The coveted autographed T-shirt (many thanks to Mike H. for the donation, and to J.P. Ricciardi and Carlos Tosca for the autographs) is going to Texas, not Toronto. Congratulations to Scott Lucas on his Nation Builders' 10-1 victory over Billie's Bashers in the two-week final. After a fourth place finish in the regular season, Scott drew a tough playoff assignment, edging Mebion Glyndwr in the first round, then knocking out the regular-season champs, Gashouse Gorillas, in the semi-finals. Snellville Jones' club whomped my Toronto Walrus 9-3 in the bronze-medal matchup, while Spicol's Red Mosquitos won the consolation bracket 8-2 over the Eastern Shore Birds. It was a great first season. There will be no trading until after the World Series, and the rules committee will have a few proposals for all owners to vote on before then.

Feel free to use this thread to discuss how you did in other fantasy leagues this year. For example, Roy Halladay and Carlos Delgado led my team in the AL Roto Junkies 5x5 league to a championship. No T-shirt involved, but I'll be getting a nice cheque. Unfortunately, according to our rules, I can only keep one of my cornerstones next year. It's a tough choice, just like J.P.'s decision. Advice is welcome. There might be an opening in that league next year; e-mail me if interested and I'll forward it to the Commish. The BBFL already has a waiting list, but we're hoping to start a second ZLC league for '04.

Here's my report card for September. This is a happy occasion: as expected, the Jays beat up on the American League's weaker sisters in September. It's too bad nobody outside the Greater Toronto Area noticed. Oh, well - it's the same as it ever was.

A full year report will follow sometime soon.

There's very little left to play for today: all 4 division series matchups have been determined as the Houston Astros were crunched. San Francisco and Atlanta are still battling for homefield advantage in the NLCS.

I am going to hold off on my breakdown of the 2003 Jays for a few days yet. But I did want to give you all an opportunity to comment on the season now past.

Batter's Box is still at the same address, but we have changed hosts. The switch was thrown this afternoon, so you may notice a couple of minor changes. The "Hot Topics" list reflects the most recent changes made to the archives on this new server; it will be back to normal soon. If you posted a comment between about 5:00 and 7:00 today, they may be "missing," but that should be temporary.

Our technical gurus, Gwyn Price and Joe Drew, are working furiously behind the curtain. Gwyn has also added the new Poll feature, which we will be employing from time to time. Great work, guys. To our readers, thanks for your patience.

We now resume normal blogging...

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Grand slam Delgado!!

I'll be blogging all on my lonesome today (well, me and the non-Torontonians) because most everyone else will likely be at the Baseball Prospectus Pizza Feed before hitting the Dome for what is hoped will be Roy Halladay's 22nd win. Roy will be looking for revenge on opposing hitters after being tagged with the loss against the Devil Rays following his ejection last week.

Terry Mulholland goes for the Indians. Spencer Fordin of mlb.com has already called this season a "runaway success" for the Jays, and they've surpassed my own expectations (83 wins) but I think they won't be happy without 85 for the team and 22 for HLH.

Enjoy!

To all the readers who offered kind words regarding these updates: thank you.

It will be Mike Mussina in game 1 against the Twins. Joe Torre has decided on three starters (Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens); the fourth hasn't been named. Rumour has it that it will be David Wells. Boston made the expected announcement: Pedro Martinez will start game 1 in Oakland.

It looks like Baseball Almanac have already updated their list of players who have hit four home runs in one game. That was fast.

Carlos Delgado is the best Blue Jay ever. Craig said it on the game thread, and if anyone else had any doubts, they should be long gone, like the slugger's fourth home run last night.

The picture is from MLB.com, where Spencer Fordin put the accomplishment in perspective.

Carlos Delgado stamped his name on the game Thursday night, showing off his prodigious power in a historic night at SkyDome.

Carlos Tosca agreed.

"The fans are going to leave tonight having seen a tremendous feat that's only been done a handful of times in the history of the game. It's certainly the most amazing exhibition I've ever seen on a baseball field."

No argument from J.P. Ricciardi.

"Today I was a fan. I just watched like everybody else," he said. "We watched history -- it's amazing. Anybody, whether they're a general manager or a coach or whatever, puts their fan hat on at that point. You're just in awe, watching a performance that you know you'll probably never see again."

Part 9B of a 10-part series

When thinking about "favourite pieces of writing," Geoff Baker can look back on his time with the news desk at another paper, where as he recalls, "I chased a convicted fraud artist out of Montreal in 1994 for a highly-suspect theme park project he was promoting ... Real cloak-and-dagger stuff. Our stories got him arrested."

Speaking of fraud, from a sports angle, Baker says his expose of Tim Johnson and his Vietnam lies in 1998 "eventually got him fired and garnered worldwide attention at the time," while a piece on Carlos Delgado helping anti-Navy activists in Puerto Rico also drew widespread praise a couple of years ago.

"But I'm most proud of a 2,200-word feature I wrote on Eric Hinske and his football-playing brother in August 2002," he says.

Part 9A of a 10-part series

For all the attention Richard Griffin and Geoff Baker have received here on Batter's Box, especially since this series started, sometimes maybe it's best to just let a writer's words speak for themselves. Not in defense, or in reaction -- just the words of a particularly favorite piece of writing.

"The best thing I've ever written – and you have to remember I've only been writing for nine years," says Richard Griffin, "was a Jackie Robinson feature for his 50th anniversary as a Montreal Royal in 1996."

Griffin recalls that he "spent months researching his story and traveled to Montreal to interview Rachel Robinson. I have collected books on Robinson and the history of race relations in the States. I feel I know as much about the baseball pioneer as anyone."

The NL Central will not be decided before Saturday and Florida has yet to clinch, but 6 other teams have claimed playoff spots. The American League matchups are now set: the Twins have announced Johan Santana as their game 1 starter (hooray!) in Yankee stadium and Tim Hudson gets the nod at home in their opener against the Sox. I'm not sure whether Houston or Chicago should be favoured to take the Central: both are at home against sub-.500 teams (Milwaukee and Pittsburgh). I'm half-rooting for the Astros to make it so that they can take revenge on the Braves and win their first ever post-season series (yes kiddies, it is possible to have a more miserable history than the Red Sox have). Of course if they are swept by Atlanta it will only add to the ignominy.