Bob Elliott's column in the Sun yesterday addressed the anthem-booing issue. Even if you disagree with the politics of Paul Godfrey, a vocal U.S. supporter, there are better, more appropriate venues and methods to express those sentiments than at a baseball game.

BB readers seem to be intelligent and reasonable people, but I hope other Toronto fans don't confuse the Yankees with the Pentagon or the White House. American players on both teams, and the coaches, front office personnel and others in attendance, may have friends or family members overseas. As Josh Phelps, no dumb jock, says:

"Now that it has started, we should support the troops and remember everyone is someone's son or daughter."

Don Cherry, whose shameful, embarrassing performance last night on HNIC should earn him a trip to the CBC penalty box, may urge you to boo the Canadian anthem. At times like this, it's more important than ever to remember it's only a game, and to enjoy the entertainment. I will be respectfully quiet during both musical interludes, then (at maximum volume) root-root-root for the home team.

Don Cherry, whose shameful, embarrassing performance last night on HNIC

Isn't his performance embarassing every weekend? The only reason CBC puts him on is because he is controversional and he gets ratings. But if they had a mandate to promote the quality of their programming, he should have no business being on the air.

On to more relevant topics....

I think Torre made the right choice here. Let Clemens get beat up by Toronto; it's not like they'll score much against Halladay. The Yanks can save their better pitching performances to go up against Toronto's inferior pitching. Mussina and Wells or Lidle and Sturtze? I know who I would take every time.

Back to a lighter topic, I too will be cheering loudly from the 500 level with a group I've assembled/dragged from work. If you see a ragtag half-drunk group of 10 guys and gals between 25 and 30 years old, that may or may not be me. Wave anyway, just to cover all of the bases.

I'll be doing my yelling from the 200 level in right field. I'm the proud owner of a 5-game flex pack (2 actually), and I must say it's a remarkably good deal. 6 games at $11 per seat per game, total service charge only $4 (standard TicketMaster mugging is $3.00 per ticket). That's less than I pay to watch teenagers play hockey in a 6,000 seat arena... granted that the Rangers are a dominant team this year and that I'd be thrilled if the SkyDome crowd could come close to the noise and energy of the Kitchener crowd.

Another plus of the flex pack is that they give you the best available seats at the time of purchase. That was mid-January for me, so I'll be in the 4th row of the best section at that price for every game except the opener.

I'm also very happy that we get to pound on Roger.

Leaf fans cheered the U.S. anthem at last night game. I can't imagine Jays fans stirring controversy on this point.

I like Don Cherry. I don't agree with all of his opinions, but I find he makes many good points. (And I don't recall him ever suggesting the Canadian anthem should be booed; I wouldn't agree with that if he did.)

Cherry was a guest of J.P. Ricciardi at a Jays game last year. He sat in for part of the CBC broadcast. He called J.P. really smart for spotting that a pitcher was balking a few pitches before it was called. Cherry said he likes the Jays now because they get mad when they strike out (any guesses which player he was thinking of :-) ). Cherry had some other baseball connections as an athlete which I don't remember the details of any more. On the radio, Cherry and Tom Cheek reminisced about the 1950's.

I don't agree with the reason the Elliott article attributed to Godfrey as giving for supporting the Bush/Blair foreigh policy: "may cost our country millions of dollars in business". We should do what we think is right, not sell our foreign policy.

(I do agree with Bush/Blair that it's better to deal with the danger now than later, awful as it is even now. So I wish Chretien had supported it for that reason, not business reasons. But I don't think we want to debate foreign policy decisions here.)

I'm skeptical that there really will be a business cost to Canada. The U.S. has lots of protesters marching in its own streets. Canada has lots of supporters of the Bush/Blair policy, especially among business leaders. We're not really that different.

And I suggest some respect for Roger Clemens. He won't be easy to beat. Clemens is one of the few pitchers to have ruined a Jays home opener before (1991). And he's got the league's best lineup (based on last year) supporting him. The Jays usually win their home opener, and I hope they win this one, but it will be a tougher game than most. (Like others, I'm looking forward to the game, though unfortunately I won't be there.)