I went to the Jays game last night, they were playing the Mets and I thought that there would be a good turn out. I was wrong.
Other than opening day, which was completely sold out (and I didn’t go to) this is pretty normal for the Skydome on a Friday night, at least in my experience. And I really only have myself to blame, after so many years of hating this sport. Of course now I love it, despite the fact that I have almost no understanding of the rules. Here are two issues I had last night that I had to look up and now I know:
1. RBI.
2. Designated hitter.
I understand both now, more or less, but I’m still kind of curious about the designated hitter, why don’t the Jays assign this job to someone who is a better hitter? Dude last night had 0 runs, 0 RBI.
The other thing I don’t understand that happened at a previous game is the pitcher intentionally throwing balls to walk the guy at bat. The game I saw this happen in there was already someone at first. Is the guy at bat considered good and the guy after him not so good and the pitcher is hedging his bets? I don’t remember how many outs there were at the time and that might make some difference for the answer. Sarah?
We left early because I was freezing to death with the dome wide open and because by the bottom of the seventh the score was 14-1 for the Jays and I was feeling pretty confident we would win. Final score was 14-5 which means the Mets did pull a little something out. Tough luck, Bababooey.
Earlier yesterday, I did more successful baking and here are the results. I made mini baguettes that turned out really nicely, much to my surprise. I’d made some error in the mixing part of the recipe and the dough that resulted was tough, hard as rock. I didn’t throw it out, though, just covered the bowl and went to bed, and to my great surprise it had risen by morning. Rolled it out, slashed the tops, let them rise again and baked for 16 minutes and voila. They aren’t perfect, they’re pretty dense, but they taste nice and the crust was beautiful.
I also made a no knead bread, for fun, which really does seem like magic and tastes so good, mostly because of the texture. That one is not for practical purposes but will be made for home consumption again.
I wish I had known earlier this year that the Mets were playing the Jays this weekend. Bob is a Mets fan and they are my NL team (he is taking me to Cit Field on my birthday for Keith Hernandez bobblehead day!), so this would have been the perfect series to visit. I’m totally jealous you went to the blowout game, because the Mets were using position players as pitchers, which is always fun to see.
As for the DH, search me. It looks like the Jays had Ben Francisco DH at your game, but they don’t always use him. His stats aren’t terribly impressive this year, but overall in his career he has been better, so perhaps the hope is he’ll improve. Or maybe they thought he would do well against Jon Niese (seems like everyone else did, anyway).
You have the right idea for the intentional walk. Basically it means “you’re a good batter and I’m going to take my chances with the next guy.” I always feel bad for the guy who is on deck, because it means the other team thinks he’s a chump, haha.
It’s funny, it was a great game, I wish I’d worn warmer clothes and hadn’t had terrifying news on my way in. Another friend went to the Saturday game and it sounds like it was much slower but we don’t complain about shut outs. And the Mets won today? Now that I’m a fan I’d really like the Jays to win the pennant again!
Thanks, Sarah, I knew you’d come through for me!