Yesterday, former Batter's Box author and University of Waterloo math student Rob Pettapiece inexplicably found himself at Opening Day for the Intercounty Baseball League's Kitchener Panthers. Was he bored with the Jays? Really hard-core about baseball? Just happened to be in the area? I guess you'll have to read on to find out. Take it away, Rob!

Photographs courtesy of Brock McNichols.

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Apparently the press box at Jack Couch Park is "usually unbearably hot and humid" but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who wasn't shivering up there yesterday. During the third inning, the smell of fried onions from the concession stand below drifted up, leading one reporter to remark not that he was hungry, but that those onions could be used for warmth.

Outside yesterday in the 14-degree sun, the Kitchener Panthers of the Intercounty Baseball League played their home opener against the Guelph Royals. Kitchener lost the first game of the home-and-home in Guelph on Saturday by a score of 10-0, so they were looking to at least push one across and keep the other team in single digits. Or win, I suppose.

The draft will be on ESPN2 this year. Baseball now has moved into the 21st century - thanks for joining the rest of us!

June 7th is the big day (a month from today!?!) beginning at 2 pm and each team will get 5 minutes to make a pick. (Under the current format teams typically made their pick within one minute over a conference call).

I've always wondered how hockey could televise their draft but baseball couldn't. Aren't the two sports pretty similar in terms of player development? You draft a player at 18 or 20, and it takes a few years to make it to the Big Show.

Nowhere to go but up, right?

Three wins and no losses for the affiliates, all wins were come from behind efforts.  Syracuse had to tie the game in the ninth and win it in the twelfth.  New Hampshire went ahead in the seventh while Lansing scored seven runs in the fifth to turn around a 3-0 deficit.  Michael MacDonald and Orlando Trias each made their first starts since being promoted and each had some learning to do.

Rotation got problems? Easy solution: sign a Hall of Famer!

Roger Clemens, owner of 348 career wins, has decided to return to the American League and to Bronx pinstripes, after three years (and a 38-18 record) with his "hometown" Houston Astros.

Clemens announced he has agreed to a minor league contract with the Yankees and most likely will join the Bombers after several minor league starts help him get into game shape.

Your thoughts, Bauxites?

In honor of yesterday's 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby, let's see if we can have the "Sweet Sense" to piece together a Hall of (Place) Names team made up entirely of MLB alumni who were born in the Bluegrass State.

There have been 260 such men so far -- frankly, more than I thought there would be ...

One win in four attempts for the affiliates.  New Hampshire behind outstanding pitching from Jesse Litsch won 3-1.  Aaron Mathews and Dustin Majewski led the offense for the Fisher Cats.  Elsewhere Ty Taubenheim feels like Roy Halladay, AJ Wideman pitched well for Dunedin while Travis Snider continued his education in Lansing.

The Blue Jays are stumbling. Call for the Doctor.

The affiliates split the four games as Mike MacDonald earns a well-deserve promotion to Syracuse. None of the Jays organization’s starting pitchers pitched well last night, although Josh Banks remains undefeated. However, some of the bats came to play, including Sergio Santos who is trying to prove that his demotion to Double-A was a mistake and that he's overcome his struggles at Syracuse.

Ok, enough with the Indians.

Bring on the Rangers!

The farm affiliates went 3-1 on Thursday. After a brief review, it's on to the statistical summary of the 2007 performances of the organization's top pitching prospects.

One month doesn't mean a lot - a single very hot or very cold week can skew everything - but there are some interesting developments.

If you've got the time, we've got the boxscores. The Jay farm affiliates had the distinct pleasure of facing the Miller prospects, Buffalo's Adam and Lakeland's Andrew, and were unable to score against either but still managed a split of those two games and went 1-3 overall.

The affiliates were 2-2 last night with both wins coming in A ball.

And yes, that is a lame title.

It is one of my Principles of Baseball Thinking that you must make up your mind slowly. Make judgements slowly. Come to conclusions slowly.

No, more slowly than that.