We’ve been going to Jays’ game pretty well since the inception of the club back when floods were in and if you didn’t own a pet rock, you were a nobody.

Throughout the years, the team’s audience has had a reputation as being pretty laid back. Toronto has never really been a big-time baseball town (notwithstanding the bandwagon jumping of the World Series title years) and we’re Canadian, subsequently we’re polite as all hell.

Or so we thought.

Last August, a friend of ours from our roto league invited a group of us down to see the Jays-Orioles game. He had fantastic tickets right behind the Orioles’ dugout and it was sure to be interesting as Rafael Palmeiro had just returned from his suspension for testing positive for steroids.

You had to know the fans were going to give it to him. But what we never saw coming was the sheer vehemence in which the Toronto crowd laid into him. We admit, our group were key instigators in the torrent of insults, haranguing and… well… needling of Palmeiro. It was incessent and rather vicious at times.

After his first at-bat, we noticed Palmeiro wearing ear plugs. Many others in the crowd did as well, and this just sent everyone over the edge. We’ve never been at a sporting event where the actual game seemed so secondary to the negative attention being heaped on one individual player. It was shocking, especially from a crowd always considered so tame.

The treatment Palmeiro got was noted by major sports media outlets everywhere. In fact, Palmeiro skipped the rest of the series, ostensibly to rest his ailing ankle. Less than a week later, the Orioles sent him home as he was proving a distraction to the team. In fact, Palmeiro has not played a game since.

Did we play a small part in booing him right out of baseball? Certainly the venomous crowd was a factor.

Flash forward to today.

The Orioles are in town again, playing a weekday afternoon contest at the Rogers Centre. Despite the awkward start time and the fact that both of these teams are probably playing out the string at this point, over 34,000 showed up. (Well, at least that’s how many paid to see the game… those figures always seem inflated compared to actual butts in the seats.)

Today, it was Miguel Tejada’s turn to face the unruly Toronto crowd. He was having a pretty crappy day all around — 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. On Tejada’s first whiff, he yelled and slammed his bat on the plate. Later, he struck out on a ball in the dirt and was promptly thrown out at first. The Jays’ fans started giving him the gears on his way back to the dugout and Tejada responded by flipping the bird at a fan of the other Birds. It wouldn’t shock us if a fine were in the offing over that one.

And no, we were not in attendance today, so don’t point or do otherwise with any fingers at me.

But these two episodes have made us rethink the temperament of Toronto baseball fans. Perhaps the city is about to enter a golden age of unruliness. Who knows? Maybe the Rogers Centre security will soon have more to concern themselves with than whether the bottle of water you’re bringing into the stadium is larger than 600 ml.

So we’ll need to see more to believe he’s out of his slump. Apparently, the problems have resulted because he’s been tipping his pitches. We wouldn’t want to risk it against a hungry Yankee squad and showing-no-signs-of-cracking Detroit team this week. That’s a tall order for Buehrle even if he were on his game, which he clearly hasn’t been in the last month (0-5, 11.48 in July). more

Lidle has been a worse pitcher in the second half in recent years, and you’ve got to figure the move to the AL hurts him as well, so don’t expect too much. For what it’s worth, he has won both starts he’s made at Yankee Stadium in the past three years, but was mediocre in doing so. Overall, Lidle is a perfectly average pitcher and the Yankee offense can help mask that with runs, but that doesn’t mean his ERA is something you want on your team. more

Could it be stuff that would allow a Little Leaguer to light him up (86 hits allowed in 54 1/3 IP, .355 BAA)? How about the gopheritis (16 homers surrendered)? Or maybe the 15 walks against just 29 Ks? Anyway you slice it, Towers’ ERA — appropriately 9.11 — could only mean one thing: call for help! Since being sent down to Triple-A at the end of June, Towers has been much better, recording a solid 3.69 ERA with tremendous command (35 K/four BB). However, he’s still way too hittable (.294 BAA). This is the fine line Towers walks. If he’s off just a hair with his control, as he was in the majors this year, big league hitters will punish him. He is simply unable to compensate for any lack of command. At any rate, he’s proving in Triple-A that he may still factor into the Jays’ plans at some point this season. Just pray that if he returns, that of the two Towers, the one with great command shows up, or else it will be another disaster. more

Despite being just a 16th round pick out of high school in 2003, Laffey has moved through the Cleveland system fairly quickly. He began the season at High-A Kinston, going 4-1 through 10 games (four starts), with one save. Laffey did not allow a single home run and walked just six through 41 1/3 IP, a nice combination. Promoted to Double-A Akron, Laffey has been used exclusively as a starter with the Aeros, going 3-2, 4.04, through nine starts and 55 2/3 IP, with 14 walks against 30 strikeouts. His adjustment to Double-A has been fairly smooth until a start last weekend when Laffey was shellacked for eight runs (seven earned) and a dozen hits in just 5 1/3 IP. more