Hello, Friends!: Stories from My Life and Blue Jays Baseball by Jerry Howarth

Every spring I always read a book about baseball. Some are about major leagues, some about minor leagues. For my birthday, I received Hello, Friends!: Stories from My Life and Blue Jays Baseball by Jerry Howarth.

Who is Jerry Howarth? He was the Blue Jays radio announcer from 1981 to 2017. That's a lot of seasons.

For 36 years, Jerry Howarth ushered in eternal hope each spring and thrived in the drive of each fall as the voice of the Toronto Blue Jays. In 1982, the lifelong avid sports fan joined Tom Cheek as full-time play-by-play radio announcer for the Blue Jays, and for the next 23 years, "Tom and Jerry" were the voices of the franchise. Jerry became part of the fabric of a nation and a team, covering historic moments like the rise of the Blue Jays through the 1980s that culminated in back-to-back World Series Championships in 1992 and 1993. His Hall of Fame-worthy broadcasting career has been nothing short of legendary. When Jerry retired in February 2018, the tributes poured in and made one thing perfectly clear: Toronto baseball would never be the same.

Howarth brings together thoughts on life, family, work, and baseball. Featuring stories about everyone from Dave Stieb, Jack Morris, Duane Ward, Roberto Alomar, and Joe Carter to John Gibbons, Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Donaldson, and the late Roy Halladay, Hello, Friends! is a must-read for sports fans everywhere.

The book does deal with some on the field moments but mostly is about the people he met and the stories away from the diamond. He tells the story of his life growing up and how he prepared for a job in broadcasting. Quite inventive really.

He also reveals some interesting unique records, most of which I hadn't heard of. As he was on the air, he is nice throughout the book.

A great read not only for Blue Jay fans but for baseball fans and sports fans alike. I enjoyed it.

The 2019 Toronto Wolfpack Home Opener at Lamport Stadium

It's been a long time since the Toronto Wolfpack were here at home playing in front of their fans at The Den, good old Lamport Stadium. 9,562 loud, cheering fans were on hand to welcome them. Today the 10-1 Wolfpack were taking on the 2-9 Swinton Lions.

Nice to see the shop across the road open.

Music outside the entrance.

Teena and I were there early to get our regular seats.

Our friends, Malcolm, Mary and Roger were with us.

And here come the Pack!

National anthems, God save the Queen and Oh Canada were sung.

Opening kickoff.

I stole borrowed this from Teena's post. Mugging the opposition! Nice shot, Teena!

It was a hard hitting first half. In fact, just before time ran out, one of my favorites, Blake Wallace, took a hard shoulder to the head which flattened him. It took a couple of minutes to get his wits back about him but then instead of leaving the field, kicked a 30+ metre 2 point penalty kick. These guys are tough!

More action.

The Swinton section.

Blake Wallace with the single point conversion.

Section 35 was noisy all game singing, waving flags and beating drums.

Josh McCrone is hard to haul down.

He didn't touch the ball to the ground in the endzone so no try (4 points)

Halftime and the Wolfpack Dance team.

In the off-season, mascot Jefferson's outfit was stolen. There was a solemn service to say good-bye.

The new mascot, Gordo, (I liked the name for some reason) came out. What a chintzy, cheap outfit he was!

But look ... on the other side of the field. It was a ruse. JEFFERSON IS BACK!

Everyone was ecstatic!

Me too!

Wolfpack led 24-6 at the half. Opening kickoff.

Second half action.

Wolfpack win 52-10!

Swinton fans cheer and have their pictures taken with the players.

Toronto fans cheered the Swinton players as the took a lap of the field.

It was a great afternoon as always. Next week our 11-1 Toronto Wolfpack take on the 8-4 Bradford Bulls in the Den. Teena and I will be there!

My New Tattoos

A year ago on April 20, 2018, I had a liver transplant at Toronto General Hospital, which saved my life. I'll always be grateful to the person and family from whom I received that gift. I wanted to commemorate the surgeons and fabulous staff who has been looking after me so I decide to get a tattoo.

I wanted it on my arm where it can be seen so if people ask I can tell them my short story and give them the website to register.

After checking out so many tattoo artists in my area, I decided on Lorena at Black Line Studio. It was a great choice.

Born during the Communist regime in Havana City, Cuba, Lorena found herself through the love for art. Since at a young age, Lorena liked to paint and draw. At the age of 19 she graduated from the Elemental Visual Art Institute in Jose Antonio with a diploma in Fine Arts. She worked at Main Experimental Graphics Studio in Havana for 1 year doing Printmaking and Woodcut Artwork.After moving to Toronto, Canada, Lorena kept up with her studies and graduated from OCAD and from The Toronto School of Art with yet another Fine Art Diplomas.

In 2009, she got involved in the Tattoo Industry and since then she has collaborated/worked with many world wide renown different artists and Studios in Canada, Mexico, Cuba and other countries. She enjoys tattooing in many different styles including: black and gray, bold/old school traditional style, realism, watercolour and neotraditonal.

Her style is distinctive, formal and characteristic to the different periods of her life, the countries that she has visited and all the fantastic artists that she had a pleasure to be working with.

The original art work.

The finished product.

We had a great dog, KC who passed away many years ago. Our vet took her paw print which I always wanted a tattoo of so I had that done too.

Lorena not only did a great job but was fun and interesting to talk with. She also does black and grey, many different styles and is very experienced in cover-ups. I have more to get done and will certainly be back to see her again.

I'll post pictures again when it heals.

Marlies Sweep Rochester in AHL Quarter Finals

Tonight my friends, Roger and Jacob, joined me for game three of the best of five quarter final series between the Toronto Marlies and the Rochester Americans. Toronto came home with a two games to nothing advantage and would clinch the series with a win tonight.

Toronto scored the only goal of the first period. Here is the action a second before Adam Brooks put the puck in.

It was an action packed, exciting and tense game throughout.

Twice a period the ice was cleaned of chewed-up ice and snow.

This gives you the idea where the ice and snow comes from.

Rochester tied it in the second but Toronto took the lead again two minutes later with another Adam Brooks goal.

The final period was a busy one for Marlie goaltender, Kasimir Kaskisuo, as the puck was constantly in Toronto's end for most of the period. During the game, Kaskisuo made 28 saves, most of them very tough. With the Rochester goalie pulled, Adam Brooks, yes, him again, threw the puck down the ice from his own end for an empty net goal to clinch the game 3-1 and take the series 3-0.

Kaskisuo the moment the final bell went at the end of the game.

The team converges to congratulate each other.

It was a hard hitting game but the players still shake after it was over.

A salute to the fans who were all hoarse.

Jacob and I thought goalie Kaskisuo should have been the first star. Roger said Brooks' hattrick should make him the first star. Roger was right.

Here is Brooks being interviewed afterwards.

The Marlies will face the Cleveland Monsters in round two. I'm looking forward to it.