We Know Baseball

Last night, halfway during the 8th inning that shall never be spoken of again, with runners on first and second and one out, Jamie Campbell started a very promising sentence:

Well, A.J. is generally considered a fly-ball pitcher, but…

My ears perked up! Maybe Fletcher was rubbing off on him (I love Fletch. Sorry Rance. Anyone who groans on live TV as a terrible, terrible inning unfolds is my kind of announcer. And he doesn’t just make shit up, either) was rubbing off on him, and he was about to deliver the head-turning nugget of information that A.J. actually got a higher percentage of outs in play on grounders last year than sinkerballer extraordinaire Roy Halladay.

But no. As usual, general consensus trumps actual investigation, and he read meekly from his scorecard:

…on three occasions tonight he’s induced ground balls out of Butler.

But that’s nothing compared to Paul Godfrey, who thank the good lord is not a member of the BBWWA (although Rosie DiManno is and will be getting her vote in 2017 (hat tip: Cox Bloc). To see how many seconds you have to get to Cooperstown before it becomes no longer worth visiting, click here (about 274521600 seconds for all you read-no-click types. Start walking!). In a gracious nod to the best player ever to play for the Jays, he said:

“I’m at every game or watch on TV and right now Frank was not one of our best nine,” Jays president Paul Godfrey said. “He’s probably — not likely — a Hall of Famer.”

Now I know that he’s not really saying that Frank Thomas is “not likely” to make the HOF, but give me a break. No player with 500 home runs has ever not made the hall of fame. Add to that a .300 lifetime average (which voters actually care about as opposed to his much-more-impressive .420 OBP), and I would say he’s a lock for making it in on the first ballot. I guess it’s not THAT important to have a president who actually knows the first thing about the history of baseball, but isn’t he supposed to be a politician, too? The politic thing here would be to be nice and shut up even if you think Thomas might be snubbed.