If you haven't heard, the Blue Jays just released Shannon Stewart. Stewart hit .240 with one homer and 14 RBIs in 52 games this season. Reeder is batting .300 with six homers and 41 RBIs in 77 games this season. Unfortunately, Reed is now a Chicago Cub.

J. P. Ricciardi is gone the week after the regular season ends.

I've told this story before, but I'm going to share it again. As kids, my brothers and I "owned" Blue Jays. We each had a primary player and a secondary player. When our player got a hit, we got the high five as if we had accomplished the feat. When our player grounded into a double play, we got the beats.

My player was #11 George Bell. In 1984 while Jesse Barfield was hitting 40 dingers, George Bell hit 26 and stole my heart. Steve had Barfield and I had Bell. Ryan, he was an Ernie Whitt freak.

Other George Bell related entries:

• George Hits 3 on Opening Day
• The Vault
• George vs. Jimy
• Hello? Is it George Bell You're Looking For?
• George Bell Wasn't Named In The Mitchell Report
• Help Lisa (And Me)
• George Bell: All-Star
• Thank You, Tiger Town

Roy Halladay is the Blue Jays. He's the heart and soul of this team, consistently awesome. I heart Roy Halladay and I don't care who knows it.

Here's the stub from the near no-hitter.

We called Lloyd Moseby The Shaker, and he was part of "the best outfield in baseball" playing center field between George Bell and Jesse Barfield. The Shaker Mo is still the all-time Blue Jays leader in stolen bases and he was an all-star in 1986.

A likable player who signed this autograph for me, future generations will remember Lloyd Moseby for his "Shaker's Rap". If you haven't yet heard "Shaker's Rap", you're in for a treat. Get on over there and hit play.

He will become the 14th Canadian to play for the Blue Jays. Here are the first 13.

• Dave McKay
• Paul Hodgson
• Rob Ducey
• Denis Boucher
• Vince Horsman
• Rob Butler
• Paul Spoljaric
• Paul Quantrill
• Rich Butler
• Steve Sinclair
• Simon Pond
• Corey Koskie
• Matt Stairs

I don't have a great deal to say about Juan Beniquez. He was a serviceable utility player who I remember best for being the guy set to platoon at DH with Rick Leach when Jimy Williams changed his mind and let George Bell play the outfield.

Does anyone remember the rookie who was supposed to start in left field when George Bell was moved to DH in '88? It was Sil Campusano who retired with a .202 batting average, 5 home runs and 23 RBIs. Hey Jimy, if you're going to piss off the AL MVP, make sure it's to promote someone who will manage more than a couple of dozen rbis in his career.

It's awesome. It's the retro Jays logo with the words "The Flatliners" replacing the team name. I don't know if Rogers would have an issue with this, but I certainly hope not. I love it!

"Come On, Let's Go (All The Way Blue Jays)" is credited to The CJCL All-Stars. Let me know if you can identify the vocalist. It is, of course, a reworking of Ritchie Valens' "Come On, Let's Go".

Other awesome Blue Jays audio:

• Tom Cheek's Greatest Hits
• OK Blue Jays (Let’s Play Ball!)
• Home Run - We Got The Blue Jays (R.B.I. Single Version)
• Help Us Mookie
• The Blue Jays Rap
• The Ballad of Tom Henke
• Sunny Jays
• Jays To The Top
• Doin' It Right (On the Jays Side Of Town)

Our Toronto Blue Jays have fired manager John Gibbons, coaches Marty Pevey, Ernie Whitt and Gary Denbo. Cito Gaston has returned as the manager for the remainder of the season. Nick Leyva will coach at third base and Gene Tenace returns as the hitting coach. It's 1993 all over again.

Something had to give, and I'm glad to see Cito back. He coached this team from 1989 through 1997 finishing with a .518 winning percentage guiding us to the post season four times and winning the World Series twice. Every Jays fan loved Cito, and I was happy to adopt his name when I became manager of my slo-pitch team.

That's right, I'm known as Cito when I manage both my comp team and my rec team. When I send the team emails, I sign them as Cito. The spirit of Cito has been alive twice a week for me the past two summers and now it's more than a feeling. It's 1993, baby, and all we're missing is Robbie, Devo, Joe, Dave, Molly and Johnny O.

For reasons I don't quite understand, we've given JP Ricciardi an extraordinary amount of time to field a playoff contender. Note, I didn't say World Series champion, nor did I say pennant or wild card winner, we really just want to be playing meaningful baseball in September.

Ricciardi was hired on November 14, 2001. That's an eternity when it comes to unsuccessful general managers. Today, our Blue Jays have the second least number of homers in the majors and simply can't score runs. With such an impotent offense, Ricciardi was asked about acquiring Adam Dunn, the Cincinnati Red who has hit 40 or more home runs each of the past four years. Ricciardi responded by claiming Dunn "doesn't have a passion to play the game that much."

Needless to say, there's another free agent who won't be coming here. I still remember Ricciardi's claims that BJ Ryan had a bad back last spring. That "bad back" was actually a severe elbow injury that required season ending Tommy John surgery, but as JP said, “They're not lies if we know the truth".

The clock has run out on this clown. He's taking a franchise drenched in integrity and soiling it and, even worse, he's given us a team that's fading fast in the American League. Enough is enough.

Willie Upshaw was part of our string of dominance at first base. Not only did his name sound great coming out of Murray Eldon's mouth but he's the answer to a great Blue Jays trivia question. Name the first Blue Jay to record 100 RBIs in a season...

The answer, of course, is Willie Upshaw with 104 RBIs in 1983. Upshaw tailed off near the end of his career, just in time for Fred McGriff to take over, but he was a key part of our first competitive teams. I'll never forget that 1984 June night I saw him hit a grand slam at Exhibition Stadium. That same night, Dave Winfield hit two grand salamis. It wasn't a good night for pitchers ERAs.

Although yesterday afternoon's game began with the roof open and the sun spilling in, the forecast turned sour and they closed the dome. I've been in the dome several times when they've closed it, usually for rain but once to get rid of a bunch of bugs, so I've seen it close before, but it never ceases to amaze me. In about 20 minutes the dome goes from an outdoor stadium to an indoor facility.

Here's a play-by-play review of the roof closure as told through my camera yesterday.

Naturally, this question got me thinking about the strongest position in the history of the Toronto Blue Jays. I believe it's first base, and commenter Magpie agrees. From 1977 through 2007, here's how our first basemen stacked up against the league average for OPS.

Willie Upshaw, Fred McGriff, John Olerud and Carlos Delgado made for a nice run at 1B. We've been blessed.

Earlier today, while browsing the referral log, I saw a visitor dropping by after Googling Tom Henke. Tom Henke, beloved Blue Jay and dominant closer for so many wonderful years. I wondered where I ranked when people Google Tom Henke.

I'm currently ranked #3, just behind Wikipedia and baseball-reference.com, a couple of major league heavyweights.

If you had told me twenty years ago I'd one day rank third when people search for Tom Henke... I'd wonder what the hell you were talking about.

Fred McGriff was a fantastic first basemen for the Jays who led the American League in homers back in 1989, but he's best known around here as a key part of The Trade.

The Trade, the trade that eventually resulted in two World Series championships, had McGriff and Tony Fernandez shipped off to San Diego Padres in exchange for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter.

Here's an interesting Fred McGriff tid bit from the 88 Topps Card blog.

From 1988 to 2002, which two players have the most seasons with at least 22 homers? Of course Fred McGriff is one, or else I wouldn't be citing the stat. Barry Bonds is the other.

We already know Rance Mulliniks was the first person to hit an inside the park homer at SkyDome, but who was the first person to clear the fence at SkyDome? It was Fred McGriff, The Crime Dog.