m never going to change yours.

MW: No, I didn’t think so. He has to wait until he’s sure one way or the other, and Stairs has to go all-out until he sees a signal

If Stairs is going all out rounding third waiting for a signal, doesnt he risk being tagged out at third if Leyva doesnt send him.

MW: Tagged out at third? No, if there was that good a chance of that happening, Leyva wouldn’t wait to make a call.

MW: Because he’s better.

Had some time before the game started tonight and started to read your blogs from the beginning. I laughed when you said that hopefully you would get enough e-mails to do a mailbag. I noticed your replies are much shorter now since you have 100+ comments , up from 12 ! Are you surprised at this “monster” you’ve created ?

MW: Stunned.

Just wondering, do you read other blogs too? What are your favourite baseball sites?

MW: I do read other blogs when I have time. I read most of the Jays’ fan sites, especially the Drunks, the Tao and Hum and Chuck.

No, the season was probably lost when they hired Gary Denbo as a hitting coach.

MW: Yeah, it’s all his fault.

MW: See above.