January 3, 2025 • 22 mins
It iiiiiiiis Sportsfeld Storytime. This month, Jake and Zubes take a trip all the way back to August of 2015 to talk about a team that doesn't get enough press, the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays. Before the bat flip, before the AL East title, before the heartbreak, the focus was on one man and his Blue Jays debut. Yes, we are talking about the one, the only David Price. Take yourself back to a Monday afternoon game in early August to a sold out Skydome and David Price's first start as a Blue Jay. In the first episode, the guys take a look at where the 2015 Blue Jays were before the Price trade, talk some run differential, and talk some Troy Tulowitzki.
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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!
Follow @Sportsfeld on X! 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/merchfeldIf 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.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So look too big doors, Look Canada, those.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Spam there.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It is strac three.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Doctor Hawkins completes the nine thinking in the bill Jays
cand celebrate their first division title in its twenty two years.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It is a long time coming with the boys.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
They played like champions all season long.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
They came out today they made a statement.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Feen to two the congratulations to the Blue Jays.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Sports It is sports Field story time. We are looking
back back back to the David Price debut August third,
twenty fifteen, and we are through the game. Last episode
was his incredible eleven strikeout, three hit, one run start
that got the Jays the win. Do you remember, Jake?
(01:37):
That win and the game before the fight game against
the Kansas City Royals were the first two wins in
a winning streak. They did not lose again until August
fourteenth against the Yankees.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That whole sort of that run to get them into
the playoffs and to win the division. I don't think
I will ever experience something like that again. I remember
sometime in August, I don't remember which part of August,
I went to a game where they I think they
played the Athletics and they just kicked the shit out
(02:11):
of them, and I remember it was when the division
was really close. We hadn't overtaken the Yankees yet, but
we were getting there, and the Yankees were in Cleveland,
I want to say, and by the time we got
back to the bar, that game had gone into extra
innings and everyone in the bar was watching the Yankees
(02:32):
Cleveland game. And then Cleveland won and the bar went crazy,
and that was like that moment of like, oh shit, okay,
this is what's happening. That rules.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Jake. Your memory never ceases to amaze me. You are
talking about Wednesday, August twelfth, when the Blue Jays beat
Oakland ten to three.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yep, I sure am.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
It was two, three, four, five, six, an eight nine,
the tenth game of the winning streak. They go from
down half a game to up half a game because
the Yankees lose two to one to Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, I remember that, being like that was the sort
of transfer of moment in my mind, a little bit
of just that like oh, this is no longer me
thinking like something could happen or something like like this,
this is like people are now on board, this is real,
(03:35):
this has happened.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Yeah, that's why you play the game.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I mean to be a more of stuff like this.
In that eleven game win streak, the Blue Jays go
from six games back to half a game up, culminating
basically in the game you are talking about Price pitches again.
So Price starts against Minnesota and they win five to one.
He makes his next start against the Yankees that Saturday
(04:04):
in New York. The Jays win six nothing. They sweep
that series. If you remember that, I remember that so well,
them sleeping that series.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I believe that weekend. That weekend was the weekend of
our producer Sean's wedding, and I was in PI for
that weekend, and I remember very clearly. The Friday night
was the night before the wedding, so we all slammed
into a hotel room to watch that Yankees game. I
believe Jose hit a home run in the tenth to
(04:32):
win that game.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
God, damn it, Jake, and damn it Jake. You're thinking
of the game before, But yes, am I yeah, two
to one, they went in ten on the back of
a Jose Batista home.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
And then that Sunday game, I remember we were watching
before we got our flight out, and we were in
a It was like the perfect environment for me. I
was in a bar, I was drinking a beer, I
was eating an entire lobster, and I was watching the
Jays beat the Yankees, and it was as close to
perfect as I think things get now. Is else the
(05:07):
day that I discovered that Chasen Shreeve existed and I
didn't think his name was real.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Ah, yes, yes that that That series goes two to one,
six nothing, two nothing. The Jays go ten to one.
The runs they go from three and a half back
to one and a half back. Cecil in the extra
ending game. Price with a shutout of Strata with a
shutout twenty fifteen, Marcos Strata take me back. Price is like,
(05:35):
we you. The reason that we love David Price internally
we do is he was surreal down the stretch eleven starts,
nine wins, two point three era for my money, probably
should have won the cy Young that's just me.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Wow, who did win the so Young that year?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Twenty fifteen? Cy Young went to Kickeel Ha Kikeel went
twenty and eight had a two point four to eight.
Price went eighteen and five had a two point four
to five.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Price was second.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Price for second Price had the better era plush. He
had a better era. I believe he had a better
he had a lower whip. I don't. I don't think
I have his fip handy. But it was, you know,
it's you take your pick, is which one of those
guys had a better year. I think David Price did
more personally. That's just me, and I'm probably biased to
be one hundred percent honest with you, But he was.
(06:34):
He was so money for the Blue Jays it was ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
He had nine more strakeouts than twelve less innings, so.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Right, and he made one. Let's start, boy, oh boy,
just just awesome. He finally lost a game to the
Yankees August fourteenth. He went eight innings, gave up three runs.
That would be the second worst game of his Blue
Jays tenure, giving up three runs. Then he got a
(07:02):
win against the Angels, a big win against Texas, a
loss against Cleveland, and then he finished it off in
September with five straight wins Baltimore, New York, Atlanta, New
York again, and Tampa Bay. So he goes. He comes
over at nine and four and finishes eighteen and five.
(07:23):
He was reridiculous as a Blue Jay. I like I
will say it over and over again. He was so
ridiculously good and so much better than everybody else on
that twenty fifteen staff.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It was ridiculous that whole I know we've talked to
this before, but I don't know when the last time
we did was, But that whole run really makes them
not winning the World Series feel even stranger. Like that
run had everything that a championship run has. You know,
you have the Ringer coming in and dominating. You have
(07:56):
the Marco Estrada near perfect game and the Donaldson catch
in that game. You have Marcus Stroman returning from injury
early on a doubleheader against the Yankees. You have Josh
Donaldson winning the MVP of Jose Bautista finally making the playoffs.
So you have the bat flip. It really felt like
it was destined, and then it then Ryan goings, mister Poppa, crowd.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Is alive and well final the seventh day, one pitch
of pop up right side, that's gonna do as Jahns
looked like he called for it. Then Bautista stayed away.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Melissa will always point out that uh Price should have
gotten o that ending anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
He should have. He should have, he should have but
he wouldn't have needed to if Goins just catches that fucking.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Ball anyway, boy, just an unbelievable three months and then
of course, uh, free agency becomes uh the next the
next to h huh. And we did a We did
a I remember we had a standing order that we
(09:07):
were going to do a sports fellow the day that
he signed, and we did November thirty, twenty fifteen. It's
our reaction to the David Price Red Sox signing. Here's
a little bit of how we felt he plays. He
chose to go to the Red Sox. Im I hated.
You have to be like, fuck him.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
There are so there are so few baseball players I
have hated more in my life than Bronson or Royo
for sure, just like a a nothing pitture. But he
pitched the Red Sox, so fuck him forever.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Like I feel like it's possible to be like, I
leave David Price all the best. He's a really fun,
great guy, but also fuck him. Here's how we felt.
We felt. If we love David Price, we wanted to
do well, but he's a Red Sox now, so fuck him.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
That was like that was almost act. That's like word
for word what we said.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
It was a joy to watch him celebrate winning the
Al East. Winning the least is among the funnier days
of my early relationship because I got so drunk. I
got so drunk that night I made I believe I
called it uh sangria, but it was just w wine
mixed with every alcohol we had left in juice.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I remember that was like that was a doubleheader game. Also,
I think when they clinched because they beat Baltimore, and
I was at the Wheat Sheaf with a bunch of
people and it got to the point where, like the
game that they clinched, they won by like so much,
and I remember we were at a bars. We weren't
(10:42):
drinking that much during the game, but after they won.
Actually began sort of a tradition that I have now
where we're at the Wheat Sheaf, which is at King
and Bathurst, so sou southern part of Toronto. The game ended,
I went up Bathurst with Chris Lone and Jake Kramer
because I was living at Blue and Baths at the time.
(11:04):
We stopped at the wine rack at the Blue and
Baths asked for champagne. They said, this is a wine rack.
We don't sell that. We said, what's the closest thing
you have to champagne? So they gave us a bottle
of I guess it was prosecco. Maybe it was sparkling,
I'm not even sure. And it was when honest head
still existed. We went into the alleyway of honest Heads
(11:25):
and just chugged a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate,
which is how that tradition started, which we did again
after the Raptors won. But it was it was that
kind of evening for sure, and then identifying with the
team the next day as they were the extremely hung
over it so we were also sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
The sunglasses Blue Jays was so much fun. It was,
and I remember because we can't have nice things, there
was the backlash. People were mad because they had a
clinched the American League. Yet ye We're like, oh they're
oh man, They're oh yeah, It's like fuck off. Just seriously.
(12:09):
My tweet is was so excited about the Jays last
night I got embarrassingly drunk and passed out of my
girlfriend's living room at ten pm. It's exactly how it went.
That was the twenty seventh, so they played that night
in Tampa Bay. Let's see if I can pull up
the Tampa Bay lineup. My favorite, that would be the
(12:30):
would be the remember they we didn't remember if they
had clinched ont or something like that, And it was
like totally ridiculous because it was the math. It was
something like really specific math I had to do. Yeah,
it's right, God, that was fun. That was That was
goddamn hilarious, right there. Difference beween clinching a playoff spot
(12:53):
and quinching the East, That's what it was.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
The East was. The East was the Champagne in the
alleyway night for me, just yes for the Red.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
And the lineup they trotted out on the thirtieth, the
day after they quenched the East was Dalton Pompey leads off,
followed by Cliff Pennington and left field, Carrera and right Colabello, Dhing,
Matt hagg at first base, Josh Toley behind the plate,
Kawasaki playing third, Darwin Barney at second, and Jonathan Diaz
at short. They went zero regulars top to bottom.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Oh what a good what a good time, What a
good time?
Speaker 1 (13:31):
God. I love John Gibbons like only Gibbee goes whole hog.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Well, like, why would he play him?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Who gives a shit Cliff Pennington and left Field? Is
that's that's chef's kiss right there, when when you have oh,
that's so good Cliff Pennington and left Field who pitched
in the playoffs that year, she did you gotta love it?
(14:01):
I remember being I was in I went to the
I went to Florida, that's right at the end of October,
because it was my thirtieth birthday. My mom invited me
to Florida and I went down and the debate to
drink beer. Because David Price was technically not on the
Blue Jays anymore, it was weighed very heavily on my
(14:23):
mind looking back at this, looking back at this, and
looking back at our or November thirtieth stance from that
year and his time with the Red Sox. He eventually
does overcome his playoff jitters and they win a World
Series and he's a really big part of it. Where
do you land now looking back on David Price and
(14:46):
sort of his whole career after this.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I don't know. I'm of two minds. I think I
feel like had he stayed, I wonder how that would
have changed opinion on the Mark Schapiro Blue Jays going forward.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
No, I mean I think you know, if if Alex
you know, would have would have still been here, you know,
then it might have not upsetting, But you know, that
would have been a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Because if he stays, who knows what twenty sixteen is
like as like as a season. Who knows if we
have David Price the full year. Also, and I wonder
if you know, because he signed for three hundred million
dollars in Boston, if he stayed in Toronto, you'd have
to imagine the deal would be somewhere in that.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Ballpark totally, and they would have traded him by now
for what it's worth.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
For sure, Oh for sure, as they probably should to
be fair. But if he had signed the three hundred
million dollar deal in Toronto or two hundred and eighty
million or whatever in Toronto right after Anthopolis left and
Shapiro already came in sort of under the gun, I
feel like the whole narrative around Shapiro and all that
(16:03):
stuff is very different. And also maybe the Blue Jays
win a World Series in twenty sixteen if he stays,
sobe I really think, I really think it changes the
trajectory of the next five years of this franchise in
so many ways that it's hard to it's hard to
fathom how big that one could go either way. Also,
(16:25):
it's possible they he resigns for a ton of money
and he's not great and the team is still kind
of middling in twenty sixteen, as they were until the
last whatever week of the season. So yeah, so I
think it's a big question. I think I still sort
of hold the Obviously, in the last five years, my
stance on like what players should do for themselves has
(16:47):
changed a lot and softened a lot. And like I
know we said this in twenty fifteen as well when
he signed that, Like if someone obviously three hundred million dollars,
you obviously take it. That's right, But there is still
there's still a little bit of fuck them in me.
I think, just a little.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Less I softened on this.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Yeah, no, I agree, lesson there was, but there's still
a little bit of fuck them.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I softened on this when I saw how hard of
a time he ended up taking with the hole he's
bad in the playoffs thing because he was I mean,
with the Jays, the Alds, he got rocked by Texas
in the first game, and then he ended up coming
out of the bullpen famously later on in that series.
He was also not great against Kansas City. He his
(17:34):
ERA against Texas was seven point two is the ERA
against Kansas City was five point four, and then the
next year against Cleveland with Boston three innings, five runs,
ERA of thirteen and a half. Twenty eighteen in the
Alds against the Yankees, he goes one and two thirds innings.
He gives up three runs, but he turns it around
(17:55):
two good starts against Houston, and then he goes two
to zero in three appearances with a sub to e
with the Dodgers to win the World Series. By then,
once Boston had already made the World Series, I sort
of wanted him to get his moment where he gets
to finally have that World Series. I guess just because,
like looking back over this last four episodes, how much
(18:16):
it meant to us, and how big it was that
he came here, and how good he pitched down the
stretch of that regular season to help them clinch that
playoff spot, which I think maybe you will agree that
they but you won't. With them winning the East meant
so much to me almost as much, almost as much
as them beating Texas that it meant the world to me,
(18:37):
so that he had a huge part of that, and
it has revealed himself, by the way, as a really
good guy. Right.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I believe he was also one of the players on
the Red Sox that refused to go to the White
House because Trump was an offset. I think he was
a leader in that as well, which obviously I appreciate.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So I've really other than twenty sixteen, we wanted them
to be bad because the Jays were a playoff team.
Once it became clear the Jays weren't going to be
good and you can really can't do anything to stop
the Red Sox and be in the Red Sox. I
wanted good things with David Price, and I still do,
and I'm I'm glad. He seems like a really good guy.
He seems like a We.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Were big proponents of the Blue Jays trading for him
six months ago.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
That's right. Oh my god, that's right.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
We were on the trade for David Price again, not
that long ago.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Oh my god, that's right, that's right. If Oh my god, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
What a perfect storybook ending that would be.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Of course, you know the story of how the twenty
fifteen season ended. We get the bat flip, we get
the Royal Series. I think when we do the next
one of these, we'll see what they do down the line.
I think we should do the Royal series because I
don't remember it all that well. I remember the Ranger
series like a really well, but the Royals was sort
(19:54):
of this like crazy blur for me. That was like
I couldn't I already couldn't believe so much of what
was happening that the Royal Series toward gets lost as
this like completely crazy series of events.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I watched the highlights of the game that they lost
to the Royal Game six for the first time, I
think this year, because it was just like, I don't
want to see that her again. That wone really hurt.
That is the most painful sports loss in my life.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
I think, Wow. Yeah, I think it's probably up there too,
and that's probably why I sort of blocked it out.
I remember the I remember the Amish guy with the glove, yep,
and that's honestly about it. The rest of the series
is pretty blocked out for me, which is that.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Is a good game to do because that was funny.
That was a weird ass game too.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, boil boy. Anyway, that about wraps up Sports pulled
the story time for this month. But he's been a
pleasure looking back at the twenty fifteen Blue Jays as
it always is. I love talking about this team and
watching their old highlights and remembering the buzz of the
dome when it was full and how good the lineup was,
and truly truly appreciating David Price. I think going through
(21:06):
that year without an ACE and then getting him halfway
through it's different than Doc, right, because Doc was just
always there and he was old, reliable to not have
it and really need it and get it meant a ton.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah. There will never be anything like those three months
in our sports lives again.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Ever, Yes, we hope something comes close. But in the meantime,
we thank alex Enthopolis for making that trase and most importantly,
we thank you the Patroon subscribers for helping us out,
for chipping in, for being part of the discord, and
forgetting these extra episodes as well as the mail bags.
We love our sports folk community. You guys are the best.
(21:46):
We will see you next month for a new series
of sports Feld Storytime, what's the
So look too big doors, Look Canada, those.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Spam there.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It is strac three.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Doctor Hawkins completes the nine thinking in the bill Jays
cand celebrate their first division title in its twenty two years.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It is a long time coming with the boys.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
They played like champions all season long.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
They came out today they made a statement.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Feen to two the congratulations to the Blue Jays.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Sports It is sports Field story time. We are looking
back back back to the David Price debut August third,
twenty fifteen, and we are through the game. Last episode
was his incredible eleven strikeout, three hit, one run start
that got the Jays the win. Do you remember, Jake?
(01:37):
That win and the game before the fight game against
the Kansas City Royals were the first two wins in
a winning streak. They did not lose again until August
fourteenth against the Yankees.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That whole sort of that run to get them into
the playoffs and to win the division. I don't think
I will ever experience something like that again. I remember
sometime in August, I don't remember which part of August,
I went to a game where they I think they
played the Athletics and they just kicked the shit out
(02:11):
of them, and I remember it was when the division
was really close. We hadn't overtaken the Yankees yet, but
we were getting there, and the Yankees were in Cleveland,
I want to say, and by the time we got
back to the bar, that game had gone into extra
innings and everyone in the bar was watching the Yankees
(02:32):
Cleveland game. And then Cleveland won and the bar went crazy,
and that was like that moment of like, oh shit, okay,
this is what's happening. That rules.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Jake. Your memory never ceases to amaze me. You are
talking about Wednesday, August twelfth, when the Blue Jays beat
Oakland ten to three.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yep, I sure am.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
It was two, three, four, five, six, an eight nine,
the tenth game of the winning streak. They go from
down half a game to up half a game because
the Yankees lose two to one to Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, I remember that, being like that was the sort
of transfer of moment in my mind, a little bit
of just that like oh, this is no longer me
thinking like something could happen or something like like this,
this is like people are now on board, this is real,
(03:35):
this has happened.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Yeah, that's why you play the game.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I mean to be a more of stuff like this.
In that eleven game win streak, the Blue Jays go
from six games back to half a game up, culminating
basically in the game you are talking about Price pitches again.
So Price starts against Minnesota and they win five to one.
He makes his next start against the Yankees that Saturday
(04:04):
in New York. The Jays win six nothing. They sweep
that series. If you remember that, I remember that so well,
them sleeping that series.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I believe that weekend. That weekend was the weekend of
our producer Sean's wedding, and I was in PI for
that weekend, and I remember very clearly. The Friday night
was the night before the wedding, so we all slammed
into a hotel room to watch that Yankees game. I
believe Jose hit a home run in the tenth to
(04:32):
win that game.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
God, damn it, Jake, and damn it Jake. You're thinking
of the game before, But yes, am I yeah, two
to one, they went in ten on the back of
a Jose Batista home.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
And then that Sunday game, I remember we were watching
before we got our flight out, and we were in
a It was like the perfect environment for me. I
was in a bar, I was drinking a beer, I
was eating an entire lobster, and I was watching the
Jays beat the Yankees, and it was as close to
perfect as I think things get now. Is else the
(05:07):
day that I discovered that Chasen Shreeve existed and I
didn't think his name was real.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Ah, yes, yes that that That series goes two to one,
six nothing, two nothing. The Jays go ten to one.
The runs they go from three and a half back
to one and a half back. Cecil in the extra
ending game. Price with a shutout of Strata with a
shutout twenty fifteen, Marcos Strata take me back. Price is like,
(05:35):
we you. The reason that we love David Price internally
we do is he was surreal down the stretch eleven starts,
nine wins, two point three era for my money, probably
should have won the cy Young that's just me.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Wow, who did win the so Young that year?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Twenty fifteen? Cy Young went to Kickeel Ha Kikeel went
twenty and eight had a two point four to eight.
Price went eighteen and five had a two point four
to five.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Price was second.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Price for second Price had the better era plush. He
had a better era. I believe he had a better
he had a lower whip. I don't. I don't think
I have his fip handy. But it was, you know,
it's you take your pick, is which one of those
guys had a better year. I think David Price did
more personally. That's just me, and I'm probably biased to
be one hundred percent honest with you, But he was.
(06:34):
He was so money for the Blue Jays it was ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
He had nine more strakeouts than twelve less innings, so.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Right, and he made one. Let's start, boy, oh boy,
just just awesome. He finally lost a game to the
Yankees August fourteenth. He went eight innings, gave up three runs.
That would be the second worst game of his Blue
Jays tenure, giving up three runs. Then he got a
(07:02):
win against the Angels, a big win against Texas, a
loss against Cleveland, and then he finished it off in
September with five straight wins Baltimore, New York, Atlanta, New
York again, and Tampa Bay. So he goes. He comes
over at nine and four and finishes eighteen and five.
(07:23):
He was reridiculous as a Blue Jay. I like I
will say it over and over again. He was so
ridiculously good and so much better than everybody else on
that twenty fifteen staff.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It was ridiculous that whole I know we've talked to
this before, but I don't know when the last time
we did was, But that whole run really makes them
not winning the World Series feel even stranger. Like that
run had everything that a championship run has. You know,
you have the Ringer coming in and dominating. You have
(07:56):
the Marco Estrada near perfect game and the Donaldson catch
in that game. You have Marcus Stroman returning from injury
early on a doubleheader against the Yankees. You have Josh
Donaldson winning the MVP of Jose Bautista finally making the playoffs.
So you have the bat flip. It really felt like
it was destined, and then it then Ryan goings, mister Poppa, crowd.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Is alive and well final the seventh day, one pitch
of pop up right side, that's gonna do as Jahns
looked like he called for it. Then Bautista stayed away.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Melissa will always point out that uh Price should have
gotten o that ending anyway.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
He should have. He should have, he should have but
he wouldn't have needed to if Goins just catches that fucking.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Ball anyway, boy, just an unbelievable three months and then
of course, uh, free agency becomes uh the next the
next to h huh. And we did a We did
a I remember we had a standing order that we
(09:07):
were going to do a sports fellow the day that
he signed, and we did November thirty, twenty fifteen. It's
our reaction to the David Price Red Sox signing. Here's
a little bit of how we felt he plays. He
chose to go to the Red Sox. Im I hated.
You have to be like, fuck him.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
There are so there are so few baseball players I
have hated more in my life than Bronson or Royo
for sure, just like a a nothing pitture. But he
pitched the Red Sox, so fuck him forever.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Like I feel like it's possible to be like, I
leave David Price all the best. He's a really fun,
great guy, but also fuck him. Here's how we felt.
We felt. If we love David Price, we wanted to
do well, but he's a Red Sox now, so fuck him.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
That was like that was almost act. That's like word
for word what we said.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
It was a joy to watch him celebrate winning the
Al East. Winning the least is among the funnier days
of my early relationship because I got so drunk. I
got so drunk that night I made I believe I
called it uh sangria, but it was just w wine
mixed with every alcohol we had left in juice.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I remember that was like that was a doubleheader game. Also,
I think when they clinched because they beat Baltimore, and
I was at the Wheat Sheaf with a bunch of
people and it got to the point where, like the
game that they clinched, they won by like so much,
and I remember we were at a bars. We weren't
(10:42):
drinking that much during the game, but after they won.
Actually began sort of a tradition that I have now
where we're at the Wheat Sheaf, which is at King
and Bathurst, so sou southern part of Toronto. The game ended,
I went up Bathurst with Chris Lone and Jake Kramer
because I was living at Blue and Baths at the time.
(11:04):
We stopped at the wine rack at the Blue and
Baths asked for champagne. They said, this is a wine rack.
We don't sell that. We said, what's the closest thing
you have to champagne? So they gave us a bottle
of I guess it was prosecco. Maybe it was sparkling,
I'm not even sure. And it was when honest head
still existed. We went into the alleyway of honest Heads
(11:25):
and just chugged a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate,
which is how that tradition started, which we did again
after the Raptors won. But it was it was that
kind of evening for sure, and then identifying with the
team the next day as they were the extremely hung
over it so we were also sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
The sunglasses Blue Jays was so much fun. It was,
and I remember because we can't have nice things, there
was the backlash. People were mad because they had a
clinched the American League. Yet ye We're like, oh they're
oh man, They're oh yeah, It's like fuck off. Just seriously.
(12:09):
My tweet is was so excited about the Jays last
night I got embarrassingly drunk and passed out of my
girlfriend's living room at ten pm. It's exactly how it went.
That was the twenty seventh, so they played that night
in Tampa Bay. Let's see if I can pull up
the Tampa Bay lineup. My favorite, that would be the
(12:30):
would be the remember they we didn't remember if they
had clinched ont or something like that, And it was
like totally ridiculous because it was the math. It was
something like really specific math I had to do. Yeah,
it's right, God, that was fun. That was That was
goddamn hilarious, right there. Difference beween clinching a playoff spot
(12:53):
and quinching the East, That's what it was.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
The East was. The East was the Champagne in the
alleyway night for me, just yes for the Red.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
And the lineup they trotted out on the thirtieth, the
day after they quenched the East was Dalton Pompey leads off,
followed by Cliff Pennington and left field, Carrera and right Colabello, Dhing,
Matt hagg at first base, Josh Toley behind the plate,
Kawasaki playing third, Darwin Barney at second, and Jonathan Diaz
at short. They went zero regulars top to bottom.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Oh what a good what a good time, What a
good time?
Speaker 1 (13:31):
God. I love John Gibbons like only Gibbee goes whole hog.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Well, like, why would he play him?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Who gives a shit Cliff Pennington and left Field? Is
that's that's chef's kiss right there, when when you have oh,
that's so good Cliff Pennington and left Field who pitched
in the playoffs that year, she did you gotta love it?
(14:01):
I remember being I was in I went to the
I went to Florida, that's right at the end of October,
because it was my thirtieth birthday. My mom invited me
to Florida and I went down and the debate to
drink beer. Because David Price was technically not on the
Blue Jays anymore, it was weighed very heavily on my
(14:23):
mind looking back at this, looking back at this, and
looking back at our or November thirtieth stance from that
year and his time with the Red Sox. He eventually
does overcome his playoff jitters and they win a World
Series and he's a really big part of it. Where
do you land now looking back on David Price and
(14:46):
sort of his whole career after this.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I don't know. I'm of two minds. I think I
feel like had he stayed, I wonder how that would
have changed opinion on the Mark Schapiro Blue Jays going forward.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
No, I mean I think you know, if if Alex
you know, would have would have still been here, you know,
then it might have not upsetting, But you know, that
would have been a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Because if he stays, who knows what twenty sixteen is
like as like as a season. Who knows if we
have David Price the full year. Also, and I wonder
if you know, because he signed for three hundred million
dollars in Boston, if he stayed in Toronto, you'd have
to imagine the deal would be somewhere in that.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Ballpark totally, and they would have traded him by now
for what it's worth.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
For sure, Oh for sure, as they probably should to
be fair. But if he had signed the three hundred
million dollar deal in Toronto or two hundred and eighty
million or whatever in Toronto right after Anthopolis left and
Shapiro already came in sort of under the gun, I
feel like the whole narrative around Shapiro and all that
(16:03):
stuff is very different. And also maybe the Blue Jays
win a World Series in twenty sixteen if he stays,
sobe I really think, I really think it changes the
trajectory of the next five years of this franchise in
so many ways that it's hard to it's hard to
fathom how big that one could go either way. Also,
(16:25):
it's possible they he resigns for a ton of money
and he's not great and the team is still kind
of middling in twenty sixteen, as they were until the
last whatever week of the season. So yeah, so I
think it's a big question. I think I still sort
of hold the Obviously, in the last five years, my
stance on like what players should do for themselves has
(16:47):
changed a lot and softened a lot. And like I
know we said this in twenty fifteen as well when
he signed that, Like if someone obviously three hundred million dollars,
you obviously take it. That's right, But there is still
there's still a little bit of fuck them in me.
I think, just a little.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Less I softened on this.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Yeah, no, I agree, lesson there was, but there's still
a little bit of fuck them.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I softened on this when I saw how hard of
a time he ended up taking with the hole he's
bad in the playoffs thing because he was I mean,
with the Jays, the Alds, he got rocked by Texas
in the first game, and then he ended up coming
out of the bullpen famously later on in that series.
He was also not great against Kansas City. He his
(17:34):
ERA against Texas was seven point two is the ERA
against Kansas City was five point four, and then the
next year against Cleveland with Boston three innings, five runs,
ERA of thirteen and a half. Twenty eighteen in the
Alds against the Yankees, he goes one and two thirds innings.
He gives up three runs, but he turns it around
(17:55):
two good starts against Houston, and then he goes two
to zero in three appearances with a sub to e
with the Dodgers to win the World Series. By then,
once Boston had already made the World Series, I sort
of wanted him to get his moment where he gets
to finally have that World Series. I guess just because,
like looking back over this last four episodes, how much
(18:16):
it meant to us, and how big it was that
he came here, and how good he pitched down the
stretch of that regular season to help them clinch that
playoff spot, which I think maybe you will agree that
they but you won't. With them winning the East meant
so much to me almost as much, almost as much
as them beating Texas that it meant the world to me,
(18:37):
so that he had a huge part of that, and
it has revealed himself, by the way, as a really
good guy. Right.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I believe he was also one of the players on
the Red Sox that refused to go to the White
House because Trump was an offset. I think he was
a leader in that as well, which obviously I appreciate.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So I've really other than twenty sixteen, we wanted them
to be bad because the Jays were a playoff team.
Once it became clear the Jays weren't going to be
good and you can really can't do anything to stop
the Red Sox and be in the Red Sox. I
wanted good things with David Price, and I still do,
and I'm I'm glad. He seems like a really good guy.
He seems like a We.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Were big proponents of the Blue Jays trading for him
six months ago.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
That's right. Oh my god, that's right.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
We were on the trade for David Price again, not
that long ago.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Oh my god, that's right, that's right. If Oh my god, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
What a perfect storybook ending that would be.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Of course, you know the story of how the twenty
fifteen season ended. We get the bat flip, we get
the Royal Series. I think when we do the next
one of these, we'll see what they do down the line.
I think we should do the Royal series because I
don't remember it all that well. I remember the Ranger
series like a really well, but the Royals was sort
(19:54):
of this like crazy blur for me. That was like
I couldn't I already couldn't believe so much of what
was happening that the Royal Series toward gets lost as
this like completely crazy series of events.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I watched the highlights of the game that they lost
to the Royal Game six for the first time, I
think this year, because it was just like, I don't
want to see that her again. That wone really hurt.
That is the most painful sports loss in my life.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
I think, Wow. Yeah, I think it's probably up there too,
and that's probably why I sort of blocked it out.
I remember the I remember the Amish guy with the glove, yep,
and that's honestly about it. The rest of the series
is pretty blocked out for me, which is that.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Is a good game to do because that was funny.
That was a weird ass game too.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, boil boy. Anyway, that about wraps up Sports pulled
the story time for this month. But he's been a
pleasure looking back at the twenty fifteen Blue Jays as
it always is. I love talking about this team and
watching their old highlights and remembering the buzz of the
dome when it was full and how good the lineup was,
and truly truly appreciating David Price. I think going through
(21:06):
that year without an ACE and then getting him halfway
through it's different than Doc, right, because Doc was just
always there and he was old, reliable to not have
it and really need it and get it meant a ton.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah. There will never be anything like those three months
in our sports lives again.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Ever, Yes, we hope something comes close. But in the meantime,
we thank alex Enthopolis for making that trase and most importantly,
we thank you the Patroon subscribers for helping us out,
for chipping in, for being part of the discord, and
forgetting these extra episodes as well as the mail bags.
We love our sports folk community. You guys are the best.
(21:46):
We will see you next month for a new series
of sports Feld Storytime, what's the
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