http://www.startribune.com/stories/509/4744086.html
COMN for the game from the perspective of the Twin Cities.

Does the Box have any other OHL fans?

Hamilton Steelhawks all the way!

Say wha...? What do you mean they're not around anymore?? Ah, screw it...

My Knights are out of the playoffs. It's a shame, because I thought they could go all the way this year. Does the Box have any other OHL fans?

Run that by me again - How is it a shame? Don't worry, the Storm will have no problem going all the way from this point. The OHL Eastern conference is a chew toy for the OHL Western conference.

I'm a fair-weather Kitchener Rangers fan. Last year they were absolutely dominant and I went to a lot of games, including the very last game of the season in which they finished off Ottawa for the championship. Absolutely awesome. You could have played the game in the SkyDome, with the same 6,000 fans, and it still would have been electric. This year the Rangers came down to being pretty mediocre and I only went to a couple games.

If Myers goes on the DL, who gets the call?

I spent a week getting that damn song out of my head, Mike. A week! And now it's right back in there, wedged firmly against my cerebral cortex like a piece of shrapnel. Starship, We Built This City, and I'm glad Ted Lilly pitched a complete-game two-hitter against the Fish Candy! You hear me? Glad!

In the Great Turf Attrition War of 2004, the Jays have taken out Dmitri Young for weeks while losing Greg Myers for only a short while. I'd say they're ahead.

I think Gregg Zaun will be called up from Syracuse, and one of the Jays' many middling catching prospects will replace Zaun as Guillermo Quiroz's backup.

That's the only reason I posted it today. BECAUSE I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD SINCE FRIDAY!!! If I have to suffer, the rest of you do too.

I'm glad Ted Lilly pitched a complete-game two-hitter against the Fish Candy! You hear me? Glad!

Meh. I'm glad Hinske and Wells tag-teamed up on the Magicians. Plus we're up 9-3, which given the sample size, is an insurmountable lead.

St. Michaels Majors fan here. Believe me, I feel your pain. Even moreso, since St. Mike's is now, I believe, 0 for 4 in Eastern Conference finals.

Ahem, Kitchener wins last year and all of a sudden OHL West is like NBA West??? We'll see who is the chew toy...

Tampa has nearly identical turf as Minnesota. Have they had injury problems? I tend to think Minnesota's injuries are just a coincidence.

There's several teams in the NFL that play on similar surfaces and the turf (or artifical grass as I like to call it) gets rave reviews.

The worst of it is, I've got Batista going against the Twins again tonight, and I share your apprehension about the result of that matchup.

You should bench him. Then he'd throw a complete game no-hitter.

My Knights are out of the playoffs. It's a shame, because I thought they could go all the way this year. Does the Box have any other OHL fans?

Not to fear Moffat, next year's Knights are the team to beat. This year's Knights weren't supposed to be this good. My parents are London Knights fans - I spent most of my youth at the old London Gardens (Later "The Ice House").

On a side note, did you know that Rick Nash still has Jr. eligibility? If the NHL strikes next year, he could come back to the Knights. Of course, that would be horrible for all parties involved.

A few things...

1a. Do the Vikings still play at the Metrodome? I seem to remember Mr. Godfrey (or Mr. Ash) telling us that the reason they can't put fieldturf in SkyDome is that it's a multipurpose stadium. Clearly the interpid people of Minnesota have figured something out...

1b. Is SkyDome now the only major league field that still uses the old astroturf?

2. Nice to see the boys on a little winning streak. Once the Leafs are eliminated by this time next week, hopefully the Jays will be winning again and they'll start to get some positive attention from the Toronto sports media.

3. I spent the first twenty-three years of my life in London. The whole time the Knights are crappy and their stadium is even worse. I move six-hundred kilometers away, and now they have a great team and a great stadium. Oh well. At least I've spent the last seven years able to cheer for the team run by the greatest coach the OHL will ever have...

3. You want a song you can't get out of your head?
Go to Kenya.

On a side note, did you know that Rick Nash still has Jr. eligibility? If the NHL strikes next year, he could come back to the Knights. Of course, that would be horrible for all parties involved.

Yeah. I had to put up with my Dad saying "Imagine what we'd be like if Columbus would give us Nash back!" over and over this year. :)

This year was fun, though I only got to go to a handful of games. Now Hannah is moving back to London, I'm sure we'll go to lots more.

For the record, I absolutely loved the old London Gardens, even if it was a dump.

Was Myers injury caused by the turf?
It looked like he started to go down in the dirt near the bag.

Random thoughts...

Remember POWERPLAY, featuring the Hamilton Steelheads? Gordon Pinchot rocked as Duff McArdle--"Have a Bugle: the tasty snack made out of corn."

Go Rob Ducey!

For the record, I absolutely loved the old London Gardens, even if it was a dump.

Agreed! Remember how everybody used to throw their popcorn boxes on the ice after the games? Or how the popcorn was so salty that you basically HAD to buy a pop. Remember how horrible the back parking lot was in the winter?

It was my minor league hockey team's home arena - we used to play there Saturday mornings. Quite often the penalty box or the bench would have a trail of blood leading back to the trainer's room.

The JLC is very nice though. Like a mini ACC.

BTW - reading yesterday's game thread over I noticed that nobody is really gushing over Lilly's start yet? Looks like it'll take a few of those to win us over. What a gem though. You go Ted.

Ahem, Kitchener wins last year and all of a sudden OHL West is like NBA West??? We'll see who is the chew toy...

This year, St.Mike's had the most points in the East with 85, followed by Mississauga with 83. The West was led by London with 110 points and Guelph with 103.

Ottawa was the 4th-best team in the East, but their 71 points wouldn't have made the playoffs in the West. C'est un parabola of course, or whatever that saying is that Moffatt likes to quote about other things being equal.

The Eastern conference compiled 667 points to the Western conference's 757. The collective winning percentange in the East was .489, in the West .564. Given that each Western team plays each Eastern team only twice in the regular season, there was some serious East-thumping going on.

Yup, the East is the chew toy. I'll grant you that the disparity was greater last year.

Y'all should appreciate AGF's pair of pitching performances against me last night:

R. Johnson 7 IP 0 R .29 WHIP (2 H) 10/0 K/BB

Taking the loss in that game:
Carlos Zambrano 4.1 IP 2.77 WHIP (10 H)7 ER 2/1 K/BB

Johnson was amazing last night. Took the headlines away from Lilly.

Paul Z : I'd just like point out that there are not actually any tigers in Kenya.

There aren't tigers in Kenya?? Did they all move away for jobs in zoos and Las Vegas? And what about Kenya urinating on Norway? I don't know what to believe anymore.

That's a really funny toon. I looked at the other ones too ... don't click on the hamster!

Technically, I said - if they don't turn things around immediately - then Tosca should pay with his job.

Relax, Jordan, Batista will be fine. Now, Santana is another story.

Technically, I said - if they don't turn things around immediately - then Tosca should pay with his job.

Sorry Jim. And here I was giving you credit! :)

http://www.ibiblio.org/jmaynard/TRONcostume/
I loved that Kenya song. In fact, the song by Starship isn't so bad either...anyway, here's my stupid link for your perusal. COMN if you feel you waste too much time on this site. Check the site out and think "At least I'm not that guy."

The true credit goes to Francona, he kept them from getting swept by the Red Sox.

Check the site out and think "At least I'm not that guy."

Um, how did you come across this?
And yes, I'm glad I'm not that guy.

It was on Fark and Slashdot. Pretty funny stuff.

My Knights are out of the playoffs. It's a shame, because I thought they could go all the way this year. Does the Box have any other OHL fans?

another ranger fan here. i went to the 4th game of the london/guelph series in guelph and cheered for the knights. not because i like the knights (and boy do i not like the knights) but because as a ranger fan i hate the storm so much.

http://www.spankwad.com/
I got the link from SomethingAwful.com actually.

This movie, however, I got from Baseball Musings and is baseball related - COMN again.

Sudbury Wolves fan here. I'm not proud of it, especially when the Mississauga Ice Dogs make it to the OHL final before the Wolves did. How sad is that? The Wolves gave St. Mike's a good run and I'm not sorry Mississauga beat them. I hate the Majors with a passion and thankfully, they're in the same boat as Sudbury is as far as winning anything significant. Oh no, my mistake, the Wolves did win the Mem Cup in 1932!! Really, the Majors are now the Philadelphia Eagles of the OHL. I'm sorry London didn't make it to the final, especially with former Wolf Dale Hunter behind the bench. London fans must be in a world of pain today.

There aren't tigers in Kenya?? Did they all move away for jobs in zoos and Las Vegas?

There are no tigers in Africa. Tigers live only in Asia.

Barry Bonds Watch

Short Watch today as I am working on something else.

Barry Bonds went 0-for-1 with three walks in a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves. The lone out was a seven-pitch strikeout (swinging) by Horacio Ramirez in the second inning. Bonds was walked twice intentionally and once on four pitches by Kevin Gryboski. He did not score; Jeffrey Hammonds and A.J. Pierzynski went a combined 0-for-6 behind him.

Bonds saw nineteen pitches; fifteen balls and four strikes (three swinging). The three walks lifted his OBP to .703 and his batting average fell back to .500.

Bonds's full-season pace:

 G   AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB SO SB  AVG  OBP  SLG   OPS
154 356 138 178 41  0 73 162 243 41  8 .500 .703 1.227 1.930 

There's baseball on Internet radio right now, with Dustin McGowan pitching in Akron. I linked to the feed in the minor-league thread; it's 1-0 NH in the middle of the fourth.

Relax, Jordan, Batista will be fine. Now, Santana is another story.

I'm considering trading for Santana in a non-BBFL league. I know he had minor surgery if the offseason, and left one game with a weird forearm injury, but I believe he's pitched 2-3 times since then without any problems.

Are there other things I should be worried about?

http://bluejayscheerclub.com
The JLC is very nice though. Like a mini ACC.

How big is it? My wife got me Bowie tickets (picked the JLC over the ACC because it's presumably smaller and the date was closer to my birthday) for next month, we have what are called "Rail" seats, which I assume are standing room at one end of the arena.

9000 seats. I had tickets to that concert too, but I won't be going, coz I have to be at a conference.

Pistol, Santana's pitch counts have been consistently high, and he's giving up plenty of dingers. That's a bad combination for tonight against a Jays' team that seems to have located its patience.

As for his value generally, his K rates remain good, and I've read just a little about mechanical issues since his injury. I'd watch him tonight before making a decision.

http://bluejayscheerclub.com
Moffat -- my wife has a conference in Montreal the next day, starting at like 8am. We're going to the concert, then to the airport, then to Montreal, where she will learn things and I will look after people's kids on no sleep.

It'll be great.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-27-2004/0002160649&EDATE=
After the three-game win streak, Tosca is about as safe as any other bench boss in the league. Not so, says a leading offshore gameing company, BetWWTS.com, which has installed CT as the early favourite for first managerial exit of 2004. COMN

Another random Jays-related press release... This one's about Carlos Delgado, who's promoting oral hygiene. The picture is priceless!

BetWWTS.com, which has installed CT as the early favourite for first managerial exit of 2004.

Tosca at 4:1 and Bowa at 8:1? That's so far off that there must be arbitrage opportunities.

Just a quick note from the outside world.

Most of you in Toronto will have heard of Louise Russo, who was gunned down in a random drive-by shooting on Wednesday night. Louise Russo is a mother of three and has a disabled daughter who she is the primary caregiver for.

I know that everybody gets hit up for charitable donations all the time. I know you're probably sick of begging letters. But I know this story has horrified many people in the city and many people want to do something for the Russos, so I thought I would pass this along.

A trust fund has been set up for Louise and her daughter to help for the full-time care they will both need. Donations can be made at any CIBC branch to account #1421638, transit #06622. The name is the Louise Russo Trust Fund.

Hahahaha.. maybe we should go into the sports gambling derivatives market. Time to short sell some Carlos Tosca managerial options!

Those Fordin Notes were actually Bavaro Notes.

Wow.. Just wow. I hadn't read anything about the shooting. Do they have any leads on who did it?

Time to short sell some Carlos Tosca managerial options!

Hehe.

I wonder if there's anyone who does that? I can't see why there wouldn't be a market for puts and calls on betting odds. And surely the sports betting market has the dollar-volume to make it worthwhile. I bet that sports betting is bigger than, say, pork bellies.

Insurance companies would love it, as would hedge funds. (Hedges because there are all sorts of sports outcomes that must converge.)

--

Russo shootin gis just awful, thanks Craig.

I wonder if there's anyone who does that? I can't see why there wouldn't be a market for puts and calls on betting odds. And surely the sports betting market has the dollar-volume to make it worthwhile. I bet that sports betting is bigger than, say, pork bellies.

You should talk to my father in law. He's a financial math wizard. I'll ask him; he probably knows.

my wife has a conference in Montreal the next day
You're gonna love this segue...Speaking of conferences, anyone 25 and under is welcome and encouraged to attend a four day conference on social activism called Hungry4Change. The by youth, for youth event starts Thursday evening (April 29) at 6:30pm with a panel discussion on youth empowerment (I'll be speaking with activist/writer Jaggi Singh and a couple others). Everything's down at the Bahen Center on U of T's campus (40 St. George, just north of College), click on the link for details regarding the rest of the weekend's workshops. Most importantly, it's FREE and includes a vegan LUNCH Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

FINE PRINT: if you wish to stone my house (Moffat, lookin' at you), send me an email and I'll pass along my address...Just don't discuss this here.

Free lunch? Uh-oh, now you've REALLY made Mike upset.

(Economist jokes, eh?)

I'll be the guy wearing the Margaret Thatcher mask holding up a sign saying "There are no personal freedoms without free markets" wearing this shirt. :)

In that case, Mike, I'll have to say I don't know you, and that I don't recognize your face.

(Anyway, I don't really care who goes to that kind of place...)

(Anyway, I don't really care who goes to that kind of place...)

What, the T-shirt place? I just like that picture, as I see it every day plastered on Fark. :)

There are no tigers in Africa. Tigers live only in Asia.

There is CLEARLY a tiger (a *dancing* tiger) in Kenya in that cartoon. Maybe only the non-dancing tigers moved to Asia.

That brings up another question: why did the non-dancing tigers move from Africa? Did they eat all the zebras and leave to eat better elsewhere? When did tigers start using knives and forks?

PS - only 2 (count 'em t-w-o) games behind the Yanks in the loss column! Joy in Toronto today, baby!

Moffatt, if you're going to wear that T-shirt, you'll have to eat a ketchup sandwich for penance. Vegan, and a good source of nutrients, according to Ronnie.

Ketchup *is* good for you. It's full lycopene, a powerful antioxidant which has been shown to reduce the incidence of prostate cancer. Plus its yummy.

I've actually been thinking of going veg or vegan. Wonder if that's grounds to be kicked out of the Conservative party?

I dunno Green, Ketchup's made with sugar. Any idea if that sugar is of the white/refined nature? If it is you might have a vegan revolt on your hands.

Moffat, once I stop crying I'm sure I'll see the humour in that shirt.

Revolutionaries don't cry.

Just to call yourself a vegetarian Conservative, DO IT! I've been veggie since birth but I'm not sure I could survive without the joys of dairy and eggs...Plus, it's hard enough to avoid gelitan (sp?), eggs/milk are in everything.

Plus, it's hard enough to avoid gelitan (sp?), eggs/milk are in everything.

I think that's why veganism will never be popular. Sounds like too much work.

Vegetarianism teaches you to assert yourself early on. When it comes to offering explicity vegetarian dishes restaurants it's pretty easy nowadays (10 years ago it was like they had to re-invent the menu everytime my family went to eat). The two largest issues are grocery shopping and Quebec (but once you figure out which products are made with animal products and which aren't, shopping's easy).

http://bluejayscheerclub.com
I've actually been thinking of going veg or vegan. Wonder if that's grounds to be kicked out of the Conservative party?

If the pink hair didn't do it, nothing will. I guess Elsie didn't have enough clout left to get them to give you the boot, eh?

You pink-haired vegan conservative!

Hahahah. I bet Elsie is *still* bitching about me. :)

http://www.thoseshirts.com/coulter.html
Shokcing. A website has enshrined one of the most insensitive, hateful comments made by a national columnist in the last few years on a t-shirt. Just when I thought Ann Coulter couldn't get any worse, they decide to put her on clothing.

*HIJACK*

Is anyone else shocked Eric Karros will make his first trip to Yankee Stadium today for the upcoming A's-Yankees series? I was certianly suprised.

I'm sure that they have ketchup, made solely with GMO-free, organic tomatoes and GMO-free, organic unrefined sweetener of some type, at the health food store up the street. Now, I can't guarantee that "it's yummy".

Moffatt, revolutionaries do cry, they just don't stop looking their adversaries in the eye.

Elsie might be on her last political leg but does she dare give into the new wave of Moffat-style Conservatives? ;-)

That is the most horrific thing I have ever seen. KILL IT!!!

Ok so theres the cite layers, engineers, Ryan's, UKer's and now A-lefty group

Make that,

Ok so theres the site lawyers, engineers, Ryan's, UKer's and now A-lefty group