Now the rooms are all empty down at Frankie's joint
And the highway she's deserted down to Breaker's Point
There's a lot of people leaving town now
Leaving their friends, their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone

It's become a tradition every time the Blue Jays defeat the Red Sox, except this one features a special appearance by Scott Schoeneweis in a starring role.

The timing will never be better. Last night, the Dodgers lost outfielder J.D. Drew for 6 to 8 weeks after a Brad Halsey pitch broke Drew's left wrist. The injury is just the latest to plague the Dodgers, who still don't know when they're getting Milton Bradley back from a finger injury.

Though it's a Monday off for those of us south of the border (or north, if you live in Windsor or certain places in the Yukon), there is no rest for this Canadian, as we had our day of holi on Friday.

A 3-3 record for the affiliates last night and yesterday afternoon. Why isn't it "last afternoon"?

The surprise team of the season is threatening to run away and hide.

I know, it's not really fair -- Rob went and put together that awfully nice effort of an All-Canada Day team by using the names of the delegates at the Québec Conference of 1864, and thusly found himself stuck with source names like Chapais, Tache and Haviland -- not exactly the kinds of names you find littered throughout major league baseball history.

So it's not really a fair fight against a July 4th U.S. Independence Day squad where we find signers of the Declaration of Independence named Morris, Johnson, Clark, Lee and Williams. One suspects the American July holiday team may be a bit deeper than those "Canada Day Trippers" Rob came up with.

But before we skip to the inevitable shellacking, let's find out for sure ...

Roy Halladay and Shea Hillenbrand will represent the Blue Jays at the All Star game next week.

Roy Halladay showed Terry Francona who should be starting the All-Star Game. Nothing wrong with taking 2 of 3 from the defending champs in their own house, even if the ninth inning got a little tense there. A little?

Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the idiot nation
Everything isn't meant to be OK

Time for the audit
The gathering trial
A collectors dilemma
Repositioned and filed

The farm affiliates received shutout starts from Chris Baker, Jamie Vermilyea and Jesse Litsch as they went 4-2 on the evening. All three made it look easy.

Today's game concluded the first half of the season, and the Jays 41-40 record has them halfway to an 82-80 season. That's quite a bit better than last year, and a little bit better than my 79-83 forecast.

Still, it's always disappointing when you can't hold a 4-0 lead. Even if it is in Fenway.

Floating in the river with a saturated liver
And I wish I could forgive her but I do believe she meant it
When she told me to forget it
But I bet she will regret it
When they find me in the morning wet and drowned

Very short on time today -- holidays, and all -- so you'll have to be contact with the following minor-league report, written entirely in senyru/haiku. Happy Canada Weekend.

I'm not the kind of person who likes to gloat when... what the hell am I saying? I am exactly the kind of person who likes to gloat when Our Boys beat the reigning world champions senseless, and leave them dazed and bleeding in a ditch by the side of the highway...