The Eck

Nothing went right for the Jays the past 2 games. Tallet's great start was wasted, Cecil showed why he's not quite ready for the big leagues, and the bats disappeared unless it was to hit a useless popup. Worst of all, however, was that they were aired on TSN 2 via simulcast from NESN, which meant we had to listen to Dennis Eckersley, herein the Eck. The Eck, in case you don't remember him, was a dominant closer in the 90s. He was the Mariano Rivera of his generation. Money. The penultimate shut down guy. He was one of the foremost Blue Jay killers, except for one game when it mattered most. It was game 4 of the 1992 ALCS and Oakland, who had defeated Toronto in the ALCS 3 years earlier, was poised to tie the series.

The past two nights the Eck has mostly talked about cheese and how much he hated the Blue Jays. I'm guessing he's still bitter. In the 9th inning the fans in Oakland were going crazy and cocksure that Eck would shut the Jays down. They had a right to be confident. After all the Eck had a record 51 saves that year. They didn't take into consideration though the determination of the Blue Jays. At the end of the 8th the Eck had attempted to taunt and intimidate the Jays dugout by pointing at them. Big mistake. It only served to motivate them. In the 9th Roberto Alomar took his revenge by slamming Eck's offering over the wall to tie the game. When Alomar homered his two arms raised in the air were a direct taunt back at Eckersley. The Jays would go on to win that game and then the ALCS 2 games later. It was probably the biggest home run in Jays history to that point. This was the fourth time they had got to the ALCS (1985, 1989, 1991) but they had lost the previous three. Alomar's homer helped the Jays believe that they could win and exorcised the demons of the previous disappointments. If the Eck had not surrendered the homer the series would have been tied and the Jays perhaps would not have advanced to the World Series.

Last night, when Ortiz homered off Cecil, one of 5 Cecil surrendered, the Eck became absolutely giddy as if it was a huge historical home run. Sorry Eck that wasn't a big home run. Robbie's on the other hand was and you gave it up. I just want the Jays to win now to shut the Eck up and make him relive 1992 all over again.