"They only started chasing us once you put on that getaway music!"

"Wow! How many home runs are you gonna hit with that bat?"

"Let's see... we play thirty games, ten at-bats a game... three thousand."

*whistles*

It's the most... wonderful time... of the year...

Well, not really.

"It was the best of times, it was the BLURST OF TIMES???"

"Would you say it's time for our viewers to crack each other's heads open and feast on the goo inside?"

"Well yes I would, Kent"

"Yes... that's it... keep eating.... little do you know, you're drawing closer to the POISON DONUT! Wuhahahah!"

"Wait, there is a poison one, right Smithers?"

"The coroner? I'm so sick of that guy..."

If Henderson Alvarez develops a change-up that he can use as an effective strikeout pitch, he could be the best pitcher in baseball. Discuss.

Friday night was a fun night at the ballpark for Blue Jay fans.  The Yankee fans in the house, and there were a lot of them, didn't have much to cheer about.  Jose Bautista was Da Man and Brett Cecil was outstanding too.

TAM (54-44)        000 001    422 001  10  17  1
TOR (47-51)        222 201    000 000   9  16  0
Price, Cormier (4), Thayer (6), Balfour (7),  Choate (8), Wheeler (8), Howell (6-2) (10), Nelson (12)
Tallet, League (7), Accardo (8), Downs (9), Frasor (10), Camp (0-5) (11)

And what did I think of today's game?

So apparently there was a baseball game on Tuesday night -- a Major League Baseball game, even, although it's true, it was an "exhibition." (Wait, this time it counts -- is that still an "exhibition"?) Some guy named Barry O'Bama (I think -- is that Irish?) threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Roy Halladay started the game for the winning team -- that's a sentence not written frequently enough in these parts! -- and the same team that always wins this game, they won the game. Woo -- surprise, surprise, surprise.

So our Question(s) of the Day ... Did you watch any of it? Did anyone watch all of it? If so (or if not), why? (or why not?) For those who did watch, did anything stick with you as truly memorable?

Dear Batter's Box faithful,

I don't understand. There was a baseball game yesterday involving the Blue Jays, and there hasn't been a game thread posted. There's always a game thread posted -- why just yesterday, there was one extolling all the "positive firsts" of the series opener in Da Bronx.

Today, nothing. Did something ... different ... happen yesterday?

Best regards,
Mick Doherty
Batter's Box resident Yankee fan

Friend of Batter's Box Jamey Newberg, proprietor of the best major league baseball e-mail newsletter on the planet, just posted a special edition of his daily missive to Texas Rangers (and other baseball) fans everywhere. Here's part of what he wrote:

We were on the road, starting a seven-game trip, losers of seven out of nine, facing the team with the best record in the American League, matched up against perhaps the most consistently dominating pitcher in the league ...

Tell me about today's game, I missed most of it.

Some pitchers are poker players.  Their faces tell you nothing, or a message that they want you to receive.  Jimmy Key might have been a boiling cauldron of emotion on the mound, but you would never know it by looking at him.  Dave Stewart's death glare was dishonest but quite effective in producing somewhat intimidated hitters. Other pitchers show anger, frustration and other lively feelings more  readily on the mound.  Yesterday's game in Toronto featured high anxiety from Josh Towers.