2011 Blue Jays: Brett Lawrie Mania Peaks (Pt. 3)

We're looking back to 2011 and the absolute pinnacle of Brett Lawrie Mania in Toronto. After a sparkling first 30 games where he hit triples by the handful and smashed 7 home runs, Brett Lawrie is front and centre on a holiday Monday in front of 27,000 fans at the Rogers Centre against the Boston Red Sox. Relive a Labour Day classic, Brett Lawrie's 1-0 11th inning walk-off way back in September 2011.

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hry and deep to I feel Brettlid on around my mind of my mind.
There's that breaking bulls, here's thatface in Holy Raspus is holding out

(00:21):
father, and he's well told.But we as n time. What glory
another? What'sapout feeling? You bosAt first, I'm going I deep time
that I feel Brett Lory has justleft the yard sports thee. It is

(01:06):
Sportsfeld storytime. We are taking youback all the way back, ten years
back. It is September fifth,two thousand and eleven. We are in
the thick of Brett Lorie Mania.If you weren't there, at least say
many times, if you weren't there, you would not believe the ridiculousness that

(01:27):
was Brett Laurie injecting life into afive hundred team, fifteen games back of
first place in the American League.We have arrived at the thirtieth game of
Brett Laurie's career, which at thispoint is hard to believe. He had
been in a league for one month. He was hitting three seventeen, three

(01:47):
seventy two, six sixty three fora one point zero three five OPS.
He had already hit seven home runsand driven in twenty he had hit four
triples, seven doubles, thirty threehits and eighteen is. Thirty three hits
were for extra bases. It struckout twenty three times also, but I'm
not gonna talk about that getting ona ton adding tons of wins even though

(02:09):
the team was still five, theywere thirteen and sixteen in his first twenty
nine games. Brett Laurie in absolutefireball and coming in the Blue Jays in
this game. Came into this gamesixty nine and seventy one, so two
games below five hundred, had justlost to the Yankees, and they were
at home. It was a Mondayafternoon Monday, at one oh eight pm

(02:31):
local time, twenty seven thousand,five hundred and seventy three fans piled into
the Rogers Center on a holiday Mondayin a two thousand and eleven crazy It's
a really fun lineup for the butyou can tell it's like we're fourteen games

(02:51):
back kind of kind of lineup.You have Mike McCoy hitting leadoff. That
is offensive. Mike McCoy leading offand playing shortstop no less, yes if
Dames and left field. You haveJose Melina behind the plate. You have
Dwayne Wise in center. You haveHenderson Alvarez on the hill going up against
Josh Beckett, who in twenty elevenwas an All Star, a ninth in

(03:16):
Cy Young voting, all the makingsof just an absolute shit kicking. Yeah
you got, I'm as seen theywere gonna lose this game. By way,
Dwayne Wives, who goes over fourand strikes on four times, should
be should be noted at the bottomlike McCoy stold two bases in this game.
Anyway, go on, I wasjust saying, it's kind of a
for an eleven inning thriller in earlySeptember, in a lost season, We've

(03:42):
we started talked about in the lastcouple episodes sort of how Brett Laurie couldn't
have been anything else in his careerwith the Blue Jays, couldn't have gone
any other way because that's just howit was going to happen. This game
couldn't like this is. I think, you know, you could maybe say
that the Grand Slam against Oakland wetalked, but last week was the peak

(04:02):
of Laurmania. I think it's thisgame, which is why we're talking about
today, couldn't have asked for abetter script. If you were looking for
optimism about the twenty twelve Blue Jaysthan this game, And I'll tell you.
We'll get into all of it ina minute here. But this entire
series, i will say, isyour ticket into Lawriemania, because by the

(04:25):
end of this series is the highesthis average will be for the rest of
the year. He comes out ofthis series hitting three thirty four or three
six seventy eight. Because in thisfour games against Boston where they go three
and one, he has five hits, a home run, draws four walks
like he hits four or fifty fiveagainst Boston, then gets on base sixty

(04:46):
two percent of the time, likehe choose up Boston, And that was
part of the appeal. Of course, wasn't just that he was this maniac
that was playing well. He wasdoing it against the Yankees and the Red
Sox like that did matter, Likewe were desperate. You have to understand
we were desperate. So he was. He had a good series against the
Yankees, he had a good seriesagainst the Red Sox, and he was
like, yes, we've got ouranswer to this unsolvable puzzle, which is

(05:11):
the American leaguis Yeah. And toyour point, this game kicked off that
four game series. But there's somelike there are some crazy games in this
series, like the day after this, the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays
fourteen to nothing. Yea two dayslater, an eleven ten thriller, the
Blue Jays score five runs on thebottom of the eighth. To your point,

(05:33):
Brett Laurie, that game moves upin the batting order, Oh no,
he's still hitting six, hit six. He goes two for two,
two runs and a walk, stolenbase being hit by a pitch. And
then in the closing game of theseries, to seven four blue Jay's victory,
Brett Lori goes two for four,two runs scored, just like and

(06:00):
a double. But and I think, I think to your point, though,
you look at maybe that last game, that that seven to four victory
in the fourth game of the series, and you really see why Laurie mania,
I think was tied in with thisthought that bluech might be building something.
You look at the lineup for thatgame, you have you know,

(06:20):
Escobar leading off, you have Thamesand left, Batissa right, and Carnacion
dh ng Laurie at third, AaronCebia catching Ricky Romero on the hill.
Romero goes six and two thirds forhis fourteenth win of the year, and
you're like, Okay, they're puttingsomething together. And the core of it,
the guy in the middle of thisthat's gonna bring it all together and

(06:43):
give us our identity is a Canadiannamed brand Laurie. You had to love
it, absolutely had to love it. As you mentioned this, this game
starts off height of Lorimania. Alsomaybe the height of like. Henderson Alvarez

(07:05):
is a guy for the future forUS Hendo six in things, four hits,
one walk, four strikeouts, dropshis ARRA to two point nine five.
If you can believe that, Wow, I actually can't. I actually
can't believe that, and I livedthrough it. He's an All Star.
In twenty fourteen, Henderson Alvarez reallyhe made thirty starts at three shutouts and

(07:27):
posted a RA of two point sixfive at age twenty four. Wow,
and was out of the league twoyears later. He made seven more starts
over the next three years and thennever pitched again in the major leagues.
Didn't That's strange. Baseball's cruel game. Man. Henderson Alvarez thirty and he's
also thirty one years old. That'swild, very strange, so that's sort

(07:49):
of happens. One of those guysthat as it was happening, it was
like he's not doing anything spectacularly wellother than not getting absolutely lit up,
which was enough. As you mentioned, Josh Beckett on the other side,
he goes three and two thirds,then Alfredo A. Sevis goes three and
two thirds, Daniel Bird goes anending in two thirds, Jonathan Papelbon,

(08:09):
Froza scoreless, naing for the Jay's. It was Hendel Alvarez, then Carlos
Nueva an inning, then Casey Jansenand inning, then Frank Francisco two innings.
Somehow it does not cough it updespite being Frank Francisco and Sean camp
the happy camper to the top ofthe eleventh, no problem. Remember how
fun it was to hate Jonathan Papelbon. Oh yeah, absolutely. I feel

(08:33):
like baseball needs more villains. There'sa real streak there of like really easy
to hate relief pitchers. You hadyour John Rockers, you had your John
the paper Bonds, you had yournot relieverable, you had your Kurt Schillings.
Like we don't really have a there'sa lot of villains in baseball anymore.
It's mostly just Bower. Yeah,I guess it's just Bower. I

(08:56):
mean, I don't know who elseit would be. It becomes you know,
rudmento door, I guess, butit's almost like pathetic. Now at
this point, he's just like andthat's like and that's pretty like local to
the Jays. Yes, that's true. He's just terrible. What E's gonna
even say. He's entertaining for usfrom a schaden freud perspective, but sure,
yeah, no, no, butit's not the same as like everyone
hated Pablon. Yeah. Red Soxfans kind of hated pass. The Buddhas

(09:20):
would get runners on first and third, and the first they get a runner
on its third. In the second, they put winners on second and third,
and the third inning you get winnerson first and second. In the
top of the fourth, the firstand third in the bottom of the fourth.
Really, they threaten a bunch oftimes in this game. They put
two on in the bottom of theeighth, but Adam Lynn strikes out,

(09:43):
and then the bottom of the ninth, with two out, Brett Laurie faces
Daniel Bard. Unfortunately he grounds out, so we go to extra innings.
That I mentioned. Frank Francisco getsEllsbury and Petroia walks. Adrian Gonzalez,
who had forgotten played for the BostonRed So we're Adrian Gonzalez, I do,
but not a name I've of inquite some time, no kidding.
Adrianns Alas gets out of the jamby getting David Ortiz to ground out third

(10:07):
base on I believe they shift bottomof the tenth. Jose Molina singles,
Dwayne Wise strikes out on a foulbunt. Who is managing this team?
On toyo ass? Chris Ford wordwas I believe is now the manager of
the Texas Rangers. Pinch runs fromMolina and then moves to second on a
pickoff attempt. Mark Tan Mark tanmemberChris Woodward also needs to be said part

(10:31):
of the Drury, the Brand andjury all stars of guys that for some
reason my brain thinks are Canadian?Yes, Chris, what is not Canadian?
But just are not at all?Kuh? Was Mark Tiene Canadian?
I feel like that one? Yes, yeah, thank you half Canadian?
Thank you, Mark Tien. Pinchhits and walks. Eric Dames strikes out

(10:54):
as the Batista walks. We havebases loaded bottom of the tenth for Adam
Lynde and he strikes out, swingingto Papablon, who I'm sure made a
dumb face and looked like an idiotand puffed his weight of the dug out
because that's what Papapon did, notlike the guy that we're doing the whole
story time on, who was neverlike that in the dugout. Completely different,
completely different, yeah, completely differentsituation, completely different situation. Top

(11:18):
of the eleventh is Sean camp AsI mentioned, he gets Kevin Eucleis beeking
of names I haven't thought about speakingof names that you you thought that you
would be talking about for the restof your life when they were playing and
then it was basically immediately forgotten.Kevin euclis also the next guy up who
when he signed in Boston it waslike the world was over. Yes,
well they got they got Carl Crawfordand they got Gonzalaz in the same offseason.

(11:41):
Yeah, I thought when Carl,I thought Carl Crawford was gonna be
like the next Ken Griffy. Yeah. Well, when he played for Tampa
Bay, he was against the BlueJays, that's right, basically, and
when when Boston gone. It waslike, oh, it's over. They're
gonna be like it doesn't matter now. Uh. Josh Freddick, who I
think is still in the league.Yes, I think he just got signed
to a minor league deal somewhere,pops out and we go to the eleventh.

(12:03):
It's end Carnacion. A deep flyball is not go out. Kelly
Johnson pops out. Kelly Johnson wasbad as a blue Jay. I had
such exciting high hopes for Kelly Johnsonas a blue Jay. I don't know
why. Remember when they got him, I was like, Okay, that's
like a legitimate It was it washow low expectations were back then. It
was like, that's a legitimate majorleague er. This is a great idea.

(12:26):
And then it like was Kelly Johnsonhe is cut from the who is
the guy they had last year thatthey picked up Jonathan vr Cloth. Yeah,
of like you, he doesn't playfor your team, so you don't
see all the reasons why you wouldhate watching him, and you're like,
yes, that's numbers, like numbers. Why is Kelly Johnson's a usable second
basement? And then he gets hereand you're like, oh no, yeah,

(12:48):
that's exactly right. So two outin the eleventh, it's time for
the one red board and only,dude, if you could about it,
Bret Larry has Chester or doctor Retsonsthe night to walk off win for the

(13:09):
Blue Jays this season, Bret Glorywhen his first comes on his eighth whole
run, that's how you do it. And I think he knew it too,
bitch. In the middle of theplate he extends through at home run
number eight. Then the Blue Jaysbuild a nine and oh at home an

(13:33):
extra ammix. Not to no doubtabout it. Right there, Brett Lorie,
it's a walk off, eleventh inning, one nothing home run against the
hated Boston Red Sox, who wouldbe a ninety win team. Jake,
what was your memory of the incredibleBrett Lowrie Labor Day walkoff? I was.

(13:54):
I actually remember it really well.I was in my parents' basement watching
the game, and it was LaborDay, I'm pretty sure, the only
reason I can think of for aone o'clock Monday game in early September,
and it was like, as wesaid, it was the height of Laurie
Mania. Obviously I was on boardbecause he was so entertaining, so crazy
and then he came up in thisspot and it kind of was it had

(14:18):
that feeling of like, well,of course he's gonna It wasn't like a
predetermined thing quite like we saw withsome of like the Battista Donaldson at bats
later on. It was like,well, like I compared this one in
my brain a lot to the Donaldsonwalk off in the final home game of
the twenty fifteen season against Tampa.I was like, of course he's gonna

(14:39):
walk it off, but this wasclose, and this was like I remember,
he came up and it was itwas that sort of dual feeling of
like this is too perfect. There'sno way, like he can't because we're
sort of conditioned, like he can'tkeep this up and he won't keep this
up. Like he's good, buthe's not, Like is he that good?

(15:00):
And then it was and then likethe ball left the bat and it
was just like it was joy,it was excitement. It was like it
again, like we've said so manytimes over the last couple of weeks,
it's hard to explain if you weren'tthere, but it really felt in this

(15:20):
moment when that ball off the bat, it really felt like the next major
League superstar had arrived. He playedfor the Jays. Yeah, and uh
boy, he was he could always. He just gets so damn fired up.
It's just so he runs the basesin like nine seconds. It's great,

(15:41):
Gret Russell Laurie. It was everythingyou said in more absolutely correct.
He was absolutely dessined to be inthat spot and to hit that home run.
It was like not a surprise andnot a not a not out of
the ordinary. I mean, asI said he had, he hit seven
home runs in thirty games coming intothat spot in this season. The person

(16:04):
that he drove in the most washimself. The person that he's driven in
by the most was himself. Hewas this like you had Batista as this
guy that was like coming into hisown and becoming a legitimate guy. And
he was this bright, shiny,like the young brash star that was going
to be the piece that completed thepuzzle, and never looked more of the

(16:27):
part than he did on September fifth, two thousand and eleven. Absolutely incredible.
If you had told me on Septemberfifth at like, well, this
was a three hour, fifteen minutegame. So if you had told me
at five pm on eleven that tenyears later, we would barely remember the

(16:48):
ret Lori era of the Blue Jays, or would only remember it for the
wrong reasons. I would have thoughtyou were crazy and that ten years later
he had been out of the leaguefor five years. Right, Yeah,
we will get into that. Wewill get into what happens after the summer
of Brett Laureate, the missed games, the injuries, the trade and everything

(17:11):
after as as has not been seensince the beginning of twenty sixteen. All
added more next week on the nextepisode of Sports Felt Storytime.