Tagged: Justin Jackson

Jays @ Tigers pregame

So Mrs. Bastian had the single greatest dream of all-time last night. Had me laughing so hard this morning. In it, she dreamt that I had developed, at 26 years old, a horrible case of Tourettes Syndrome — not the best disorder to have in my position.

In the dream, us reporters were in the middle of an interview with Roy Halladay and while we were trying to ask questions, I kept blurting things out randomly, disrupting everything. Halladay stops and says he can’t deal with this and walks away, and I promptly lose my job.

Flash forward, The Wife and I had moved back to Chicago and she came home to find me sitting in front of my computer — in some new editorial position now so I could work from home with my disease — spewing expletives as I read through stories.

My wife comes over and asks, “Is this the Tourretts, or are you just angry?”

“I’m just mad!”

Thus ended the best dream ever. Us scribes things a “Tourettes Reporter” skit on SNL would make for great comedy.

On the way to Lakeland today, Mike Wilner of the Fan and his fam and I stopped for breakfast at Waffle House — a rite of spring. Last year, we had a waiter named Trampus, who I dubbed “Trampus — King of Waffles.” Today, our waitress, missing quite a few teeth, thanked me for not having her repeat my menu choices, because “Biscuits is a real hard word to say.”

True story.

As for pregame notes? Well, Justin Jackson is on the trip and manager Cito Gaston was gushing over him this morning. Jackson is considered the shortstop of the future and he’s here for the game today. Gaston also talked a lot about Jose Bautista, who is back from the WBC and starting in center field.

Bautista said he has played center for the past seven years in winter ball in the DR, so it’s nothing new for him. What will be new is manning short, something Cito wants to have him and Joe Inglett try this spring. More on Bautista on bluejays.com later on.

Don’t forget, you can follow my in-game updates at www.twitter.com/mlbastian 

Today’s lineup:

BLUE JAYS
Russ Adams, DH
Aaron Hill, 2B
Adam Lind, LF
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Jason Lane, RF
Jose Bautista, CF
Brad Emaus, 3B
Raul Chavez, C
John McDonald, SS

Casey Janssen, P
Mike Maroth, P

TIGERS
Brandon Inge, 3B
Placido Polanco, 2B
Gary Sheffield, DH
Jeff Larish, 1B
Gerald Laird, C
Ryan Raburn, CF
Timo Perez, LF
Alexis Gomez, RF
Adam Everett, SS

Dontrelle Willis, P

~JB