A 2-4 night in the minors.

Craig Biggio will retire at the end of this season.  It has been a long and interesting ride for Biggio, which will now almost certainly end with a trip to Cooperstown. His career is an example of what can be done with a player with adaptability and a broad range of skills.  Paul Molitor, Pete Rose and Biggio come to mind quickly as examples.  The list of the greatest leadoff hitters ever is fascinating: Henderson, Raines, Biggio, Billy Hamilton, Boggs, Rose, Molitor, and Ichiro. Not all of them were likeable, but all had some qualities that one could admire.  Biggio certainly fits in.

"Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
-- Richard P. Feynman

Feynman was a great man, a brilliant physicist and one of the leading thinkers of the 20th century. But, at least as far as this chapter in Baseball's Hall of Names is concerned, when it came to PR, he didn't know jack.

Or, more appropriately, he didn't know Pete -- as in Rose (Sr. or Jr.) or Reiser or Runnels, just a few of the many players in big league history with a name that bore the initials "P.R."

But given my own chosen profession -- make that PRofession -- of corporate communications, maybe by invoking the help of baseball's marketing godhead Bill Veeck, we can formualate a decent roster of players from these PR (take your) "hacks." Maybe not.

Let's find out as we meet ...

The Jays hit a bunch of HRs to beat the Twins 6-4.

Jack Wilson?  Apparently not.  Of course, I think that just might be trying to drive the price down - there's not a lot of SS options coming up this offseason.  The John McDonald line is nice and all, but everytime McDonald starts to get regular playing time he eventually hits a big 0-fer slump.  And he still doesn't have a hit since the All Star break.

The affiliates located in New York State ruined what would've been a perfect night on the farm.  At least Auburn had an excuse, they had the night off.  Syracuse could only wish they had one after getting swept in a doubleheader by Buffalo but at least a rehabbing Venezuelan lefty got some work in.   Lansing wound up playing more than a doubleheader's worth of baseball but not by design and New Hampshire picked up an important win in a 4-and-2 night for the affiliates.

After neatly disposing of Felix Hernandez, the Jays move on to an even more daunting adversary: Johan Santana. He'll face Shaun Marcum in a quality pitching matchup tonight. Thereafter, the Jays will see two righties they've already seen twice this year.

Hitting was in short supply for the affiliates yesterday, in five games only two hitters had more than one hit.  Sal Fasano had two for the Chiefs and Manny Rodriguez had three for the Doubledays.  The affiliates managed to squeeze out two wins, Auburn won 2-1 on a solo home run by Rodriguez and the Cheifs won game two of a twin-bill with Fasano hitting a solo shot in that game.  Josh Banks and Ricky Romero had good starts.

Some pitchers are poker players.  Their faces tell you nothing, or a message that they want you to receive.  Jimmy Key might have been a boiling cauldron of emotion on the mound, but you would never know it by looking at him.  Dave Stewart's death glare was dishonest but quite effective in producing somewhat intimidated hitters. Other pitchers show anger, frustration and other lively feelings more  readily on the mound.  Yesterday's game in Toronto featured high anxiety from Josh Towers.

Initially Speaking, That Is

More than two years ago, we started a special "series" of Hall of Names features that sought to answer the apparently-not-so-burning question, "who are the best double-initial players for each of the ... letters of the English alphabet?" We kicked off in August of '05 by looking at teams of players with the initials AA, BB and CC. Then things ... slowed down a bit.

A couple of Gonzalez's produced star-worthy performances on Saturday as the affiliates went 4-1.  Reidier Gonzalez pitched a complete game shutout for Lansing.  Jesus Gonzalez went 4-5 as Dunedin won easily.  Joel Collins hit two home runs to power the GCL Jays's offense.  Brett Cecil got back on track as Auburn won in extras.  New Hampshire took the lone loss as Syracuse were flood victims.

Thanks to AWeb for this idea ... I'm embarrassed I didn't think of it myself. With the relase of the latest Harry Potter movie and the last Harry Potter book this summer, let's forget about quidditch for a bit and see if these wizards and muggles can't play a bit of baseball. So, as AWeb wrote, this is "in tribute to the Potter-release day ... [though] I'm not sure if there are enough 'normal' names to make up a team" ...

And while it's true we won't find a big leaguer named "Hermione" or "Severus" we will take this opportunity to pull out the Hall of Names Sorting Hat to meet ...

Jason Phillips has been released and Curtis Thigpen has been called up to take his place. 

"We want to give Thigpen a little look here and see what we got. That's basically it," Jays manager John Gibbons said after a 4-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners. "He's going to play, he'll at least get a couple of games a week."

The GCL Blue Jays had their game suspended by rain while New Hampshire made up for a rainout by splitting a doubleheader. Auburn lost convincingly and Syracuse was dominated by Sowers. However, the bright and noteworthy occurred in full-season A-ball, where Lansing pitchers put on a dazzling display and Dunedin staged a late-inning comeback.

I admit it, I can get pretty narcissistic here on Batter's Box when my birthday rolls around. So before this year's rendition completely rolls into the history books, what can we do to, um, "celebrate" this year? In years past, we've already seen the All-July 20 team and the All-Mick(ey) squad, even putting together one HoN entry that featured two teams, All-"Doc" and All-MD ... then last year, upon reaching a milestone (or is that millstone?), we met the All-Age-40 team, followed later (without actually waiting for, y'know, today) by the All-Age-41 squad. So are we totally out of ideas?

Not on your (okay, my) life ...

Of course, it became apparent to me very quickly that they had no extraordinary talent at all. They have fought their way out of a number of tight corners by a simple combination of sheer luck and J.J. Putz. They are mediocre to the last degree, though as obnoxious and self-satisfied as were the White Sox before them. The Jays will do their utmost to have them thrown out of the pennant race, where I believe they scarcely belong...