This matchup wouldn't have been must-see TV in the regular season, so as an exhibition match, it was even more of a snoozer. But there were still some positive signs as the Jays thumped Tampa in this Sunday tilt.

Aquilino Lopez, who arrived to such fanfare in the spring of 2003 as a brilliant Rule 5 Draft selection, left the organization entirely without fanfare over the winter to join the Los Angeles Dodgers.

March Madness is upon us and I have created a NCAA Pick 'Em tournament for the Batter's Box community.

Your typical baseball fan knows all about 1961. Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, home runs, Whitey Ford, New York Yankees, asterisks, Ralph Houk, Ford Frick, Yogi Berra, a million books, movies, you name it. More boring Yankee crap than you can shake a stick at.

Well, forget it.

I was all set to say "hey, a new opponent", but the Jays played the Rays last week. One of these days we'll see some new people.

Last weekend's games showed up unheralded on the Fan 590. I suspect that we'll be lucky again today, since the Raptors are playing at night tonight. No plans to televise the game have been announced.

In 2004 the Milwaukee Brewers finished last in the NL Central for the third consecutive season and failed to win 70 games for the fourth straight season. They scored the second fewest runs in the National League and they had the fourth-lowest attendance in the NL, despite playing in their relatively new stadium, Miller Park. Should we expect anything to change this year?

On Thursday, in his Chicago Cubs Preview, Rob delivered the bad news. This isn’t going to be the year, Cub fans. Your team is good, just not good enough. There will be no championship banner flying on the north side of Chicago.

There has never been a championship banner flying on the north side of Chicago.

The Jays aren't even halfway through their spring training games, so there are still a handful of "73s" seeing action for the Jays. In yesterday's game, for instance, Bryant Nelson went 0 for 1 as did Jason Alfaro.

In this game report, we take a look at five of these "73s".

Maybe I've just never followed Spring Training this closely before -- do the Jays always play the Twins every other day? Are the two teams getting tired of each other?

Lucky for us, this game is also on Rogers Sportsnet this afternoon, with coverage starting at 1:00. Let's hope it's less like the last televised game and more like yesterday.

Pepper reminded us last week of Weaver's First Law:

No one gives a damn in July about a game you lost in March.

Personally, I don't even care all that much in March - however, recent events have reminded us of another of Weaver's Laws. To wit:

The best place for a rookie pitcher is in long relief.

So, what's going on here anyway?

In 1975, the Big Red Machine broke a four-decade drought by besting the Boston Red Sox in the greatest World Series ever played.

Fifteen years later, in 1990, the Nasty Boys took the Reds to the most surprising World Series sweep in the history of the Great Game, blasting the Bash Brother-led Oakland A's in four straight.

It's 2005 -- another fifteen years later. Baseball is starting its 136th professional year on the shores of the Ohio River. And it's about to happen again.

Last night was a rough one, but I'm betting that the Jays had a little bit of the "everyone's watching on TV" yips. This afternoon's game against the defending World Series champs isn't on television, so we can use it to put my theory to the test.

bluejays.com lists a "home" radio broadcast for the Jays but it is identified only as TOR, so I'm guessing it's not on the radio, just online. I'd gladly be wrong, though.

Last year's Astros didn't play the winningest baseball in franchise history but did offer the most exciting. Dead as a doornail in mid-August -- 56-60 and in seventh place in the wild card standings - Houston roared to 36-10 finish, won its first ever playoff series, and came within four innings of the World Series.

Do the 2005 Astros have what it takes to expand on last year's accomplishments?

Like Dave Berg, who we remembered yesterday, Jason Kershner also left the Blue Jays this offseason to sign with the Boston Red Sox, hoping to catch on with the World Champions.

Please share your memories of Jason Kershner in this thread.

Spring Training Game Report: Yankees 8, Jays 0.

Mrs. Hank pretty much caught the essence of last night's game in one sentence. And while we did not shut it off and watch Survivor because I have some perverse sense of duty that made me watch to the end in order to be fully informed so that I could do a bang-up job on this game report, I didn't go back and watch my recording of the first couple of innings that I had only heard on the car radio. I couldn't do it to myself.