They gave up Max Castillo, whom I thought was a promising young starter, and their #16 prospect. As it now stands, Merrifield could only play in Jays’ road games. Have to think they have a commitment for him to get vaxxed or an out if he doesn’t. Otherwise it is a dumb deal.
“Today in History” brought back a memory from 1983 that the youngsters may not be aware of.
Charges of animal cruelty were dismissed 39 years ago against the Yankees’ Dave Winfield after throwing a ball that hit and killed a seagull at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium. He got off because the autopsy revealed that the bird was ill and would have likely died soon anyway.
Billie Martin’s defence of Winfield at the time was priceless: “that’s the first time Winfield has hit the cutoff man all year”.
Winfield played for the Jays on their 1992 WS winner and the Toronto fans totally forgave him for the seagull murder.
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ah yes, I remember it well
Also, when Randy Johnson essentially disintegrated a bird he hit with pitch
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Yes, bad enough to be hit by a ball thrown by Dave Winfield but one of Johnson’s pitches would be a whole different level.
That sounds like total BS. I wonder if the report is available.
The word is necropsy, btw. The “auto-” in autopsy means “self” and refers to doing the procedure on other humans.
The whole affair was BS including the necropsy. All concerned were just trying to find a way to have all the charges dropped as it was an embarrassment that he was charged in the first place.
I never understood it, it wasn’t as if he threw the ball at the gull on purpose
It was purely accidental that he hit the seagull. Billy Martin confirmed he couldn’t have hit the seagull intentionally. I miss characters like Billy Martin from the game.
Surprising it hadn’t happened earlier as seagulls were a real nuisance at the old Exhibition Stadium.
Merrifield appears to have gotten vaccinated.
The Angels wasted Trout’s prime years in mediocrity. [One playoff trip in 12 years; he was 1-for-12 in a 3-game sweep. They haven’t been above .500 since 2015.] They’re going to do the same with Ohtani.
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A minor leaguer hit a “home run cycle”:
has that ever been done before?
In MLB only 2 players have 4 HRs & 10+ RBI
Mark Whitten 4 for 5; 4 HR 12 RBI - 2 run, 3 run, 3 run, GS
Scooter Gennett 5 for 5; 4 HR 10 RBI - solo, 2 run, 2 run, GS, RBI single
also
Gil Hodges 5 for 6; 4 HR; 9 RBI - 2 run, 2 run, 2 run, 3 run
I put my crack research team on the case, and to my surprise the answer is yes. Once
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I was trying to remember who I knew who did this… pretty sure it was a wiffle ball tournament now that I think hard about it.
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I remember some college player did it a while back, then got drafted and flamed out with the wooden bats.
In before someone looks up that this was done twice in women’s D1 softball…
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Field of Dreams game today.
Most expensive ringworm cure ever.
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The Braves have been employing a strategy of locking up young guys early when they have lots of team control left on their contract. It’s possible they’ll miss on one of these guys and regret it later, but right now it’s looking like they have some bargain contracts. They just did it again with Michael Harris.
Acuna, Albies, and Harris are on long term affordable deals that got inked before they were arbitration eligible. Players took guaranteed $ early in exchange for rolling the dice on a bigger deal years later. Riley and Olson are on reasonable long term deals. Fried, Soroka, Strider, Contreras, Wright, and Minter are on cheap contracts with years of team control left (a couple in arbitration years now).
Their next big question is whether to pay Swanson this offseason. He’s going to get paid somewhere.