Running for Home

Things I didn’t see at the Rogers Centre in Toronto Friday night:

• A Jerry Hairston Jr. at-bat
• An Edwin Encarnacion at-bat
• Anyone wearing an Edwin Encarnacion jersey
• A multi-hit game by the Yankees (Roy Halladay pitched a complete game, one-hitter)

The Rogers Centre is one of the better retractable-roof, cavernous stadiums I’ve been to. As big as it is (it’s enormous), it still doesn’t feel as overly-big as Riverfront Stadium did during a baseball game.

I realize the Blue Jays are 26+ games out of first place, but you could’ve heard a pin drop during the game (until the later innings when Halladay had a no-hitter going).  Not everyone is fortunate enough to attract massive, late-season crowds like the Reds, I suppose.

I had zero exposure to the Reds while I was gone.  One night I had three (yes, three) channels showing separate synchronized swimming events, but not one channel with a baseball score.

Literally, the only four seconds of Reds highlights I saw over the weekend was the footage of Micah Owings getting clocked in the head.  Only, I couldn’t tell it was Micah Owings from where I was ignoring my wife during dinner accidentally caught a glimpse of the TV.

For a moment I thought it was Scott Rolen getting hit again, and I thought, “Great! There goes our veteran leadership for this season!”

The Reds are still looking relatively good (whatever that’s worth).  At this point I’m just wondering if they can find a way to finish the season above .500, but I don’t see it happening.