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With the Blue Jays schedule having conveniently taken five or six hours off their trip, a good portion of rookie John Hattig's family considered this the prime opportunity to come to see him play.
The half dozen or so hours only shortened the trip to about 15 hours as all the family made the trip from Guam, a U.S. territory that sits about 3,300 miles west of Hawaii.
Hattig is the first born and first raised native of the island to make it to the majors so this is a big deal for his family.
Hattig's father, four or five of his uncles and his girlfriend all made the trek.
Hattig laughed when it was suggested he might be under some pressure to perform.
Truth is there's probably more pressure on manager John Gibbons to get him in the lineup.
"You guys are going to badmouth me if I don't play him?," Gibbons said.
DOWN ON THE FARM
Post-season play may be all but a mathematical impossibility for the Jays, but down in the minors there are a number of Jays seeing post-season action. All three of the Jays lower level minor-league clubs have qualified with the class-A Dunedin Blue Jays, who dropped the game of the Florida State League final 7-5 to Port St. Lucie last night.
The Dunedin Blue Jays earned a spot in the final with a 3-2 win over Fort Myers on Thursday to wrap up that series. The Auburn Doubledays, the Jays A-ball entry in the New York Penn State League will face the Tri City Valleycats in their playoff series which opens tonight while the Lansing Lugnuts of the class-A Midwest League will take on the winner of West Michigan /Fort Wayne after sweeping the South Bend Silver Hawks in their first-round series.
