I was thinking about Melky Cabrera the other day and his odds of being named Comeback Player of the Year. Vans Old Skool Black Sale . After all, he was a disaster in his first season with the Jays in 2013. It was only after the fact we learned he needed surgery to have a tumour removed from his back, which seriously impeded his abilities last season to be the player he had been in San Francisco and Kansas City. Right now Melky is hitting .298 with 11 homers and 37 runs batted, and is playing better defence in left field than at any point last year. Hes even beginning to put the PED suspension in the review mirror. Yes, he would be a worthy pick for American League Comeback Player of the year. This really is a fascinating award. Its often said it is one no player really wants to win because it means at some point your career has gone off the rails or youve suffered a serious, possibly career-threatening injury. Only one Blue Jays player has even won the award. On May 29 of 2008, second baseman Aaron Hill suffered a concussion when he collided with teammate David Eckstein. Hill missed the remainder of the season. He came back though with a vengence in 2009, batting .286 and 37 doubles, 36 homers and 108 runs batted in. He went to the All Star Game in St. Louis in July, was named Blue Jays Player of the Year, and ultimately, American League Comeback Player of the year. Its interesting that there are actually three versions of this award. The original and the one with the most historic cache was established by the Sporting News in 1965. The Players Association created its version in 1992 followed finally by Major League Baseball in 2005. Two players won it after coming back from heart attacks, Tony Conigliaro of the Red Sox in 1969 and Scarboroughs own John Hiller - the Tigers starter turned closer. In addition to Hiller another Canadian "Hall of Famer" Fergy Jenkins won the award in 1974 with Texas. In 1976, the National League honours went to Tommy John, naturally for the year he had after undergoing the landmark elbow reconstruction surgery that still bears his name. In the American League, three men have won the award twice - Norm Cash of the Tigers, "Boog" Powell of the Orioles and Royals right hander Bret Saberhagen. In the National League, the club is even more exclusive. Former Expos first baseman Andres "The Big Cat" Galaragga won in Colorado in 1993 and Atlanta in 2000, while former Blue Jays right hander Chris Carpenter won twice with St. Louis in 2004 and again in 2009. Former pitcher and current broadcaster Rick Sutcliffe stands alone as the only player to win in both leagues. He did it in 1987 with the Cubs and 1992 with Baltimore. Talk about impressive runs, from 1977 through 1979, future Hall of Famers won in the National League three years running, with Willie McCovey, Willie Stargell and Lou Brock so honoured. But the ultimate comeback story is unfolding this season in Cincinnati. Heck this guys entire career has been one gigantic comeback story. Alfredo Simon is a 33 year old right-hander out of the Dominican Republic. He was signed back in 1999 by the Phillies as an amateur free agent. But in those days he went by the name of Carlos Cabrera. He hid his true identity so he could conceal his true age. The Phillies thought he was younger and didnt find out the truth until 2004. Simon has bounced around a lot and didnt actually crack the Majors until 2008 with Baltimore. He had brief snatches of success with the 0s saving 17 games in 2010 and starting 16 in 2011, but in 2012 he was claimed on waivers by the Reds off the Orioles. Before this season, Alfredo Simon had a career record in six years of (17-18) with 19 saves. He had been with six organizations, three of them twice. Yet the other night at 33 he become the National Leagues first 10-game winner this season. In fact he is (10-3) with a 3.05 ERA and he is convinced he can pitch 200 innings this season even though his previous high was 115 2-3 with Baltimore in 2011. A truly amazing story. All of which brings us to Ricky Romero, whos been slogging it out in Triple-A Buffalo trying to find the old Ricky who used to be the ace of the Blue Jays staff three years ago. We learned Thursday, that Ricky had to undergo surgery on his left knee and is done for the rest of this season. Ricky will be 29 years old next season and in the final guaranteed year of his contract. The Jays will be paying him another $7.5 million dollars. Maybe the knee surgery will make a difference and Ricky can author the kind of comeback story that Alfredo Simon has. One more thing on Simon. He had to battle back from Tommy John surgery as well after getting injured in just his second start for the Orioles in 2009.. This weekend marks a special anniversary at Rogers Centre. Saturday it will be 14 years since the only no-hitter in the history of the facility was pitched there. Oaklands Dave Stewart accomplishing the feat on June 21, 1990. Ironically later that same night, Fernando Valenzuela no-hit St. Louis. It was the only time in Major League history two no-nos have been thrown on the same day. Three years later Stewart won a World Series with the Jays and later became their assistant General Manager. Vans Sk8 Hi Sale . McCutchen was cut before the series opener against Seattle on Monday night, when Lewis was set for his first start for Texas since July 18, 2012. Texas selected Lewis contract from Triple-A Round Rock. Cheap Vans SK8 . - The Clippers have signed guard Dahntay Jones to a second 10-day contract. http://www.vanssalestore.com/vans-old-skool-clearance.html . -- The Orlando Magic finally are showing the patience in critical moments that coach Jacque Vaughn has been waiting for all season.TORONTO -- An early-morning trade by the Toronto Maple Leafs paid off immediately Saturday night as the acquisition of centre Peter Holland moved James van Riemsdyk back to his natural left wing position. Van Riemsdyk scored twice and Nikolai Kulemin picked up the game-winner as Toronto snapped a three-game losing skid with a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. The Maple Leafs (12-7-1) placed the newly acquired Holland on its top line between Phil Kessel and van Riemsdyk. Van Riemsdyk, who has spent his entire career on the wing, looked comfortable back on the left side, scoring his eighth and ninth goals of the season in the first period. The 24-year-old had been pointless in his previous five games, four of those at centre. "Im probably a little more comfortable playing there," van Riemsdyk said. "It allows me to do some different things. Being in front of the net a lot more often, thats a big part of my game obviously." At 5:45, van Riemsdyk re-directed a Cody Franson point shot to open the scoring. Then at 13:35, on a power play, van Riemsdyk re-directed another Franson shot to give Toronto a 2-0 lead. "We work on that quite a bit in practice, tipping the pucks and shooting pucks to the net," van Riemsdyk said. "We have a little bit of that chemistry where I know where the puck is going to go. Thats all you ask for as a forward is for the puck to get to the net and I just got to tip it and hopefully it goes in." Kulemin made it 3-0 at 11:49 of the second period on just his third shot on goal of the season. Mason Raymond had the other goal for the Leafs. James Reimer made 33 saves to move to 5-2-0 on the season. Jonas Enroth made 18 saves for first-career loss against the Leafs. Jamie McBain got Buffalo (5-16-1) on the board 2:15 into the third with a slap shot, which beat Reimer glove-side for his second of the season. With the Sabres trailing 3-1 in the third, tempers boiled over following a collision between John Scott and Dion Phaneuf. During the next stoppage in play, Phaneuf crosschecked Cody McCormick as the two exchanged words. Torontos Colton Orr immediately stepped in and earned himself a 10-minute misconduct. "I kind off fell a little bit," said Phaneuf, explaining the situation. Cheap Vans Shoes. "I obviously ran into (Scott), hes a big man. I was just going over to kind of talk to him a little bit and obviously McCormick came in, thats part of the game." Scott and Frazer McLaren each received 14 minutes in penalties on the play, ending their respective nights early after taking misconducts. A total of 30 minutes in penalties were handed out during the altercations. Tyler Ennis got the Sabres to within one when he one-timed a Matt Moulson feed for his third of the season past Reimer at 6:11. "We got off to a little bit of a slow start but I was more impressed with the game tonight than I was with last night," said Sabres coach, Ted Nolan. "I thought the majority of the play was in their zone the whole third period and the last part of the second period. We have some corrections we have to make and Im looking forward to doing that." Mark Fraser left the game in the first period after playing five shifts and 3:54. Post-game Randy Carlyle said Fraser suffered a lower-body injury. The Leafs defenceman has already missed 13 games this season with a knee injury. Earlier in the day, Toronto acquired Holland and Brad Staubitz from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for defenceman Jesse Blacker and a conditional third-round draft pick. Staubitz was sent to the AHLs Toronto Marlies. Holland, a native of Caledon, Ontario, said he found out about the trade this morning then caught a flight from Boston arriving in Toronto at 3 p.m. local time. "Dave Nonis gave me a call, said they were excited to have me," Holland said. "Its obviously really exciting to be playing with JVR and Phil. Two pretty special players. So to step in to the line-up and play with those guys is pretty fun. I thought we created some chances." Notes: Toronto assigned centre Troy Bodie to the Marlies. Leafs centre Nazem Kadri served the second game of his three game suspension for his hit to the head of Minnesota Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom and is eligible to return to Torontos line up Nov. 21. Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly was a healthy scratch for the fifth time this season. ' ' '