Halladay's Return

I just got back from Toronto today. I went to see Roy Halladay's return yesterday and it was a pretty entertaining game. First of all, it was awesome to see so many fans at the game. Apparently the attendance was about 44,000. There was a contingent of Phillies fans at the game as well. You could tell just by listening to their accents that they were American. We were in the 119 section at Rogers Centre, so the seats were pretty good. Right below us were a couple kids who made the trip from Winnipeg and they were fascinated with the Americans sitting behind them, comparing the cost of cases of beer. I kept on wanting to scream at them "yes, beer is cheaper in America, this is not a novelty!". Anyways back to the game...

I realized that I've taken watching a game in person for granted. You really notice the defensive shifts when you're at the ballpark. The TV coverage usually only shows the pitcher and the batter and only quickly reveals the shifts, unless it's something exaggerated. My point is that it'd be neat to see more overhead shots of the infield defense.

So far I've seen Jose Bautista in person twice and he's homered in each game (granted one of those games was versus Baltimore). But it was pretty amazing to see him launch one off Roy Halladay. Speaking of Halladay, I think he got something like 8 standing ovations yesterday...

I didn't see any replays, but I thought that the Phillies player beat Rauch's tag in the ninth. He went crazy arguing with the ump, it was pretty fun to watch the Jays players trying to hold him back.(I just did a bit of research and Jon Rauch was arguing some of the umps calls on Ryan Howard) I thought John Farrell's argument afterward was pretty calculated too, buying his reliever some time to warmup and it was also an attempt to light a spark under the Jays bats for the bottom of the 9th. Unfortunately it was too little too late.

Even though the Jays lost, it was an extremely entertaining game to watch. Obviously the crowds this weekend were not typical, but I can't wait to see the day when the Rogers Centre is packed with these energetic fans on a regular basis.

As I write this, word out of the Jays postgame show is that Juan Rivera's been designated for assignment, which means that Travis Snider is being brought back up from Las Vegas. I'm glad he's back, but will this push Thames out of the lineup again? Hopefully John Farrell will do the smart thing and take Patterson out of the lineup instead.