Oy. Welcome back to my website, and Happy Thanksgiving if you are Canadian (and if you're not, Happy Whatever you Happen to be Doing). Double thanks for visiting, given that I've kinda taken a year off from baseball writing; this is my first playoff post. Last night, I found myself on the sofa, sipping some scotch while Kenny Rogers hurled seven shutout innings against the Yankees - next thing I knew, it was 2am and the game was over. Moral of the story: if you want to stay up late and watch a ballgame, don't drink scotch. Or start the game an hour earlier.

As I type I am watching the Cardinals-Padres. A few random points:

• this is about the fourth straight hour that I've listened to Miller and Morgan, who were in Detroit last night...
  
• I am staunchly opposed to instant replay in all forms - but it makes it hard to argue the point when the third base umpire sucks as badly as he did last night. That ball that hit the chalk... Jon Miller called it fair right away; myself and thousands of other fans could tell it was fair; the Tigers and Yankees both thought it was fair. Not sure what Larry Vanover was looking at...
  
• I like Jon Miller, but he really should know by now which umpires make which calls...
  
• Joe Morgan knew that it was the third baseman's call, but couldn't articulate the point because... well, he's Joe Morgan
  
• Ernie Harwell sounded great last nice, a very nice change of pace from the BermanHorn...
  
• Ernie is getting like my grandmother (who turns 90 in December); he could accurately recall the 1921 Detroit Tigers' team batting average, but couldn't remember Justin Verlander's name. Maybe the secret to memory retention is telling an audience the same story 8,000 times...
  
• assuming that I get there, I wonder what story I'll be telling over and over again when I'm 88 years old? I almost never repeat myself; I may not remember a goddamned thing when I'm old...

I will refrain from saying anything really nasty about any broadcasters, even Rick Sutcliffe. All I'll say is that in the past six months, I've invested in a new hi-definition TV and subscribed to the local service. It looks real nice, but it's past time for multiple audio streams - in particular, one with ambient noise only. You know, the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd - and nothing else. It's not that broadcasters don't serve a useful purpose, it's that with all the money we're paying for this technology, consumers deserve a choice.

(BTW, I'm a little surprised by the kerfuffle caused by Thom Brennaman's claim that Jeff Kent is "arguably" baseball's greatest offensive second baseman. It's a little like saying that Neptune is "arguably" the largest planet in the solar system; Neptune is a big-ass planet that deserves respect, but the statement is so obviously not true that you just shake your head and move on. It's a little strange that anyone would make such a statement, but... there are lots of things in this world that perplex me.)

Here in Toronto, it's hockey hockey hockey all the time - I haven't checked out any hockey in hi-definition yet, I'm sure I'll get around to it sometime this winter. But baseball-reference.com already has the 2006 stats up, which lets us do a post-mortem on the Jays. Before the season I expected about 85 wins from the home team, and they won 87, so I'm generally happy. But the numbers that stick out:

Shortstops/fifth starters, they weren't so good. One of my biggest criticisms of J.P. Ricciardi is that his benches have been pretty awful since he came to Toronto. This year was better, thanks to depth in the outfield and at catcher; but the infield - you know that when you have Edgardo Alfonso and Troy Glaus as your starting middle infielders for two weeks, and end up playing John McDonald every day for the final two months, you really didn't plan ahead very well.

The funny thing about Josh Towers is that he could easily have gone 6-14 with a 6.50 ERA, and we'd all be talking about what a horrible season he had, and the Jays would still have won at least 90 games (and when I write 'funny' I don't mean so much that he's a clown, just so much that it fuckin' amuses me).

Anyways, I'm staying optimistic - I wrote at the beginning of the season that 2007 was the year to go for it, and that's still what I believe. Regardless of how much money they spend, the Red Sox will still be in a transition year, and the Yankees... well, yaneverknow. The Yankees, of course, played the 2005 season with a black hole in centre field, and this year filled it up nicely with Johnny Damon. The Jays obviously had a black hole of their own at shortstop, and fixing it will sure make a difference in 2007.

3-0 Padres in the seventh inning. Chris Young strikes out Pujols with two runners on. I just realized that if the Padres win, two ex-Blue Jays meet up tomorrow: Woody Williams and Chris Carpenter. I also just realized that Woody turned 40 in August, which (1) gives the Padres two 40-something ex-Blue Jay pitchers, and (2) makes me feel kinda old, as I remember him as an old rookie trying to prove the doubters wrong.

And I also just realized that Woody was 12-5 this season with a 3.65 ERA. Jesus, I thought he had retired...

Huh. Mike Piazza's not too smooth on those popups behind the plate, is he?

So last night I received an email from the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame; that happens from time to time, as I gave them money once and probably should do so again. Anyways, it starts:

After paving the way for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to experience an enlightening visit to Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum in St. Marys a few weeks ago, Perth-Wellington MP Gary Schellenberger encouraged the Hall to bring as many of the artifacts and exhibits from the museum as it could to Parliament Hill to demonstrate Canada's rich baseball heritage and the Hall's significance to the rest of his counterparts.

Well, doesn't that warm the cockles of my heart. A story of baseball, politicians, money and photo-ops - that can't possibly have a good ending, can it? After a stiff drink, I read on, and discover that the Hall has a bunch of memorabilia in storage and needs money to expand. So a contigent of lobbyists, Fergie Jenkins, and a baseball hit by Babe Ruth made the trek to Ottawa, schmoozed a bit, and... well, it doesn't really say what happened after that. Fergie Jenkins, the Hall's ambassador, summed up the case thusly:

"Baseball began in Canada back in 1838, and history continues to be made daily today by some of the stars like Justin Morneau, Jason Bay, Eric Gagné and Erik Bedard, but the Hall is currently stuck in a renovated century-old farmhouse that barely holds one quarter of the artifacts. The Town of St. Marys and the province have both contributed significantly to the capital campaign, and we're counting on the Feds to come through as well."

That was mostly harmless, after all. In principle, I'm opposed to places like the CBHF getting any financial help beyond tax breaks on donations - but we all know that a pie exists to be eaten, and if the CBHF folks manage to get a small piece of it then so be it. I really do like the place very much, which brings me to my real pet peeve in this story: St. Mary's has a gorgeous old train station that almost never gets used, ever since Canada's rail system was gutted a few years ago. I would have loved to attend the induction ceremonies this year, except that the one fucking train that stops there during the day arrives hours too late (1:06pm, to be exact), and I couldn't invest the entire weekend in the trip.

In the final scene of Field of Dreams, the little realizes the answers to her father's financial problems - people will come to visit the field he has built, and PAY ADMISSION. There's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; it's a good, solid piece of capitalism that doesn't rely on supernatural providence (apart from the dead ballplayers taking batting practice). "People will come," booms James Earl Jones, and who knows, maybe more people will come if, you know, there's a train to take them there.

Ontario - Yours to discover. But if you don't drive a car, fuck you.

(Speaking of Justin Morneau, I've never seen a player look as disgusted with himself as he did after hitting a postseason home run. I mean, I know it was meaningless and his team was about to be eliminated, but man, that was one sour puss. Morneau might be the right guy to appeal to the Prime Minister who, nine months after winning the election, has yet to crack a smile and looks absolutely pissed about everything. )

(sandwich break. 15 minutes later)

Game over. Padres live to see another day; Yankees and Tigers are back at it. Josh Lewin sounds like a took a bunch of greenies before the game; I wonder if broadcasters are given random urine tests during games...

Two quick homers; 3-0. Jaret Wright is probably my least favourite pitcher in baseball, for purely aesthetic reasons: that is one disgusting chaw of tobacco he has.

(bus ride break. 3 hours later)

Yankees are done. I'll amend my above statement to suggest that both the Red Sox and Yankees are heading into a transition year. Of course, every year for the past five years they've talked about changing managers and rebuilding and instead they just stay the course and bring in more free agents. (SUNDAY UPDATE: the vultures are circling around Joe Torre. I'll believe it when it happens, but changes may be in the air...)