Showing posts with label Toronto Blue Jays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toronto Blue Jays. Show all posts

Friday, May 13, 2011

Mel Queen

Mel Queen passed away today at the age of 69.

While he may not be a household name for all baseball fans he was responsible for rescuing the career or a future first ball Hall of Famer. Roy Halladay (circa 1998-2000) didn't always look like the dominant pitcher he has gone on to become. In fact he had pretty much hit rock bottom after showing some early brilliance (was one out away from pitching a no-hitter in his 2nd career start). His 10.64 ERA in 2000 got him a demotion all the way down to Single A where Mel Queen worked with him and turned his career around. Tom Verducci wrote a great article for Sports Illustrated last year that documented Mel Queen's work with Roy Halladay.

As a Scouting Director for the Blue Jays he oversaw the development of the likes of David Wells, Jeff Kent, Chris Carpenter, Shawn Green, Woody Williams, Mike Timlin and Pat Hentgen. He later served as the pitching coach for four years during which Pat Hentgen and Roger Clemens combined for 3 Cy Young Awards.

It is hard to predict no-hitters but I wouldn't question Halladay coming close in his next start. Mel Queen had that kind of impact on him.
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Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Rogers in $1.3B talks to buy majority stake in Leafs empire - thestar.com

Rogers in $1.3B talks to buy majority stake in Leafs empire - thestar.com

As a Leafs and Raptors fan this is great news. It has been clear for some time that the current majority owners, The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan didn't care much about winning as long they were making a certain amount of money every year. Being under the Rogers umbrella should change that.

The OTPP just needed good merchandise sales and gate receipts and the Maple Leafs brand is good enough to provide good numbers there even when the team isn't performing well. Rogers will need the team to do well in order to improve their TV numbers. They have more of an incentive in making sure that the team performs well.

By the way, did you guys watch Jeopardy last night? The "Final Jeopardy" question was Maple Leafs related.

As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or Follow sahyder1 on Twitter.

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