It's over.

The Montréal Expos have played their last game in la belle province. Relocated to Washington, D.C., the city that to this date has failed to support three baseball franchises, Major League Baseball's Expos will at least have a single park to call their own, RFK stadium.

For the players, this is probably good news. For the owners, Major League Baseball, this is great news. The fans of Montréal—those that remain, anyway—are not so well served by the move. But when has baseball been about the fans?

Summer is officially heading out the door when the Arizona Fall League rumbles to life. Syracuse manager Marty Pevey has been rewarded for suffering through a brutal Skychiefs campaign with the reins of the Peoria Saguaros. Pevey should be considered a prospect himself: managerial stints in the AFL are often considered auditions for big-league positions. The AFL gets underway in the first week of October: for those of you who'll be in the 48th state this autumn, here's the Saguaros' home schedule. For those of you wondering what a saguaro is, we offer these tantalizing choices:

A) cigar
B) cactus
C) Padre Armand Saguaro, founder of a famed 19th-century Jesuit mission near present-day Peoria
D) scorpion

how the darkness doubled

I recall
lightning struck itself.

I was listening
listening to the rain

I was hearing
hearing something else.

For those of you who were not able to see Gustavo Chacin pitch last time out, you're in for a treat. Provided, of course, that he looks like the same pitcher I saw making his major league debut last week.

There are two distinct features in Chacin's delivery:

1) He has a hitch near the beginning of the windup which some observers think is a balk. By the rules, it is indeed, since he comes to a stop and restarts his motion. But since this is his normal full wind-up (and is not used with runners on base) the umpires will probably let it go.

2) He throws out his glove hand where the ball will come flying out from before his pitching arm comes forward; this probably distracts the hitter just a little bit. It looks a little like a windmill.

Ted Lilly's normal turn was to fall on the final day of the regular season. With the rainout, Ryan Glynn is now scheduled to get the last start for the Blue Jays, while Lilly makes the final start of an impressive season in Baltimore today.

“To hell with the hitters. To hell with all of them.”

Sal “The Barber” Maglie, so named because he would gladly shave you with a fastball buzzed under your chin, felt pretty strongly that hitters are the natural and mortal enemy of pitchers. And what pitcher would disagree? Really, aren't batters all just high-priced, over-hyped golden boys with barely enough intelligence to stand and admire the pitch they were lucky enough to barely hit over the wall? The Barber probably said what pitchers throughout history have thought at one time or another.

So the season's end is upon us, with only three remaining home games. Good thing we have stuff planned for all three!

With glaring sunlight in my eyes
I thought of all the times gone by
And laughed aloud at the crimson sky

**** POSTPONED ****


Magic is how I would describe Ted Lilly when he's on his game. A deceptively quick fastball, a killer change and a quality curve spell trouble for opponents when he's on - hitters tie themselves in knots trying to adjust to the changing speed and location of his repertoire.

Some scoffed when Lilly was chosen as the lone Blue Jays representative at the all-star game. But a strong case can be made that Lilly has not only been the most valuable pitcher on the team, but arguably the team MVP.

Lilly will start the final game of the season if he takes his regular rest, though stranger things have happened. This might be the last chance to see him in action before the curtain is drawn on a painful and disappointing campaign for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Auburn Doubledays won their division and proceeded to lose in the first round of the playoffs, again. This year's team was good, but not as good as the 2003 juggernaut, the 2004 Doubledays won 50 games with a +132 run differential, the 2003 D'Days won 56 games with +237 run differential. In 2003 Vito Chiaravalotti was the triple crown winner, Aaron Hill and Jamie Vermilyea were promoted to Dunedin mid season and Kurt Isenberg won the ERA title. The 2004 team did not have a player lead a major statistical category and the mid-season promotions were to Charleston.

It seemed unneccessary to post a new thread just to update the four remaining matchups in the BBFL Alomar Division, which continue for one more week. Then it occurred to me that Bauxites in other leagues might want to share their pennant race stories. Bear with me through an abbreviated update, then the floor is yours.

Now that you’ve read all about the Blue Jays Top 30 prospects, and have started into the individual team re-caps, you’re ready to round out your knowledge of the Toronto farm system by chewing on some stats… right? Good!

Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man

The Blue Jays were already safely in Baltimore when Hurricane Jeanne struck Tampa, so both the Jays and Rays will finish 2004 one game short of the regular 162. In Toronto's case, that's good news and bad news. On the plus side, it's one less potential loss in this brutal campaign; on the other, it means there are no more head-to-head games with Tampa Bay, hamstringing the team's effort to escape 5th and last place in the American League East. Wow, that's a depressing thing to write.

Many fans were getting tired of finishing third behind the Yankees and Red Sox. And they got their wish - Toronto won't finish 3rd; Baltimore will get that honour.

Last year the Orioles restocked their lineup with three big acquisitions - Miguel Tejada, Javy Lopez and Rafael Palmeiro. As group they've done almost as well as could be expected, and yet it wasn't enough to get the O's to .500.

Just 6 more games after tonight.