Ceremonies will take place at a number of ballparks across the United States today on the second anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001; the ones scheduled for New York appear to be particularly thoughtful. The Jays are on the road in Tampa Bay, of course, where they'll be part of a rather military-themed event involving the director of U.S. Central Command. We've been living in troubled times the last two years, and not just between enemies; open rancour has crept into relations between Canadians and Americans. It doesn't belong there; whatever our political differences, we have far more in common as people, not to mention a lengthy history as good friends.

So here's a wish that we all remember the bonds that were cemented in Canadian airports and in American hearts two years ago today, and that one nation will recognize that the sharpest criticism can come from your closest friend, while another will recognize that true class is about respect for a neighbour's pain and support for their courage in the face of terrible adversity that they weather on our behalf too. Prayers, wishes, or plain good words -- send some out today.

In today's Star, Richard Griffin says his once-beloved team has annoyed its reluctant owners by resisting another split schedule.

Commissioner Bud Selig and friends have gone from being amused at the Expos' hopeless situation to being angry at them for balking at a request to repeat the awkward two-home format.

Griffin suggests that 2004 will be a complete farce if the players don't agree to repeat the brutal travel that finally seems to have exhausted their playoff bid.

The worst-case scenario for Selig is that the Expos are forced to play all 81 games in Montreal. With that, the payroll will likely drop to under $20 million, meaning a probable au revoir to Minaya, manager Frank Robinson and players making more than $2 million.

In the radio prank that fooled Bud a couple of weeks ago, he called the situation "mission impossible" and trashed the former minority owners. If the Commissioner wants to see what's really "appalling" about this mess, he should look in the mirror.

Maybe Lou's boys sold their souls in exchange for this mastery of the Jays. Tampa is 33 games under .500 against everyone else, but seven games over against Toronto. It was getting ridiculous a long time ago, and sadly, there's no reason to expect any change tonight.

Jorge Sosa is coming off the best game of his life, a 4-hit shutout of the Mariners. Mark Hendrickson hasn't survived the fifth in his last three starts, allowing 22 hits and 14 runs in his last 10.2 innings. I've been one of Lurch's most patient supporters, but even I am starting to believe his time in the rotation is running out. He still could be an asset in the 2004 bullpen.

The Rays have won three in a row and five of six. The Jays were on a decent roll themselves, until lackluster efforts by Kelvim Escobar and Cory Lidle seemed to affect the whole team's attitude. A solid start will help turn things around, so we may have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.

Strangely, Frank Catalanotto (.462 OBP vs. Sosa) isn't in the lineup. Neither is Greg Myers, but I'll never complain about Phelps as DH, and Josh has hit very well in this park. Kevin Cash's glove is keeping Crash's bat on the bench; that's sacrificing the present for the future.

Third in a 10-part series

Getting paid to watch baseball and then telling thousands of people what you saw or what you think (or both) -- how did Geoff Baker and Richard Griffin luck into such great gigs?

Vinny Chulk was pretty much the lone bright spot in yesterday's matinee thumping by the Yankees, and though he pitched two scoreless innings, it was serious pulse-racing time for the rookie. Vinny almost hyperventilated out there, bringing a mound visit by Orlando Hudson to calm him down. As Spencer Fordin notes, "This was like Chris Rock telling Denis Leary to clean up the act."

Elsewhere, Roy Halladay was named the Pepsi American League Pitcher of the Week. If MLB were smart, in addition to being the greedy, shortsighted sellouts they are, they'd have Coke sponsor the National League Players of the Week, so at least we'd get a real interleague rivalry going. Or maybe pay fans in opposing sections at the World Series to chant "Tastes great!" and "Less filling!" And when is General Motors going to get its own team? They're a larger market than any ML city except New York and greater Los Angeles. Headquarter the Expos in Dearborn, Michigan, change the team name to Chevrolets, and have them play all their games on the road (not such a big change); with a $300 million payroll, they'll be able to travel by Concorde everywhere anyway. I foresee great clashes with the McDonald's BigMax and the MasterCard Everywhereyouwannabes. Pardon me, I think I just choked on a sour grape.

On March 31, 1998, Doug Waechter was a fan watching from the upper deck as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays played their very first game. The pitcher (and quarterback) for a local St. Petersburg high school was drafted by the Rays the next year. Now, at 22, he's the first hometown boy to suit up for the team. Our peerless Advance Scout has the details of Doug's amazing complete-game shutout in his first career start. The feel-good story continues.

A combined 8-6 with a 3.81 ERA in 23 appearances for AA Orlando and AAA Durham, Waechter will eventually come back down to earth, but for now, the adrenaline will be flowing, and another large contingent of family and friends will be on hand. Chances are, this is a very big deal in the local media, so there might be a larger, noiser crowd than usual in the Trop. Maybe they'll drown out the loudmouth who heckles Eric Hinske.

The Devil Rays aren't just a nuisance to Toronto anymore. After taking two out of three from both the desperate Mariners and the surging A's, Tampa Bay has officially earned its spoiler credentials during their current homestand.

In so doing, the D-Rays have surged to above .500 since the All-Star break -- no mean feat for a club virtually bereft of experience, and one that pays roughly as much to players not playing for them as they do to their current roster. See, e.g., Vaughn, Greg; Grieve, Ben. Tampa hasn't expanded its roster much, with a postseason berth for AAA Durham outweighing the opportunity to look at fresh faces, and strong starting pitching of late obviating the need to bring in bullpen reinforcements.

The Jays have not matched up well against a speedy Tampa club that runs a lot, but not to excess; their stolen base percentage is still among the game's best. They also have the misfortune of facing two red-hot pitchers tonight and tomorrow night, although Thursday looks like a great opportunity for Doc's 20th. He'll square off against the inconsistent Jeremi Gonzalez.

This week's Advance Scout features a Canadian catcher, a leadfooted slugger with a steal of home to his credit, and a local boy on the mound tonight for whom everything's gone right in his budding career.

On to the Advance Scout!

Second in a 10-part series

Looking back, it all seems pre-ordained. A baby boy born in Montreal on the anniversary of the first National Hockey League game ever played grows up dreaming of a career in ... football? But multiple knee surgeries take care of that, so he moves on to writing about his country's favourite sport ... baseball?

Okay, so maybe some things aren't exactly obvious. But before Geoff Baker turned 30, he'd already garnered three nominations for the National Newspaper Award while working for The Gazette, Montreal's English language daily. And oh, by the way -- he'd won two of them, one in 1995 for Spot News Reporting and the other in 1998 for Sports Writing.

When Baker took home the second of those awards, his boss -- Gazette sports editor Dave Stubbs -- told Concordia University's community newspaper, the Thursday Report, "There was no reason to be surprised that he won again. Geoff has a terrific future ahead of him."

Turns out that future prominently featured the Toronto Blue Jays and the Toronto Star.

Last Wednesday, I wasn't sure the pitching matchup at SkyDome would be a classic, mostly because of Kelvim Escobar's inconsistency at home. He wasn't bad, pitching into the seventh inning, and leaving a 3-3 tie in the capable hands of Jason Kershner (who got the W) and closer Aquilino Lopez.

Mike Mussina is a great pitcher, but the Jays made him work very hard last week -- 122 pitches in six innings -- so he didn't figure in the decision. Though he's 16-9 with a 3.08 ERA in his career against Toronto, he's been less dominant in 2003 -- 2-2, 3.82 in five previous starts. In Yankee Stadium, Moose shut them out on three hits in April, then the Jays prevailed May 23 behind Escobar, making just his second start of the year.

Familiarity is often an advantage to the hitters in these situations, but both pitchers have such great stuff, they aren't easy to hit even when you know what's coming. Today could be an even better duel.

Today, the Jays and Yankees make up the July 22 game, when truly frightening weather washed out the Jays' opportunity for a two-game mini-sweep at Yankee Stadium. The Jays come into town having won five straight at the intersection of the B, D and 4 trains. Can they pull out the season series against mighty New York in today's matinee?

Just a short report today, as this game is a whistle-stop en route to the real test of whether Toronto is enjoying a September resurgence: A three-game against their bugaboo opponents in Tampa Bay. A busy day at work means no hooky for me, but I might sneak a peek at the ol' Internet from time to time...

On to the Advance Scout!

Baseball urban legend Steve Dalkowski, rumoured to be the fastest pitcher ever, threw out the first pitch at the Orioles - Mariners game yesterday.

Dalkowski who apparently lived even faster than he threw never made it to the majors, but he served the game well in other ways, being the model for Sidd Finch and 'Nuke' LaLoosh. Rumour has it his fastball reached 110mph, his speed being matched only by wildness, his most famous stat is striking out 262 in 172 innings in the California league while walking the same number. My own favourite Dalkowski number - he once threw a complete game one-hitter, that he lost 9-8.

Twelve teams remain in action this week, but the battle for the league championship T-shirt has reached the semi-finals. Thanks to David Wells, I'm still in it.

Shaking off a month-long slump, my Toronto Walrus defeated Baird Brain 7-4. Jurgen is a worthy adversary, and it could have gone either way -- we began Sunday's action in a virtual tie. Had Boomer not spun seven shutout innings, I might have lost WHIP, ERA (the #1 tiebreaking category) and the match. The Yankees would be squirming, too. Todd Zeile, my emergency pickup when Mike Lowell went on the DL, came through with 6 RBI and 375/444/938 to lead the Walrus hitters, with Marlon Byrd scoring 11 runs in a 345/457/621 week.

Nation Builders, owned and managed by Scott Lucas, defeated Gwyn Price's Mebion Glyndwr 7-5 in another close contest. You could say that the difference between Josh Phelps (8 RBI, .824 SLG) and Jay Gibbons (1 RBI, .211 SLG) decided it. Scott faces the regular-season powerhouse Gashouse Gorillas in a sudden-death showdown; the Walrus takes on second-place Billie's Bashers. The winners will meet in a two-week final, beginning next Monday.

First in a 10-part series.

To suggest that denizens of The Batter's Box are -- oh, to choose a word at random -- "obsessed" with the work of Toronto Star columnist Richard Griffin might be a bit of an overstatement. Might be.

Of the first 950 threads posted in the short but active history of Da Box, the name "Griffin" appears in 269 of them, a healthy 28 percent. Oh sure, if we go back and check, some of those search results might refer to John-Ford Griffin, or maybe even Alfredo Griffin, but consider this for a moment ...

In those same 950 threads, a certain highly-regarded "new wave" GM is mentioned in 267. That's right -- at first glance, Griffin's OBP ("On Box Percentage") is higher than the venerable J.P. Ricciardi's.

So, there seems to be a fair amount of interest among Boxers -- Zombie-Like Cult (a moniker adopted from a Griffin turn of phrase) and otherwise -- in this Griffin character. To be honest, he's taken more than his fair share of heat in this space, although that comes with the territory of being a newspaper columnist.

Still, maybe it's time to get to know more about him than his OBP.

Kudos to the New Haven Ravens, who knocked off the New Britain Rock Cats 2-1 in the deciding match of their five-game series last night to advance to the Eastern League Championship Series. The Ravens did something their parent Blue Jays don't do very often -- beat Eric Milton. The rehabbing lefty threw four solid innings, but gave up a mammoth home run to recycled Jays prospect Anthony Sanders and an RBI double to Shawn Fagan, giving the Ravens a lead they never relinquished. Sanders' homer, only the fourth to ever clear the centrefield wall at Yale Field, travelled an estimated 500 feet. Chris Baker, of all people, threw 7 shutout innings for the victory, while Adam Peterson issued a hit, two walks and a wild pitch, but escaped a jam in the 9th inning to preserve the win.

For a meaningless September series between our third-place Fighting Jays and the toothless Tigers, this has been a dandy. Compared to Roy Halladay's genius yesterday, and Bobby Kielty's exciting pinch-hit game-winner, today's finale is sure to be a dog, complete with a chorus of baying hounds. Looking after my hyperactive mini-Schnauzer would make it impossible for me to enjoy the game, so we're staying home to watch on TV. Some of the players' pooches, including Chris Woodward's Sarah, will be there. Reed Johnson told me he'd bring his pal Shooter into the dugout every day, if it was allowed.

On the field, Josh Towers can stake his claim on a 2004 job with a good performance. He was terrific against the Mariners on August 20, scattering six hits and allowing just two runs (one earned) in a complete game victory, to improve to 2-1, 3.98 as a starter. Just four days later, asked to work out of the bullpen and understandably disappointed, he had a nightmare inning against the A's, but in two subsequent relief appearances, notched a win and a save in 6.1 solid frames of work. Considering Mark Hendrickson's recent struggles, Towers could move up to #4 for the rest of September, but even as #5, he should get two or three more opportunities this season.