9-Day Countdown Related Vent & Apology

9 days until Opening Day. 16 days until the Home Opener. I love feeling all warm and Basebally. Yet, I also feel some dread.

A few days ago, I was confronted about my opinions of Toronto "fans" who attend Jays games. In the confronter's defense, I didn't specify that I was speaking about the Jays and not about Toronto fans in general. I expressed my disappointment and borderline disgust at how the fairweather fans think about the athletes on the field and how they act at the games.

I expressed my feelings to Dirk Hayhurst on Twitter who appeared to be a bit down in the dumps due to his shoulder. I mentioned that I wish that all fans could see what he was writing since for some reason "fans" seem to think that athletes like being injured since they still get paid to "do nothing".

I was speaking specifically about how I've seen "fans" act. I attend every home game and the amount of BS I've seen in the past 3 seasons as a Season Ticket Holder makes me embarrassed to be a true Jays fan sometimes. I know I've mentioned in a past post about being harassed at games solely on my jersey of choice. But that's just a tip of the tip of the iceberg.

The amount of fans who, just yesterday, were cheering because Lyle Overbay hurt his knee and having wishful thoughts that he'd be out the whole season or that he'd never play again with his injury. It's disgusting in general (obviously there are a few exceptions), let alone in Sports, to applaud injury onto anybody. When Gabe Kapler hurt himself during his home run trot in the Dome and couldn't finish running, the amount of fans I heard cheering and laughing was probably louder than those cheering for the Jays when they scored. It's something I'll never understand.

I've seen "fans" rush down or sit behind the bullpen to start shouting profanities and threats to the pitchers. What "fans" don't realize is that athletes KNOW when they "suck" and are the first to criticize themselves. They don't need an asshat to shout it down to them to remind them, let alone shouting down trying to pick a fight. Said asshat gets kicked out, causing other "fans" to heckle even more. Why would you even go to a Jays game to insult BOTH teams that are playing?

And I'm all for heckling the other team, provided it's tasteful. As annoying as the Tropicana Field Heckler was, he at least heckled with stats. Fine, laugh your ass off when you believe ".....YOU SUCK!" is the best heckle ever. It's annoying, not distasteful. But some of the heckles I've heard have been racist, homophobic, sexist, and sometimes all of the above.

I've seen "fans" insult and harass visitors to the city and the ballpark. I'm all for poking fun at the team as a joke to people around your age. But I've seen people insult 6-year-old kids who are visiting the city, making them cry then LAUGHING when the kids cry. I've visited a few ballparks, wearing my Jays jersey and excluding Philadelphia (where we had 2 really drunk guys insult us for being Canadian), we've been welcomed with open arms to the city/ballpark. Seriously, it's a damn game.

But nothing will beat the wonders of the Home Opener where all the asshats come out in full force to their only game of the season. 2 years ago, a fan was almost thrown over the side of the 500 level. In 2005 vs. Boston (Arroyo Vs. Bush), the giveaway of free fridge magnets ended being an epic failure with the magnets being thrown onto the field from the 500 Level en masse. It prompted the Jays to hand them out after the game ever since.

That's nothing compared to the last home opener vs. the Tigers when fans in the 200 Level decided it'd be funny to throw baseballs at Josh Anderson's in LF (one during a play, and one narrowly missing his head) causing a delay in the game and threatening a forfeiture of the game where the Jays were whomping the Tigers. The delay caused "fans" across the stadium to throw their bottles (including empty liquor bottles "smuggled" into the Dome) and other forms of garbage onto the field. It made me sick to my stomach as a Baseball fan.

I can't wait to see what this Home Opener will bring. I'm wondering if Rogers Centre staff will finally get their act together and do their jobs in making sure the players and the fans are safe from morons. I wonder if anybody's going to throw stuff at Alex Rios if he's playing since he "sucks". I also wonder if it's going to be worse since Doc's no longer with the team.

So I'm sincerely sorry if I'm "painting with a wide brush" with how much I dislike Jays "fans" (who unfortunately seem to overpower the true Jays fans) with all the BS I've seen.

Snubbed. Again. Quelle Surprise.

I can't find a good picture to use. Damn you, Google. But this little vent shall be short and not-so-sweet.

But I just found out via Jordan Bastian on Twitter (@MLBastian) that Tom Cheek, yet again, didn't win the Frick Award. Jon Miller won instead.

It was just retweeted as I was typing this, but to quote @ShiDavidi on Twitter, "Cheek's Carter HR call would be legend if it was in US."

Not only is that call legend....but so is 4306.

O Canada indeed.

Time to go back to giving the middle finger to my monitor.

The Jersey Debate

(Two blog posts in less than an hour? I must be really bored lol)

For those who don't know me personally (which is probably 99% of anybody reading this), I am a jersey addict. Having a discount on merchandise is a huge cause of my addiction.

To give a little bit of background on my addiction, and why these two pictures are being shown, I shall explain.

I went back to paying attention to the Jays after my "emo-before-it-was-cool-minus-the-bad-hair-and-makeup" teenager phase in July of 2003. At that point, since I was in college, I couldn't exactly afford a jersey though I truly wanted one. Not only did I want one, but I wanted one crested with "Hinske 11". Obviously, times have changed since at the end of 2003 I met Josh Towers briefly a few days after he pitched an amazing game against the Orioles (which if I remember correctly brought his record to 9-1) and he was seriously the awesomest player I had met so far. In 2004, I truly started to go to more games (of course right after the True Jays Rewards promotion ended) and my money situation looked up so I got a Towers jersey for my birthday. It was the first of many jerseys to come. But it was also the first to make it a tiny bit unbearable to wear.

Jays fans don't need to be reminded of every one of Josh's years pitching for the Jays except for what is known as "his career year" or the contract he was given after "his career year" so I'll spare the details. But to get back on topic somewhat, I actually had to stop wearing my Towers jerseys (I got one for free) at Jays games because I was being personally heckled and threatened by Jays "fans" who attended the games. At one point, it got so bad that one of my friends wore her Shea Hillenbrand jersey so "fans" could focus their hatred on her instead of me.

Where am I going with this? A vent. Yes, I've already broken my New Year's resolution.

The Towers jersey incidents were the first in what would actually happen pretty much almost every season since. I won't go into too much detail, but here is my list of jerseys and the amount if applicable. They are also listed in chronological order post-Towers.

Rios - Got the jersey in 2005 (his second season in the MLB). Most Jays "fans" at the games didn't know that at the time he was one of the top prospects in the Organization. So I received, "Who the F*** is that?" comments.

McGowan (2) - The first one I got was back when he wore #40 and didn't really show any of the potential he had. Obviously, that automatically meant he "sucked" to Jays fans. At least until his almost no-no against the Rockies (still hate you, Jeff Baker). So the next season, I got a new road jersey with #29, then he fell apart and hasn't pitched since.

Janssen (3) - Bought his jersey 2 days after the home opener in 2007. I think the worst comment received was in a Pizza Pizza one night after a game. "You have a jersey for the set-up guy? Ah. You must think he's hot, then." Because, of course, I am a female Baseball fan so that must be the only reason.

Inglett (3) - Started to like him back when we saw the Bisons play the formerly-known-as-Skychiefs in Alliance Bank Stadium. I bought my first Inglett jersey truthfully because of how nice he was to me after meeting him. I seriously didn't know much about how he played. That whole season, in which Gibby dubbed him "Voodoo Joe", he had Yo-Yo syndrome without really being sent down due to injuries. He was a bright spot in another unremarkable season for the Jays. Which, obviously, was unknown to Jays "fans" in 2009 since one night I was being personally heckled so bad that I had to get the Ushering supervisors involved. It takes a LOT for me to do that. Anyhoo, I digress :)

Scutaro - I've liked him since he was an A. Since he became a Jay, I had contemplated getting his jersey but I didn't get around to it because Jingles got in the way :P Finally got it the same day I inadvertently professed my "love" for him during Fan Club Batting Practice *facepalm*. Since I got this jersey in 2009, aka a season of awesomeness for Mr. Scutaro, I received zero criticism.

Cecil - The last jersey I got, thanks to free cresting. Since I got it at the end of the 2009 season as a birthday gift, people had stopped going to the games and didn't really care. Actually, the only "criticism" (which was in jest) I got was from Josh Towers the day he was called up by the Yankees.

So here's the deal. Is there any good reason why I should be criticized personally because I don't have a Halladay/Wells/Hill/Lind jersey? Is there something wrong with rooting for the underdogs? Heck, we're all Jays fans, we're all rooting for the underdogs as it is. Does it make me a bad fan because I get the "reject" jerseys?

I'm proud to support my team, and I'm proud to support my favourite players. Is it such a bad thing to have pride in the team you love, despite all of the BS going on in the organization? My butt is in my seat 81 home games a season plus a handful of road games and each day I wear a jersey. How does that deserve personal insults? It's something I will never understand.

Which begs the question and another debate....whose jersey will I be getting this season? :P

(Side note: Jersey underdogs apparently only apply to my Jays jerseys. Non-Jays jerseys: Morneau - Team Canada, Arroyo - Reds, Braun - Team USA)