Kudos to the Syracuse Chiefs, a team that appreciates genius when it is clearly in their presence. On Monday night the Chiefs held a unique promotion, entitled “A Sal-ute to Moustaches!” in honor of their one-of-a-kind catcher, Mr. Sal Fasano. And here’s a photo of the winner of the “Syracuse’s Best Moustache” Contest, Mr. Robert LaPan.
No, that’s not the total percentage of votes Sal had in the All-Star voting (although, I’m sure it was close, then again, I’ll never know because MLB refuses to release the final results, why you ask?, they won’t say, almost as pathetic as Bud Selig’s dancing around the Bonds issue, “I haven’t made up my mind…”, hmnn, well, maybe you should Mr. Magoo, maybe you should), that is the percentage of runners that the Jays have thrown out without Sal this season. As Jordan Bastian notes at MLB.com:
Through 90 games, the Blue Jays have yielded an American League-high 84 stolen bases, and the club’s catchers owned an 11 percent caught-stealing average, which is the lowest in the big leagues. The Major League average for caught-stealing percentage is 26.
If veteran Sal Fasano, who threw out runners roughly 21 percent of the time earlier this year for the Jays, is taken out of the mix, catchers Gregg Zaun and Jason Phillips have combined for just a nine percent caught-stealing percentage.
“That’s how teams try to exploit us,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “That’s all I have to say.”
Anyways, so yeah. They played the big game last night, and I suppose the AL won without Sal Fasano. It also appears that the AL catchers performed quite well. Ivan Rodriguez went 1 for 2. Jorge Posada went 1 for 3 with a double. And Victor Martinez hit a two-run, pinch hit home run. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find a much different story. For example, I-Rod produced an out and gave up a stolen base to Jose Reyes. Posada produced two outs, had a passed ball and gave up a stolen base to Derrek Lee!! V-Mart didn’t offer anything as far as defense. Nothing! So, to recap, Sal Fasano…not at the 2007 All-Star Game…the results, seemingly good, but in reality, bad.
Well, folks, this is it! Midnight tonight is the deadline to VOTE 4 SAL.
We’re a little behind. As of this week, here are the posted standings:
1. Rodriguez, I. Tigers 1,362,506
2. Posada, J. Yankees 1,111,926
3. Mauer, J. Twins 951,664
4. Varitek, J. Red Sox 939,626
5. Martinez, V. Indians 566,668
They won’t tell us how many votes Sal has, but we’ll assume it’s around 565,001. That means we need about 800,000 votes today.
Child’s play.
Let’s do this. Go. Go now! Vote, vote, vote!
(by the way, the picture above was painted by another dude with a cool mustache).
Sal is Back! Well, in Syracuse, but close enough. It’s only a matter of time. Last time he was in the Salt City he had 5 round trippers in 12 games. Not too shabby.
Anyways, Sal’s Pals Canada is getting very excited to see all the wet, sloppy egg dripping off MLB’s face when Sal gets elected to the 2007 All-Star Game.
Sal Fasano has been designated for assignment. This would be viewed as a setback by most people, but not Sal’s Pals Canada. Nothing has changed. Sal is still a write-in candidate for the AL (unless he gets picked up by an NL team) and his thousands of “pals” intend to keep voting for him. Let’s hope he spends a little time in Syracuse and then gets called up once more (so we can enjoy more than 16 games of pure bliss).
In other unfortunate news, MLB pulled our YouTube clip from Sal’s first game as a Blue Jay. Sal’s Pals Canada was not amused.
Thanks to Jeff Blair for mentioning Sal’s Pals in his “Tao of Sal” blog
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070531.
WBbaseball20070531224555/WBStory/WBbaseball). Thanks to people
like Jeff and Jordan Bastian, the votes are ROLLING in for Sal!
And did you all notice the TWO runners thrown out by Sal in last night’s game? Didja? Didja?
They were Ka-POW! Shot down.
Thanks to Jordan Bastian at MLB.com for mentioning Sal’s Pals Canada in his latest column
at: mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070601&content_id=1999048&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
Regarding the “Here Comes Greg Zaun, Who Will be Sent Down to Syracuse?” Controversy, Bastian notes:
In 38 games this season, Phillips has hit .237 with one home run and 10 RBIs. Fasano, who already has garnered a local following with the Sal’s Pals Canada fan club, has posted a .121 batting average with one homer in 33 at-bats. Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi also wouldn’t speculate about who might be sent down upon Zaun’s return.
