Thanks for any info you could provide.

I'm pretty sure Sympatico would be good for those sorts of things - they streamed last year's ALCS for free and my sympatico carried it nicely.

You get good quality live television feeds of every game, to my knowledge.

Absolutely. I remember last season before I discovered the Cheer Club, my friend brought a broom to the stadium when we were 3-0 in a series against I think the White Sox, to do, of course, the traditional sweeping motions over the edge of the seats.

Security confiscated it as an offensive weapon.

But on the plus side, the guy who he then went and appealed to said that there was nothing he could do about it, but that this anti-enthusiasm style of policy was merely a major facet of SportsCo. He suggested that if (and when) Rogers were to buy the stadium, things would be much better and fan friendly.

Hopefully no stupid old security guards yelling that we can only drum in between pitches.

Not to mention an usher one fine day who asked if we could only hang the Ks in between innings. Sigh.

This is why I am absolutely sure to never bring any sort of bag-like searchable appliance to a game. Keep it all in the pockets or in the hands, I say.

What?

For the uninitiated, the Yankees blew out Al Leiters's shoulder on April 14 1989 (he threw 160+ pitches on a cold wet night in the Bronx), and traded him to Toronto three weeks later. The Jays pitched him once and basically shut him down for the rest of the year.

He came back in 1990, and struggled with his control at two minor league levels. And he had some problems with blisters. That one year, in 1990. Not for years and years.

He pitched well in spring 1991, made the team, but he'd hurt his elbow and pulled a Cliff Politte/Chris Carpenter and tried to pitch through it. Young men do dumb things sometimes, especially when they're trying to establish themselves as major leaguers. This was dumb, and it set him back a year.

But the Jays didn't carry him on the roster through all of this out of the kindness of their hearts. If they had exposed him to the Rule 5, he would have been gone in a nano-second. Anyway, in 1992 he put together a healthy year at AAA, got his control together, and was ready to become a ML pitcher. Unfortunately for the Jays, the Yankees had started his ML service clock way back in 1987, and Leiter spent large parts of two seasons (1989 and 1991) on a major-league Disabled List. (In 1990 and 1992, he was pitching in the minors.)

But during this whole period, what did he cost? Next to nothing - the major league-minimum during those times when he was actually on the team, and a spot on the 40 man roster over the winter.

In 1993, he helped win a World Series, which surely ought to count for something. This wasn't Ken Dayley or Mike Sirotka. The Jays, Beeston in particular, smeared him mercilessly when he left because... they had to do something. They'd just screwed up the Roberto Alomar negotiation, Devon White and Paul Molitor were also heading out the FA door, and they needed someone to blame for their troubles.

OK, sorry for the rant. I always stick up for Al Leiter. I liked Leiter the first time I saw him - he brushed back George Bell, and then struck him out. (George being George he went and homered off him in his next at bat.)

I can do that rant in my sleep, ya know.

What can I say, it's a gift.

Actually, I think everyone just read Mick's preview of the Reds and are now sprawled on the floor, while their nearest and dearest huddle nearby with smelling salts. Paramedics are yelling "Clear!"

"And I will not speak of Cesar Izturis ever again."

Yep, my bad. It's scheduled for Saturday and I was editing it and it accidentally ended up going live. Not sure how that happened, but obviously, I fixed it.

For 2005, Gerry has him penciled in as the bullpen ace in New Hampshire.

Ah, no huge deal NFH (acronym names are fun). I told him I was in the cheer club, and commented that (since many people had been talking about low attendance) I don't care how many people are in the seats, since it doesn't matter if they're all silent. Then I thusly asked him to advise on how on earth you get a skydome crowd riled up.

Following a short discussion on the season pass and how great a deal it is, he remarked that toronto fans for nearly every single team in this city is incredibly low, even when we're in the playoffs. I didn't get a chance to respond and start a conversation though. At the very least, after being cut off he gave a nice plug for battersbox and for the cheer club, and criticised skydome security for shouting us down during that one yankees series.

And that's the story. Far too long in text for such a minor event.

Thank Rogers for that! I feared a spring training game-less preseason on sportsnet.

So we'll actually get to see a couple of games, and hopefully see (and hear) how good Jamie Campbell is.

With him as announcer, spring training games being televised, AND Richard Griffin being an optimist, everything's coming up Milhouse.

I suspect the spring Jays games will be picked up from American stations, rather than being original Sportsnet productions with Campbell et al.

I know. But Jamie Campbell was hosting the news last night. He'd be in Florida by now preparing to call his first game. Also, they haven't even named an analyst. Leading me to speculate that the spring games will be simulcasts.