Thursday, October 20, 2016

Mission Accomplished, Cleveland! Remembering Andre Thornton

My custom Toronto Blue Jays jersey arrived yesterday! On the back is the family name - with J. A. Happ's #33. It was his 34th birthday yesterday🎂


The Jays' Jose Bautista also had a birthday (#36) on the day (19 - also his number) he probably played his last game as a Jay. Cleveland's pitching dominated the American League Championship series against Toronto as they won four of five games!

Cleveland had two players who also had birthdays yesterday: pitcher Josh Tomlin and outfielder Rajai Davis (who once played for the Jays).




Cleveland's first base coach and one of the most famous Blue Jays of all time smiled for the cameras for their Dad's birthday.


Guess who just found an old Cleveland cap from back in the late '70's?


The player who's story inspired me was Andre Thornton. He was on the Montreal Expos briefly in 1976 before playing the next ten years in Cleveland. As Wikipedia says, In 1977, Thornton and his son Andy (André Jr.) were injured in an automobile accident that took the life of his wife Gertrude and three-year-old daughter Theresa Gertrude. In 1983 he wrote the book Triumph Born of Tragedy, which is an account of the accident and his Christian faith.

Andre Thornton was inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame in 2007. 

He started off his baseball career with the Chicago Cubs in 1973 and was there for three seasons.

I can only imagine how cool it would be for Andre "Thunder" Thornton to see the Cubs and the Indians play eachother in the World Series. Chicago and the Dodgers are playing game five tonight in LA as the National League Championship series is all even at two wins apiece.