“How come,” asked a Blue Jays press-box regular during this homestand, “it looks like they’re getting ready to film a Bob McCown commercial each night five minutes before the anthems?”
The long-running commercial for The FAN 590 has McCown walking around an empty Rogers Centre talking to the camera.
“I’ve been told,” McCown says, “that there are people out there who don’t like me, so I’d like to invite them all down to the Rogers Centre. Unfortunately, it only holds 50,000.”
For a team with an attendance high, next to its home opener, of 17,187 fans in its first 15 home dates, we have an answer:
Bob McCown Night.
Each and every night.
Strange greeting
“Hi, Rollo,” yelled Red Sox manager Terry Francona earlier this week at the Rogers Centre.
“Hello, Rollo,” replied Milwaukee Brewers scout Dick (The Legend) Groch.
Rollo?
Groch was coaching Team USA, which included Francona, in Venezuela for the 1979 Pan-Am Games in Puerto Rico.
“We get to the coffee shop at 8 a.m., and there’s zero staff,” said Groch, who headed for the kitchen with coach Stan Sanders to rustle up breakfast for a team which included future big leaguers Craig Lefferts, Tim Belcher, Tim Leary and Mike Gallego.
“Halfway through, the staff shows, sees us cooking, starts yelling and screaming in Spanish,” Groch said.
Normal service was restored, Francona asked for bread, then rolls and finally got the message across by saying “Rollo.”
“The waitress asked every player: ‘Rollo? Rollo? Rollo?’ ” Groch explained.
Hence the greeting, which is now into its fourth decade.
Francona had 13 hits and three triples for Team USA which finished out of the medals behind Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the hosts.
AROUND THE BASES
The five-year, $125-million US extension the Phillies gave Ryan Howard caught some by surprise. They’ll be paying the slugger until he’s 36 and he’ll earn $25 million in 2015 and ’16. And what if he is not producing then? Where do the Phillies turn to move a future DH earning that much? Not to New York as the Yanks will be paying Alex Rodriguez ($26 million) and Mark Teixeira ($23 million) in 2016. Boston maybe? ... It’s early, but looking at the Jays’ interleague homestand in June, it consists of visits from San Francisco, St. Louis and Philadelphia. All owned a share of a division lead this week ... Should the Jays draw 1.6 million this year, it will be the lowest mark since 1982 ... Manager Bobby Cox’s 8-13 start with the Braves this season was his worst since the 1982 Jays, who won 76 games.
Here and there
Adam Lind was almost a Minnesota Golden Gopher when he visited the Minneapolis campus in the fall of 2001. “And then it snowed on Oct. 3,” recalled Lind, who enrolled at South Alabama instead. The Jays visit the new Target Field on Oct. 1-3 to end this season. “It will probably snow,” Lind said ... Not to worry that there isn’t a country music station in town: Kevin Gregg enters a game to Hank Williams Jr.’s County Boy Can’t Survive and Scott Downs trots in to Jake Owen’s Eight Second Ride ... Remo Cardinale, the second Canadian ever signed by the Jays, and national team pitching coach for Jeff Francis, Adam Loewen among others, became a grandfather for the first time this week. Nya Andreina Leigh was born Monday in Mississauga at seven pounds, eight ounces. Within 12 hours, she was wearing baseball gear. Parents Natalie and Dre are doing well.
There and here
Say a prayer for Brewers’ broadcaster Bob Uecker, who needs an aortic valve in his heart replaced. My favourite Uecker line of a million, came after the 1962 season: “My roomie and I have combined for 400 homers.” Uecker had one. Roommate Eddie Mathews had 399 ... Best five players in the game today (pitchers ineligible): One scout said Albert Pujols, Hanley Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Joe Mauer and Carl Crawford. I’d replace Crawford with Chase Utley ... A reader who sat in the outfield for a Red Sox game this week says that the World Series and post-season banners look to be in the same shape as the Maple Leafs banners at the Gardens when Harold Ballard ran the show ... First three reviews on J.P. Ricciardi’s work on ESPN. Outstanding. Outstanding. And Outstanding. Seriously ... Phillies’ Jayson Werth scampered around the bases and scored on a four-base error made by Arizona’s Chris Young this week. Only 14 other four-base errors have been charged in the majors since 1950. It happened May 5, 1979 when M’s right fielder Leon Roberts misplayed a Rick Bosetti fly ball and the Jays leadoff man came around in a 9-1 loss at the KingDome.
Scouting the scouts
Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos and pro scouting director Perry Minasian saw right-hander Karsten Whitson of Chipley, Fla., pitch Monday. It’s the second time Anthopoulos has seen Whitson — no relation to former Yankee Ed Whitson — who is ranked fourth overall in North America by Baseball America and ninth by the Perfect Game scouting service ... Anthopoulos saw catcher Kellin Deglan with the Canadian junior team last Saturday at Lake Buena Vista, Fla., along with Windsor lefty Evan Rutckyj, Whitby lefty Evan Grills and Jonathan Paquet of Ancienne Lorette, Que. ... Scouts say the Jays attempted to hire Zack Minasian, Jr., Perry’s younger brother and the Brewers’ manager of minor league scouting personnel and co-ordinator of pro scouting.
Francona could hit, too
A Blue Jays player asked the other day if Boston manager Terry Francona was much of a player in his day.
He sure was, we said.
Francona was hitting over .320 when he caught his cleat in the turf at Busch Stadium in St. Louis and blew out his right knee. He was second to Tony Gwynn in the batting race (hitting .346, we looked it up) when he bunted up the first-base line and tried to deke Pittsburgh Pirates’ John Tudor who had the ball.
You could hear the awful sound of his left knee popping all the way up in the Olympic Stadium press box.
When was that, the player asked?
Well, the first knee was in 1982, the other in 1984.
“Man, I hadn’t even been to kindergarten yet,” said the player. “That tells me two things. Francona could hit and you’re really old.”
Canadian Corner
The trip south for the Canadian junior team is a time for stocks to rise. And one player whose stock climbed was Mississauga’s Dalton Pompey of the Oakville Royals.
The speedy, switch-hitting OF, who led the Canucks with six hits at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports, including a single off a 100- m.p.h. fastball from an Astros prospect and singled off ex-big leaguer Mike MacDougal.
Who’s doing well south of the border? Whitby OF Ryan Fleming of the Georgia State Panthers is hitting .403 with 13 homers and 54 RBIs in 43 games.
OF Greg Wallace of Nanaimo, B.C., and the Evansville Purple Aces, entered the weekend five RBIs shy of the school record of 67, hitting .444 (28-for-63) in the past 15 games with eight doubles, two triples, three homers and 30 RBIs for a .398 average, leading the conference in both hits (68) and RBIs (62).
Ottawa RHP Matt McGovern is 9-1 for the North Carolina-Pembroke Braves and an amazing 31-1 during his four years in college, two at Genesee College and two at UNC Pembroke.
Texas Tech closer Jay Johnson of Sussex Corner, N.B., is 3-3 with three saves, walking 32 and striking out 34 in 42 innings.
NORTHERN LIGHTS
Phillippe Aumont
Gatineau, Que.
The RHP had his best start this season as double-A Reading (Phillies) beat Richmond 2-0 to earn honours as the best of 58 Canadians in the minors this week. Aumont worked six hitless innings, striking out four. In his previous outing, he allowed one run in five innings against Harrisburg, so that’s one earned run while fanning nine in 11 innings.
Runners-up: Shawn Bowman of Coquitlam, B.C., hit .421 (8-for-19) with an RBI at double-A New Hampshire (Jays); lefty Jon Hesketh, Langley, B.C. pitched five scoreless for class-A Clinton (M’s), Brad McElroy, St. Thomas, Ont. hit .385 with three RBIs at class-A Lansing (Jays).
.
James Adduci, Burnaby, B.C. hit .357 with two RBIs at triple-A Iowa (Cubs) and Cambridge’s Scott Thorman, .294 with a homer and two RBIs at triple-A Omaha (Royals).
My best day in baseball
Alex Gonzalez
Blue Jays shortstop
“With the Marlins, we’re trailing the New York Yankees 2-1 in the 2003 World Series. We’re up 3-1 in the ninth but the Yankees tie it. We go to the 12th and I lead off against Jeff Weaver. The count goes to 3-2, Weaver throws a fastball and I hit a line drive to left. I’m running to first yelling: ‘Get up, ball! Get up, ball!’ The ball just clears the shorter of the two fences. I high-five Perry Hill, our first base coach, and run around the bases.”
The 65,934 cheered Gonzalez’s walkoff homer, which evened the series.
“Ozzie Guillen (third base coach) congratulates me. I have a picture of me going to the plate with Ozzie running behind me.”
The next night, Brad Penny beat the Yanks and, on three days rest, Josh Beckett blanked the Yanks to win it, the first time an opposing pitcher has shut out the Yankees at home in a series clincher since Lew Burdette of the Milwaukee Braves in 1957.
bob.elliott@sunmedia.ca
