6ix Baggers — №77: The Great Buck Martinez
The Blue Jays beat the Yankees 3-1 in the Division Series and my cardiologist just left me a very concerned voicemail about my sodium levels.
Dear Drink Carters and part-time playoff curious baseball fans
Before the first pitch was thrown, before the series even started, Buck Martinez—Jays broadcaster, former catcher, man who has forgotten more about baseball than most of us will ever know, said something that made Yankees fans lose their minds.
“You know, the Yankees, they’re not a good team,” said Martinez. “I don’t care what their record is. They have a lot of wild pitches, they make a lot of mistakes in the field, they don’t run the bases very well. If they don’t hit home runs, they don’t have a chance to win.”
Yankees fans erupted. Manager Aaron Boone bristled. How dare he? The audacity. The disrespect. Twenty-seven World Series titles, and this guy’s calling them “not a good team”?
But he was right about everything. Right down to Jazz Chisholm bobbling a ball leading to runs. They left runners stranded. They couldn’t solve a bullpen game featuring eight pitchers and organized chaos. And when the dust settled, they were going home. The Blue Jays? Moving on to the ALCS.
Everything you need to know about Buck Martinez can be found in this play in 1985 where he comepleted a double play with a broken leg. Completely iconic.
And now we just have to wait until Friday to see who the Jays play in the ALCS. As ESPN pointed out, “If the American League wins the World Series this year, a long drought will end. Last World Series Title: Blue Jays: 1993 Tigers: 1984 Mariners: Never.”
October. Where legends are made and the Great Buck Martinez is always, always right.
Game 3: Yankees 9-6
There’s a bar in Toronto called Round The Horn. Tucked away in Roncey, the kind of place that feels like it stopped updating things somewhere around 2003 and decided that was fine. The people are lovely. The beers are cold. The hot dogs are excellent.
It’s got small screens, not the best. maybe three large screens total, none of them bigger than what your parents had in the basement. It’s tiny. A cramped watering hole full of people who showed up because this is where you go when the Blue Jays are in the playoffs.
The vibes were incredible. Vladdy was doing things like sliding into home so far from the plate that you can imagine the scene in the Louvre.
It’s Game 3. Blue Jays up 6-1. The room’s buzzing. Toronto was 39-0 this season when leading by five or more runs. You don’t blow that lead. You can’t blow that lead.
You start to make defensive errors. You’re bullpen doesn’t get it done. And then Aaron Judge stepped to the plate in the fourth inning.
The pitch: 99.7 mph, 1.2 feet inside—so far inside it should’ve been in the opposite batter’s box. The first time in the pitch-tracking era anyone had homered off a 99-plus mph pitch that far inside. God damned Aaron Judge turned on it anyway. Clanged it high off the left-field foul pole. Three-run homer. The bar went silent.
The Yankees would score eight unanswered. Win 9-6. The Blue Jays’ perfect record when leading by five? Gone. And in a small bar with small TVs and nowhere to hide, everyone watched it happen together.
October baseball breaks your heart in the most spectacular ways possible. But at least you’re not alone.
I think we can all agree that this might have shifted the momentum to New York for Game 3. It didn’t help seeing things like this video from the Mayor. It didn’t derail the whole series, but my god, politicians need to stay out of sports unless they throw out the first pitch or bet their counterpart with a case of local beer. This should be in the constitution.
Game: 4: Jays 5-2. Jays Win Series 3-1.
It was a full on bullpen game. Just as god intended. And we even got the David Ortiz and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. did the ‘Daaa Yankees Lose’ in Fox after the game. That’s a different kind of locked in. Vladdy went 9-17 with 3 home runs and 9 RBI in the series with a 1.609 OPS.
An absolute clinic. The kind of performance that gets you mentioned in the same breath as October legends.
But I may suggest that the face of the franchise, the one that strikes fear into opposing team members is players like Ernie Clement and Nathan Lukes. They are that Scrappy personified mindset. This is the stat that is absolutely bonkers is for “RBI in the ALDS: 10 — Lukes & Clement combined 10 — Judge & Stanton combined.”
Read that again. Two Blue Jays role players matched the production of two Yankees superstars. That’s not just a stat. That’s a statement.
But there was nothing but stats. As Johnny Guinta from Gate 14 noted, “Nathan Lukes and Ernie Clement might never pay for a beer again in this city.”
That’s likely a thing. No, it is absolutely a thing.
And now we have to wait three days until Game 1. Don’t worry: ”The Blue Jays have the series advantage against both teams in the regular season, going 4-2 against Seattle and 4-3 against Detroit. Toronto outscored the Mariners 31-24 and the Tigers 35-26.”
Time for some ceremonial Frank Sinatra.
The ugliest hat in Post Season history.
The hats they handed out after the clinch of the ALDS are insane. What I don’t understand is that people seem to actually like these. They are sold out on the US site. I don’t get it.
It looks like someone who had to design these thought, “You know what this needs? A gold laurel wreath.”
The design is giving Ancient Rome Gladiator. The gold braiding on the brim is shocking. Making it look like a Soviet general’s dress uniform turned into a ball cap. It makes no sense.
Walkoffs
A few more quick fastballs for you to enjoy until our next edition.
The Bullpen Game (A Sports Night Recap)
There’s now better way to showing what October sounds like than turning it back over to Dan and Casey to talk bullpen days and just letting it breathe.
DAN: Eight pitchers.
CASEY: I’m sorry?
DAN: The Blue Jays used eight pitchers tonight.
CASEY: Eight.
DAN: Yep. Varland started. Gave them a solid one and a third.
CASEY: That’s not a start, that’s a cameo.
DAN: Then Fluharty. Then Domínguez got the win.
DAN: In an elimination game.
CASEY: Against the Yankees.
DAN: Then Lauer, Rodríguez, Little, Fisher and Hoffman closed it. It was a clown car.
CASEY: Eight pitchers to get twenty-seven outs from the New York Yankees.
DAN: The Blue Jays didn’t even pretend to have a starter.
CASEY: They said “here’s Varland, he’ll give you four outs, good luck figuring out the rest.
DAN: At Yankee Stadium.
CASEY: With the season on the line.
DAN: Couldn’t crack the code.
CASEY: There was no code! It was eight random pitchers!
DAN: Apparently that was the code.
CASEY: The majesty of a bullpen day.
DAN: A bullpen day.
CASEY: Beautiful, isn’t it?
DAN: October?
CASEY: October.
DAN: October.
Life Goals
I love that Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes has a full on industrial hot dog set up at his place. That’s baseball pitcher money.
Ontario Hydro x Blue Jays (1986)
I don’t even understand these ‘85 and ‘86 Ontario Hydro x Jays ads. They are wild.
I guess Left Field Brewery called it on Sunday
See you tomorrow with The Drink Cart’s Friday Shot and yes, more bonus baseball content (exclusively on Substack) coming in the ALCS (sorry, not sorry).