July 21, 2023 • 22 mins
On this week's episode of Sportsfeld Storytime, we wrap up our look back at the Roy Halladay/AJ Burnett duel of 2009. This week, we're remembering the Roy Halladay trade, which saw him leave Toronto and head to Philadelphia where he would, of course, throw a no-hitter in his first playoff appearance. We then look back at Life After Doc, as Alex Anthopolous makes his first moves as GM, Jose Bautista becomes The God King, and Brett Lawrie leaps his way into our hearts.
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And as always, thank you for listening to another episode of Sportsfeld.
Sick of hearing all the ads? Subscribe to Soda Premium on Apple Podcasts to get rid of them!
Come join the Patreon family for bonus episodes, mailbags, discord access and even more goodness: https://www.patreon.com/sportsfeld
Follow @Sportsfeld on Twitter! While you're there say hello to @theZubes and @JGoldsbie or reach out to the show and say hey: podcast@sportsfeld.ca
If merch is your thing, be sure to check out the store: http://bit.ly/merchfeld
If you enjoyed today’s show, please rate Sportsfeld 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.
And as always, thank you for listening to another episode of Sportsfeld.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Well. Today in Philadelphia, RoyHoliday was officially introduced to the media,
and in true Holiday fashion, hestarted by thanking Toronto. Now, it's
unfortunate due to the economic disparity inthe game, he couldn't finish his career
with the Jays. He wanted togo with a contender, and us you
spend, you can't contend Philly spends. Claude fag has more in this report.
(00:20):
I'd like to start first of allby thinking, you know everybody in
Toronto, the fans, your organization, the people. It's been a big
part of my life and something I'llnever forget. The dealing of Roy Holliday
to the Phillies proved to be acomplex three team trade initiated by the Phillies
at the Baseball Winner Meeting, consummatedlast Sunday, and finalized Wednesday, sending
(00:44):
the twelve year Jay and winning hispitcher in the majors since two thousand and
two, to the Phillies along withsix million dollars, a place the thirty
two year old had long made apitch for it. It was an easy
decision for me, I think oncethe opportunity came up to be a part
of this it was something I couldn'tpass up. And you know, I
think there's you know, things notonly in business but in life that you
(01:10):
know are worth it, and forme, this was one of those things.
Sports the it is Sportsfeld story Time. We are back once again to
(01:33):
close out the Holiday versus Burnett sportsFeld story Time two thousand and nine.
What a time to be a BlueJays fan. I was a big time
two thousand and nine Blue Jays fan, not afraid to say it. In
the last episode, we looked atRoy Holliday one of one of his last
true gems. The complete game winover A. J. Burnett and the
New York Yankees the pinnacle of thatseason, as they would then go on
(01:55):
a gigantic losing streak, they wouldhit the garbage pail and the Yankees would
win the World Series. But forone night, Holiday was the correct answer,
and Burnett was the loser, andwe booed him off the field and
it felt so good. It wasa fun time. That night would then
sort of morph into this is whatbeing a Blue Jay's fan is in this
era, and really the question afterthat, the question after that was what
(02:23):
is going to become of Roy Holliday? And we knew that there was a
chance he was going to get traded. He was, I believe he was
one year away from free agency,and it was, you know, similar
to I think what we went throughin March of this year with Kyle Lowry
of like is it you get nothingfor Roy Holliday and he wanted to get
something and Alexandthopolis took this team overin October October thirteen thousand and nine.
(02:49):
Alsopolis took over in December sixteenth.Harry Lee Roy Howiday the third is traded
of the Philadelphia Phillies for Travis Darnault, Kyle Dreybeck and Michael Taylor. Then
then shifted this is the thing thatpeople forget. They then traded Michael Taylor
for Brett Wallace. Remember Brett Wallace. I do remember. I remember being
very high on both those guys.Um. I remember like like this was
(03:10):
a big period as Blue Jay's fansof like being talking yourself into lesser returns.
M H listen. I thought colDrebeck was gonna be really good.
I was like j and and hewas also one of those guys were like
every spring he put together like fourinnings. Yeah, you're like it's happening.
(03:34):
It's Sean Reid Foley. If youwant to make a like a modern
day, it's like every year you'relike man if Reid Foley finds the finds
the command. Look out never findsthe command. Um. So yeah,
it was. I remember remember beingvery sad about this, of course,
because Howiday was a lifelong Blue Jayand in such a great um journey he
had made the minor leagues that theturnaround Travis Starno ended up being. I
(03:58):
think he was an AU star likelast year, let start, no,
Yeah, he turned into a serviceableguy. Yeah. Of course Dreybeck would
be nothing, Taylor would be nothing, Wallace would be nothing. So why
she goes with where? How itdid? But of course he would go
on to the Phillies. He wouldthrow a perfect game in the regular season
against the Marlins, and he wouldthrow a no hitter in the playoffs.
(04:19):
It was we know, we talkedm We were asked in a recent mail
bag about whether we loved Jose orDoc more and I think we both said
Jose because he had those fuck youmoments and he got to prove everybody wrong
and Doc got to do that,but he didn't get through that as a
Blue Jay, I remember being soproud, so proud when he throw the
perfect game, and when his firstplayoffs start was a no hitter. It
(04:41):
was like, Wow, if wehad had this, it would have been
just the greatest possible thing for me. It was a really interesting moment as
a sports fan because it came rightat like was it twenty ten? So
I'm like, I just turned twentytwo, so that's like peak like petty
angry sports years. And I've alwayshated the Phillies. I still hate the
(05:02):
Phillies and having to sort of especiallyat that, like now if that happened,
you can It'd be very easy asthirty two year old me to sort
of put it aside and be like, well, like that's amazing for Doc,
that a that he did. Thatbe the context like awesome, awesome.
(05:24):
Putting that aside, it's twenty twoyear old me was tough. You
were you were angry, You werenot happy. It wasn't that wasn't happy.
It was hard for me to separatehow happy I was for Doc and
how angry I was that he didn'tdo it with us, and that he
did it with the Phillies. Right, you hated the Phillies right right,
I hate the Phillies. And itwas also like it was hard to accept
(05:46):
that, like Roy, that itwasn't really angery at Holiday, it was
anger at the Jay's right, thatthey had literally Roy Holliday and could never
put it together till it was kindof like, look what he does.
Yeah, when he made the playoffs, he threw a literal no hitter Boy
Boy twenty ten, Phillies ninety sevenand sixty five. The rotation Howiday Hammels
(06:10):
was Walt Yeah, like uh crazy, crazy crazy They Kyle Kendrick. That
rotation was fucking gross and like youknow, uh Peke Ryan, Howard Peakee,
Chase Utley, Uh crazy, JamieGuarino, Jason Worth, Um,
yeah, incredible. I think thatthe interesting that you sort of battled those
things. I remember the big thingthat year was we got Howiday versus Lindscum
(06:32):
in a playoff toul and that waslike the game to watch because those fucking
those fucking giants that were in thisevery single year back then. I'm I'm
so happy that you are on thesame side of the giants discourse. Good
Lord. People are friends who loweredthemselves hate. It lowered themselves into becoming
(06:56):
Giants fans disgusting to this day.They shouldn't be allowed to live that down.
It's crazy to me. It's crazyto me. Anyway, boy and
thoughtless Sneaky gets busy this this littlebit. He also trades Brandon League for
Brandon Morrow. That's a pretty nicepiece of business. That is a good
piece of business. I actually forgothow Brandon Morrow came to Toronto sing about
him the other day because I wasplaying the show and he popped up.
(07:18):
And then in his first draft inJune, he drafts Jack Deck McGuire eleventh
overall. Okay, okay, AaronSanchez thirty fourth overall, Noah Sinderguard thirty
eighth overall, Asherwashkowski, who Ithink is still cooking around, but it's
maybe burnt out of the league.Jesus, Justin Nicolino, Sam Dyson,
(07:39):
Sean Nolan, Dalton Pompey, MilesJay. And he drafts Chris Bryant in
the eighteenth round of twenty ten anddraft Wow. Yeah, I don't think
I knew that. Yeah, Sneaky, huh double he did his thing.
They traded Bret Wallace. By Julyof this year for Anthony Ghost, who
would of course become uh Den TravnTravis and Anthony Goes. I believe was
(08:03):
breaking into the league as a pitcherthis year. He definitely was last year.
I don't know if he's I haven'tseen anything about him this year,
but I do remember that was likethat was a story last year and he
was apparently pretty good. Yeah,um, twenty ten Blue Days would would
bounce back. This is sort ofthe irony as they are better in twenty
ten without Doc than they were theyear previous when they were five eighty seven.
(08:24):
They go eighty five and seventy seven, still fourth in the East,
still eleven games back of a playoff. But it is the story of twenty
ten is Josie Bautista officially becomes athing, swinging a drive high five field.
This is deep desa fifty poser,Matissa his first Tita, GSTN,
(08:50):
his home number fifty right, hehits fifty four home runs. Vernon Wells
does not play that well, butJose Bautista, it becomes like a capital
(09:13):
T thing. Adam Lynde has acrappy year, but it's Batista, and
it was John Buck and Edwin andCornacion hits twenty home runs but cannot stay
on the field at third base,and you sort of start to see this
next generation of Blue Jay teams createitself under the pile of rubble that was
(09:35):
the end of the previous regime.And here Merro makes thirty two starts.
Romero, Markham, Cecil Morro Zatchinskyis your most common five. It's it's
funny you bring up both Vernon andthen all those sort of draft moves and
early moves of Anthopolis, because Mott, in my brain, the first and
(09:58):
thoughtless move was getting out from Wellscontract. That was his first His first
move was getting out from Holiday.It's it's Wells is January twenty first,
twenty eleven. It's Vernon Wells,I know, which is crazy to me.
But but like as we've talked aboutmany times over the story time,
these Jay's years have sort of beenrewritten, you know, our minds.
(10:20):
And like the Wells deal I thoughtwas at least a year earlier than it
was, and I remember it beinglike the new guys. Great, he
got a start of that contract,which also, as we discussed, isn't
as bad a contract as it mayhave seemed. No, but but that
is my first and thoughtless memory.So you want to talk about memories of
(10:41):
this era the very next year,I mean you talk about it's hard to
It's hard to explain to somebody thatwasn't there in two thousand eleven what it
was like to have Brett Laurie appear. If you could forget about it,
(11:01):
Brett Maris Jesse or doctor xas.It's one of those things. If you
(11:33):
weren't there, it would be impossibleto explain to you what it was like
to show up the next year andit's Brett Laurie and he is the boy.
The forty three games of Brett Lauriein two thousand and eleven is like,
is it forty three? Yeah?Man, forty three games? I
again memory being wrong. I thoughtit was like two weeks. It was
(11:58):
about a month and a half.Yeah, the like of obviously the home
the walk off against Boston is like, is the big moment and the Grand
Slam? Yeah? Um, butman, I didn't realize that it was
forty three games. But yeah,it was like to your point of like
you had to be there. Itwas like the next superstar, like not
(12:20):
even like it's funny being on astalking about Jose Bautista becoming a thing and
like literally having a guy who hitfifty home runs, but like Brett Laurie
was like, dude, I'm I'msure the Canadian miss played into it.
It did, but but it wasalso like, this guy's going to be
the best player in the league.The way that he played was like boy,
(12:43):
oh boy, it's hard to Itwas like, there's no way he's
not going to be a superstar.He already is. Like it was immediate
he was going to be a superstar. But Batis hit forty freedom next year,
especially with the Jay's of a teamthat had four years since since ninety
three, maybe you can make anargument since like the Delgado years, like
(13:05):
a team with no sense of identityat all, a team that was literally
changing up their uniforms every few years, had such a lack of identity.
And then you have a guy likeLaurie who's Canadian and plays like he did.
Not only do you think he wasgonna be a star, but you
thought he was like gonna be notjust like Face the franchise in a chip
(13:26):
will sense, like was gonna setthe tone for this like rough and Tumble,
kind of team, which is kindof funny based on what the Jays
would become right after he left.Yeah, and it's funny you hearing you
say that, It's like how manyhow long it took for them to accept
that, Like the new face ofthe team was Batista right like it was
it was Laurie and then it waslike, you know, we're gonna find
(13:48):
the twenty twelve guys the next year. It's gonna be yus. It's gonna
be It's like the whole time,it's like it's Fatista man, like you
have you have the guys. That'sa really good point that I think is
obviously, I think that's a thoughtand like a consideration I've had before,
but I think I've ever been ableto like phrase though. That's a really
(14:09):
good way to put it. Um, they go eighty one to eighty one
under John Farrell in twenty eleven inthat crazy Brett Laurie year. You don't
ascue bar One of the guys toremember, Eric Thames, who I had
took a sign that said blame Thamesat one point. Um, Yeah,
I was hard on Eric Thames becausehe was stealing Kravis Slinder's job. Ja
Davis came aboard and they traded forKolby Rasmus in the middle of that year,
(14:33):
twenty four year old Koby Rasmus.I remember exactly where I was when
that trade happened. Boy, hewas bad in his first season with the
Jay's. I was. I wasat a in the midst of taking a
(14:56):
bartending course because I just moved backto Toronto after being dumped and was kind
of lost. I was like,I'll learned to be a bartender, and
I was. I remember I wasat lunch, sitting alone in a sushi
restaurant eating like a bento box.It had like a it had the score,
I guess, or yeah, Iguess it would have been the score
at that time. So on theTV and that the breaking ticker came up
(15:20):
they had traded. I want tosay it was Edwin Jackson, Koby Rasmus,
Thank you, thank You're right,And I remember I was so high
on Colby. Yeah he had thathe had had that one incredible year part
of me. He was traded bythe Cardinals with Miller, Talent and Walters
for Hotel, Edwin Jackson, CoreyPatterson, and Mark Zachinsky. So yes,
(15:45):
I was ready for Koby Rasmus tobe my favorite player until and like
in a lot of ways, maybehe was. I was going to will
it to happen? If yeah,um, well, aways have the hut
a picture, I guess that's right, the chicken dog up front, boil
Boy, what like just a lotof It's funny how Anthopolis now is sort
(16:14):
of held up as the golden godin Toronto, which, like I understand,
I'm not saying it is incorrect,but like a lot of just like
throwing darts at aboard those first fewyears, well, I mean they give
up nothing in the other end ofthat, right is there, like nothing
ever feels like a lot of Butthat's what I mean. It feels like
a lot of until the Florida Tradeand the Dickey trade. It's a lot
(16:37):
of like maybe not so much ofthe time, but definitely in retrospect,
like experimental, let's see if thisworks kind of deals boil Boy. Brandon
Mora was good in Due Dolls andtwelve two point nine sixty r R and
twenty starts boil Boy Cheeze. Butman, everybody in this lineup is so
bad. Nobody ops plus over onehundred except for Batista and Ancharnessione, who
both are unbelievable. And this isthe year that Edwin moves to D eight
(17:00):
and his forty two home runs,and you're like, oh, I see
what's going on here. We havetwo good hitters, right, maybe we
should build it, Maybe should buildaround those two two thousand and twelve,
they also trade Travis Lender in themiddle of a game for Brad Lincoln,
which is among the worst. That'sas low as I've been as a Blue
Face fan, I think, tobe honest, I was so sad.
And then and then you know,Escobar writes homo public language on his face.
(17:25):
Ye two twelve season was really reallybad season. And then the next
year, Um, I mean thisis the talk about crazy offseasons you talk
about, you talk about you know, we did it. We've done the
story time about remember where you werewhen they traded for Tulo and remember where
they were they when they traded forum uh price? Right? Do you
(17:48):
remember where you were November nineteenth,twenty and twelve when the deal was Henderson
Alvarez, Anthony desk Lafini, youNel Escobar at Danny Hectavaria, Jake Marisnik,
Jeff at this and justin Nicolino forBonifacio, Buck, Burley, Johnson,
Reyes and Cash I do. Iwas sitting in my basement apartment at
(18:10):
Queen and Dovercourt in Toronto, andI remember the at the time. I
don't know if it's better now withthe way cell technology works, but my
phone didn't get reception in my apartmentand I remember running out of my apartment
onto the street to call my friendand be like, did you do you
see what's happening? Because, likeI we thought this was it. Yes,
(18:36):
the team, the team was there, those those pieces around Bautissa and
Karnescione were happening. Yeah, absolutelyincredible. Um. I Also I reconnected
with a friend I hadn't spoken toin years this night and went to his
house and we wrote down lineups onpaper. We were so excited. My
(18:56):
friend Adam, who had at thetime, I was like, we were
in a small feud and I waslike, dude, the Blue Days are
gonna be relevant, and he waslike, let's put our problems aside.
Uh. I remember remember this startingwith like the Blue Days are getting Josh
Johnson was what Ken Rosenthal said,Burley it was it was Burley headed to
Blue Jays along with Josh Johnson.Sources tell me and John Morosi with Ken
(19:18):
Rose and Tall tweeted at six thirteenand then um six twenty inclusion of Rays
unconfirmed. What we know is Burleyand Josh Johnson to Jay's Escobar hetche Maria
to Marlins more coming both ways againmore names of this the big Ones,
Rays, Burley, Josh Johnson.This is six thirty. I remember where
I was. I was at thescore with Andrew McKay. It was me
(19:38):
and Andrew McKay. That's where wewere. And then I got off my
sh That season really hard. Hedid, he was, he was that
he sort of avanted the term fullfull. Jay's talk was Andrew McKay sort
of quoted. Uh. It wouldof course end in tears. Um,
Rays would get hurt, Johnson wouldnever be good. Burley would go on
(20:00):
to be a legend, however,and no, Noah synder Guard. I
don't think I ever played again.I can't remember. Um it's right because
the Dicky trade was like two dayslater. I want to sign Dicky trade.
Was it was a couple of weeks, it was it was mid It
was a couple of weeks like firstweek December, right, I think I
want I'll go back and really damnit felt everything was back to back back
in the day, right, Andso yeah, yeah, November was November
(20:21):
nineteenth was the deal. They alsosigned to Melkie Cabrera that morning. People,
right, I thought. I alsothought Melkie was going to be a
big piece, and then I wantedhe left. It was like, oh,
by the way, his spine hasbeen broken from the last year's Oh
right, cool? Drinking me ontwo physicals? Is that another thing I'm
doing? It was the nineteenth wasthe first deal, and the second deal
was December seventeenth, twenty and twelve. Um Wilmer, Bilimber, Sarah john
(20:44):
Buck, Travis Darnault for cinder Guardin cinder Guard for Dicky Nikias and Josh
Toli who you have to take ifyou have, are you Dicky? Yes?
I uh. It's funny you bringup the Raius injury and like,
where the where we used? Iremember the Raius injury because I remember that
that year. It was weird becauselike they started terribly and then they went
on. I want to say,it's like an eleven game win streak to
(21:07):
sort of be get back in thepicture, and then the wheels started to
fall off again and the injury racedinjury asking might have been pre win streak,
but I remember it wasn't going welland Rayes hurt himself. I want
to say, sliding into second It'scorrect, and he cried yeah, and
it was like, well, thereit is. Yeah. It was.
It was that thing of like it'snot going well, but the team is
(21:27):
built so well that like they couldturn around at a moment's notice. Yeah,
I believe it was. Then itwas like, okay, I believe
it was. April twelfth, wasthe game rangers himself and he does not
play again until June twenty sixth.Yeah, and it was and then forever
else. It turns out he apiece of shit, that's yeah, And
(21:48):
we got a much better short stopfor that's right. We all know where
this goes. It is all aroad to the team we know and love,
and we talked about twenty fifteen team. Take a drink all the time,
and you find twenty fifteen trades talkon previous episodes of Sports follow the
story times. We're gonna cap thisone off there. I think getting us
to the Florida trade is sort ofdarnault. I think being involved in this
(22:11):
sort of closes the book on thebeginning of the and the end of that.
So that is it for this month'sedition of Sports Polled the story time
that's the Holiday versus Burnette story.Had a great time going back and looking
back at this era of the BlueJays, the team that is always nearing
dear to my heart, and Ithink was both better and worse than I
remember. We thank you, guysso much to pay for an audience.
You guys are the best for comingalong on this ride with us. We
(22:33):
will talk to you again next monthfor a brand new episode of Sportsfeld Storytime
Well. Today in Philadelphia, RoyHoliday was officially introduced to the media,
and in true Holiday fashion, hestarted by thanking Toronto. Now, it's
unfortunate due to the economic disparity inthe game, he couldn't finish his career
with the Jays. He wanted togo with a contender, and us you
spend, you can't contend Philly spends. Claude fag has more in this report.
(00:20):
I'd like to start first of allby thinking, you know everybody in
Toronto, the fans, your organization, the people. It's been a big
part of my life and something I'llnever forget. The dealing of Roy Holliday
to the Phillies proved to be acomplex three team trade initiated by the Phillies
at the Baseball Winner Meeting, consummatedlast Sunday, and finalized Wednesday, sending
(00:44):
the twelve year Jay and winning hispitcher in the majors since two thousand and
two, to the Phillies along withsix million dollars, a place the thirty
two year old had long made apitch for it. It was an easy
decision for me, I think oncethe opportunity came up to be a part
of this it was something I couldn'tpass up. And you know, I
think there's you know, things notonly in business but in life that you
(01:10):
know are worth it, and forme, this was one of those things.
Sports the it is Sportsfeld story Time. We are back once again to
(01:33):
close out the Holiday versus Burnett sportsFeld story Time two thousand and nine.
What a time to be a BlueJays fan. I was a big time
two thousand and nine Blue Jays fan, not afraid to say it. In
the last episode, we looked atRoy Holliday one of one of his last
true gems. The complete game winover A. J. Burnett and the
New York Yankees the pinnacle of thatseason, as they would then go on
(01:55):
a gigantic losing streak, they wouldhit the garbage pail and the Yankees would
win the World Series. But forone night, Holiday was the correct answer,
and Burnett was the loser, andwe booed him off the field and
it felt so good. It wasa fun time. That night would then
sort of morph into this is whatbeing a Blue Jay's fan is in this
era, and really the question afterthat, the question after that was what
(02:23):
is going to become of Roy Holliday? And we knew that there was a
chance he was going to get traded. He was, I believe he was
one year away from free agency,and it was, you know, similar
to I think what we went throughin March of this year with Kyle Lowry
of like is it you get nothingfor Roy Holliday and he wanted to get
something and Alexandthopolis took this team overin October October thirteen thousand and nine.
(02:49):
Alsopolis took over in December sixteenth.Harry Lee Roy Howiday the third is traded
of the Philadelphia Phillies for Travis Darnault, Kyle Dreybeck and Michael Taylor. Then
then shifted this is the thing thatpeople forget. They then traded Michael Taylor
for Brett Wallace. Remember Brett Wallace. I do remember. I remember being
very high on both those guys.Um. I remember like like this was
(03:10):
a big period as Blue Jay's fansof like being talking yourself into lesser returns.
M H listen. I thought colDrebeck was gonna be really good.
I was like j and and hewas also one of those guys were like
every spring he put together like fourinnings. Yeah, you're like it's happening.
(03:34):
It's Sean Reid Foley. If youwant to make a like a modern
day, it's like every year you'relike man if Reid Foley finds the finds
the command. Look out never findsthe command. Um. So yeah,
it was. I remember remember beingvery sad about this, of course,
because Howiday was a lifelong Blue Jayand in such a great um journey he
had made the minor leagues that theturnaround Travis Starno ended up being. I
(03:58):
think he was an AU star likelast year, let start, no,
Yeah, he turned into a serviceableguy. Yeah. Of course Dreybeck would
be nothing, Taylor would be nothing, Wallace would be nothing. So why
she goes with where? How itdid? But of course he would go
on to the Phillies. He wouldthrow a perfect game in the regular season
against the Marlins, and he wouldthrow a no hitter in the playoffs.
(04:19):
It was we know, we talkedm We were asked in a recent mail
bag about whether we loved Jose orDoc more and I think we both said
Jose because he had those fuck youmoments and he got to prove everybody wrong
and Doc got to do that,but he didn't get through that as a
Blue Jay, I remember being soproud, so proud when he throw the
perfect game, and when his firstplayoffs start was a no hitter. It
(04:41):
was like, Wow, if wehad had this, it would have been
just the greatest possible thing for me. It was a really interesting moment as
a sports fan because it came rightat like was it twenty ten? So
I'm like, I just turned twentytwo, so that's like peak like petty
angry sports years. And I've alwayshated the Phillies. I still hate the
(05:02):
Phillies and having to sort of especiallyat that, like now if that happened,
you can It'd be very easy asthirty two year old me to sort
of put it aside and be like, well, like that's amazing for Doc,
that a that he did. Thatbe the context like awesome, awesome.
(05:24):
Putting that aside, it's twenty twoyear old me was tough. You
were you were angry, You werenot happy. It wasn't that wasn't happy.
It was hard for me to separatehow happy I was for Doc and
how angry I was that he didn'tdo it with us, and that he
did it with the Phillies. Right, you hated the Phillies right right,
I hate the Phillies. And itwas also like it was hard to accept
(05:46):
that, like Roy, that itwasn't really angery at Holiday, it was
anger at the Jay's right, thatthey had literally Roy Holliday and could never
put it together till it was kindof like, look what he does.
Yeah, when he made the playoffs, he threw a literal no hitter Boy
Boy twenty ten, Phillies ninety sevenand sixty five. The rotation Howiday Hammels
(06:10):
was Walt Yeah, like uh crazy, crazy crazy They Kyle Kendrick. That
rotation was fucking gross and like youknow, uh Peke Ryan, Howard Peakee,
Chase Utley, Uh crazy, JamieGuarino, Jason Worth, Um,
yeah, incredible. I think thatthe interesting that you sort of battled those
things. I remember the big thingthat year was we got Howiday versus Lindscum
(06:32):
in a playoff toul and that waslike the game to watch because those fucking
those fucking giants that were in thisevery single year back then. I'm I'm
so happy that you are on thesame side of the giants discourse. Good
Lord. People are friends who loweredthemselves hate. It lowered themselves into becoming
(06:56):
Giants fans disgusting to this day.They shouldn't be allowed to live that down.
It's crazy to me. It's crazyto me. Anyway, boy and
thoughtless Sneaky gets busy this this littlebit. He also trades Brandon League for
Brandon Morrow. That's a pretty nicepiece of business. That is a good
piece of business. I actually forgothow Brandon Morrow came to Toronto sing about
him the other day because I wasplaying the show and he popped up.
(07:18):
And then in his first draft inJune, he drafts Jack Deck McGuire eleventh
overall. Okay, okay, AaronSanchez thirty fourth overall, Noah Sinderguard thirty
eighth overall, Asherwashkowski, who Ithink is still cooking around, but it's
maybe burnt out of the league.Jesus, Justin Nicolino, Sam Dyson,
(07:39):
Sean Nolan, Dalton Pompey, MilesJay. And he drafts Chris Bryant in
the eighteenth round of twenty ten anddraft Wow. Yeah, I don't think
I knew that. Yeah, Sneaky, huh double he did his thing.
They traded Bret Wallace. By Julyof this year for Anthony Ghost, who
would of course become uh Den TravnTravis and Anthony Goes. I believe was
(08:03):
breaking into the league as a pitcherthis year. He definitely was last year.
I don't know if he's I haven'tseen anything about him this year,
but I do remember that was likethat was a story last year and he
was apparently pretty good. Yeah,um, twenty ten Blue Days would would
bounce back. This is sort ofthe irony as they are better in twenty
ten without Doc than they were theyear previous when they were five eighty seven.
(08:24):
They go eighty five and seventy seven, still fourth in the East,
still eleven games back of a playoff. But it is the story of twenty
ten is Josie Bautista officially becomes athing, swinging a drive high five field.
This is deep desa fifty poser,Matissa his first Tita, GSTN,
(08:50):
his home number fifty right, hehits fifty four home runs. Vernon Wells
does not play that well, butJose Bautista, it becomes like a capital
(09:13):
T thing. Adam Lynde has acrappy year, but it's Batista, and
it was John Buck and Edwin andCornacion hits twenty home runs but cannot stay
on the field at third base,and you sort of start to see this
next generation of Blue Jay teams createitself under the pile of rubble that was
(09:35):
the end of the previous regime.And here Merro makes thirty two starts.
Romero, Markham, Cecil Morro Zatchinskyis your most common five. It's it's
funny you bring up both Vernon andthen all those sort of draft moves and
early moves of Anthopolis, because Mott, in my brain, the first and
(09:58):
thoughtless move was getting out from Wellscontract. That was his first His first
move was getting out from Holiday.It's it's Wells is January twenty first,
twenty eleven. It's Vernon Wells,I know, which is crazy to me.
But but like as we've talked aboutmany times over the story time,
these Jay's years have sort of beenrewritten, you know, our minds.
(10:20):
And like the Wells deal I thoughtwas at least a year earlier than it
was, and I remember it beinglike the new guys. Great, he
got a start of that contract,which also, as we discussed, isn't
as bad a contract as it mayhave seemed. No, but but that
is my first and thoughtless memory.So you want to talk about memories of
(10:41):
this era the very next year,I mean you talk about it's hard to
It's hard to explain to somebody thatwasn't there in two thousand eleven what it
was like to have Brett Laurie appear. If you could forget about it,
(11:01):
Brett Maris Jesse or doctor xas.It's one of those things. If you
(11:33):
weren't there, it would be impossibleto explain to you what it was like
to show up the next year andit's Brett Laurie and he is the boy.
The forty three games of Brett Lauriein two thousand and eleven is like,
is it forty three? Yeah?Man, forty three games? I
again memory being wrong. I thoughtit was like two weeks. It was
(11:58):
about a month and a half.Yeah, the like of obviously the home
the walk off against Boston is like, is the big moment and the Grand
Slam? Yeah? Um, butman, I didn't realize that it was
forty three games. But yeah,it was like to your point of like
you had to be there. Itwas like the next superstar, like not
(12:20):
even like it's funny being on astalking about Jose Bautista becoming a thing and
like literally having a guy who hitfifty home runs, but like Brett Laurie
was like, dude, I'm I'msure the Canadian miss played into it.
It did, but but it wasalso like, this guy's going to be
the best player in the league.The way that he played was like boy,
(12:43):
oh boy, it's hard to Itwas like, there's no way he's
not going to be a superstar.He already is. Like it was immediate
he was going to be a superstar. But Batis hit forty freedom next year,
especially with the Jay's of a teamthat had four years since since ninety
three, maybe you can make anargument since like the Delgado years, like
(13:05):
a team with no sense of identityat all, a team that was literally
changing up their uniforms every few years, had such a lack of identity.
And then you have a guy likeLaurie who's Canadian and plays like he did.
Not only do you think he wasgonna be a star, but you
thought he was like gonna be notjust like Face the franchise in a chip
(13:26):
will sense, like was gonna setthe tone for this like rough and Tumble,
kind of team, which is kindof funny based on what the Jays
would become right after he left.Yeah, and it's funny you hearing you
say that, It's like how manyhow long it took for them to accept
that, Like the new face ofthe team was Batista right like it was
it was Laurie and then it waslike, you know, we're gonna find
(13:48):
the twenty twelve guys the next year. It's gonna be yus. It's gonna
be It's like the whole time,it's like it's Fatista man, like you
have you have the guys. That'sa really good point that I think is
obviously, I think that's a thoughtand like a consideration I've had before,
but I think I've ever been ableto like phrase though. That's a really
(14:09):
good way to put it. Um, they go eighty one to eighty one
under John Farrell in twenty eleven inthat crazy Brett Laurie year. You don't
ascue bar One of the guys toremember, Eric Thames, who I had
took a sign that said blame Thamesat one point. Um, Yeah,
I was hard on Eric Thames becausehe was stealing Kravis Slinder's job. Ja
Davis came aboard and they traded forKolby Rasmus in the middle of that year,
(14:33):
twenty four year old Koby Rasmus.I remember exactly where I was when
that trade happened. Boy, hewas bad in his first season with the
Jay's. I was. I wasat a in the midst of taking a
(14:56):
bartending course because I just moved backto Toronto after being dumped and was kind
of lost. I was like,I'll learned to be a bartender, and
I was. I remember I wasat lunch, sitting alone in a sushi
restaurant eating like a bento box.It had like a it had the score,
I guess, or yeah, Iguess it would have been the score
at that time. So on theTV and that the breaking ticker came up
(15:20):
they had traded. I want tosay it was Edwin Jackson, Koby Rasmus,
Thank you, thank You're right,And I remember I was so high
on Colby. Yeah he had thathe had had that one incredible year part
of me. He was traded bythe Cardinals with Miller, Talent and Walters
for Hotel, Edwin Jackson, CoreyPatterson, and Mark Zachinsky. So yes,
(15:45):
I was ready for Koby Rasmus tobe my favorite player until and like
in a lot of ways, maybehe was. I was going to will
it to happen? If yeah,um, well, aways have the hut
a picture, I guess that's right, the chicken dog up front, boil
Boy, what like just a lotof It's funny how Anthopolis now is sort
(16:14):
of held up as the golden godin Toronto, which, like I understand,
I'm not saying it is incorrect,but like a lot of just like
throwing darts at aboard those first fewyears, well, I mean they give
up nothing in the other end ofthat, right is there, like nothing
ever feels like a lot of Butthat's what I mean. It feels like
a lot of until the Florida Tradeand the Dickey trade. It's a lot
(16:37):
of like maybe not so much ofthe time, but definitely in retrospect,
like experimental, let's see if thisworks kind of deals boil Boy. Brandon
Mora was good in Due Dolls andtwelve two point nine sixty r R and
twenty starts boil Boy Cheeze. Butman, everybody in this lineup is so
bad. Nobody ops plus over onehundred except for Batista and Ancharnessione, who
both are unbelievable. And this isthe year that Edwin moves to D eight
(17:00):
and his forty two home runs,and you're like, oh, I see
what's going on here. We havetwo good hitters, right, maybe we
should build it, Maybe should buildaround those two two thousand and twelve,
they also trade Travis Lender in themiddle of a game for Brad Lincoln,
which is among the worst. That'sas low as I've been as a Blue
Face fan, I think, tobe honest, I was so sad.
And then and then you know,Escobar writes homo public language on his face.
(17:25):
Ye two twelve season was really reallybad season. And then the next
year, Um, I mean thisis the talk about crazy offseasons you talk
about, you talk about you know, we did it. We've done the
story time about remember where you werewhen they traded for Tulo and remember where
they were they when they traded forum uh price? Right? Do you
(17:48):
remember where you were November nineteenth,twenty and twelve when the deal was Henderson
Alvarez, Anthony desk Lafini, youNel Escobar at Danny Hectavaria, Jake Marisnik,
Jeff at this and justin Nicolino forBonifacio, Buck, Burley, Johnson,
Reyes and Cash I do. Iwas sitting in my basement apartment at
(18:10):
Queen and Dovercourt in Toronto, andI remember the at the time. I
don't know if it's better now withthe way cell technology works, but my
phone didn't get reception in my apartmentand I remember running out of my apartment
onto the street to call my friendand be like, did you do you
see what's happening? Because, likeI we thought this was it. Yes,
(18:36):
the team, the team was there, those those pieces around Bautissa and
Karnescione were happening. Yeah, absolutelyincredible. Um. I Also I reconnected
with a friend I hadn't spoken toin years this night and went to his
house and we wrote down lineups onpaper. We were so excited. My
(18:56):
friend Adam, who had at thetime, I was like, we were
in a small feud and I waslike, dude, the Blue Days are
gonna be relevant, and he waslike, let's put our problems aside.
Uh. I remember remember this startingwith like the Blue Days are getting Josh
Johnson was what Ken Rosenthal said,Burley it was it was Burley headed to
Blue Jays along with Josh Johnson.Sources tell me and John Morosi with Ken
(19:18):
Rose and Tall tweeted at six thirteenand then um six twenty inclusion of Rays
unconfirmed. What we know is Burleyand Josh Johnson to Jay's Escobar hetche Maria
to Marlins more coming both ways againmore names of this the big Ones,
Rays, Burley, Josh Johnson.This is six thirty. I remember where
I was. I was at thescore with Andrew McKay. It was me
(19:38):
and Andrew McKay. That's where wewere. And then I got off my
sh That season really hard. Hedid, he was, he was that
he sort of avanted the term fullfull. Jay's talk was Andrew McKay sort
of quoted. Uh. It wouldof course end in tears. Um,
Rays would get hurt, Johnson wouldnever be good. Burley would go on
(20:00):
to be a legend, however,and no, Noah synder Guard. I
don't think I ever played again.I can't remember. Um it's right because
the Dicky trade was like two dayslater. I want to sign Dicky trade.
Was it was a couple of weeks, it was it was mid It
was a couple of weeks like firstweek December, right, I think I
want I'll go back and really damnit felt everything was back to back back
in the day, right, Andso yeah, yeah, November was November
(20:21):
nineteenth was the deal. They alsosigned to Melkie Cabrera that morning. People,
right, I thought. I alsothought Melkie was going to be a
big piece, and then I wantedhe left. It was like, oh,
by the way, his spine hasbeen broken from the last year's Oh
right, cool? Drinking me ontwo physicals? Is that another thing I'm
doing? It was the nineteenth wasthe first deal, and the second deal
was December seventeenth, twenty and twelve. Um Wilmer, Bilimber, Sarah john
(20:44):
Buck, Travis Darnault for cinder Guardin cinder Guard for Dicky Nikias and Josh
Toli who you have to take ifyou have, are you Dicky? Yes?
I uh. It's funny you bringup the Raius injury and like,
where the where we used? Iremember the Raius injury because I remember that
that year. It was weird becauselike they started terribly and then they went
on. I want to say,it's like an eleven game win streak to
(21:07):
sort of be get back in thepicture, and then the wheels started to
fall off again and the injury racedinjury asking might have been pre win streak,
but I remember it wasn't going welland Rayes hurt himself. I want
to say, sliding into second It'scorrect, and he cried yeah, and
it was like, well, thereit is. Yeah. It was.
It was that thing of like it'snot going well, but the team is
(21:27):
built so well that like they couldturn around at a moment's notice. Yeah,
I believe it was. Then itwas like, okay, I believe
it was. April twelfth, wasthe game rangers himself and he does not
play again until June twenty sixth.Yeah, and it was and then forever
else. It turns out he apiece of shit, that's yeah, And
(21:48):
we got a much better short stopfor that's right. We all know where
this goes. It is all aroad to the team we know and love,
and we talked about twenty fifteen team. Take a drink all the time,
and you find twenty fifteen trades talkon previous episodes of Sports follow the
story times. We're gonna cap thisone off there. I think getting us
to the Florida trade is sort ofdarnault. I think being involved in this
(22:11):
sort of closes the book on thebeginning of the and the end of that.
So that is it for this month'sedition of Sports Polled the story time
that's the Holiday versus Burnette story.Had a great time going back and looking
back at this era of the BlueJays, the team that is always nearing
dear to my heart, and Ithink was both better and worse than I
remember. We thank you, guysso much to pay for an audience.
You guys are the best for comingalong on this ride with us. We
(22:33):
will talk to you again next monthfor a brand new episode of Sportsfeld Storytime
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