12:00 PM Eastern

Buffalo, actually.

Well, not for the whole couple of weeks since my last post, but twice in the last few days.  On Saturday I took the family to the Queen City to see a Beatles’ tribute show at Shea’s called “Rain”.  As frequent readers know, my girls have really gotten into the Fab Four over the last few months, so I thought this was the next-best thing to taking them to a real Beatles’ concert.

It was, I guess, though I didn’t love it.  The four of them (five with a keyboard player to supply all the non-guitar and drum sounds) played very well and imitated the singing voices of Paul McCartney and John Lennon very well – George Harrison and Ringo Starr not so much – but I found the experience as a whole to be a little off-putting.  I’m not sure what to think of that, since the deal is that it’s supposed to be an imitation of The Beatles, and it was, but I guess I thought they were trying too hard.

The four guys are from Manhattan, Philly and California, so why speak in fake Liverpudlian accents when talking to the audience?  At least they never referred to themselves by the Beatles’ names, instead saying “my friend” when talking about one of the others on stage.

Still, the music was good, it was nice to hear them play some of the songs that the Beatles themselves never performed in front of a live audience, and the girlies really liked it – especially the little one, though some five year-old boy in the front row got all the love from the band for being a Beatles’ fan so young.  She’s three, damnit!

The weirdest thing for me (other than the fact that these guys actually sell their own CDs – someone will have to explain to me why anyone would ever want to buy one) was the audience.  It wasn’t your typical “cover band” reaction.  The 3,000-seat venue was packed, and the crowd was really into it.  Not as into it as the real thing, nobody screamed through every song or anything, but far more into it than I imagined it would be.  Maybe it’s me.

Last night, I was back in Buffalo again, doing the midnight run to pick up my mother-in-law at the airport, coming back from a trip to Florida.

Speaking of Florida, that’s kind of why I haven’t been posting since the pitchers and catchers reported back on Valentine’s Day.  I’m not down there, so I can’t do much more than just regurgitate the stuff that we’re all getting from the reporters who are on the scene.  If there was a huge move or something, I’d comment on it.  But it feels strange for me to be reporting on Lyle Overbay’s three hernia surgeries or Brett Cecil getting the first spring start against the Yankees or Vernon Wells going down for a month with a hammy when I’m not there watching it.  Or even the difference between what Cito and J.P. are saying with regards to someone like Travis Snider (J.P. says it might be better for him to start the year in Vegas, Cito says he’ll have to hit his way off the team).  That’ll all change Friday, though, when I report for duty in Dunedin in order to work the Fan Radio Network’s first two broadcasts of the spring with Jerry Howarth while Alan Ashby attends his daughter’s wedding.

We’ll be doing Saturday’s home game against the Braves (Roy Halladay starts)  and  Sunday’s visit to the Rays at their new spring home in Port Charlotte – thanks, by the way, for another two-hour spring road trip.  Another reason not to like T-Bay.  Full pre-games and JaysTalk in the post-games, starting at 12:30 pm Eastern both days.

That’s wasn’t the important announcement, by the way.  The important announcement is the following:

Regular listeners to the Fan590 are aware that we’ll be broadcasting Team Canada’s games at the World Baseball Classic, starting Saturday, March 7th when Canada takes on the U.S.  Our broadcast will begin at 1:00 pm Eastern with a WBC preview before the pre-game at 1:30 with the first pitch scheduled to be thrown at 2:00.  It’s my pleasure to announce the broadcast crew for the Fan Radio Network’s coverage!  I’ll be doing the play-by-play, and former Blue Jay and Team Canada member Paul Spoljaric will be providing the colour commentary.

I can’t tell you how thrilled and excited I am to be given this opportunity, and I couldn’t be more thankful to Nelson Millman for having the faith in me to give me this chance, and to Doug Farraway for being strongly in my corner.  I’m really looking forward to working with Spoljaric, as well.  We have done a couple of Grill Rooms together and he’s popped on the broadcast a couple of times over the years.  Very nice guy, very well-spoken and obviously, very experienced and knowledgeable with regards to both big-league and international competition.

I’m looking forward to your feedback on the broadcasts!

Oh, by the way, you can catch me on the Grill Room tonight – 6:30 pm in the Toronto area.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

7:42 PM Eastern

I’ve never been a fan of Alex Rodriguez as a person.  He’s a phenomenal hitter, one of the best of all-time, and if not for the intransigence of Derek Jeter would probably have gone down in history as the best shortstop ever.  But he has always appeared too polished, too unfeeling, too much a businessman rather than an athlete, and maybe that image was calculated to cover up what has shown as immaturity and very poor sportsmanship on the field of play on occasion.

The two things that stood out the most for me about Alex Rodriguez the person are his slap of Bronson Arroyo’s glove down the first-base line in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS and his “HA!” or whatever he said to make Howie Clark think he was being called off a pop-up at Rogers Centre down the third-base line a couple of years ago.  I have never seen John McDonald as angry as I did following that incredibly bush-league move.

Now the thing that stands out the most for me, and most other observers, is the fact that Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in the 2003 survey testing that Major League Baseball did in order to see if enough players were cheating to warrant putting in a full-blown testing program.

The revelation of the positive test was a stunner, though Rodriguez had been fingered by Jose Canseco, at the very least, as a steroid user.  Rodriguez now moves into the “bad-guy corner” of MLB’s elite, with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Rafael Palmeiro, among others.  His Hall of Fame candidacy is at risk and he can no longer be held up as the “true” heir to Hank Aaron as baseball’s Home Run King.  Never mind that Aaron has admitted to using amphetamines (and there are strong arguments that have been made that he used steroids), Willie Mays has been fingered as, at the very least, a supplier of amphetamines to his teammates, and Babe Ruth also used illegal substances (alcohol) during his playing days.  So the “real” Home Run King is, who, Frank Robinson?

Anyway, the “apology” that Rodriguez made in an interview with Peter Gammons on ESPN on Monday irks me, as well.  He admitted to using a “banned substance”, but only when he was with the Texas Rangers from 2001-2003.  He said he used because he was naive (doubtful) and stupid (maybe, but his agent sure isn’t) and that the culture of baseball was a lot looser than it is now (very true). He said that he felt a lot of pressure having just signed a 10-year, $252 million contract and wanted to make sure he lived up to it.  Rodriguez said he quit taking steroids in Spring Training of 2003, when he suffered a neck injury, and that he has been clean ever since.

A lot of people are buying this.  I’m not.  As I mentioned in the comments section, this is a classic case of “only admit to what they can prove.”  He hasn’t failed any tests since the 2003 survey testing, because those results were made public, so no need to say anything about that time.  He only failed the 2003 test, so no need to say anything about his time in Seattle.  I’ll give him credit, at least, for not saying “I only did it once.”

However, he looked very well-coached and well-rehearsed throughout his half-hour sitdown with Gammons.  Rodriguez hit on several talking points multiple times, repeating the words “naive”, “stupid”, “without over-investigating” and his point about having to be better informed about “what I was ingesting”.

He couldn’t answer the question about how he got the drugs – even intimating it might have been something he picked up at a GNC – and he said that he didn’t know what it was that he took.  One would think that if he was being “completely honest”, his answers to those questions would have been different.

Rodriguez mentioned that Gene Orza, the right-hand man of Players’ Union head honcho Donald Fehr, came up to him in 2004 and told him that he may have failed the survey drug test in ’03 but he may not have.  I can’t understand why Orza would say that unless he knew that Rodriguez was in a position to fail the test.

He also said that prior to 2001, he had never even heard that any major-leaguer might be using steroids.  That’s the biggest pile of -ahem- baloney of them all.  There’s just no way that could possibly be true.

The biggest grain of actual truth in Rodriguez’s entire performance was when he said that he got caught up in the culture of “everybody’s doing it, so why not experiment with x, y or z?”  That’s it.  Bang on.  Exactly.  Just say that and don’t try to feed us all the other crap to make yourself look good!  That’s why he did it, whether he started in 2001 and quit in 2003 or whether he started in 1995 and just switched to hGH or some other undetectable substance when he got out of Texas.

He said was “deeply sorry” and “very regretful” but I’m sorry – growing a conscience after you get caught doesn’t wash.  He said that he was “glad the truth is coming out today, it needed to come out a long time ago.”  That’s an interesting point, because there was really only one person who could have made sure that the truth could have come out a long time ago, and that guy was busy denying he’d ever used steroids in a CBS interview with Katie Couric last year.

Rodriguez wants us to believe that he wasn’t telling the truth then, but that he’s telling the truth now.  Of course, back then he wanted us to believe that he was telling the truth then.  My basic contention is that if one is willing to cheat, then one is also willing to lie about the cheating, and once one is caught, to lie about the extent of the cheating.  The fact that Rodriguez’ growing forehead turned beet-red several times over the course of the interview didn’t really help him, either.

Lastly, he noted that he’d only gained 15 pounds over the last 15 years, which he believes shows that he’s clean.  Thing is, the steroid that he used without “over-investigating” what he was putting into his body, Primobolan, helps to maximize muscle efficiency by helping to create more lean muscle mass.  He also tested positive for excessive testosterone, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency says that testosterone and Primobolan is a “well-known combination for athletes who are seeking performance-enhancing benefits.”  Primobolan isn’t legally available anywhere in the U.S., even with a doctor’s prescription.

He has stayed lean, unlike, say, Barry Bonds, but that’s because the steroid he was taking was designed to keep him lean.

I have made it a  practice not to take shots at other reporters, even though some of them seem to delight in taking shots at me.  I am suspending this practice for the moment because I just have to react to something Steve Simmons wrote in Monday’s Toronto Sun.  Simmons suggested that a distinction has to be made between Rodriguez and Bonds because Bonds “abused” steroids, but Rodriguez only “used” steroids.  I’m not 100% sure on this, but that might just be the most ridiculous thing that I have ever read.

Simmons wrote that while Bonds grew right before our eyes to freakish proportions, Rodriguez “has gone from boy to man with the usual change of body”.  But that’s because Bonds was taking stuff that made him huge while Rodriguez was taking stuff that kept him lean.  I think this is Simmons saying that he’d still vote Rodriguez into the Hall of Fame, but not Bonds.

There’s no distinction.  Just like there’s no real reason to believe that Rodriguez only used illegal performance-enhancers for the three years he was in Texas, and that one of the reasons he used them was the heat.

I wanted also to make a quick comment on the Roberto Alomar story that emerged today. An ex-girlfriend is suing the former Blue Jay because she says that he had unprotected sex with her after having been told in February 2006 that he had AIDS.  I have nothing to say about the merits of the lawsuit or otherwise, though if it’s true it’s a vile thing, but if Alomar really has AIDS then I feel terribly sorry for him.

I didn’t know Alomar well at all, only covering the 1991 Jays with University of Toronto radio, the ’93 team as an intern at the Fan and the ’95 team with 680News.  I wasn’t in  there everyday like I am now, it was a lot closer to once or twice a homestand.

What I do know is that one can make a very easy argument that he was the greatest Blue Jay ever, and he won a lot of fans over his five years here with his astonishing play on the field.

Personally, I always thought he was a bit of a punk.  I didn’t like the fact that he refused to play after David Cone was traded at the deadline in ’95 and that he often only seemed interested in playing hard when he was playing for a contender.  Of course, the spitting incident with John Hirschbeck at SkyDome was disgusting.  Regardless, his alleged fate is one you wouldn’t wish on anybody.  I hope it’s not true.

Watching Roberto Alomar play second base for the Jays, and be part of that wrecking-crew offense that saw three straight A.L. East titles and back-to-back World Series wins, was a pleasure almost unmatched.   I wish the very best for him in the future, and look forward to seeing him take his rightful place in the Hall of Fame next summer, inducted as a Blue Jay.

Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome.

11:35 PM Eastern

There are several things for me to touch on in this post, and let’s start with the events of today – the Blue Jays signed 40 year-old Japanese lefty Ken Takahashi to a minor-league deal with an invitation to Spring Training and revealed that Kevin Millar has been offered a similar contract.

The grand sum total of these two moves is next to nothing, and certainly not worth the wringing of hands and rending of garments I’m seeing across the blogosphere from the Blue Jays’ “faithful fans”.

Takahashi is not going to crack the best bullpen in baseball.  He could be OK, he could have no impact at all, with the latter far more likely, but he’s another arm in the minor-league system, he’s not blocking anyone, and who knows, he could give them an in with the Hiroshima Carp as far as postings go down the road.  Remember, the Japanese League team that posts a free agent doesn’t have to accept the highest bid, they pick the team they want to pick.

As for Millar, let’s all just calm down.  First of all,  he hasn’t accepted the Jays’ offer and he may well not, thinking he can get a major-league offer from someone in the next month or so, or choosing to wait for a team that he prefers to extend him the same offer.  And if he does accept the offer and makes his way to Dunedin, that’s going to be a fun seven weeks of Spring Training that will probably end with him going to Las Vegas to wait until someone gets hurt or until some other team wants to offer him a spot in the big leagues.  Maybe the Jays get a few hundred grand out of it, like they gave the Rangers for Kevin Mench (sorry to remind you of that).

The fact is, the Jays have their nine starters, who will be playing everyday, and their bench of four is likely to consist of Michael Barrett, John McDonald, Joe Inglett and Jose Bautista.  There’s no room for Millar there, unless he proves to be a better option than Bautista.  Millar has played third and the outfield corners in the past, like Bautista does, but right now Bautista is the better bat (against lefties, at least), and the Jays are paying him $2.4 million.

Which brings me to the next point.  Why in the name of everything that’s good and just are the Blue Jays paying Jose Bautista $2.4 million for the upcoming season? I’ll grant that it’s a non-guaranteed contract like Reed Johnson’s was last winter (sorry to remind you of that, too), so that the Jays can cut him in Spring Training and only be on the hook for $400,000, but seriously.  Nothing against Bautista, who is a really nice guy and a decent bat to have against lefties, but in this marketplace there’s no way that Bautista gets an offer even close to that as a free agent.

The only things I can think of are that the Jays were either operating on the “bird in the hand” theory or that they didn’t want to have given up Robinzon Diaz for six weeks of Jose Bautista in a season that wasn’t going anywhere.

Even if they do cut him in Spring Training, they’re still on the hook for 400 grand, and if he makes the team, they’re likely paying him at least a million and a half dollars more than they would have had they just cut him loose in December and re-signed him.

It’s mind-bottling for a team that’s watching its pennies to the extent that it laid off one of the assistant G.M.’s to be wasting money like this.

The next item on the list is the fact that Joe Torre mentioned the Blue Jays in his book, and there are those who are getting all out of sorts about the revelation that Brian McNamee said every Jays pitcher was taking amphetamines when he was there and Gord Ash just looked the other way.

Someone will have to explain to me why this is a big deal.  From about the 1950s, maybe earlier, until last year PRETTY MUCH EVERY PLAYER IN THE MAJOR LEAGUES WAS ON SPEED.  Sorry, that’s just the way it was.  Now they’re testing for it, so now guys are pounding a dozen Red Bulls or drinking 30 cups of coffee before or during every game.  They used to have jars of greenies in the clubhouse like candy dishes, and players would grab handfuls as they went by.

Jeff Blair’s story in today’s Globe and Mail includes an e-mail from Gord Ash in which the Jays’ ex-G.M. said that he had no reason to believe that the Jays were unique and that there were no obvious issues.  That sounds just about right.  Sure, the Jays were taking speed.  Everybody was.  That was the culture of major league baseball up until last season.

I spoke to a lot of baseball people about illegal performance enhancers when the Commissioner’s Office announced the first set of more stringent drug testing, and the answers – to a man – were the same.  Should they ban steroids? “Yes, steroids are harmful and it’s cheating and it’s terrible and evil and we have to clean up the game.”  Should they ban amphetamines? “Well, it’s a long season……..”  I’ve already spent more time on this issue than it deserves.

The last thing I want to touch on is the comments section.  Frankly, I’m sick of the negativity and I don’t want to deal with it anymore.  You don’t like J.P. Ricciardi?  Fine.  You think the Jays are going to suck this year?  OK by me.  A minor-league signing makes you want to throw yourself off a cliff?  Don’t land on anybody.  I don’t want to hear about it.

I had hoped that by ending EVERY post I write with “rational, reasonable comments are welcome” that I wouldn’t get any irrational, unreasonable comments.  That certainly hasn’t been the case.  There are many good Blue Jays blogs out in the ether that would sit somewhere on a scale of loving to tolerating those sorts of comments.  This isn’t one of them.  If you have a question I can answer, that’s cool.  If you want to talk baseball, no problem.  If you want to criticize the Blue Jays AND HAVE SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE TO SAY, outstanding.  If you just want to say that J.P. sucks and the team sucks and nobody should ever go to a baseball game in Toronto until he’s fired and Lyle Overbay is traded, then please take your act elsewhere.