2013 Blue Jays - Where Even The Books Are Winners Only 1 Out Of 3 Times

As the Jays continue their extremely frustrating season, I thought I would take a break and provide some quick reviews of some Blue Jays related reading.  Sadly, these books have pretty much the same winning % as your 2013 Jays.  CAVEAT: Writing is hard.  I am not a writer.  Even the two lame books in this post are much better than what I could pen.

First up, "Wherever I Wind Up - My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball" by R.A. Dickey and Wayne Coffey.

 

When the trade for the reigning NL Cy Young award winner was made, it was acknowledged as a huge gamble by AA.  And sadly that gamble has yet to pay off.  At the time, I truly believed Dickey had a chance to be a true hero to the city of Toronto.

http://jeffsoutoftheblue.blogspot.ca/2013/02/and-correct-answer-is.html

That being said, his mediocre year does not diminish the story of Dickey the Human Being.  I was sceptical I would enjoy this book as I am not a religious man and Dickey is a born-again Christian.  But it is not at all preachy. Instead it is a very authentic and honest self-examination.  It is sometimes painful and oftentimes extremely uplifting. Wherever I Wind Up is a fantastic read written by a man with an extraordinary story to tell.  There is a lot of truth in his words and I found them very moving and inspiring......which absolutely never happens to me.  Dickey the Best!  Now if only his season had gone as well as this book.....

Unfortunately, my other two recent Jays related reads were just dreadful.

"100 Things Blue Jays Should Know and Do Before They Die" by Steve Clark feels like it was hurriedly tossed together.  It is essentially no more than a bathroom reader...and a very poor bathroom reader at that.  Out of the 100 "things" I probably already knew 98 of them.  Now admittedly I'm a bit of die-hard, but I am sure with a little more research, Clark could have found a few more nuggets of interest.  He also has a tremendous hate-on for everything JP Ricciardi ever touched....which is a bit revisionist and unfair.  JP did acquire Bautista, he did actually make some good moves.  Ultimately his reign was unsuccessful, but it was not the clusterf&ck the author would have the reader believe.

Lastly, we have "Full Count: Four Decade of Blue Jays Baseball" by Jeff Blair. 

This was definitely the book I was most looking forward to reading, but it was also my biggest disappointment.   I was an ardent fan of Blair's columns in the Globe & Mail up until about five years ago.  However either his writing has declined (unlikely) or my standard for baseball journalism has risen (yup).  I can't say I have enjoyed too much of his work over the last few years.  He is certainly no Stephen Brunt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Brunt

That said, I still had very high hopes for the definitive Blue Jays book from someone who knows the team so intimately.  Sadly, the story is only half-told, and the chapters are unfocused. It definitely has some interesting pieces (e.g. Delgado's forced departure) but far too often, Blair will bring up a story or subject and not fully explore it.  He seems to mumble and stumble his way through parts of the book, much like his on-air work at the FAN590. I don't want to be so critical, but it just was a big old disappointment after I had such high hopes.....kinda like this whole freaking year.

Double-sigh #EndofJays