Rios Bobblehead/Photo Day Review

Once again it was another Bobblehead Day that inspired a particular player to step up and deliver. Alex Rios was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s in the Blue Jays 8-2 romping of the Chicago White Sox. Things got a little rough early; the crowd started to turn on Roy Halladay after giving up 4 straight hits to start the game as the White Sox posted an early 2-0.

After that, Halladay was on cruise control to finish 7 innings along with 8 strikeouts. It didn’t take long for the Blue Jays offense to catch up – Rios hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 1st, and Adam Lind blew the game wide open with a 3-run homerun in the bottom of the 4th. After that, it was all Blue Jays. Aaron Hill swatted his 11th homerun of the season, to well-deserved chants of “MVP, MVP, MVP!”

Aside from the 1st inning, the only other scary parts of the game were watching Marco Scutaro writhing in pain after he stole third base, and Brandon League’s outing in the top of the 9th. With a 6-run lead, League entered the game only to walk the first two batters. Immediately, I started to think the worst, but he managed to buckle down and secure Roy Halladay’s 8th win of the season.

On the Photo Day front, I found it very odd that the Blue Jays decided to coincide Alex Rios Bobblehead day with Fan Photo Day. I remembered hearing something in passing about it during Saturday’s game, and if it wasn’t for LJ at the Te of Inglett, I would’ve known nothing about it.

So like the thousands of other fans, I decided to line up outside of Gate 15 yesterday and attempt to get my picture with my favourite Blue Jay players. After standing outside for about 30 minutes, we were ushered inside and marched down the ramps to the outfield. At first it was very surreal being on the field, because this is where many talented players have spent large portions of their careers.

It was kind of a weird setup; they had 3 platforms set up with four players each where you could take pictures of the Blue Jays. How weird it must have been for the players to just sit there on a chair for 30 minutes as people take pictures of them. It seemed like more of a zoo exhibit than anything. Along with the platform, there were 3 tents where you could line up and actually come up and have your picture taken with players. I didn’t get there soon enough, but I could vaguely see Robert Ray and Brett Cecil.

Here are a couple of pictures I managed to snap during the 9 minutes I was actually on the field.

This picture above is my favourite; B.J. Ryan and Brian Tallet appear to be looking right at the camera and it just so happens it actually turned out. I was going to scream “Brian, whose moustache is better – yours or Tom Selleck’s?” But as usual, I chicken out and freeze up when I get closer than 30 feet to any Toronto Blue Jay.