Swing and a miss

There are a few things from the "article" written by Amy K. Nelson and Peter Keating with respect to the unnamed team and players that we can examine further. The purpose of this exercise is to find the mystery team and maybe even the players involved. 

The first clue!

From the visitors bullpen at Rogers Centre in Toronto, an American League pitcher screamed at Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista as he took his position late in a game in the spring of 2010.

Spring can technically be any date up to and including June 20th on the calender. Here is your Toronto Blue Jays schedule from April till June 2010. The team in question MUST be on this list.

New York played in Toronto June 4 - 6
Tampa Bay played in Toronto May 31 to June 2
Baltimore played in Toronto on May 28 - 30
Minnesota played in Toronto May 17 - 18
Texas played in Toronto May 14 - 16
Oakland played in Toronto April 29 to May 2
Boston played in Toronto April 26 - 28
Kansas City played in Toronto April 19 - 21
LAA played in Toronto April 16 - 18
Chicago played in Toronto April 12 - 15

The second clue!

Some guys on that team had actually seen the same man making the same motions in 2009. But that had been in the last series of the season against Toronto, and they let it go.

This right here is the only mention of the year 2009. I'll admit that it is extremely vague - most likely on purpose - but I decided to take a look at our second half schedule after the All Star break which reveals the following:

Seattle played in Toronto on Sept 24 - 27
Baltimore played in Toronto on Sept 21 - 23
Minnesota played in Toronto Sept 7 - 10
New York played in Toronto on Sept 3 - 6
Tampa Bay played in Toronto on Aug 24 - 26
LAA played in Toronto on Aug 21 - 23
Boston played in Toronto Aug 18 - 20
Cleveland played in Toronto July 21 - 23

So let's play some match em up! Here are the teams that appear on both lists:

New York (shocking I know)
Baltimore
Tampa Bay
Minnesota
LAA
Boston

More clues! 

When Bautista next came up to bat, he struck out. After the inning, he ran to right field, adjacent to the visitors 'pen, and the livid player issued Bautista a warning.

This one clue in conjunction with the next clue actually narrows down the list of teams BIG TIME. We now know Jose was playing RF and that he struck out. 

The next day, the players who had seen the man in white headed to the field early. One stood in the batter's box while another stood on the mound.

We now also know that the game in question was not the final game in the series or else the players would have left the previous day.

That narrows it down to the following possible games in 2010:

June 5th vs New York - interestingly Bautista hit 2 bombs off AJ the day before.
June 1st vs Tampa Bay
May 29th vs Baltimore
May 28th vs Baltimore


Then I read this