Platinum Sombrero FACE!!!!!

Alex Rios did not have a good night. Not only did his Blue Jays lose 6-5 to the Los Angeles Angels, but he went 0-5 batting out of the 3 spot in the order. It gets worse. Adam Lind, who was hitting after Rios, went 5-5 with 3 doubles, no doubt showing up Rios who many thought would be a perrenial All-Star and MVP candidate to help Toronto become relevant.

The worse news of all however, was that Rios went 0-5 with 5 strikeouts. That’s right. The rare “platinum sombrero”.We all know 4 strikeouts in a game is referred to as the “golden sombrero”, but do you know the origin of the phrase?

The term  is derived from the “hat trick” in hockey where you score 3 goals in a game. So, since 4 is more than 3 (you’ll have to trust me on this) baseball was that a 4 strikeout game had to represented by something larger than a hat and settled on a sombrero. Dont say we never taught you anything.

In case you’re wondering, yes there is something bigger than the platinum sombrero. It’s been acomplished 6 times in major league history. The even more rare “titanium sombrero” has never been done in a 9 inning game however.

So cheer up Alex. At least you didnt strikeout 6 times today!

–brandon