..It was a rainy night at Yankee Stadium late in April and J.P. Ricciardi was shaking his head over the injuries that were multiplying like rabbits for his Blue Jays.
"The one important thing," said Ricciardi that evening, "is not to lose the guy who pitched last night."
The night before, Roy Halladay had dominated the Red Sox at Boston in a 10-3 Toronto win.
Fast forward to yesterday afternoon.
Ricciardi was minding his own business, working out in the Blue Jays weight room about 1:30 p.m., when trainer George Poulis came rushing in.
Ricciardi resisted the urge to run the other way because, these days, Poulis bears nothing but bad tidings.
When Poulis walks into a bar, he is always greeted by the same line: "Get lost, George. We're trying to have happy hour here."
But Ricciardi couldn't escape Poulis or the truth. Halladay, who had been lit up for eight runs the night before by those same Red Sox, had arrived at the park yesterday in dire straits and was heading to the hospital.
Before nightfall, he would be minus his appendix and the Jays would be minus their ace for at least the next month.
After all the bad news the snakebit Blue Jays have had to digest this year, this was the topper.
"I go back to the old Abraham Lincoln quote, when he stubbed his toe," said Ricciardi.
"He said: 'I'm too old to cry and it hurts too much to laugh.' I'd probably say that's apropos at this point."
But, wait. It gets worse. About an hour later, in the bottom of the first inning of the Jays' game against Tampa Bay, Troy Glaus belted a ball to the track in right-centre and came up lame after the catch was made by Carl Crawford. Glaus limped off the field and out of the lineup.
Coming soon to a 15-day disabled list near you? Stay tuned.
"It's not been a pretty picture so far," said team president Paul Godfrey. "You almost don't want to get out of bed in the morning because the phone is going to ring with another injury.
"It's something you have to live with, something you have to play through. Other teams have injuries. We've had more than our share this year, but we'll try to win as many games as we possibly can."
Before he went in for surgery, Halladay asked Poulis to deliver a message. Poulis told Godfrey and Godfrey passed it on to the media.
"Roy said that he wanted it made clear (the appendix) didn't affect him (Thursday) night. He was very adamant about that. He asked that Poulis emphasize that."
Ricciardi said he and manager John Gibbons would kick around some names of minor-leaguers who could be summoned to fill a spot in the rotation while Halladay recovers.
Josh Banks and Ty Taubenheim in Syracuse have both pitched decently, but there's a chance they might even dip into the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats ranks to bring up Jesse Litsch (5-1, 0.96 ERA, 22 hits in 38 innings) who took a no-hitter into the eighth inning the other night against Bowie. David Purcey's name also came up.
FEELING HELPLESS
"You've got to look at it as an opportunity for somebody else to step up," said Ricciardi. "We're not going to sit here and raise the white flag, or say we're quitting. Doc will be back. It's a chance for somebody to step in and get some starts in his place and hopefully run with it."
But brave words can't alter the unvarnished truth: In the past two weeks, the Blue Jays season has been blown to smithereens.
"You feel sort of helpless in a situation like this," said Godfrey.
"We planned all off-season for this team. We had our closer (B.J. Ryan). Check, that's in place. Got your setup guy (Brandon League)? Yeah that's in place. We got Vernon Wells signed. Frank Thomas is the cleanup guy and Glaus will bat after him and you think that's not too bad.
"And then it all starts to melt away in front of your eyes and it's a stunning blow."
