Notes: Jays flee for Classic
03/02/2006DUNEDIN, Fla. -- While the Blue Jays were finishing up their first Spring Training game on Thursday, Alex Rios and Frank Catalanotto were in street clothes, heading out the back door of the clubhouse.
Both were leaving to join their respective teams for the World Baseball Classic. Rios was on his way to Port St. Lucie, Fla., to meet up with his Puerto Rico teammates, while Catalanotto left to join Team Italy in Lakeland, Fla.
Vernon Wells, playing for Team USA, is already in Arizona. On Friday, Venezuela's Gustavo Chacin will go to Clearwater, Fla., and Minor Leaguer Vince Perkins will remain in Dunedin to meet up with Team Canada. Australian Minor League pitcher Adrian Burnside will head to Orlando on Monday.
"I'm excited. I don't know what to expect, but it should be fun," Catalanotto said. "I'm looking forward to playing with the different guys -- guys I've never played with before and some of these Italian guys."
Catalanotto, whose great-grandfather is from Palermo, Sicily, will join Mike Piazza, Frank Menechino, Lenny DiNardo and Jason Grilli as the Major Leaguers on the Italian roster. Toronto's left fielder joked about the process that it took to become eligible to play for Team Italy.
"They came after me and told me I was eligible, and then a couple months later, they made me present different birth certificates and documents," Catalanotto said. "Even today, I don't know how you qualify or how you're eligible, because I sent my stuff, and they said, 'OK, it looks good to us.' "
The only player that Blue Jays manager John Gibbons has concerns about heading into the Classic is Chacin. The left-handed Chacin said that Jays pitching coach Brad Arnsberg will be in contact with Venezuelan pitching coach Luis Leal, who pitched for Toronto from 1980-85, to monitor the southpaw's workload.
Chacin will be a part of a very impressive Venezuelan starting rotation that includes Johan Santana, Freddy Garcia, Carlos Zambrano, Victor Zambrano and Kelvim Escobar.
"This is like a dream to be with those guys on the team," Chacin said recently. "Santana is a Cy Young winner and Freddy is a great pitcher. It's great for me. I know all those guys. We played winter ball together in Venezuela a couple years ago. They're all great guys."
All about timing: One of the main concerns that teams have expressed about the Classic revolves around the timing of the tournament. Donald Fehr, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, was at Knology Park for a meeting with the players on Thursday, and he addressed the scheduling of the event.
"The timing issue was the single most difficult one to deal with," Fehr said. "There was something in the paper this morning -- somebody said that maybe we should do this in November. We talked about having it in November. ... That's a point of time in which they're at the end of a long season, so the series of physical discomforts that pile up are at their peak.
"You have to take those things into account. I don't think there's any doubt among those of us who were involved, at least first crack out of the blocks, that this was the most reasonable time to attempt it."
First looks: Roy Halladay gave up four runs on four hits and walked one in one inning against the Devil Rays on Thursday. The right-hander was just happy to be back on the mound without any lingering injuries.
"Physically, I felt good. So that's always a good thing early on -- having the health there," Halladay said. "The cutter was kind of hit or miss today, so there's still a couple things to work on. Obviously, you would like to start better, but I got my work in."
Eric Hinske got his first taste of playing right field during the game against Tampa Bay, and he was immediately put to the test. In the first inning, Travis Lee hit a single to right with two runners on, and Hinske fired the ball towards home, but the throw was too late to catch Aubrey Huff.
"The guy didn't hit it too hard at me, so it was good to just get the nerves out of the way at that point," Hinske said. "Hopefully, I can throw some guys out this year, but I'm just trying to hit the cutoff man, pretty much."
In the third inning, Hinske misread a fly ball hit by Lee, but the former corner infielder corrected his route and caught the ball at his ankles.
"Everybody says if you can catch a fly ball in Florida, you can catch one anywhere," Hinske said with a laugh. "This is pretty much the toughest place to do it."
Honored: Shirley Cheek, wife of the longtime Blue Jays broadcaster Tom Cheek -- who passed away last October after a 16-month battle with brain cancer -- was given the first John Cerutti Award, presented by Claudia Cerutti, in a ceremony before Thursday's game.
The Cerutti Award replaces the Good Guy Award, which has been handed out every year since Toronto's innaugural season in 1977. The award is voted on by the Baseball Writers Association of America Toronto Chapter, and it's given annually to an individual affiliated with the Blue Jays who best exemplifies John Cerutti's character, good will and sportmanship. Cerutti, who pitched for Toronto from 1985-90 and later served as a broadcaster for the Jays, passed away of a heart arrhythmia on the last day of the 2004 season.
Quotable: "Any time you do something new, you've always got some underlying uncertainty about how well it's going to go and what problems -- that no one thought about -- are going to creep up at the most inopportune moments. All things considered, we sold a bunch of tickets, and there seems to be a lot of interest." -- Fehr, on the World Baseball Classic
Source: http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/
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