Not to Mention Near, Far, North and South?

If you've been following along since Baseball's Hall of Names was introduced here back in March of 2003, you know I stole the idea from my dear ol' dad (that's Mike Doherty Sr. here on Batter's Box). His original concept became our inaugural HoN squad, the All-Food team.

Recently, he sent me an e-mail with a draft of an all-directions team, but suggested it couldn't be done; by his strict rules, that's correct. But since -- as he is aware, I am all too likely to do -- we can and have relaxed the rules, we are now headed in a whole new direction, as it were.

How? Well ...

Rob here. Magpie's busy mocking Millson.
Ho hum, just another win.

Boy, that Miguel Batista is good for nothing, eh?

Reports indicate the Yankees have traded A-Ball Staten Island hurler Justin "I'm Not Dave" Berg to the Cubs for former two-time All-Star OF Matt Lawton.

A few questions ...

I was all right for a while
I could smile for a while

If there's anything more fun than a minor-league no-hitter, I'd like to know what it is. The fans (usually an intimate crowd that figures out early what's going on) are totally into it, the players (most of whom are very young and have never experienced one before) are crazy-intense, and the celebration afterwards is amazing. Sincere congratulations from the Batter's Box crew to Robert Ray and Adrian Martin of Auburn, whose outstanding performance was the signal highlight of a 4-2 night on the farm.

The results of the current poll can be interpreted pretty clearly. In fact, those interpretations can even be set to music. With apologies to the legendary Alice Cooper (for whom the city of Cooperstown was most assuredly not named), we now present the new anthem of the 2005 Blue Jays. Crank it up to 11, put the speakers in the window and get your requests to Wilner; now here's the World (Wide Web) debut of ...

Maybe we do.

On the bright side, Dustin McGowan held the Indians to just three runs in the first inning. (Updated, 11:15 P.M.)

The disappointing news about Roy Halladay's fracture casts a cloud over the otherwise excellent news that the Jays are finally home again. If I'm in the Jays front office, I'm using all the influence I have this off-season to lobby against a 13-game Baltimore-Anaheim-Detroit-New York trip in August.

Don't expect any sympathy from the visitors from Cleveland; they're locked in a virtual three-way tie for the lead in the wild card chase, and are red-hot of late. Although a successful weekend will sadly benefit the Yankees more than anybody else, it'll still do the young Jays some good to get back on track after playing a somewhat lower quality of baseball over their last seven games.

This week's Scout features a surprising shortstop, some front-office AL Central gamesmanship and a lefty that hasn't been quite as deceptive as he'd like to be. Plus, another Trivia Challenge!

On to the Advance Scout!

According to Mike Wilner on the Fan 590, the Blue Jays announced about 15 minutes ago that Halladay's broken leg has not healed as well as they had hoped, so they're shutting him down for the season to recover.

According to TSN, the Jays have called up Guillermo Quiroz and designated Ken Huckaby for assignment. Was this Huck's final tour as a Blue Jay? How's Quiroz's health? Does this mean that Gregg Zaun can sleep in one or two days next week?

Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it's been

Here's Frank Menechino watching a ball sail into foul territory:

They weren't all singles that the Sky Chiefs saw flying around Dunn Tire park yesterday, as the Chiefs were dumped unceremoniously. The farm affiliates went 4-3.

I started thinking about what I'd write for this column while I was in the bathtub, soaking off the effects of a disheartening loss to the Yankees yesterday afternoon. This road trip was bad enough that the glimmer of hope in the wild card race shown to us just days ago is all but gone.

Cleveland are making things interesting.