Unruly fan behavior in Monday's season opener at Rogers Centre was the last straw. So that's it: no Labatt's, no Moosehead, no Molson, no Sleeman.
Beer sales were banned at the Blue Jays' home stadium on Tuesday, and also on April 21 for a game against Texas.
Oh, and the players couldn't even get beer in their clubhouses. Ouch.
The Tigers pulled their players off the field and the game was delayed nine minutes as fans threw baseballs and other objects on the field. But Tuesday's prohibition had already been decided on because of past liquor-license (licence?) violations.
After a season that saw Burnett sidelined for a couple months with injury and called out by his GM for racing with a guy in a chili pepper costume, it seemed that the Jays might want to cut their losses by cutting ties with the guy they'd hoped would form a tough one-two punch with Roy Halladay.
"We like having A.J. here," Ricciardi told ESPN.com. "He gives us a good opportunity to win in 2008, and that's our main objective right now. But we're open-minded. If someone blew us away, we'd be foolish not to listen. If someone came to us tomorrow and said, 'We'll give you this, this and this for him,' we'd be foolish not to look at it."
So the Jays' options are banking on winning it all with the Halladay-Burnett combo next season or risk losing Burnett, who can opt out of his contract after 2008, to free agency? Here's betting A.J.'s starting for some other team come next April.
[Zaun] told viewers that Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling "never met a microphone or camera that he didn't like." When host Jamie Campbell, who does a great job of teeing up questions for Zaun, asked him if Schilling were beatable, Zaun said he was. He then chronicled how age had robbed Schilling of his skills.
Those were brave words from someone who may face a high hard one from Schilling next season.
Brave, indeed. But, honestly, I'm more intrigued by the fact that Canadian audiences get to enjoy a Tim McCarver-free broadcast. Shouldn't we all have to suffer together?
Despite some early season woes and a bout with appendicitis, Roy Halladay was one of the best things to happen to the Blue Jays in 2007. And with his three-year contract extension kicking in next year, the Jays will have their premier pitcher locked up through 2010.
But after a significant step down from 2006's second-place finish in the East, momentum that a lot of people figured would carry into this season, can the Jays bounce back to contend while they still have their ace under contract? Doc sure hopes they can.
"The one thing that I want to do in this game is win a World Series. But I'd like to take every chance I can to do it here," he said. "In past years, playing the way we've played, if we were in other divisions, we might have been close. I knew how tough it was going to be and that's a lot of what made me want to stay here."
Of course, baseball being a business first and foremost, Halladay added that when his three years are up, he'd certainly revisit his stance in the event that an opportunity for a ring lies with another team.
"What happens after the three years I have left?" Halladay wondered rhetorically. "There's a lot of things up in the air as far as what J.P. [Ricciardi]'s going to do with the coaching staff, players, a lot of things are changing. That's something to re-evaluate at that point."
Count me among those who figured the Blue Jays to improve upon last year's second-place finish in 2007. Then they lost B.J. Ryan for the season. And Frank Thomas and Vernon Wells forgot how to hit. And pretty much every starter hit the DL. And the team slowly dissolved in the standings.
But the Jays appear to be making their biggest statement in the season's final weeks, albeit in the role of spoiler -- a role they're playing pretty damn well. Last night, powered by an eighth-inning Russ Adams grand slam, the Jays completed a three-game sweep of the Red Sox, cutting Boston's division lead from 4.5 to 1.5 games in the blink of an eye.
And tomorrow, they open a four game series in Yankee Stadium where they can continue to impact the race.
"It's always fun to get a sweep," Adams said. "But to be playing in games that matter in the grand scheme of things of what's going on in the American League, it's fun to be a part of it. It was back-to-back exciting nights here at the Rogers Centre."
Making baseball in Toronto fun again? Hey, we'll drink to that.
Here at FanHouse, we're all about politeness: holding doors for ladies, waiting our turn at the microwave, putting our pants on before the really important meetings... stuff like that. But when it comes to snagging a souvenir game ball, all bets are off. Clearly, the woman in this video (at the 40-second mark) was trying to teach her son to do the right thing, but I'm betting all she did was earn herself a ticket to the "bad" nursing home in about 20 years.
In a year of injuries, disappointments and the league's coolest beer vendor, second baseman Aaron Hill has been one of the few good things for the 2007 Blue Jays. And he's also close to hitting the team record books, supplanting Roberto Alomar in the categories of most home runs (17) and most doubles (41) by a Blue Jays second baseman.
"No, golly, that guy's got a lot on me," Hill said when asked about Alomar. "The biggest thing is the World Series (victories) obviously. I mean it's great, but like I said, he won. I think that's what people remember. He's done some fantastic things. I'll never compare him (to me). We'll see when my career's over, I guess we can compare each other. But I've got a lot to make up to catch up to him."
Never mind the fact that he's not afraid to drop a "golly" from time to time; Hill's attitude and consistency make him one of the guys we look forward to rooting for in 2008.
He may look like your high-school gym teacher, but journeyman Matt Stairs can still swing a freakin' bat. Since August 1, he's been on a 30-74 tear, the best of any American League player.
In fact, the Blue Jays have been so impressed with the 39 year old slugger's performance -- one of the few bright spots in their forgettable 2007 campaign -- they're trying to secure him for 2008.
"We want to get the ball rolling on talking about bringing him back," J.P. Ricciardi said. "Hopefully, we'll talk [again] later in the week. I think we've got the parameters to work within. Just like we did with Johnny Mac, I think there's a deal to be made there. Hopefully, we'll keep him here."
Although no offers have been made yet, there's always the chance that Stairs, a native of Canada, would take short money to stay in the Great White North. Unless, of course, the beer league comes calling.
Sure, we here at FanHouse love to laugh at the foibles of overpaid athletes as much as the next guy. But we also have a serious side -- one that was moved by a recent story concerning one of our favorite ballplayers, the Blue Jays' Sal "The Stache" Fasano.
Sal's wife, Kerri, is carrying their third son who was recently diagnosed with a rare heart ailment that restricts circulation. Doctors plan to induce Kerri later this month and then perform open heart surgery on the newborn, as Sal explained to the National Post.
"They have to retool the highway system of the heart to recycle through the heart and then back out to the lungs. That's the part that's scary, because at four days old, our baby's going to have open-heart surgery. And that's the part that's a little bit sad. How does a baby have to have open-heart surgery? But it happened, what are you going to do?"
"It isn't just a little thing, it's major," he said. "I don't know how else to explain it. It touches you in your heart. It makes you sad. It makes you just happy and thankful that the kids you do have are healthy."
Yeah, it's a lot for any expectant dad to carry, let alone a guy who has to be on the road with his team and continue to perform whenever called upon. Not to mention the fact that for Fasano, a journeyman who's respected throughout baseball as a stand-up guy but never made the big bucks, the ability to keep a career rolling and bringing in a paycheck is essential. But, obviously, family comes first.
"If I have to be away for an extended period of time while my son is going through these things, I don't know if want to do that," Fasano said. "I don't think making money or collecting service time is that important in relation to the life of a child. You can't put any type of number on what the time is worth or how much money you can make in this game."
Our best vibes and good wishes to Sal and his family.
This was supposed to be a killer year for Brandon League, who was assigned the plum role of set-up guy for B.J. Ryan in the Blue Jays' bullpen. But a shoulder injury kept him on the shelf for the better part of 2007, turning a promising season into a collosal disappointment.
Though he's not quite sure how he hurt his shoulder, he's certain of how he didn't hurt it: surfing. League, a native of Hawaii, spends his offseasons riding the waves, which helped fuel rumors connecting his hobby to his shoulder woes.
"I've been surfing since I was 7 years old and it never was a problem," said League, when asked if there was any validity to the reports. "It was something to put the blame on, I guess.
"If you just say that you have an extremely tight shoulder and that you're not throwing like you did the year before, it's not as believable as maybe saying it's because of the surfing. But that's in the past. I've gotten over that."
Regardless, League says he won't be hanging ten this winter. Rather than head home to Hawaii, he's going to stay in Florida near the Jays' spring training facility to work closely with the team's trainers and build himself back up for 2008.
Unruly fan behavior in Monday's season opener at Rogers Centre was the last straw. So that's it: no Labatt's, no Moosehead, no Molson, no Sleeman.
Have the 
If 
Despite some early season woes and a bout with appendicitis, 
Count me among those who figured the 
In a year of injuries, disappointments and the 
He may look like your high-school gym teacher, but journeyman 
Sure, we here at FanHouse love to laugh at the foibles of overpaid athletes as much as the next guy. But we also have a serious side -- one that was moved by a recent story concerning one of our favorite ballplayers, the 
This was supposed to be a killer year for 
