The twelfth most common surname in North America is "Thomas." That's as a last/family name. The thing about "Thomas" is that it's also the tenth most common male first (given) name, and as such, also a pretty damn common middle name, though there aren't any obvious and relaiable statistics on that last point.

Speaking of points, the point here is that while there have been 38 big-league ballplayers -- the same number of instances the #11 name Anderson had, just as the #9 and #10 names, Moore and Taylor, each had exactly 47 apiece -- there have been far more with that appellation as a first or middle name.

In fact, even if you count only players who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame or made an All-Star team (thus ignoring virtually every first/middle-named Thomas who played before 1933), there have been 26 with the first name Thomas and 21 more with that middle name.

Perhaps here we should engage in a bit of, er, Thomistic clarification ...

Wow. You can't make this stuff up. The Red Sox are now in Year 1 of waiting for The Next Championship, scheduled for 2090 (every 86 years), while their AL East pals in pinstripes gave back what they took away from the Angels -- home field advantage -- after just a single day. Aaron Small is human, after all, choosing his post-season debut to break up his personal 10-0 Yankee perfect record. The Bosox/Chisox recap follows behind the "More" link, but feel free to comment on either game, kids.

THere is another installment in what will surely turn out be a multi-part series: let's think of it as a Post-Mortem Analysis of the 2005 Blue Jays.

How did the Blue Jays compare to their division rivals in scoring and preventing runs? Click on “more” and find out.

The National League takes the day off - the action's in the junior circuit. The defending champs try to stave off elimination!

(As in Junior Griffey and Jason Giambi)

When we asked a while back, Bauxites said the winners of the AL and NL Comeback Players of the Year would be Jason Giambi (53%) and Ken Griffey Jr. (73%).

Kudos, everyone. The Batter's Box Interactive Magazine community was right on both counts.

Three more games... and another managerial change. It never stops.

The headline and the subject matter of this story gives away the answer to a pretty good trivia question -- what is the only surname to be represented by four Hall of Famers? It's Robinson, of course, which is only the 20th-most-common North American surname, but which has graced the great game with Brooks, Frank, Jackie and Wilbert.

So here's the trivia question: there are 10 other surnames that are in Cooperstown twice (though only two of those pairs are brothers), and two more with three Hall of Famers each. How many can you name?

Orlando Hudson: 2nd best fielder in the league.

http://www.tangotiger.net/scouting/scout2005_winners.html

This is kind of silly, but I can't resist. Sorry.

An old joke: someone (I forget who) used to do a spoof of a sportscast by saying: "And tonight's baseball scores: 4-1, 3-2, 6-0, and 7-2."

The AFL season started last night. The team the Jays contribute to, the Peoria Saguaros, were an opening night bust. The Saguaros fell to Surprise 14-2, as Michael Bourn drove in 4 runs. Steve Andrade, Bubbie Buzachero, Guillermo Quiroz, Ryan Roberts and Adam Lind are with the Saguaros.

We had three playoff games, managerial changes, some front-office reshuffling, and a few early off-season rumours. Let's go, people!

Well, here we are, the end of another season. (Another year older, and deeper in debt.) Welcome to this, my last Blue Jays Report Card, this time covering September and the whole year in one panoramic swoop. Enjoy, if possible!

One day, three games, three big early leads. One big lead shrunk down, one lead kept growing, the last one just sorta ... stayed put. NYY/LAAA ... home field advantage swings back to the Bronx Bombers.

And so it begins...