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Article content Nathan Lukes’ wife, Taylor, gave birth to a baby boy in mid-April with no one knowing then how much the Blue Jays’ fortunes would change because of those circumstances. Lukes went home to Arizona to be with his wife. And in order to fill a spot on the roster, with Lukes off on paternity leave, the Jays recalled Addison Barger from Buffalo. It was only supposed to be for a day or three. Barger wasn’t thought to be a natural fit for the Jays at the time. He wasn’t hitting well at triple-A Buffalo. The Jays preferred the right-handed bat of Alan Roden starting in the outfield, ahead of Barger. And they had another left-handed bat, Will Wagner, as a designated hitter whom they also liked better than Barger. “Pretty incredible what’s happened, isn’t it?” said Lukes, the career minor-leaguer. Then Bam Bam arrived and, over time, Roden was dealt to Minnesota and Wagner was sent to San Diego and before hitting the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history on Friday night, all Barger did was finish the season with just two fewer homers than Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 10 fewer RBIs than George Springer and provide a monstrous presence of power at bat and in the field. Barger has hit three home runs in the first post-season of his career for a Blue Jays team that’s grown together and exploded together in this season still so hard to comprehend and yet celebrate. Early on in his time with the Jays, a broadcaster referred to Barger as Bam Bam. At the time, he was asked if he grew up as a Flintstones guy. He said he didn’t, but his parents did. The Barger family had two dogs — one named Bam Bam, one named Pebbles, both characters in the well-known cartoon. And now, here’s the name Barger should remember most: Jett Lukes. His birth almost seven months ago got him to the major leagues. ON BICHETTE’S TURNING-POINT BLAST The hit that changed the Blue Jays season came on a Wednesday night in Texas in late May. The Jays weren’t hitting a lick at the time. The new hitting coach, David Popkins, hadn’t altered the Jays considerably in the first third of the major-league season. Then Bo Bichette came to the plate as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning of a 0-0 tie game. Understand this: The Jays had scored four runs in their previous five games. They were two games under .500. They weren’t looking anything like a contender. But Bichette’s pinch-hit home run gave the Jays a 2-0 win and unlocked what was to come the rest of the season … The first third of the season, the Jays averaged 3.7 runs per game. This coming after being one of the lowest scoring teams in baseball in 2024 and adding Anthony Santander to potentially change that. After the Bichette home run, the Jays averaged 5.5 runs per game the rest of the way and went from playing .481 baseball in the first 54 games to .629 the rest of the season. Heading into Game 2 of the World Series, the Jays are playing .666 ball in the post-season, averaging 6.8 runs a game. A long way from the 3.7 averaged in the first 54 games … Statistically, Bichette is the purest hitter of pitches 97 mph and faster in the American League. Numbers way better than everyone including Aaron Judge … The Jays took on a huge contract when they dealt for Andres Gimenez — and it will be expensive in the years to come — and they took on a surprising salary when they dealt with Cleveland again for Myles Straw (in order to acquire cash to try to sign pitcher Roki Sasaki, now a Dodger). Not sure now where this club would be without all of the Cleveland pickups: Gimenez, Straw, and starter Shane Bieber. In addition to playing superb defence, the normally light-hitting Gimenez has two homers and nine RBIs in the playoffs, which have been better production numbers than either Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman … Kudos to whoever worked on the pre-game festivities and national anthems at the Rogers Centre for Game 1 of the series. Rarely have Toronto and the Blue Jays looked better on television and in the stadium live … The kid, Trey Yesavage, made three regular-season starts in his fifth different league of the season, making him one of the least experienced World Series starters in history. Probably the least experienced Game 1 starter. A few years ago, Dylan Lee started in the World Series for the Atlanta Braves without making a regular-season start. He was used as an opener, though. Different circumstances … Yesavage is not the most famous alumnus of East Carolina University. That title belongs to Sandra Bullock … Bichette is a free agent this winter. He says he wants to stay with the Jays. The starting price for signing him is likely in the $300-million range long-term. And just in case, the Jays have Gimenez to play shortstop if necessary for the next five seasons … For all the money the Dodgers spend on roster construction, shouldn’t they have done a better job at setting up their bullpen? … George Springer’s OPS last season was .674. Before that .732 and the year before that .814. That’s what is called a dropping stock. So who was expecting .959 this year, behind only Judge and Shohei Ohtani? Anyone? Bueller? ON THE LEAFS FALLING FOR SPEED TRAPS Since the hockey season began, the Maple Leafs have looked a touch slow and a whole lot disengaged. That’s not a good combination. It seems every time the Leafs play a team with any kind of speed — a team that likes to pass the puck vertically and wide — they look rather lost. If they don’t fix this soon, they will not make the playoffs … Those attributing Auston Matthews’ lack of production to Mitch Marner being in Vegas, have a point. Unless you consider the plight of David Pastrnak. Two years ago, Pastrnak played all his hockey being centred by the legendary Patrice Bergeron, with Brad Marchand on the left wing. By last season, he had Marchand and no Bergeron, who has since retired. Now he has neither. Over the past two seasons, Pastrnak is third in NHL scoring, ahead of both Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Matthews, as of Saturday afternoon, was 59th in scoring, second though in salary … As remarkably as rookie Matthew Schaefer is playing with the Islanders, don’t expect him to get any consideration for Canada’s Olympic team. He’s barely 18. Drew Doughty played rather well on Canada’s defence at the 2010 Games in Vancouver, but he was a second-year NHL player at the time and 20 years old … This is rather new: The Olympic head coaches, Jon Cooper of Canada and Mike Sullivan of USA, are off to rather miserable starts this NHL season. Cooper’s Tampa Bay Lightning has the worst record in the Eastern Conference and Sullivan’s Rangers have won just three of his first nine games with the team … Playing their way on to the Olympic consideration: Mark Scheifele, Tom Wilson, Nick Suzuki and possibly longshot John Tavares … If I need a 14th forward who won’t dress, I’d take Tavares if he was up for that, or if you want a kid to do that job, Macklin Celebrini … Playing his way out of Olympic contention: Evan Bouchard. And playing his way in, almost a sure thing, really: Washington goalie Logan Thompson. TWO PARTS TO BILLUPS SCANDAL There are two seemingly unrelated parts to the apparent NBA scandal involving former Raptor Chauncey Billups. There is the nasty mob side of this story, with Billups and others, seemingly being involved in high-priced fixed card games. This isn’t something new, but it’s the latest version of this unseemly business. The other side of the story is predictable, considering the tight relationship now between pro sports and their friends in the gambling business. Sport has been profiting from gambling for a while now and gambling has been profiting from sport. But when information is leaked and can be used for prop bets — which cost another former Raptor, Jontay Porter, his playing career — that’s a crime without any real victims. One of those circumstances is a whole lot more heinous than the other. The other is robbery and fraud … Things I haven’t written in a while: Boy, did the Raptors look great on opening night in Atlanta. They looked fast, moved the ball well and played aggressively on defence. No idea if it will last, but it sure was nice to see … So this makes no sense: Victor Wembanyama is growing. He’s still listed at 7-foot-4 but apparently stands now at 7-foot-7. And all he did in his opening game was score 40 points and pull down 15 rebounds … The defending MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — sure to be Canada’s athlete of the year — opened the season with 35 and 55 points with the defending- champion Oklahoma City Thunder … A whole lot of screaming about ticket-brokers and the cost of Blue Jays World Series seats, like it was a new story or something. It’s not new. Ticketmaster, and its industry friends, and cohorts have been ripping people off for years. And don’t blame them — they’re just taking advantage of business. You want to blame somebody, go way back and blame the franchise owners in professional sport or the concert promoters. They turned over their tickets to various brokers. They allowed the extra fees to be charged. Time was, there were no extra ticket fees. Those days are long long gone. ON MOGILNY’S HALL OF FAME ABSENCE Alexander Mogilny waited forever to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Which makes it so sad that he has chosen not to attend next month’s ceremony in Toronto. He’ll provide a speech online but the rather delightful Mogilny hasn’t said why he’s chosen to take a pass on the life-changing festivities of that weekend … The Argos wound up second-last in the CFL with a 5-13 record. The defending Grey Cup champions gave up the most points in the league, 583. It’s the most points an Argos team has given up since relinquishing 627 in 2008 … Wonder if Laurier head coach Michael Faulds, the former Western quarterback, will get any kind of consideration for the head coaching position with the Ottawa Redblacks? He’s certainly worth talking to … Why would anyone — in this case Kurt Suzuki — sign on to be a manager in the big leagues with just a one-year contract? How desperate is that? … The managers in the American League voted Seattle’s Dan Wilson manager of the year in one of the many awards that will be announced in the days to come. The announcement seems rather strange in the wake of Wilson’s mismanagement of the ALCS … Heading into Game 2 of the World Series, Kevin Gausman had started five post-season games for the Jays and has never pitched more than 5.2 innings in any of them. And he should have pitched more in most of them. What a gem he has been since signing in Toronto … Bieber has a player option of staying with the Jays for $15 million next season. If the Jays believe in Bieber long-term, they could springboard his one-year for $15 million into a longer term deal … At 88, Pat Gillick couldn’t find a way to make it to Toronto for the World Series. But really, who deserves this more than him? He established the franchise. Between 1984 and ’93, the Jays averaged 91 wins per season, captured two World Series and, had the playoff format been similar to today’s bloated system where six teams make it in each league, the Jays would have made the playoffs 10 years in a row under Gillick as general manager, instead of the five years that they did in much more challenging times … Happy birthday to Wendel Clark (59), Pedro Martinez (54), Juan Soto (27), Mike Eruzione (71), Andrea Bargnani (40), C.M. Punk (47), Steve Rogers (76), Kelly Chase (58), Miikka Kiprusoff (58), Chuck Foreman (75), and Dave Cowens (77) … And hey, whatever became of Cavan Biggio? Share this Story : SIMMONS SUNDAY: Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes share an unusual bond in this breathtaking Blue Jays season Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr
