In 2015, the Toronto Blue Jays made it to the American League championship series losing to the Kansas City Royals, who would go on to win the World Series.
This was the year of the famous José Bautista bat flip.
How many players can you name from that team, off the top of your head?
Sure, if you’re a hardcore baseball fan you probably won’t do too badly. Casual fans probably remember Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, league MVP Josh Donaldson, and maybe pitchers R.A. Dickey and David Price. Troy Tulowitzki? Sure.
But apart from that? How well do you remember Bo Schultz, Ryan Tepera, Darwin Barney, Jonathan Diaz, Steve Tolleson, and Ezequiel Carrera? How about Cliff Pennington, Danny Valencia, and Scott Copeland?
Ringing many be…
In 2015, the Toronto Blue Jays made it to the American League championship series losing to the Kansas City Royals, who would go on to win the World Series.
This was the year of the famous José Bautista bat flip.
How many players can you name from that team, off the top of your head?
Sure, if you’re a hardcore baseball fan you probably won’t do too badly. Casual fans probably remember Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, league MVP Josh Donaldson, and maybe pitchers R.A. Dickey and David Price. Troy Tulowitzki? Sure.
But apart from that? How well do you remember Bo Schultz, Ryan Tepera, Darwin Barney, Jonathan Diaz, Steve Tolleson, and Ezequiel Carrera? How about Cliff Pennington, Danny Valencia, and Scott Copeland?
Ringing many bells?
These are not the stars. They are Some Guys.
I’ve capitalized that, because it comes from writer David Roth and his “Let’s Remember Some Guys” series, in which he looks at baseball cards and Remembers Guys. I first encountered Remember Some Guys through a Bluesky account of the same name, that posts a baseball player’s photo and the list of teams he played for. For instance:
Jim Bibby Pitcher Debut: 1972 – Retired: 1984 STL – PIT – CLE – TEX
Do you remember Jim Bibby? I don’t, although he did have a pretty decent career.
Remembering Some Guys has taken on a life beyond Roth and his buddies. Recently, the website Defector (which Roth writes for) and Baseball Reference (which runs an addictive daily baseball trivia game called Immaculate Grid), teamed up to ask people to Remember Some Guys from the 21st century.
Those are my picks at the top of the page. I decided to focus on Some Guys who played for the Blue Jays (in the case of Orelvis Martinez, for one game). I remember Aaron Sanchez, because he had one of the most beautiful curveballs I’ve ever seen, and when I saw him at spring training, I figured he was going to be a star. Brandon Morrow was nice to my kid and gave him an autograph. I remember that guy.
People participating in the Let’s Remember Some Guys from the 21st century filled out 36,000 immaculate grids. Sean Kuhn of Defector crunched the numbers on who gets remembered. To his amazement, 95% of the players in Major League Baseball over the last 25 years were named at least once. Some of the ones who don’t turn up that often fall into some of the following categories:
Guys with generic, ballplayer-ass names
Guys who may have to split votes with similarly named guys
Guys who are unpleasant to remember for reasons related to their personalities… for underperforming significant free-agent contracts… or for being Marcell Ozuna.
Apparently, nobody doing this exercise remembered Gift Ngoepe. I remember Gift Ngoepe: the first MLB player born in South Africa, he played for Toronto and Pittsburgh. I’ve used him in the Immaculate Grid, in the category of Blue Jays/Pirates players. (Other Guys in this category: Lyle Overbay, Bautista, Russell Martin, Rowdy Tellez, Spencer Horwitz).
I was thinking about the appeal of this Remember Some Guys phenomenon while watching the Blue Jays game last night, seeing great performances from players who are future Some Guys candidates. We’ll all remember Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a decade from now. But what about Ernie Clement, Andrés Giménez, Nathan Lukes and Mason Fluharty?
The appeal of Remembering Some Guy is partly nostalgia, sure. I see a name like Dave Cash, and I’m transported back to an Expos game in Montreal.
But I think it’s more than that. We have more in common with Some Guys than with the stars. There have been 23,615 players in the history of Major League Baseball. In my years of playing Immaculate Grid, I have used 465 different players. That’s 0.197% of the total. Most of the players are Some Guys.
In any field, most of us are like Some Guys. And that’s OK. It’s good, actually. Without Lukes and Clement there’s no Guerrero. Without the supporting cast — hell, without the background actors — there’s no movie.
If I flip open one of my binders of baseball cards…wait a moment, while I go get it, I am looking at a sea of Some Guys: Steve Avery, Fred Manrique, Junior Noboa, Darrel Akerfeds.
How about the hockey cards in my Guy Lafleur binder? Murray Wilson, Bob Stewart, Tom Laidlaw.
In the writing profession, most of us are Some Guys (I am using “guys” here to be consistent, but thinking of people of all genders). You can make a perfectly good living, and most of the time people won’t remember you when you’re gone. And that’s fine. They may not even remember your name once they come to the end of your story, if they even noticed it in the first place.
There is a handful of stars, and there are the rest of us, and we all have a role to play.
If our political system had not become so personality-centred, with so much power accruing to the prime minister and premiers, the Some Guys who make up the backbenches would have an important role to play, and maybe some day they will again.
Let’s watch the stars and their awesome skills, and let’s remember to appreciate Some Guys.
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NOTICED
1. Project Bookmark unveils Budge Wilson plaque at Dal
Budge Wilson, in an image from the Project Bookmark website. Credit: Project Bookmark
Project Bookmark is a non-profit dedicated to making Canada’s literary history visible, by creating a trail of plaques set in the specific places where events in Canadian novels and short stories are set.
The latest plaque in the series is dedicated to the late Budge Wilson, and is being unveiled at Dalhousie University tomorrow. It includes a passage from her short story “The Leaving,” published in the collection of the same name.
Budge Wilson was a beloved Nova Scotian children’s writer, who only started writing in her fifties. She published 33 books, the last of which came out when she was 90. Project Bookmark explains more, including why their plaque highlights “The Leaving”:
It is a powerful narrative of a quiet act of rebellion and emancipation and evokes the City of Halifax and the Dalhousie campus in vivid detail. It is the first Bookmark in Nova Scotia for work by a woman writer or by a children’s/young adult author and also the first Bookmark on a university campus…
Alexander MacLeod, acclaimed writer, Saint Mary’s University professor, and a member of the Nova Scotia Reading Circle [says], “‘The Leaving’ holds a special place in her writing career. It is one of the most influential pieces Wilson ever wrote, and one of the most important works of literature to ever ‘take in’ the urban landscape of Halifax.”
The unveiling takes place tomorrow, Oct. 18, 2025, at 3pm on the east side of Shirreff Hall at Dalhousie, 6385 South St., Halifax. It’s followed by a reception at 3:30pm, in the council chambers at the Dalhousie Student Union Building.
The Budge Wilson plaque is the third that Project Bookmark has installed in Nova Scotia. There is one at Citadel Hill in Halifax, honouring Hugh MacLennan’s Halifax Explosion novel, Barometer Rising, and another at the visitor information centre in Port Hastings, recognizing Alistair MaLeod’s No Great Mischief.
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2. Nocturne art at night festival returns
Cadence and the Secret Post Office by LuLo (Logan Robins & Lucas Hernandes Nascimento). For Nocturne: Microcosm, October 18th 2024. Credit: Nadim Kesserwani / Nocturne
The annual Nocturne art at night festival is on this weekend, and you can find a list of the projects here, and a map here. I won’t be able to attend, unfortunately, since I will have had my COVID and flu shots earlier in the day (you can book yours here, along with the RSV vaccine), and if past experience is any indicator, I will be knocked on my butt for a day or two.
One of the things I love about Nocturne — other than, you know, the whole being out in the streets with a bunch of other people looking at and participating in art projects — is the variety of projects. Some installations have made me cry, some projects are unbridled sheer fun, and some are whimsical. They don’t all land for me, but that’s fine. Everything doesn’t have to be for everyone. It’s also fun trying to figure out who else is doing Nocturne, and who’s out on a Saturday night: Is that a bachelorette party or an art project?
Here are a couple of the projects that caught my eye in the listings:
- Points of Departure, by Fortner Anderson: Anderson kept a poetry daybook for a year, and at Nocturne, he will read all the poems in one continuous 12 hour and 10 minute session. There are only 50 copies of the book published, and after each reading Anderson does, he encases the book he read from in bronze. (I remember Anderson from Montreal, where he founded a dial-a-poem service; call a number and hear a poem).
- Remember Ktaqmkuk in Peace & Friendship, by Megan Samms: “A place, memory, and archival response and call to remember in place on Codroy Island: a forgotten site of affirmation of the Peace & Friendship Treaty in South-West Ktaqmkuk.”
- Walls that Speak, by former Halifax youth poet laureate Damini Awoyiga and Boma Nnaji: “Walls That Speak transforms the exhibition space into a living archive where poetry, art, and sound merge to tell stories of heritage, migration, and cultural resilience…An immersive art installation that brings Nigerian culture, African symbolism, and storytelling to life through poetry, visual art, and layered soundscapes.”
- Trees for Life: “Nancy Stevens’ meditation on our planet’s future. Silhouettes of ten Acadian Forest region tree species are framed by its distinctive features, including domestic and industrial functions.”
- Real Estate Agent vs. the Angel of History, by Emma Chapman-Lin & Charlie MacLean: The giant real estate puppet from the Fringe festival is back! From the description: “A video projects onto the stark blank wall of a property development. Two monologuing puppets present opposed perspectives on memory, progress, and the processes that transform the ground beneath their feet.” It’s a project about time, history, and gentrification, with a participatory element.
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RECENTLY IN THE HALIFAX EXAMINER:
**1. **Investigation into police wrongdoing in Glen Assoun case finally begins
Glen Assoun in 2019. Credit: Tim Bousquet
Tim Bousquet reports:
More than five years ago, then-justice minister Mark Furey asked the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), the Nova Scotia agency charged with investigating police, to look into police malfeasance connected to the wrongful conviction of Glen Assoun.
Finally, today, that agency has announced that its Alberta counterpart will be conducting the investigation.
Bousquet has covered the Assoun story extensively, including the many, many delays in this investigation. He has written about that here, here, and here.
In this most recent story, he writes:
On Sept. 8, 2020, a year after Assoun was fully exonerated, then-justice minister Mark Furey asked SIRT to investigate potential police misconduct in the case, but that request fell into a bureaucratic black hole…
Glen Assoun died in June 2023, receiving no justice.
Ever since, I’ve been banging the drum about SIRT’s obligation to start an investigation. I’ve repeatedly called SIRT director Erin Nauss asking for an update, and I’ve grilled current Justice Minister Becky Druhan in post-cabinet scrums with reporters.
Now, finally, an investigation by an agency with subpoena power has begun.
Click or tap here to read “Investigation into police wrongdoing in Glen Assoun case finally begins.”
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2. QEII redevelopment ‘on track’ to move Victoria General site patients by 2031
Architectural rendering of Halifax Infirmary Expansion Project. Credit: Courtesy of Build Nova Scotia
Jennifer Henderson attended an open house on the QEII redevelopment project, and reports on the project and its timelines:
According to PCL Construction vice-president John Volcko, between 850 and 900 workers will be needed during “peak construction,” anticipated to start toward the end of 2026 and continue through the first half of 2027.
If the labour supply challenges can be met, the first 216 inpatients will move into the acute care tower above the operating rooms and 48-bed intensive care unit at the new Halifax Infirmary by the fall of 2031.
“The goal for 2031 is to get all the inpatients out of the Victoria General (VG), and we are absolutely on track to do that,” Dr. Christine Short, senior medical director for the QEII redevelopment project told the Examiner during an interview at the open house.
Click or tap here to read “QEII redevelopment ‘on track’ to move Victoria General site patients by 2031.”
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**3. **‘I’m standing for peace and unity’: Dartmouth residents walk against violence
Dianne and Brian Baker are lighting a candle during the 27th Walk Against Violence on Oct. 15, 2025. Their 19-years-old nephew, Jason MacCullough, was murdered in 1999. Credit: Madiha Mughees
Madiha Mughees reports on the 27th annual walk against violence, held in Dartmouth on the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 15. This year, the event was organized by the office of Susan Leblanc, MLA for Dartmouth North:
The walk began in 1999, following the unsolved murder in Dartmouth of Jason MacCullough, 19.
Dozens of relatives who have lost loved ones to violence, along with many concerned citizens, attended this year’s event…
“We have kids playing in the neighbourhoods, we have sports going on, we have art and culture, we have music happening,” Leblanc said. “We also have places to worship.”
Alongside all the great things happening in the community, Leblanc said, “We have violence out here, and we have racism, and we have food insecurity.”
Leblanc said that while “there are guns and knives,” there’s also “the violence of addiction, and there’s intimate partner violence, and gender-based violence.”
Click or tap here to read “‘I’m standing for peace and unity’: Dartmouth residents walk against violence.”
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4. New power plant coming to replace Trenton
Trenton generating station. Credit: Verne Equinox/Wikipedia
Jennifer Henderson reports:
The new agency Premier Tim Houston’s government established to take over the future planning and management of the grid from Nova Scotia Power issued a news release Thursday. The province’s Independent Energy System Operator (IESO) is seeking companies or community organizations willing to build, own, and operate a new 300 MW generation facility that would run on methane (marketed as “natural gas”). More information can be found here.
The news release said two potential locations in Pictou County are being proposed because of their proximity to the Maritimes & Northeast pipeline.
The coal-burning units at the Trenton power plant have to be shut down by 2030, and the province wants to burn methane instead, with the possibility of transitioning to hydrogen.
Henderson also reports that the Nova Scotia Energy Board has told Nova Scotia Power its shareholders must cover over $1 million in fuel costs and interest they had planned to charge to ratepayers.
Click or tap here to read “New power plant coming to replace Trenton.”
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5. Halifax’s Newcomer Reading Club encourages conversation through literature
Halifax Central Library on July 17, 2025. Credit: Suzanne Rent
I have a new story about the Newcomer Reading Club, run by Halifax Public Libraries, and led by volunteers Maxine Wang and Rohan Maitzen.
Maitzen, a Dalhousie University English professor, and Wang, a student adviser with a Master’s in teaching English, met while volunteering at a library conversation group. They learned they loved some of the same books and authors, and hatched the idea of offering a reading club for newcomers, with participants reading stories, and then discussing them.
In the story, I speak with Maitzen and Wang, and hear from two participants in the reading club’s first session, held last summer. A new session starts at the Central Library in November.
From the article:
“It all started from a casual conversation between me and Rohan,” Wang said in an interview.
“We found out that we both love reading — Rohan would be more of a professional reader — and we found out we actually have a lot in common. We both love the same authors, and even some of the same stories. For example, I just finished reading Anne of Green Gables, which is a novel we both love. And then I was thinking, why not make this program, so we can find more like-minded people?”…
“There’s a frustration when you’re learning a language: often the conversations have to stay a little bit simple, so you can master the grammar and the structure. And so, if you want to discuss more challenging issues, it’s hard to find the right context for that,” Maitzen said in an interview.
“If you’re used to having a rich intellectual life in one language, and then you come here and you’re talking all the time about the weather, and food, and the things that you’re doing as a language learner, it’s leaving something out.”
Click or tap here to read “Newcomer Reading Club encourages conversation through literature.”
Coincidentally, I note that today is Canadian Library Workers Day, dedicated to recognizing “the valuable contributions made by all those who work in and for the public, academic, school, government, academic, corporate and private libraries that are integral to our communities.”
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Government
No meetings
On campus
Saint Mary’s
Safety starts with a conversation: A Social-Relational Process Model of Safety Voice and Listening in High-Risk Mining Work (Friday, 10:30am, McNally 320 and online) — Samantha Jones from the University of Calgary will talk
Grappling with the Ages: the Lincoln Descendants and the Weight of Lincoln’s Legacy (Friday, 12pm, Loyola 281) — Christian McWhirter will talk
Literary Events
Friday
No events
Weekend
Book launch (Saturday, 1pm, Halifax Central Library) — Corinne Hoebers’ Tethered Spirits
Reading / Walking Tour of Historic Halifax with author Aren Morris (Saturday, 2pm, Nathan Green Park, Halifax Ferry Terminal) — details and RSVP
Book launches (Saturday, 3:30pm, Halifax Central Library) — with a Q&A and signing; Vanessa F. Penney’s The Witch of Willow Sound, Mackenzie Nolan’s Veal
Book launch (Sunday, 2pm, Alderney Gate Public Library, Dartmouth) — Sean Paul Bedell’s Shoebox
In the harbour
Halifax 07:00: Pearl Mist, cruise ship with up to 216 passengers, arrives at Pier 23 from Eastport 07:00: ZIM Virginia, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from Valencia, Spain 08:00: Crystal Serenity, cruise ship with up to 1,070 passengers, arrives at Pier 20 from New York, on an eight-day cruise from New York to Québec City 08:00: MSC Kim, container ship, arrives at Pier 42 from Montréal 08:45: Torrens, car carrier, arrives at Autoport from Zeebrugge, Belgium 12:00: Norwegian Getaway, cruise ship with up to 4,819 passengers, arrives at Pier 22 from Bar Harbor, on a seven-day roundtrip cruise out of New York 15:30: Torrens sails for sea 16:30: Nolhan Ava, ro-ro cargo, sails from Pier 41 for Saint-Pierre 17:30: Oceanex Sanderling, ro-ro container, sails from Fairview Cove for St. John’s 18:00: ZIM Virginia sails for New York 18:00: Pearl Mist sails for sea 21:30: Norwegian Getaway sails for Saint John No new cruise ship arrivals this weekend.
Cape Breton 06:30: Phoenix Admiral, oil tanker, sails from EverWind for New York 07:30: HTM Warrior, oil tanker, arrives at EverWind from New York 20:00: Clearocean Mesquite, oil tanker, sails from EverWind for sea Cruise ship this weekend: Sunday: Crystal Serenity (1,070 passengers)
Footnotes
The Blue Jays are undefeated since I changed the lockscreen image on my phone to this photo I took last summer of the Alien Poker pinball machine.
Williams’ pinball’s Alien Poker (1980), photographed at an arcade in Charlottetown in August 2025. Credit: Philip Moscovitch