Full Count: Four Decades of Blue Jays Baseball

by Jeff Blair

Overview

From one of Canada's top baseball writers and radio hosts: a retrospective of the Toronto Blue Jays that comes more than 20 years after Joe Carter's World Series-winning home run. A must-have for all Blue Jays fans, and a great read for Toronto and Canadian sports fans in general.
     In Full Count, Jeff Blair takes us back to the days when the Toronto Blue Jays were "the Cadillac of franchises," and shows us exactly what they did right to become baseball's premier club. Then he explores the disappointing aftermath, when the league's fourth-largest market became an also-ran: seemingly destined to languish behind the big-spending Yankees and Red Sox and free-wheeling Rays—until the offseason of 2012. Full Count will appeal to the casual fans wanting to re-live Blue Jays history, and to the serious fans who relish the nitty-gritty business decisions and behind-the-scenes details that made this team what it is today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780345812544
Publisher:	Random House of Canada, Limited
Publication date:	04/01/2014
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Like Joe Carter, JEFF BLAIR has "touched 'em all" in more than 30 years of sportswriting and broadcasting. The Globe and Mail's sports columnist and host of The Jeff Blair Show on Sportsnet 590/The Fan in Toronto has covered Olympics, World Series, Stanley Cups and earthquakes while working in Winnipeg, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. But his first love is baseball, which he covered from 1989 to 1997 as a beat reporter with the Gazette and has covered since then as a columnist with the Globe and Mail. Blair grew up in Morden, Manitoba, and attended the University of Manitoba. He lives in Hamilton with wife, Shelley, and daughter, Emma Rose.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Founding Principles 12

2 The Mountaintop 24

3 The World Series 40

4 Touch 'Em All 54

5 The Nest Empties 68

6 The Village Idiot 84

7 One Last Flourish 102

8 Moneyball North 114

9 Strange Days 134

10 The Big Plunge 146

11 The Ship Is Sinking 168

12 Touche Les Tous(?) 184

13 The Nightmare Dream 204

14 The Game Grows Up 228

References 250

Acknowledgements 254

Index 256

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Full Count:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Blair is lucid, informed and intelligent.... We can appreciate...Blair's judicious commentary on a team that always seems to be on the wrong side of the baseball gods." Philip Marchand, National Post
"Full Count is learned and thorough, with a keen eye on engaging readers instead of drowning them in the deluge of the author's knowledge.... The book manages that rare narrative pull that eludes so much contemporary sports writing." Quill & Quire
"This history of the Jays is by one of the country's most accomplished baseball writers, so it's not just a love letter, but instead explores both the glory days and the ruthless business decisions that kept the team hovering near the bottom of the standings. Until this year. Maybe." NOW (Toronto)

From the Publisher