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I'm in the Empire State, but I don't have cable, so unless they're showing it on PAX, I don't think I'll be watching.

I will be watching the Rochester-Syracuse game on Saturday, though.

MP

Do you think I'm getting enough baseball?

There is such a thing as enough baseball now ? :-)

Be glad you can't see the game. This is becoming depressing. 3 games, none of which have even been competitive yet.

When do the Tigers come to town?

Argh!!!

I get the Fan 590 via ExpressVu, but they're doing a Raptors game instead. A RAPTORS GAME!!! It sometimes seems as if Ol' Ted deliberately trying to annoy us ExpressVu subscribers...

Thankfully WCBS is coming in reasonably well on my radio. I'm not sure how long the signlal will last, or if I even want it to last -- Hendrickson is getting hammered and John Sterling is his usual obnoxious self.

There was talk that the league would lift the Canadian blackout on MLB.tv Jays games for ones not broadcast in Toronto. Did anyone try it tonight?

I've got mlb.com gameday audio, and I'm listening to Tom and Jerry on that. I'm probably going to give up on this one soon. Oh well - wait until next year :-).

never thought i would be looking forward to sturtze pitching,the jays will hopefully win 6 of this first 20 toughies

What a wonderful week. Seven home runs hit off Jays pitching in three games against the Yankees, and we're about to get three days of freezing rain. Can we take a mulligan and start this month over? :-)

There is such a thing as enough baseball now ?

There's certainly such a thing as enough of this kind of baseball.

A few more comments:

- I wish I had a fragment of Jerry Howarth's buoyant optimism. He managed to sound excited when he said, "And the Jays now trail 9 to 3!" How do you do that?

- Mondesi's overall suckiness stands out on the Yankees like a sore thumb. I give him until Memorial Day, or until the Yanks trade for Vlad, whichever comes first.

- Wake up, Josh!

- I can picture a certain baseball columnist, whose name shall not be uttered, gleefully sharpening his poison pen (if I may be permitted to mix metaphors here). Some days, it's not easy being a member of the Zombie-Like Cult.

Tghe game be heard on 610 AM (Niagara Falls) - it's also broadcast online from their website (cktb.com, I believe - a google search will find it)

If there's one thing this series has highlighted for me, it's just how amazing the Yankees offense has the capacity to be this season. All the offseason hubbub surrounded their pitching, but this is an excellent, well-rounded offense with no weak spots (even Mondesi is only below-average for a RF, not below-average overall, I don't think).
If the old arms hold up, I think they're the team to beat.

Hendrickson's ERA : 37.80.

If there's one thing this series has highlighted for me, it's just how amazing the Yankees offense has the capacity to be this season.

Absolutely agreed. This is going to be a fantastic offense. Of course, they look even better when they get a succession of little dolly pitches to tee off on.

Oh well. Bad series, we'll get 'em in Yankee in two weeks.

I shouldn't have written them off! 9-7.

It's still early in the year, but Contreras is starting to look an awful lot like Hideki Irabu.

Trapped at work, but Yahoo! is the website that just keeps on keepin' on...

Steady as she goes, Tam, my dear journeyman. Steady as she goes.

FWIW, the Yankees radio guys have been critical of Tosca for going strictly by the book tonight. They weren't impressed that he used up his two lefties in the bullpen early in the game, leaving only righties to face New York's left-handed bench. I haven't followed tonight's game closely enough to know if that's a fair criticism.

I'm happier now - at least they're putting up a fight. Nice to see the bullpen do so well - this time last year, they would have put Scott Cassidy into the game.

Politte seemed to do fine, so Tosca going by the book hasn't hurt the team yet.

Yeah, that was nice. Acevedo gets to show what he's made of now.

"Well tip your cap to Raul Mondesi..."

Yuck.

Apparently Acevedo is made of something.

A quote from the always-irritating John Sterling:

"Yankees win! Thuhuhuhuh(cough) Yankees win!"

I was hoping it would take a bit longer for Bordick to make his first error. A shame.

In "Managerial Success" news, Tosca has called for 2 intentional walks tonight. The first led to a force out at second, as all good intentional walks do, and the other was followed up with a fly ball that ended the inning. Not bad.

Well, erasing an 8-run deficit against the Yankees would've been sweet, but it just wasn't meant to be. The Jays lineup looks like it's all it was cracked up to be.
The pitching, on the other hand... Halladay and Lidle had effective days with a few bad pitches, but Hendrickson looked like an ex-NBAer throwing to the New York Yankees. How did he throw in spring training? I always wondered about him being handed a rotation spot so easily....

The YES broadcast was on Rogers MLB Extra Innings (even though it was not carried in the U.S. MLB Extra Innings on cable or satellite). Apparently this is the dividend of the Squish dropping even the pretense of carrying ESPN games this year. But somebody at Rogers presumably was on the ball to make this happen.

Kay and Murcer have that Yankee arrogance but it's still better to listen to than Faulds' goofiness. There is obvious respect when Kay refers to J.P. though.

It looks like Rogers won't be carrying the Friday game vs the Twins (it's not on the U.S. cable or satellite schedules and the Rogers Interactive Guide for Friday doesn't list it either. So I will pick up Tom and Jerry off the web.

The Tue Apr 8 and Mon Apr 21 games vs Boston are listed on the cable Extra Innings schedule, as are the Apr 15 and 17 games in NY. The Fri Apr 18 game is on WSBK. Weekend audio I can get from AM 1310 here in Ottawa. So I get to avoid Faulds all but one day in the next week and a half. :-)

Links to 2003 Spring Training Stats and in particular the Blue Jays 2003 Spring Training Stats. Hendrickson had a low ERA but not many K's.

Thanks Stephen - well, a 1:1 K to BB ratio... that doesn't make me feel better at all.
Aside: Aquilino Lopez had 19 spring Ks and just 2 BBs. Wow!

Coach, whats the deal on the TS Season Pass?

Do you get a designated seat for the whole year? Or do you have to get a ticket before each game? Is the Pass issued just to you? Can somebody else use it?

Jason, my understanding is that the pass is issued just to you, it's non-transferable. And you don't get a reserved seat.

Jason, you have to show photo ID when you buy it, and again before each game. There are special windows at the box office (near Gate 9) where you present the pass and are then issued a ticket; the lineups for that exchange were long on Monday -- the early crowd was enormous for the opener -- but Tuesday was a breeze.

Craig's right; unless you have a twin brother and give him your ID, it's not transferable. And you'll get the "best available" seat in the Star sections (upper 500-level) so bring your binoculars.

I have no comment about last night's game. Didn't see it or hear it, and what little I saw of "highlights" wasn't pretty. Next up, Tanyon Sturtze is the designated opponent at the Twins' home opener. However, the way this season is going, the guy we all expect to get bombed will pitch a 2-hit shutout.

More Torstar Pass Info:

Lots of Torstar pass holders did not get tickets on opening day. The 500 level sold out, and no seat upgrades were offered. So these are not guaranteed seats -- keep that in mind for high-demand games.

You can also purchase a guest Torstar pass for the same amount ($81). Which is effectively a transferable pass (i.e. no ID has to be shown by your guest).

This is a comment about the meeting at Christie Pits. What happened at the meeting? I'm not sure how I'm not getting calls about this.

If you're not a Toronto Playgrounds Rep coach, C., you didn't miss a thing. If you are, I'm sure you'll get a copy of the minutes, featuring tournament budgets, practice times, fundraising -- all the glamorous stuff. And speaking of fundraising, anybody who wants to support youth baseball downtown -- unlike the city's Parks & Rec department -- is encouraged to e-mail me. Donations go toward paying the OBA fees for some players whose families can't afford to, and replacing equipment. You won't be supporting my Rookie Ball team specifically, but the T.P. Rep teams as a whole, at all age levels, and many of these kids really need the help.

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Coach: Have you coached rookie ball before? Have you played in Bob Stark's rookie ball tournament in London?

I ask because I was one of the two head umps for that tournament for several years. We may have crossed paths after all.

MP

I coached the Newmarket Rep team in the mid-90's. We won three tournaments including the Canadian Open in Kitchener in 1995, and I know we played in London either that year or the following year, but we lost in the semi-finals. Great facilities there. For those who don't know about rookie ball, it's the transition years (age 8 and 9) between T-ball and real baseball; a pitching machine, fed by a coach, throws 40-mph strikes. It's my favourite age group; no offence to my high school guys who are midgets and bantams, but the rookie ballers rarely miss practices because of dates or jobs, and they're not "too cool" to be enthusiastic.

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Yeah.. Rookie Ball is a ton of fun. You get a lot more angry parents than you do in highschool, tho.

Newmarket.. did you guys wear grey with blue lettering (kind of like the Royals?). I remember atleast one Newmarket team being in every tournament. I'm not sure if I worked the '95 or '96 tournaments (though I probably did). I definately worked the '97-'99 ones.

MP

It wasn't a good day for Toronto's Sally League affiliate yesterday. Charleston just narrowly avoided having a combined perfect game pitched against them:

The recap from Charleston's site and the box score from Baseball America (scroll down). At least Brandon League pitched well.