The last game of the season is a signal to put on my snow tires. My car has ‘performance tires’, which don’t work at all on ice or snow. I’m sure they would be great on a race track, but I don’t often drive on race tracks.
It starts at 3:00 Eastern.
Over in the Sun, Rob Longley talked to Kevin Gausman, who says, “I’m sick of the ‘talent’ talk”. I think we all agree. Gausman is all over the place in this, but the irritation is obvious.
“I think maybe we were just kind of expecting us to run it back (to the form of 2023),” Gausman said. “In this game you’ve always got to get better and I’m part of that as well. I had to make adjustments this season that last year I never had to. As you grow and learn in this game you always have to be getting better or this game is just going to run you over and leave you in the dust.”
And this:
“It definitely started in the winter, about a month before I went to spring training and that’s the tough thing,” Gausman said. “You want to keep your progression going. You don’t want to shut down because then you have to start back up. It was really that last month, when the intensity started getting a little bit higher, throwing extended bullpens, and I just wasn’t bouncing back the way I am when I’m healthy. At that point, I knew that something was going on and I was just trying to pitch through it.”
As terrible as this season has been. September has been by far the worst.
The arse really came out of ‘er in September for the Blue Jays. pic.twitter.com/1xKp5X2Om9
— Tao of Stieb (@TaoofStieb) September 29, 2024
Twenty years ago, the Expos played their last game ever, and I didn’t follow baseball (well, at least as intensely) for a few years.
Today’s lineup, complete with Vlad in the leadoff spot:
Talking about season’s end made me think of this song. When I first heard it I thought ‘that’s far to simple from a master song writer like Prine’ and then I couldn’t get it out of my head. So he knew better.