Washed Out

The Twins’ home game against the Barrie Baycats was rained out tonight – it was called over an hour before first pitch, so I’m going to guess it was really bad at the ballpark. They’re off until they host Hamilton at 2 on Saturday, and I fall off the beat until the first weekend in June when Oshawa comes to Meadowvale. There are four games in between then, so I’ll likely get in touch with coach Calcagni by email or phone and do pieces on those games, as well as some supplementary blog material.

They continue to sit at .500, at 2-2. By rights, they should be 3-1 and it wouldn’t be altogether unfair if they were 4-0. But such is the way of baseball – it should even out over the course of the season, and at least know that they’re no Stratford Nationals.

The pieces I’ve done so far are up on the Twins’ site – www.mississaugatwins.ca – and I’m going to write up a short newswire-type thing on the rain-out, and do a feature on the home opener hoopla/the general arrival of the Twins to the ICBL.

This Blue Jays’ losing streak is painful – unless they can beat the Red Sox Friday, it’ll hit double digits. It was never that bad under John Gibbons. With them now sitting only four games over .500, we can say with certainty that this losing streak has hurt them dearly. It will absolutely be one of the first things to point at if they miss the playoffs by anywhere from one to three or four games.

That said, it’s yet to mortally wound them, and there’s a good chance they’ll still play above-.500 ball for the rest of the season – after all, they always have. It’s just unfathomable to imagine a team that showed it can play as well as they did prior to this losing streak flopping for the next four months, and it probably won’t happen.

Because the Yankees and Red Sox have scuffled a bit – the Red Sox more so – of late, they’re only a game and a half out, and with a ton of games left against the Yankees and Red Sox they firmly control their own destiny.

I can probably say a lot more about a few situations – the bullpen and Wells/Rios, notably – but I’m going to hold off until the week, when the Twins beat dies down a bit and all I have to report on are boxscores.

If the Bats Were as Hot as the Weather...

Today’s game at Christie Pits (which I was absolutely stunned to learn is spelt with only one T – maybe that’s why I can’t find information anywhere about the race riots!) was a long, hot one, and I can prove it on both fronts: about two more pages of in-game notes than I’d planned on taking, and killer, killer sunburns on both my arms.

The game itself was a jewel – it was tight, well pitched (if not well defended), full of a lot of opportunities for both teams that definitely gave it a dramatic flair, and a fun (although very partisan) hometown crowd that obviously knew the Leafs inside out.

All of the scoring came on one-run homers – a bomb to dead centre by Wes O’Neill in the top of the third for the good guys, and two Leafs’ homers – each by Rob Gillis, one a first-pitch rocket to lead off the bottom of the ninth and tie the game, and the other to lead off the bottom of the 15th and send (most of) everyone home happy.

The Twins, though, had far more than their fair share of chances to put the game away before Gillis’ ninth inning rocket, and I’m sure they’re all plenty aware that they have no one but themselves to blame for this loss. The one that jumps out at me as most damning came in the top of the ninth, when they had runners on first and second with no one out, and Sean Pisarski popped up a bunt attempt to the pitcher – who then came oh-so-close to doubling off the runner on first, which would have been devastating. As it was, the next two hitters couldn’t get the job done, and clearly it cost the Twins.

The problem with botching that ninth inning bunt attempt is two-fold: screwing up fundamentals (that badly, no less) late in the game will get you in any coach’s doghouse very quickly, and, perhaps even more importantly, if not a bit abstractly, it let the Leafs off the hook big time. Pitcher Mark Sequarski (whose last name I can’t spell and whom I can’t find on the statistics page of the ICBL’s website, which has me a bit confused/alarmed – help in the comments, anyone?) fielded a chopper back to the mound with Derek Gordon on first, and pivoted to go to second to cut down the lead runner... and tossed the ball right into centre field. It put runners at first and second with no one out rather than a runner on first with one down. Needless to say, it isn’t the kind of mistake you can let someone get away with in competitive baseball – but again, I’m sure that the Twins know that as well as anyone.

Another ninth inning problem for the Twins was Gordon’s base running – after the botched bunt attempt, Darryl Pui whiffed, and Gordon got caught napping off of second (I was told after the game it was a brain freeze on his part to not go back hard to the base when he saw the pitcher turn) and seemed to just give up on the run down, rather than trying to get himself out of it. I understand that it’s incredibly deflating to be caught between bases when the ball is on the infield, but I think under those circumstances you need to do everything you can to escape – and he didn’t.

You’ll be able to read my game story – which I’ve yet to write – on www.MississaugaTwins.ca , along with the other 4 or 5 pieces that have yet to go up, as soon as the guys running the site get them on there – which I’m told will be tomorrow (Monday), so keep an eye. The site also has a map of the Twins’ home park, for all of the friendly people who asked today.

I liked my first trip to the Pits – the huge, steep hill that surrounded the backstop was like nothing I have ever seen, and you can just tell that the place is rocking in August when the Leafs play in the play offs and there’s more people out. The neighbourhood was nice; the fans knowledgeable; the lockerrooms existent, unlike at Meadowvale; and, the hot dogs were bigger than at Meadowvale. Cool stuff. I'll be back for non-Twins games if the ICBL is paying me. ;)

I asked coach Calcagni about several things after the game – a few of which I promised some fans the answers to would go up on this blog – and even though I’m still not sure I would have done what he did in those situations, I was pretty satisfied with his answers. Chiefly, I wanted him to explain his thinking when he walked Kern Watts in the bottom of the tenth with a runner on third, even though Watts had been having a dreadful game. Calcagni told me that he coached Watts for ten years in Brampton and knows he is a great hitter, and he didn’t want to get beat by a guy who he knew was capable of beating him when he had other options. Watts, by the way, promptly stole second, which Calcagni told me he knew he would do – the IBB was still worth it, though, to avoid facing his bat. Obviously, the move worked out for the Twins, as the next two Leaf hitters struck out – Brian Ivan looking, and the eventual hero Gillis swinging.

The other intentional walk I wanted an explanation of was when Jeremy Walker was put on in the bottom of the 11th. Walker was just brutal at the plate today, striking out looking twice, as I remember it. I thought maybe Calcagni was being super-orthodox about wanting the righty-righty matchup that the next batter offered (Walker was a lefty facing a righty pitcher), but again, the reason was that Calcagni knew Walker could crush it and thought he was due with the weak showing he had put forth so far.

By the way, the only reason Walker had to be put on was because Dan Gibbons began the inning with a ROCKET off of the centre field wall – it looked like a walk off dinger off the bat. It was absolutely tremendous defense on the Twins’ part to hold him to a single, because he really did hit it to the deepest part of the park. He was bunted over to second, which set the table to put Walker on.

I think I would have been comfortable pitching to both of those guys in those situations, but Calcagni knows those players a ton better than I do, and his move worked out in both cases, so no complaints here.

Another thing Calcagni told me – which I found very surprising, but I don’t doubt the sincerity of at all – was that George Mensah was not benched today due to his GIDP with the bases loaded and no one out yesterday against Brantford. Instead, it was as simple as Calcagni wanting to see as many of his players as possible, which is absolutely fair.

I should have asked him if Mensah would have started today if he had ripped a doubled in that situation, and I forgot to ask him how he felt about Mensah being thrown out stealing second as a pinch runner today (in the 14th, I think). The consensus we came up with amongst the fans I was talking to was that Mensah had the base swiped, but he was tagged out because the catcher’s throw tailed right into him. I wanted Calcagni’s take on that play – if he saw the same thing we did, I don’t think you can be too upset with a guy being thrown out when the only reason he was thrown out is because the catcher made a bad throw and caught a lucky break.

Anyways, remember to keep checking the Twins’ site for my pieces this week, and tell your friends about the blog! I’m not too sure what I’ll put up between now and the Wednesday home game against Barrie – I think I’ll do a little Blue Jays post either tomorrow or on Tuesday, but no guarantees.

A Defeat in Battle; A Win in War

I’m not sure how responsible it is of me to blog before writing my stuff for the website, but I’m told that nothing I write will be up until Monday – so I guess the blog it is.

Today, without intending to spoil the lede (not lead) of my piece on the home opener, was a lot of fun – a really good crowd, great weather, an actual ballpark atmosphere that, quite frankly, didn’t seem like it was going to happen as recently as Wednesday, and an exciting game, albeit one that the Twins wound up on the wrong side of.

They lost 5-3 to the defending champions, and they certainly could have – and probably should have – won. They left the bases loaded twice, once only manufacturing a single run despite loading them with no one out. None of the Brantford runs, to the best of my hazy recollection, were entirely undeserved, although a few of them came from guys that got on base via a walk.

I daresay the crowd was spectacular – at least, that’s what I’m told by ICBL watchers. Different people I asked guesstimated the final attendance as being between 200-1000; I’m thinking I would go with 400-600 if I had to bet. By all standards, though, it was considered a success.

The ballpark atmosphere came together nicely: a kick-ass throwback scoreboard in left-centre that wasn’t there on Wednesday (huge kudos to the scoreboard operators, as the scoreboard, despite being a manual one, was consistently reliable for details as miniscule as the exact count, pitch-by-pitch); a concession stand that covered the basics, even if the hot dogs were a bit small; a – this was the shocker for me – Boston Pizza Beer Garden (actually a fenced off section down the third base side with a beer tent), and a few cute promotions aimed at kids that seemed to keep everyone on their toes and entertained.

It came down to a ballpark that felt like an actual ballpark, despite as recently as Wednesday having been no more exciting any other municipal baseball field. I think there’s a great feature somewhere down the road about the Twins’ game day operation!

I did not get to speak to Rick Johnston – I was surprised to see him in uniform, being the VP of player development, and I’m told he left at 2.30 to attend other commitments, so I couldn’t grab him after the game. I do believe Brantford is back later this summer, but I think it might be one of the games I know I’ll be away for. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to speak to him at some point this season and do that promised one on one interview, though.

I did, however, get to speak to the ICBL commissioner, as well as the owner of the Twins – both of whom made it quite clear that they were always available whenever I needed on the record remarks, which is just great. Although I suppose neither could have expressed pessimism on opening day in Mississauga, the optimism that came through seemed both sincere and profound.

And, I really think I’m sold on the argument that Mississauga is a great city for an ICBL team – no disrespect to any of the other places with teams, but really, between the strong youth baseball community (LOTS of kids out today in Mississauga SouthWest and Mississauga North uniforms) and the whole sixth-largest-population-in-Canada thing, it’s tough to imagine this franchise not excelling, and even tougher to imagine it not doing at least as well as anywhere else (maybe the Maple Leafs are an exception because of the tradition, and the Red Sox because of the whole perennial contender thing, but who really knows?)

Another thing I think I’m sold on is the idea that this Twins team will be competitive – despite a lack of clutch hitting (which some people – myself not included – seem to believe is meaningless criteria, anyways), they did outhit the defending champions, and, as I said earlier, really could have easily beat them. I’ve yet to meet anyone who has expressed an iota of doubt, on or off the record, about the likelihood of them competing wire to wire.

They beat London 12-10 on Friday night as well, in London, so they sit at 2-1 – hardly, I think, a start that anyone would sneeze at for an ‘expansion’ franchise, especially when put into the context of a much shorter season than the MLB.

So, with that, the .666 Twins take their perfect road record (2-0) to Christie Pitts tomorrow afternoon, home of the illustrious Maple Leafs of baseball, and site of the infamous-to-Tragically-Hip-fans-but-unknown-to-everyone-else Christie Pitts race riots during the second world war. Although I’m told the physical park itself isn’t much, I can’t wait to make my first ever visit – it is, by all standards, the quintessential Canadian ballpark and I’m thrilled to get to cover a game there.

With the backlog of articles to be posted on the website, you’ll probably be hit with five or six pieces on Monday – a good 3000 or so words of Twins journalism! I’m going to push hard for a more timely system of article uploading, ideally one where I can just submit articles myself and have them on the site instantaneously.

Check for another blog post after tomorrow’s game – probably a bit earlier than tonight’s – and remember to try to make Wednesday’s 7.00 home game against the Barrie Baycats, from the now beautiful Meadowvale Sports Park!

36 Hours

I swear that this post is quasi-perfunctory, but I think I need to make it nonetheless: a few administrative notes on the Twins and maybe a bit of Blue Jays stuff, depending on how I feel.
The three stories I wrote last night based on the team’s practice should be up on Friday (today, as I write this post-midnight) and I strongly encourage everyone to check them out at www.MississaugaTwins.ca – supposedly, the www. part is important. I think they offer some good background on the team heading into the season, and, well, even if you don’t consider them good, there’s nothing better out there. Sorry.

As has been mentioned more times than I would care to count, the home opener goes on Saturday at 2 pm Meadowvale Sports Park (har har, get the post title?). The ICBL arrives in Mississauga! After that, they’re at Christie Pitts on Sunday and back home against Barrie on Wednesday. As I said in yesterday’s entry, I should be at all three games, and as a result, you should get some hard-hitting sports journalism.

That said, I’m not entirely sure how the blogging and stuff will turn out on Saturday – the game is at 2, and I’m going downtown to a friend’s concert around 6.45, so I don’t know when I’ll get to write in between. I’ll be back around 11, if I had to guess, and now that I think about it I probably won’t have had enough to drink that I won’t be able to write, so you can probably bank on something on the blog inre: the Saturday game on Saturday night, and my bit for the team’s website will be filed then too – but who knows when it’ll be up.

The Blue Jays got swept out of Boston tonight, and now head to Atlanta to kick off Interleague play – a part of the schedule that has historically destroyed them. With the Boston sweep, a lot of people are diving HARD off of the bandwagon, but we won’t miss them.

The Jays, as we all know – even if it doesn’t factor into everyone’s reasoning – remain in sole position of first place, although they’re at the mercy of the outcome of Red Sox’ games in hand. The basic facts here are that there isn’t a single person who follows baseball closely in this city that wouldn’t be startled to have learned before the season that the Jays would be anywhere near first place at this juncture in the season (let alone in sole possession of it after being swept by Boston), and help is on the way – in Ricky Romero’s case, help is ready as soon as they decide they need it.

Robert Ray, I think, needs to go down. Prior to the slew of injuries that devastated the starting rotation in late April, he was never on the Jays’ radar, and one good start against an awful team (8 innings with only an unearned run against the White Sox) mixed in with several mediocre starts isn’t enough to change that fact, especially when better options are available. It’s great that he’s had his cup of coffee, and maybe he gets the nod over someone else in a future extreme emergency because of that cup, but I don’t see how you can defend keeping him around with Janssen and Romero just about ready to go.

After the game, Travis Snider was sent to AAA – he’s looked lost ever since a torrent first three weeks to the season. Obviously, his bat will not be missed and whatever combination of players replace him will be hard pressed to do worse than he has done of late. Snider, in all probability, will be just fine – if you know anything about his personal life (and if you don’t, know that it’s been really tough) to date, you know that a baseball demotion isn’t likely to faze him.

The bottom line here is that this season is far from lost, and there’s still a very good chance that things will work out well for them (you can fill in whatever that means to you). They have absolutely dominated the AL East over the past several years, and obviously their sub-200 winning percentage against the Red Sox and Yankees will not continue. I’m going to go out on a limb and call for them to sweep the BoSox on the last weekend in May at home, a prediction based on absolutely nothing than a desire to write something silly.

Many people seem to think that these early Yankees/BoSox series represented some kind of ‘test’ that the Jays failed, and maybe they did – but the test is hardly the exam, in fact, it’s barely even a pop quiz, and if you’re going to use series in May as your measuring stick for the rest of the season, we can state with absolute confidence that the Yankees will be in the fight of their lives for fourth place, since they’re 0-5 against Boston this year.

Silly, silly, silly.

Don’t forget – Twins’ season opener on Saturday! Take a look at my previous entry for a bit of a preview of the kind of journalism I hope to get done at the game. Be there for 2.00 if you want to see the first pitch, and feel free to come as early as noon if you have young kids (or you are a young kid) and you’d like them to get the chance to see how some really good ballplayers approach preparing for a game. I really have no expectations in terms of turnout, but I do think the atmosphere is going to be great, and I’d be very surprised if anyone who attends winds up regretting having done so.

Measuring the Twins

It seems like the perfect world scenario I laid out last night worked out – I got to a Twins’ practice, met the principal players (metaphorically, inre: the whole shebang, not just the important players on the field), did the three stories I thought I might be able to do if everything came together, and get the impression I’ll be able to be on top of the beat for a good part of the season. Sounds positive.

For the pieces (which you should be able to read on MississaugaTwins.ca very soon) I spoke to the manager and two players, and what they had to say can found in the articles. All 3 were very chatty and talked about the game fluently, and they all seemed happy to be talking to the media, which I hope will be the case for the rest of the team all summer. Interestingly, one of them – star catcher Henry Duke – played for the same elite team I played for, two or three years earlier. Another guy – that I didn’t talk to today – Mickey Campeanu, played on my high school team with me when I was in grade nine. Maybe if there’s a good angle at some point in the season I’ll do a feature on him for the website or this blog.

I’m still not ready to draw firm conclusions on the team, and I won’t be for a while because I only know two or three players, but it seems that they’re mostly guys playing in good American schools, a good majority of whom have developed in the top levels of Mississauga’s minor baseball system as kids/teenagers, and I think I’m okay with the argument that that could be good enough to compete in the ICBL. In the entire scope of Ontario, Mississauga is very good – from what I remember, many, many province-wide tournaments and provincial championships were won by the Mississauga teams, and Adam Zorzit, the other of the two players I talked to, noted that when he played it was mostly Mississauga teams who dominated and were feared at tournaments, which is basically what I remember from when I played.

I’m not too sure how the other teams in the league draw their talent (if there’s a strong geographical bias towards that area), and it would be an interesting thing to someday compare (an exclusive for the blog, I think), but I have to think I wouldn’t be too uncomfortable if my life depended on the Mississauga all stars beating the other regions of the province’s stars. But really, we’ll have to see. The Brantford Red Sox are in town on Saturday, and if I see their director of player development, Rick Johnston, whose baseball facility I went to for quite a few years and I know will be very friendly and helpful, I’ll try to get his thoughts on the team the Twins have (among other things, but I’ll talk about that more later).

The home opener is on Saturday at 2pm against those Red Sox, and I encourage everyone to come. It’s a season opening game; someone (possibly) interesting will be throwing out the first pitch (I heard people from politicians to hockey players being mentioned as possibilities); there’s no reason to believe (according to my calculations based on very limited exposure to the team) the Twins won’t be competitive, and it’d be cool to get a little Mississauga baseball thing going.

It turns out that they’re at Christie Pitts on Sunday to play the Maple Leafs (of the non hockey tree – get it?), which is one of the parks I have always really wanted to go to, so now that I’m on a visiting team’s beat I think I will be there. I’m hoping they’ll have a cute little throwback pressroom that also happens to have wireless access, but I’m not holding my breath. I had sort of fantasized about running my own media room at the Meadowvale diamond and inviting Roger Lajoie up when the Leafs are in town and wowing him into hooking me up with a really cool sports gig at a major media outlet (inasfar as he has that influence, which he may well not) but it turns out that there isn’t an actual building at the park, so that isn’t happening.

After that, they’re at home against Barrie on Wednesday, which I will likely be at as well. That means coverage – and blogging – of three straight games for ya’ll, and I’m not sure that that pace will continue all summer, but it’ll be a nice way to start the season regardless.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m hoping to run into Rick Johnston at the Saturday home opener. He is a very good baseball guy, he’ll certainly be willing to talk, and there are some timely things to talk to him about. Plus, it’ll make a great feature for the blog – since it makes no sense to run an article about a Red Sox executive on the Twins’ site, right? Anyways, Rick has coached for Team Canada and has been a guest coach with the Blue Jays at spring training before, so I’d really like to do a one on one with him about the Canadian debacle at the World Baseball Classic (“Rick, do you think Ernie Whitt is in any way at fault for his gross mismanagement of the game against Italy?”) and the surging Blue Jays – even though I don’t think Rick’s been around the Jays lately, I think he may have been there during the first Gaston era, so he could have some insight on what could be going on over there with Gaston, Tenace and Murphy coaching their offense. Plus, I’d love to hear his thoughts on the new franchise here in Mississauga and anything else baseball-ish that pops into our heads!

I’m starting to get a firmer sense of how this thing is going to work. The stuff I write for the website will be focused, hard news stories (even if some of them wander into being a bit feature-y), and this will be miscellaneous, often commentary-like and will have some feature stuff that can’t or shouldn’t go on the website mixed in.

I should note, to be very fair to everyone involved, that nothing I write here is affiliated with the Twins in any way (unlike the material on the website) and this blog and its contents are completely autonomous from the team and its owners.

There’s some time between now and the home opener (a couple of days, anyways) so I might write something about the Blue Jays – because I haven’t written anything about them yet anywhere – to keep things fresh. Check back for that and see if you can be at the game Saturday!

Live from Mississauga...

Hello, blogosphere! I have thought of joining your ranks for the longest time, and I’m very impressed to learn that you’re recognized as a real word by Microsoft.

Anyways, I’m not going to do a formal introduction of myself personally. I think that those details will probably come out throughout the summer, and that’s fine with me.

The hope is that this will become something of a ‘beat blog’ for the Mississauga Twins’ Intercounty Baseball League season this summer, as they kick off their inaugural campaign representing Mississauga after moving from Stratford and I cover them as their first ever e-beat writer (representing Mississauga at least, I can’t speak to what the situation was over in Stratford).

I would be lying if I pretended to know enough about the team to write anything meaningful about them right now. I plan to get out to a practice as soon as possible and meet with the manager and hopefully some of the key players, and by then I’ll have done some homework and I should be able to write pretty fluently about the team.

I can tell you that they won their first ever game (representing Mississauga, to be exacting) against the usually-impressive-to-the-best-of-my-knowledge Hamilton Thunderbirds at Bernie Arbour Stadium on May 3rd, and they open their season this coming Saturday at the Meadowvale Sports Complex on the 23rd, against the perennially competitive Brantford Red Sox. The win, by the way, was by a count of 10-9 and of the come from behind variety, as they put up a 3 spot in the top of ninth. Until I do some homework, I really can’t tell you what (if any) significance there is to that outcome.

I just started a paragraph about what I envision this blog looking like once it gets rolling, but I actually have no idea. A lot will be improvised, and it’ll depend on how much access I get to the team, how easily I can attend road games, how much time I have and a lot of other things along those lines. The thing is, I’ll be primarily covering them for the Twins’ official website – pre and post-game stories, occasional feature pieces, administrative stuff in newswire format (injuries, suspensions, personnel decisions) and so on – so I’m not sure what’ll go here.

A lot of the MLB beat guys use their blogs to post supplementary stuff that either isn’t appropriate (on a number of levels) for the general website, or is too random to fit into an actual story. I’d like this one to have a bit more substance, so I might do the Mike Wilner thing and give my own analyses of individual games, long-term prognoses and stuff like that. I’ll probably make a point of getting feature content exclusively for the blog at different times, as well.

In short, I really have no idea where this will go or what to expect – but I think if it’s a chance to do some meaningful sports journalism and spend summer nights at Christie Pitts and places like that, it sounds good to me.

I’m hoping to attend a practice tomorrow night (which may or may not even be happening) and do my preliminary stuff to start putting together my understanding of the team, and then maybe cover the home opener on Saturday afternoon. Worst cased scenario, I probably go to the home opener without having been to a practice and met anyone – which could make for some really ugly journalism. Like I said, we’ll see where things go!

To keep things from getting dead if there’s a lull in Twins news – and just because I want to, too – I’ll definitely be writing about the Blue Jays this summer, and, if all goes according to plan, be covering a pennant drive.

I’m a bit wary of writing about anything political or social or cultural, given the, umm, permanent nature of the things you write on the Internet and the way that that can be exploited down the road, but if I have an opinion that I’m pretty sure I’ll still want to defend in 30 years and I think I can express it without saying anything too politically incorrect, I’ll probably go for it.

Look for something up between now and the home opener – even if it’s just an update saying I’ve failed to get to a practice and a reminder that the game is on Saturday – and keep your fingers crossed that I’ll be able to provide some real analysis by then!

I’m also not sure what I’ll do about the way-over-my-head problem of making this page physically (graphically?) appealing. Bear with me!