Sweet Home Chicago
I’m heading home to Chicago this weekend for some family gatherings and won’t be at the ballpark again until next weekend. I’ll be covering the Draft on Tuesday and will be back at Rogers Centre for the Jays’ Interleague set against the Marlins. I’ll blog if warranted and will likely still be updating twitter (@MLBastian) over the next week. Until then…
~JB
Major League Bastian 
to anyone who has any respect left for alex rios check out the youtube video of him refusing a child an autograph and swearing at fans. Low class move by a man who doesnt care anymore since he has made it rich. He used to be one of my favorite players but now he is close to least favorite.
Congrats to Randy Johnson’s on his 300th win .
92,
My understanding is the youtube video only put Rios ugly part but neglected to add in the part of the fan harrassing Rios all night about his plate performance . I am not condoning what Rios did , it was wrong , but the heckling the fan did was also wrong . Everybody has a bad day / night at the job and I wonder if the fan who did the heckling ever loses it when/ if somebody harrasses him . Rios did make a public apology , its even on the Jays site …..live and learn
Romero did a great job tonight . It was nice to see the Jays bats come alive . Lets keep it going
92bluejays93, go have someone yell at you all day long at your place of work then yell at you some more when you’re out in the evening, and see how you feel about it. Fans like the ones in the video deserve to get ripped into by the players. But rather than the “low class” guy you accuse him of being, Rios showed some real class by taking the high road and apologizing for the incident even if he wasn’t the one who instigated it. Good on him.
Indigo, jabalong
I had just watched the video and was speaking from an overly emotional state of mind. It was overly rash to bad mouth Rios. Again not condoning what he did but acknowledging that his is still a young man and was put into a compromising position by the fan. His apology was sufficient so lets hope everyone can move on and Rios can be a major contributer for the remainder of the season.
92 ,
I agree with you Rios was out of line with what he said but the fans was also out of line . I think sometimes we forget ball players are human , they have ugly days like all of us . Unfortunately this ugly day came back to bite Rios . I know he is not the first one to lose it and he won’t be the last . It might be a good thing he was caught on video , it will make him think the next time and maybe laugh it off .
Jordan, the plugs they get to fill your spot when you’re off make your absence so terribly noticeable, kind of like what Frank Thomas did to our DH spot between 2007 and 2008.
What Rios did last night was absolutely outrageous, and perfectly plain to see. Over the first agonizing seconds of a 33-second video, Rios awkwardly and clearly ditches an autograph-seeking elementary school kid (who very likely could have been in the most memorable encounter of his life); so then a fan/parent/bystander, let’s call him the portly man, says pretty straightforwardly upon witnessing the scene, you’re lucky you even got asked the way you’re swinging the sticks (including that very night’s dubious and disinterested golden sombrero turned platinum by our no3 hitter). So then Rios responds instantly and aggressively, who $#%#ing cares! he screams (as if his off-base wondering, outfield grass picking crank needs to tell us fans that have watched him under-achieve and pad his stats in meaningless situations for more than 750 games).. It is ONLY THEN that the portly man says correctly and traditionally, “you’re a bum.” To which Alex proves it wasn’t a mistaken moment, repeating again and again his aggressive curse-laden vent that he doesn’t care at all, he doesn’t care at all. At that point, the portly guy says, you forget where you came from, which was clearly a reference to the fact that baseball is supposed to be for the fans, the peeps, and that he, Rios, wasn’t born making tens of millions of dollars but was gifted it by fans that pay hard earned money to watch Rios loaf. It’s an obvious scene, a pathetic scene and one that makes me cry for Reed Johnson. Too bad MLB.com did such a terrible job covering the situation, hopefully this is not the last of it. Here’s hoping this isn’t the last we hear of this. It’s time to bring in a culture of winning. Ask yourself, What Would Doc Do?
i think the fan is lucky rios didn’t give him a shot in the mouth!he shouldn’t have to listen to someone yapping when he’s away from the field.sure,if you pay your money,and want to holler, go ahead.but rios isn’t getting paid to be out there,its out of his own free time.
Rios was wrong to lose his cool. His contract will stipulate that he attend these events as part of the Jay’s community involvement program, so yes, he was representing the Blue Jays Baseball Club on this outing. He should have had more class. The other side of the coin is that he was at the end of a VERY long day, and everybody has their breaking point. No Jay wants to win more than Alex Rios, and had he gone 3/5 that afternoon, the story likely would not have happened.
I like what Kelly Gruber had to say about his own popularity – something like: It’s a simple game, and we get paid a lot of money to go out there and play it. The fans pony up their cash to pay our salaries, so if they want an autograph or something, I was always glad to give it. He also said that for the amount of money he was getting paid, there was no reason that he would not leave everything he had on the field. That’s class.
i’ll still argue that fans have no right to harrase a player away from the field.
IMO, Rios was completely wrong to do that. If he didn’t want to sign an autograph, so be it – maybe he was in a rush for something. But when the heckler yelled back, he should have shut his trap and got into the car. By the way, right or wrong, I’d have been pissed too if I saw a player like Rios refusing to sign an autograph for a young fan.
It was something Rios did without thinking I’m sure. Reminds me of the way he plays sometimes – not always thinking.
You know, if Rios could focus better, he’d be that .300 30-30 guy everyone thinks he can be. Maybe he needs to get slapped around a little bit in the minors – the way Mel Queen did to Halladay in his earlier years.
As far as what would doc do, I have met him and I hate to burst his godlike status but he isn’t exactly Mr. Personality with the fans. It was after a game and leaving the stadium, our 11 year old asked him for his autograph and it was all he could do to sign it and walk away. He said nothing to us. Don’t get me wrong, I like the guy as a player, but he was hardly impressive off the field. We travelled a long way to see him, would have been nice that he acknowledged us.
I must say that most of the other players were outstanding – Casey Janssen, Dustin McGowan and AJ Burnett were interested, thankful, talkative and friendly. It was nice to witness, despite our disappointment at the good doctor.
To be fair, here is a short clip of Rios signing autographs in Seattle. He spent a lot of time with the kids doing this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U0p4r-ItwI
Congrats to Halladay on his MLB leading 10th win . It was nice to see Greinke ( sitting at the very top of the dugout )watching Doc’s every pitch .
It’s onto to Texas and a very good hitting Rangers’ team . Jays’ bats will have their work cut out for them the next 4 days , Texas just took a series from Boston . Those of you who dislike the Jays’ announcers need to listen to Boston’s Orsillo and Eckersly , they are enough to make you appreciate all other team’s announcers…..lol… Take care all and have a great day …..Go Jayssssss
Indigo,
I’ve heard the Boston guys and agree with you. They are terrible. I think I complain just because I remember listening to Dan Shulmen and Buck Martiniz. Those two on TSN were fantastic, I miss hearing them.
As for Rios, the man had a bad day and apologized for it. It’s over now. If he does it again then rip away but for the time being let’s hope he learned from it and that it never happens again. Amazing how I can’t find the apology on youtube. I also agree with Michael that fans have no right to harass a player away from the field.
Tanandmur,
I’ve been to the past 2 photo days and both times McGowan was the only one whom I saw actually come up close to people to take photos with. The rest sat on the bench. He even signed a few things afterwards behind the bullpen so it doesn’t surprise me that he would be amongst those who were friendly.