Spring Training Invites and a Bit More

January 30, 2023

I’m just taking a break from a day of writing/editing/interviewing, and thought I would jot down some thoughts from my always-firing synapses. I should have my interview with Dunedin Blue Jays PR Director Andrew Thriffiley up by tomorrow, and earlier today I Zoomed with Vancouver Canadians Broadcasting and Media Relations Manager Tyler Zickel. Both had some fabulous insights into the 2022 season for their respective clubs, and if I didn’t ask so many questions, perhaps the interviews would have been shorter, and you might be reading the transcripts of those instead.

But I know you gentle, baseball-starved readers prefer the long-form versions of these conversations, so please bear with me.

You know it’s getting close to spring training when information like this crosses your Twitter path:

Certainly, you want a big number of guys - especially pitchers and catchers - in the first few weeks of spring training, but this tells us who among the players currently not on the 40-man is considered a strong enough candidate for inclusion one day to get the invitation. Tiedemann is a no-brainer, and maybe Juenger (who didn’t have to be put on the 40 last fall even though he’s close to big league-ready) and Hernandez (who was left off the 40), but beyond that, the organization obviously thinks a lot about these players:

  • Rees - the MiLB Closer of the Year in 2019 has fallen on hard times, and has pitched in all of 18 innings since then, but finished on a strong note with Buffalo (4 scoreless outings over his 5 September appearances), and if you’re looking for a really darkhorse candidate, if Rees is healthy, he could be your man.

  • Robberse - I really didn’t think he would repeat High A this season, but given his young age and relative inexperience, the organization thought some more time in Vancouver would be the best development path for him this year. He struggled a bit against the higher competition at AA after his promotion, but Sem ended the year on a really strong note, fanning 9 over 6 innings of 3-hit, 1-unearned run ball in his final start of the season. If Robberse can add a bit of velo, he is as solid a potential mid-rotation arm as anyone in the organization.

  • Britton put on an absolute laser show in the Arizona Fall League, and seems destined for a career as a big league 4th OF/Corner OF guy.

  • Robbins came back from Tommy John surgery and was one of the best comeback stories in the system last year, pitching at three levels. He’s a genuinely good guy as well, and I often find myself pulling for players of his kind.

  • Sosa -C’s play-by-play guy Zick called Sosa one of Vancouver’s most valuable players last year. He’s certainly going to spring training as catching depth, but maybe also as a reward for the 2022 season he had.

It’s hard to put into words just how valuable an experience going to spring training is for a young player. Their eyes are opened to many things, most critically how MLB players go about getting ready for the season. I asked former Blue Jays OF Anthony Alford who impressed him the most in his first spring training with the club several years ago, and he said, “without question, Donaldson and Bautista - just the professionalism and the way they prepared themselves.”

I asked both Andrew and Tyler how the pace-of-play rules impacted their clubs’ seasons last year, and while I’ll keep most of what they said for those upcoming posts, Andrew had an interesting observation about the “robo umps,” the ABS system that has been in place in the Florida State League since last year (the challenge component came into play in 2022). There were definitely some bugs last year as they perfected the system, but the whole thing - even with challenges - seemed to work almost seamlessly this year, at least to a set of eyes who was able to watch a handful of games online. Andrew agreed, and added that the ABS system has been helpful to both umpires and players. “Maybe an umpire is thinking, ‘hey, what I thought was a ball maybe wasn’t.” He also pointed out that at that level, the players are still learning the strike zone (and maybe so are the umpires, for that matter), and that the ABS was very helpful to them in that regard.

Blue Jays Si.com reporter Mitch Bannon had an interesting profile on Tucker Toman, the Blue Jays 2nd round pick who you likely will be hearing so much more about this season. Certainly, the Blue Jays pursuit of Toman was integral to his signing (and foregoing a commitment to LSU), as was the family’s relationship with VP Tony LaCava, but what really seemed to help seal the deal was the new state-of-the-art minor league complex. For players highly attuned to any and all training and technological developments that would help give them an edge, the Complex certainly has to be a draw. This was all part of Mark Shapiro’s grand plan for the organization when he was hired - we talked at length about it in 2018, as his dream was on the verge of becoming reality. It has already produced results in players like Tiedemann and Addison Barger, and while the competition will surely catch up, the Blue Jays have a leg up on many teams at the moment.

Some final thoughts, wandering away from the baseball realm for a moment, about the passing of Bobby Hull.

It’s hard to compare players from the current generation to those from decades ago, but it you want to know about a player from the 60s who would be a dominant star in today’s game, Hull might be just a notch below Bobby Orr on that list. He could skate like the wind, and his shot with a composite stick today would be a lightning bolt - he would be a perfect fit in today’s game: Ovechkin’s (there’s another complicated story) shot and McDavid’s wheels. When he jumped to the fledging World Hockey Association for a then absolutely-unheard of million dollar salary, the floodgates opened for all hockey players to get paid after decades of salary suppression. Friendly and engaging with fans, his teammates joked that they worked on “Hull Standard Time” as they waited on the bus after games while he signed endless autographs for admirers.

But in his post-playing career, Bobby showed that he was only human in some ways, and perhaps far less so in others.

Hockey Night in Canada hoped to cash in on his candour and star power as a colour commentator (remember when we called them that, and not “analysts”?), but he was sorely lacking in that role. Listening to him struggle to articulate his thoughts while a game was in progress reminded me of the story of Yogi Berra trying to explain hitting behind the batting cage at Yankee Stadium one day. Flummoxed and unable to find the right words, Berra grabbed a bat, went into the cage, and said, “ahhhh, just watch me do it, ok?”. Hull was severely out of his element in the broadcast booth, and there were no consultants in those days to apply heavy-grit sandpaper to his barn board-rough edges.

Incidents of domestic abuse (none of his three wives ultimately filed charges; a cop who was assaulted in one case did) were reported throughout his post-playing career. It’s likely that several took place during his active days as well. In 1998, the Moscow Times reported that while Hull was a guest at the Iztevia hockey tournament, he said some truly horrific and repulsive things in an interview like, “Hitler had some good ideas, but…” The Toronto Sun, a publication that isn’t too many rungs ahead of the Times on the journalistic integrity ladder, picked up on the story as well. Hull vehemently denied the allegations, and threatened lawsuits which were later settled out of court.

Do I think Hull was guilty of those and other incredibly offensive comments? Certainly, he was one of those stream-of-consciousness talkers. During his brief stint with HNIC, I recall him being interviewed about cattle prices (raised on a farm then just outside of Belleville, ON, Bobby actually was a success in that line of work), and talking of them going up and down, “like a toilet seat at a mixed party.” Ugh, Golden Jet.

Like most players of his era, Bobby’s education formally ended at 16; in truth, it probably informally ended long before that. While perhaps the school of hard knocks helps you learn to deal with life’s ups-and-downs, it certainly does little to broaden your view of the world. When everything in your life hinges on your athletic ability, well, you don’t tend to be equipped to deal with things once your playing days are over. Your athletic celebrity only takes you so far. Bobby was one of those Uncles that you learned not to discuss politics with. The famous left-winger’s view were on the right wing side, bordering on repugnant.

Still, no….I’m not positive he said those things. One account I read suggested that it wasn’t really an interview - a “reporter” for the Times apparently overheard a translation of a conversation Bobby was having about, of all things, the cattle industry. The Times stood by its story, but…. c’mon. We’re not talking about the Washington Post here. Hull did meet with the leaders of the Canadian Jewish Congress and claimed that he was “set up”; the CJC stated that they appreciated Hull “clarifying” his remarks, but were reserving comment until the outcome of the court case, which, of course didn’t happen.

Given the allegations of domestic violence, the Chicago Blackhawks certainly should not have made Hull an ambassador for the team, a relationship which they terminated last year.

There has been no shortage of observations on social media about Hull; I won’t bother posting them here. He was both a simple and a complex man at the same time, one who was comfortable within the confines of the game, but terribly uncomfortable (whether he realized it or not) outside of it. We don’t need to whitewash his legacy of violence by lionizing his accomplishments on the ice, nor do we need to focus solely on those ugly incidents, either. Athletes should be role models, but that is a very difficult ask for some individuals - society has done little to prepare them for that responsibility.

I saw Bobby play toward the end of his career, and I’m a bit saddened; it's a reminder of my own mortality as well. I’m also sad for his former wives and his children, all of whom were victims of his abuse. I hope that they have found peace, or that perhaps his passing gives them that which they have yet to find. Even though I never met the man, I think my feelings toward Bobby could be best described as complicated. I’m sure it’s doubly so for his family, and I wish them all a time of healing, and maybe for the rest of us - some reflection.

 

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