Betcha no one figured two days ago that that would be today's headline, huh? Nothing against the Tigers, who've given it their all, but the Blue Jays have played very poorly in dropping the first two games of the season-opening homestand. With a trip to Fenway Park following the game, the Jays can't afford an 0-3 start.

And everything is coming down on me down on me
I go crazy oh so crazy

There's nothing like a bucketful of cold water to wake you up in the morning, and there's nothing like a 7-0 whipping by the Detroit Tigers to wake up a baseball team. The Blue Jays will try to score their first runs and their first win of the season tonight against 2003's history-making 20-game-loser Mike Maroth. They'll send Miguel Batista and his Amazing Technicolour Repertoire to the mound in opposition. It's Batter's Box/Cheer Club Night at the Skydome, so keep your ears peeled for raucous Bauxites noisily rooting for the home squad.

Steve Z notes, along with a series of links, that with the opening day of baseball's minor leagues fast approaching, it might be time for a minor-league baseball thread. I couldn't agree more. Here's Steve's recent roundup of news from Syracuse and Charleston; I'll aim to have some more to add later. Chime in with your own observations and links as well.

At first glance, it might appear easy to preview the Jays' first series of their hopeful 2004 campaign: "They're the freakin' Tigers." But this might not be as much of a cakewalk as the easy, breezy pair of series that the Jays played with Detroit last September.

Finally, it's here. No more hot-stove league, no more winter-baseball updates, no more spring-training reports. The 2004 season is underway, and all the games count. The Blue Jays are, by consensus opinion, a better team than the one that ended 2003 -- maybe a whole lot better. The playoffs are a goal, but still a distant one. The team's primary competition for that goal are the Yankees and Red Sox, as well as wild-card contenders like Anaheim and Oakland.

We are all set for tonight (Tuesday) at the Dome. Tickets have been purchased and we are "all systems go". Our tickets are in Section 528 (behind the visitors' dugout on the third base side), in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rows.

We are going to meet at Gate 10, which is on the west side of the Dome, away from the heaviest traffic. I will be there from about 6:15 or 6:30, and we are meeting at 6:45, and we'll be heading inside at 6:55. If you miss us, just buy a ticket (they're only $2) for Section 528 or thereabouts and we'll make room!

About getting on that train
Every day and every night
The only thing that makes it good
Is seeing my favourite sight

With Detroit's Jason Johnson roaring (Tigers, roaring, get it?) to an early lead in the competition for the 2004 Andujar Award, let's break down who we should keep an eye on this year to take away Esteban Loaiza's crown. And yes, it's likely the actual winner won't even appear on this list, because ... hey, YouNeverKnow.

The Daylight Savings edition.

Here's the latest & greatest Jays news.

This is a not-particularly-scientific study of the effects of luck on a baseball team's chances, using the 2003 Diamond Mind Baseball season disk as data.

And I can act like an imbecile

We went for the convertible. See, we were getting the rental car at the Alamo counter at the Tampa International Airport, which as airports go was very nice, and we had just arrived to start a nine-day trip to the Gulf Coast region of Florida and to catch three Blue Jays spring training games, and the “we” here is myself and my wife Joan, who very graciously agreed to help fulfill my long-held dream of visiting the Grapefruit League in Florida, and of course we needed a set of wheels, and so here we were.

From the beginning of the season until the end of August, only 750 people can call themselves Major League baseball players. On April Fools Day, twenty baseball fanatics chose 500 of them in the 2004 draft for the Alomar Division of the Batter's Box Fantasy League.