Weekend Wrap: ALDS Winners Edition!

OK, so the preamble above ostensibly describes what we do here each week in the Weekend Wrap, but… uh… numbers? Performances? Who needs it! This weekend was all about the fun. To wit:

Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Jonah Keri writes for CBS Sports about how the Jays took care of business against the Rangers.

Rob Arthur of FiveThirtyEight tries to quantify a single game’s excitement factor based on swings in win probability, and finds that the Jays and Rangers played the most exciting game of the post-season on Sunday, which… is damn hard to argue.

I took the mic in the wake of the Jays’ big win on Sunday, and Cleveland’s elimination of Boston on Monday night, and we’ve got the result here in Birds All Day episode 86 — a mini episode I like to call ALDS and So Much More!

Hey, and also since we’re here, you can help keep this podcast going while helping to keep us honest; support us with a small, recurring monthly contribution through Patreon at patreon.com/birdsallday.

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Mintmusical interludes courtesy Optical Sounds, my dumb old band, and Your 33 Black Angels.

A reader emailed this to me and simply said it was from imgur. I’d go find the source to credit it, but I don’t know if I could see the screen through my tears. RIP Harambe Memes.

Marco forever:

Obviously this is tremendous:

They owed us at least this much for Harold Reynolds last year…

It’s the damn ALCS and a Canadian invasion of Cleveland. Let’s do this!

Of course, with the Cleveland Baseball Franchise being involved, we also have horrible idiots in red face to look forward to, as well as a bunch of shots of the club’s “Chief Wahoo” mascot, and everything that comes with that. What we won’t have, however, is the team name being said by Jerry Howarth on the Jays’ radio broadcast — something he hasn’t done for more than two decades.

Peter Edwards of the Toronto Star writes that Howarth says he was touched by a letter he received one off-season from a First Nations listener from Northern Ontario, which outlined how he felt the names of the Cleveland and Atlanta franchises, as well as other common baseball idioms are deeply offensive, so the longtime broadcaster decided not to use them. In recent years I haven’t been a giant fan of what seemed like Jerry’s attempts to run players like Jose Bautista, R.A. Dickey, and Jose Reyes out of town, and I certainly bristled at his “streetball” comments with respect to the latter, but I’ve got to tip my cap to him on this one.

Jamie Campbell tweets that he will follow suit — or that he’ll attempt to avoid using the name, at least. I can attest that it’s not always easy. I’ve avoided the using name for years, but I did let one slip in today’s Birds All Day mini episode. Still I’m sure that actual professional broadcasters like Jamie and Jerry will have a much easier time keeping it together. And good for them both for trying.

Enter HERE!