Bleah.

Here's another image from Saturday's Toronto Bauxite Baseball League championship game -- this time, it's a colour panorama as the fog rolls in:

As Magpie discussed, this could be the series that sees the Yankees as division winners for the 54th straight year. New York has actually lost two in a row (shock and awe, I know); losing both games of a doubleheader to the Red Sox on Sunday. Before then, though, they had won 7 in a row and their recent THT sparkline ("up" for a win, "down" for a loss) looks like this: .

The immortal trio of Darrell Rasner, Jeff Karstens and Sean Henn are the probable pitchers for this three-game set. Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like a law firm rather than a championship rotation? (Also note that Rasner will be going on three days of rest.) Anyway, with virtually no time to put together a preview of a team most readers already know pretty well in advance of a series that means very little to the home team at this point of the year, this Advance Scout will be more of a collaborative effort.

Call it groundbreaking, call it Wikipedia-like, call it a cop-out in favour of spending more time with the identity matrix. In any event, it's time to proceed...

On to the Advance Scout!

The Yankees come into the RC for three games. They may be in a snarly mood. A sweep of yesterday's double-header would have eliminated the Red Sox. Instead Boston swept them. Just to make matters worse, Derek Jeter's hit streak ended at 25 games, with the Yankee captain standing in the on-deck circle, his team trailing by a run, and the tying run on base. It was the longest hitting streak by any Yankee since Joe Gordon hit in 29 games in a row back in 1942. I think the team record was set the year before that...

And there's more...

The Toronto Bauxite Baseball League had their championship game on Saturday night; what follows is twenty-seven photographs that I took at the game. When the fog rolled in and obscured centre field... well, see for yourself.

I've presented these without naming the participants or describing the game -- Bauxites who were there, feel free to name and shame yourselves and tell stories of being hit by pitches or being cracked up by inappropriate striding-to-the-plate music. Personally, I have to thank Jobu for his inspired choice of the theme from Family Ties. What would we do baby, without you?

Enough blather -- on to the photographs!

Now, with a nod to our own grandiloquent Daniel "Magpie" McIlroy, it's time to build up a Hall of Names roster for the twelfth most-common male name in the U.S. -- as you might've guessed, that'd be "Daniel."

Though we were tempted to again go with an avian nickname such as "The J. Danforth Quails," instead we'll name this squad with another nod, to the biggest-selling (so far) English-language novel of the 21st century, The Da Vinci Code ... That's right, it's time to meet ...

Hey, for once, the Devil Rays didn't blow a lead!

The Jays have notified the Appalachian League that they will not be in Pulaski next year, and apparently are planning to have five minor league affiliates rather than six next year, according to Baseball America.

Thanks to mendocino for the tip.

Not satisfied with one series from the 15th to the 17th of another month, these two teams are at it again in September. The Devil Rays, as is their wont, are not very good. They were swept by the Yankees, and didn't hold a lead after the first inning in either of the first two games. Their 19 road wins are the fewest in baseball; their 53 road losses are the most.

In other words: it's another team out of contention, and, due to the fun of university, another reduced Scout. Coming to you live between calculus and combinatorics...

On to the Advance Scout!

By request, here's a panorama view of the field at Rogers Centre from way up in section 518:

Now that we've finished up Hall of Names teams for each of the 10 most common boys' names in the United States (again, if you know of a free online Canadian equivalent, post a link here!), it's time to move on to #11 -- Christopher.

Compared to the other names we've looked at, there is a shocking dearth of players in MLB history with that designation; once you remove all the players with that middle name, along with the five men with the last/family name Christopher (as well as early '80s DET LHP Mike Chris), there are only just over 100 or so candidates to choose from. And just one Hall of Famer -- Christopher "Christy" Mathewson is a good one to have heading the rotation, though.

He's heading that rotation for a squad that bears an avian nickname like Toronto's hometown Blue Jays; the home ballpark is the Three Acre Wood, and it's time to meet ...

I know, I promised VBF a panorama of the inside of the Rogers Centre today, but I cannot let Gregg Zaun's fantastic day in Seattle yesterday go unappreciated.  Ladies and gentlemen, give up your desktops for THIS MAN:

Toronto’s Charlie Wholestaff can’t quite match Seattle’s Gil Meche and a cast of thousands.

Travis Snider had a highly successful debut in professional baseball.  What does the future hold for him?

Last time he was sneaking around the basepaths; this time Jason Phillips is smackin' the magical mud off of a baseball: