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Tasty morsels

(The image above was swiped from gourmeted.com. In case you hadn't heard, meats don't clash. Miam miam.)

We've probably spent too much time sharing with you our Pollyanna-ish enthusiasm for the present and future of the Blue Jays. So to give you a rest and to cleanse your pallet from our sugary-sweet concoctions (and to give us a break from thinking), here are some other savoury bits of knowledge.

Birds of a feather: It scares us to think that we might have just about the same thought process as the Drunks' Dustin Parkes (we kid!), but his internal dialogue from the past couple of days pretty much sums up what we were thinking. Blerg.

Downs views: Drew picks up one of the loopier lines of thought brought up in his liveblog on Tuesday, which asked whether if the Jays might retain the services of Scott Downs in the future. Also, he put this Sam Cooke song in our head.

Overbay, over and out? MLBTR passes on the news that Lyle Overbay has passed through waivers. We've got a post brewing on his time in Toronto, how we've grown attached to him, and how he was like an endtable that occasionally brought the room together. (Note: Metaphors may change without notice.) It wouldn't surprise us at all to see him move before the end of the month.

Big TV numbers: The Star's Zelk notes that the Jays pulled in more than 760,000 viewers - roughly twice the normal audience - for Sunday's near no-hitter. The Jays have put up pretty good numbers all year, which may or may not be due to the new PPM ratings systems. It will be interesting to track those numbers in the next few years, as the Jays' worth to Rogers rests primarily in their value as a television property.

Sportsnet One, Sportsnet None? Speaking of Rogers and ratings, don't be surprised to see bulk of Jays games move to the new national service Sportsnet One. (They've already announced that 25 games for this season will head to the new service.) The unspoken second half of this equation is the question of how long the other cable companies will drag their feet on carrying the new service. So if you're on Shaw, ExpressVu, StarChoice, Videotron or whatever, don't say we didn't warn you that you might get frozen out of some coverage in the short term.

And one more Rogers gripe: Any chance that the kids at Rogers are going to get going and launch Baseball TV anytime soon? Or ever? Considering the availability of the Big 10 Network, CBS College Sports TV, Golf, Speed, Poker, Harness Racing, Fishing, and the league-run entities of the NBA, NFL and NHL, it would be nice to think that we just might have access to a 24 hour baseball channel in time for the long winter offseason.

Buck is back

Imagine our surprise when we returned home from a night of work-sanctioned piss-tanking last evening, and opened up our email to find a press release from Sportsnet announcing the return of Buck Martinez.

Really? Sportsnet sends me press releases? Go figure!

We were so surprised to find our email on the Rogers media list (and also pretty hammered to boot) that we totally missed the fact that Buck is coming back to Toronto to serve as the play-by-play voice of the Jays. It barely computes this morning, to be honest with you. But really, what's the worst that could happen when Buck Martinez takes on a task in the game of baseball for which he has little previous experience?

(Oh, yeah. Right. I'd kinda blocked that year and a half out of my mind.)

It seems a little weird for Buck to be coming back, because from where we sit, there is no other market in the majors where his knowledge of the game would be questioned more than in Toronto. At the same time, it does seem from the initial reactions that we've heard that people seem pretty happy with this. Probably about as happy as they were when the team reached into the past to bring back the Manager. And look how well that's turned out!

(Seriously, I'm not this grumpy. I'm not! I'm just a little hung over and unable to look at the bright side of things, because the brightness burns my eyes and makes every throb in my lobes.)

This announcement also means the end of the Jamie Campbell era in the Jays booth. While some (most) around these parts found Campbell to be lacking (significantly), we hope that the kid lands on his feet. He seems like good people, and a genuine baseball fan, and we hope he finds something new and rewarding to do in the short term.

Taking a break
If we're a little scarce around these parts for the next week or so, it's because we're undertaking a move from our crappy little apartment into a house. These things don't always run smoothly (so I'm told), so forgive if we're not on top of stuff for a little while.

We've asked The Ack to take over for us, but he's not answering our emails these days. We think he may be plotting against us. But if he's not, he may be around should the Jays pull off any sort of deal or engage in further information gathering.

We're all losers in the long, slow, sad battle of Canada's media companies

It felt for a moment yesterday as though we were being drafted into battle over the announcement that the rights to the Jays' mid-May series against the Red Sox were acquired by CTVglobemedia to be shown on TSN2.

The notion that we - like thousands of other Jays fans - will likely not be able to see those games frustrates us immensely. But at the same time, we wonder how much energy we have to engage in what is surely to be an almost pointless exercise in trying to convince these two media monoliths to give an inch in what seems to be an intractable battle over the sports media landscape.

A few points for the sake of context. TSN gets the highest subscription fees of any Canadian cable channel, meaning that the network has an institutionalized advantage over Sportsnet or the Score when it comes to acquiring content. A few years back, Rogers and Headline Sports both went to the CRTC to ask for significantly larger fees, in part because they saw the way that TSN was bidding up the rights to properties beyond what was rational. They received a very modest increase, but nothing near what they had asked for and certainly not enough to play the money game with TSN.

Before the introduction of the "alternate feed", TSN would timeshift programs that they couldn't fit into their schedule into the wee hours of the morning, usually resulting in a handful of pissed off tennis or Formula 1 fans. It wasn't a great move for the viewers, but in a battle such as this, the execs and programmers generally look at the audience as a secondary concern. (At their peril, but we'll come back to that.)

Now that TSN has evolved from having an occasional alternate feed to a full blown second channel, they are certain to use their institutionalized financial might to bid up the rights to any and all sports properties that they want, regardless of whether or not if they can fit them into their schedule. Think of TSN as the Yankees, having more money to spend and using it to their competitive advantage.

It seems as though Rogers' tactic at this point is to squeeze off access to theis channel from their significant subscriber base, thus minimizing the impact of the second TSN channel on their four allegedly regional sports networks. The thinking seems to be that if they let the second feed wither on the vine, then it will eventually go away. The thing is, TSN2 won't go away. CTVglobemedia is willing to engage in a battle of attrition over this incredibly valuable property, and they have the resources and the will to go to the wall for this.

With this latest salvo between the companies, we can just imagine how pleased the TSN-types are with themselves at having the opportunity to really stick it to Rogers. Acquiring a Rogers property and airing it on a channel that Rogers refuses to make room for has probably resulted in all sorts of giggling and backslaps and attaboys, much in the way that they gloated like shit-eating frat boys at their pointless and petty acquisition of the Hockey Song away from the bumbling navel gazers at CBC.

With apologies to Raptors fans, the acquisition of the Blue Jays games for TSN2 will likely prove to be the true test of this rivalry. Jays games traditionally bring in more than 300,000 viewers on TSN and around 250,000 on Sportsnet, numbers that dwarf the basketball numbers. The question is: How much damage is one part of Rogers (the BDU or cable guys) willing to do to another part of the company (the Blue Jays) in order to maintain their position in an ultimately unwinnable war?

(And following up on that thought: What is going on with the Blue Jays in relation to their corporate parents when they are willing to sell the rights to these games to a competitor who will use the games to rachet up pressure on the Rogers Cable unit to give in on their resistance to carrying this channel? Are the Blue Jays going out on a limb here?)

Our hope is that Rogers and CTV come to their senses and sort these issues out, because the longer that they allow this sort of tomfoolery to go on, the more likely it is that you will Canadian sports fans stepping around the regulated broadcasting system and finding the games that they want to see on internet streams in the unregulated universe. And they might want to ask someone in the music business how easy it is to get those customers back once they leave.

The longer this battle goes on, the more likely that any victory gained between these two companies will ultimately prove to be a pyrrhic one. So really guys: Smarten the fuck up.

There go our dreams of 162-0

Maybe people should have pulled back on all the talk about the Jays' record for wins to start the season until, you know, maybe at least three? Because when you start to go down that road too far, talking about the 1992 team's six win streak to start the year, you're really setting yourself up for a Voodoo Whammy(!) in the form of Miguel Cabrera's bat.

We could pick apart last night's performance in the 5-1 loss to the Tigers by both the offense and the pink-round-efficient pitching, but frankly, it's a little too early to start taking the micro and blowing it up into the macro. There were a few bad pitches and a few bad at bats, but we're not going to lose our shit about them until they become an actual trend.

Give it at least until the end of the weekend.

Let's hear it for the bullpen boys!
We've kicked Jason Frasor around a bit over the past few years, but he looked pretty great last night. In fact - and we hope we're not getting way too far ahead of ourselves - it crossed our mind that Frasor and his newfound circle-change might actually be a candidate for the closer job if someone else in the bullpen isn't able to fulfill those duties.

Brian Tallet -who has a mustache that would look right at home in the 1984 Blue Jays team picture -looked really good last night in his inning. We know that people keep talking about him as a surplus lefty arm and perfect trade bait, but we're inclined to think that this is The Year of The Tallet^TM. You don't want to mess with that sort of good ju-ju.

Apologies and Kudos to the Mainstream Media
After excoriating the hockey-centric sports media in Canada yesterday, just watch us now as we backpeddle. Or at least tip our cap to Sportsnet, who appear to be committed to a half-hour JaysConnected pre-game show this season. We're not exactly Brad Fay fans (that guy's like a can of mousse reading the autocue), but Barry Davis and Sam Consentino come off as actual baseball fans with a sincere interest in the game.

We'd suggest putting Davis and Consentino together before the game to have them chat it up amongst themselves on the state of the Blue Jays and what's happening around baseball. For away games, we'd see putting Davis in the studio (give him a phone book to sit on), then do a two-ender with Consentino on site. We'd also suggest forgoing the interviews with the players, because that sort of thing is as dull as shit now that they are media-trained within an inch of their sanity.

We'll still go to bed dreaming of the MLB Network, but this is progress. And as Lloyd the Barber quite rightly pointed out yesterday in response to our temper tantrum, we'll likely watch more games on TV and see more baseball content this year than our parents would have seen in a decade.

Cripes, we flipped back and forth last night between three games AFTER the Jays game was done, so we probably shouldn't put on the poormouth as much as we do.

This afternoon's affair
The getaway day matchup between Ricky Romero and Rick Porcello at 12:35 this afternoon should be interesting. As has been noted, it is the first time in history that two first round picks make their MLB debut against one another.

Also, we should expect to see a few new faces in the lineup, as Mike Barrett and Kevin Millar should be in the lineup.

Statler and Waldorf have got nothing on the PTS crew

Listening to Bob McCown, Jim Kelley and Bob Elliot talk about the Blue Jays is much like the Muppet Show segments with the crotchety critics, only devoid of the humour, reason and reasonable resemblance to actual human beings.

Also, the PTS baseball segments are generally stretched out over five minutes, which is a seemingly endless amount of time to allow Jim Kelley to try to make an argument about anything.

(We think Kelley's point tonight was that J.P. overspent Rogers' money on A.J. Burnett, and therefore should have overspent with the personnel that he has accumulated in order to acquire Jason Bay. Which is quite possibly the stupidest thing we've ever heard spoken on Sportsnet, the Fan 590, or on any sports talk radio program anywhere.)

Come on, guys. We fucking well get that you hate J.P., and that anything he does is wrong in your eyes, and of course you are right because the proof lies in the fact that they haven't won the World Series under his watch.

This whole act is so tiresome. We're almost rooting for J.P. to get fired at this point if only so that the thin-skinned Toronto media can get over their fucking imaginary wounds and move on.

Hopefully, Tony LaCava won't offend anyone's precious sensibilities.

Mike Toth: Media Critic

Before anyone takes Mike Toth too seriously when he starts to act as a media critic, burying vastly superior broadcasters on the air, let us take a moment, and remember the time when Mr. Fun Stuff said the following on the air in the middle of a highlight package:

"Antero Nittymaki, smoking that wacky tabacky..."

Yeah, he said that. So clearly he has the moral high ground.

Some gems have jagged edges

Yeah, it's May, but we were perched on the edge of the chesterfield in the nervous ninth inning of tonight's 1-0 win over the ChiSox. Rocking back and forth, uttering curse words of encouragement to B.J. Ryan...you would have sworn that tonight's game meant something.

In the end, the Jays win, sweep the series, win their fifth in a row and remain undefeated in May. How's that for meaningful wins?

A few random thoughts below.

The greatest McGowan since Shane
Maybe the lambchops were holding Dustin McGowan back early in the season, because in two starts since razing them, he's been ridiculously awesome. In tonight's 7.1 innings of four-hit, six strikeout, shutout ball, McGowan looked calm and in control the whole way. He was never in trouble, but even when runners reached base, he looked cool as ice on the mound. And maybe that was all a big heap of cliché, but we felt like McGowan was fully in control the entire time, in spite of the Jays lack of run support.

Shannon Stewart does not run like a girl
Didja see Shannon Stewart beat out that throw in the eighth? Or leg out the triple in the sixth? Didja? Because if you did, could you do us a solid and shut the fuck up about Reed Johnson for at least one day? Thanks!

Things we never thought we'd say
John Gibbons managed an excellent game tonight. Seriously. The lineup made great sense, with Scrappy Doo hitting ninth, where he belongs. Moreover, Gibby smartly brought in John McDonald in the ninth (FINALLY!), even if the Prime Minister of Defense didn't need to make a play.

The Mainstream Media is awesome!
For all of the bitching and moaning that we've done week about the media, mad props go to the crew at Sportsnet for catching the ninth inning conversation between home plate umpire Ron Kulpa and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. The Southsiders' pitching coach Don Cooper began chirping about B.J. Ryan's delivery, calling for a balk on every pitch after Paul Konerko's walk. Kulpa eventually took off his mask, looked into the dugout and declared "He's stopping." That Sportnet not only had a mic open but also had a close up of Kulpa on the ready added immensely to the drama.

Speaking of media, welcome to a whole new era
The Drunk Jays Fans are on the air, in podcast form. Their inaugural episode was recorded this weekend, and is sitting on the Score's website for your listening pleasure. The first week's guests included JaysTalk's Mike Wilner, former in-game hostess Jill Clark (mrroawr!) and a certain Blue Jays blogger, who liked to use the words "ummm" and "y'know" a lot, and stopped in mid-sentence to sigh a lot. Not that we're obsessing.

The Battle for AL East Supremacy Begins

Sure, it's only two weeks into the season, but the Jays and Orioles sit a half game ahead of the Red Sox atop the AL East. We hope that O's fans are relishing this moment.

We really shouldn't gloat over what we anticipate will be a precipitous fall from grace for the Baltimoreans, seeing as how last year's team (which pretty much sucked as much as we anticipate this year's will) went 8-10 against the Jays.

Tonight's pitching matchup features Dustin McGowan and his Lambchops of Vengeance versus Matt Albers (1-0, 0.00 ERA).

Tomorrow night, it's Shaun Marcum versus the Human Rain Delay, Steve Trachsel. For those of you planning to PVR the game, please remember to add an extra hour or two.

Jon Hale is our Pitch F/X Pool Boy: Hale is supposed to be on vacation, but he's taken time out to affirm that we were correct when we stated that Laz Diaz was giving Halladay some pitches off the plate on Saturday. Of course, Diaz is know to have a pretty consistently wide strike zone, so it's not as though Halladay was getting away with anything. Also of interest on the Mockingbird is a breakdown of Beej's return.

Jim Lang loves Whitey Herzog, in theory: Jim Lang, a man whose tenure on Canada's airwaves defies explanation, went off on a "I hate Moneyball" rant on his Sportsnet.ca blog last week. Of course, being a Canadian sports anchor, Jim's areas of expertise tend to fall more in the area of junior hockey and scrub-league football. (Yeah, we're looking your way, CFL.) So you'll have to forgive Jimmer if he kinda muffed up his facts. Lang's notion that the Jays should give up lots of outs to get one run doesn't exactly square with, you know, reality. Or the fact that Whitey's teams were OBP machines.

Fire Joe Morgan, who took time out of their busy day to give Lang the bidness, must be wondering about the crappy state of baseball commentary in Canada. This marks the second time in as many weeks that they've had to take a Toronto sports media goon to the shed, after last week's Professor Griff takedown.

Reason # 42,145 that we've grown to hate hockey

We fastidiously stay away from talking hockey, mostly because there is more than enough puckheads out there who can and do blather on about it 12 months out of the year. Plus, talking about hockey with hockey fans is a bit like talking about fire with cavemen: You can tell it's important to them, but they have a hard time expressing themselves in anything but grunts and howls.

But our ire was raised this week when we read the comments of Canadian Press and Sportsnet.ca columnist Pierre LeBrun, who waxed oh-so-eloquently about the Roy Family Debacle in the Quebec League playoffs last week.

"When did the tree huggers take over this bloody country? When did we all become such bleeding hearts that a junior hockey brawl shocked our collective senses so badly we became outraged?

Cripes, if anyone should be criticized it should be Chicoutimi goalie Bobby Nadeau for standing there like a Nancy Boy and not trying to defend himself when Roy came after him?"

So if we're understanding this correctly, LeBrun is saying that he's disappointed at the fact that the country doesn't share his creepy desire to watch teenage boys beat each other up. That this 19 year-old kid from Chicoutimi, who makes a paltry $50 per week, is a coward for not fighting the rampaging lunatic kid who was being egged on by his father (who has a reputation for domestic abuse that includes calls to the Denver police and ripping doors off their hinges, presumably in front of said same kid).

And why should this young man fight? Why should he, when he has his entire life in front of him, and one that probably doesn't include hockey beyond the next couple of years? Why should he tempt fate to see if he's the first person to die in a hockey fight?

Because some creepy, goateed, corpulent middle aged white guy wants his blood lust to be satiated by watching boys beat each other up.

Yeah. Hockey's not fucked at all.

ESPN can't get their fill of the Blue Jays

It's been an ongoing gripe of Blue Jays fans that the team rarely if ever gets any profile on the Four Letter Network to the south. (It's all a part of that rather ugly inferiority-cum-smug-superiority complex that we Canadians have going for ourselves, but that's an entirely different blog altogether.)

Amazingly enough, the boys in powder blue will be on the main network (not "The Ocho!") on Wednesday (vs the Red Sox) and Thursday (vs the Yankees) of next week. Their opening day matchup versus the Yankees will be on also be on the main network. Granted, ESPN is likely more interested in the other teams for those games, but it would be a kick to see what flat-earther Joe Morgan has to say about this year's team.

Both of the fake games, incidentally, will be on Sportsnet.

Baseball on the TV. What a concept!

Since last weekend's CityStyle infomercial/telethon hardly counts as a baseball broadcast, we're excited to see some actual games make their way to the tube.

On Sunday afternoon, we managed to catch some Mets-Astros action on WPIX, and we tuned in to WGN to see a Cubs game only to be met by a broadcast of MXP: Most Extreme Primate (the Citizen Kane of snowboarding monkey movies.)

Sportsnet, which has apparently exhausted its supply of televised poker (Zzzzzzzz) will get into the baseball broadcasting game this week. On the slate are today's Red Sox-Yankees fake game at 1pm, and, wonder of wonders, tomorrow's Jays-Yanks game at 1pm as well. We're presuming that it will be the YES broadcast, so if you've forgotten how much you hate Michael Kay, you might want to record tomorrow's game to provide you with a helpful reminder.

Radio is a sound salvation

The Globe's Bill Houston lays out the Spring Training broadcast schedule for the Jays. Can you believe that a week from tomorrow, we get Jerry, Allan and Wilner back on the air? Although only on bluejays.com to start. (For free?)

He also reports on the TV schedule, which kicks off next weekend with the wacky CityTV crew. Which, you know, should be a barrel of laughs. The Drunk Jays Fans covered this off very well ages ago, so we leave the Jennifer Valentyne innuendo to them.

UPDATE, 2:42 PM: Houston's also got news now on the Jays TV schedule. 144 games will be televised in total (120 100 on Sportsnet, 24 on CBC, and 20 on Rod Black's mustache). We'll go ahead and assume that Rogers will show the other 18 games (likely weekday afternoon games, with a few early season exceptions) on the preview channel, although no formal announcement was made to that effect.

Odds and sods from sweeperific weekend

Exeunt Torre
It's been a long time (well, seven years) since Joe Torre's had a season end on a positive note, and with last night's 6-4 loss to the Clevelanders eliminating the Bombing Bronx Crew, it's going to be another long winter for the ever-grimacing skipper. Each year, it seems as though his head is on the block, but this may finally be it for Torre. The guess here is that by next April, the Yanks collection of aging veterans and "starters of the future" will be heaped into the lap of Don Mattingly, who will spend the next six months trying to figure out how to make anything out of this team. Hilarity ensues.

Big Hurt Gets Off to a Slow Start - Again
Neate notes (with a report from Broadcasting and Cable) that Frank Thomas' poor performance in the TBS booth early in the first round has sent the net scrambling for Ron Darling to pick up the slack. Of course, we couldn't imagine how Thomas' on-camera work could be any worse than watching Sportsnet's Sultan of Smoove Jason Portuondo aimlessly punning his way through another highlight package. (Jason: we're sure you're cool. Stop trying so hard.)

Meet Gary Denbo - Your New Hitting Coach/Whipping Boy
Jeff Blair reports that the Jays are likely to announce former Yanks hitting coach Gary Denbo as their replacement for Mickey Brantley as soon as today. Denbo is apparently familiar with these video cassette machines that capture moving images, and uses them extensively.

The Big Hurt brings the noise...but the party's mostly over

Frank Thomas is rolling, marching fiercely towards the century mark in RsBI with another three in tonight's 11-4 throwdown in Baltimore.

We won't get overly pissy about how the Big Hurt's production has picked up after the Jays had slipped out of contention. This is the last week of the season, and we're feeling a little more charitable these days. (Although this late season surge reminds us of Joe Carter's 1995 season, when he basically sucked all year, then turned it on in the last couple of months to reach the 100 RsBI plateau for, like, the thirtieth straight season or whatever.)

If Frank Thomas is on TBS, where will go to see Road House? The fellas at Drunk Jays Fans picked up the news that the Big Hurt will try to fit his enormous cranium within the frame when he sits in on the TBS postseason coverage. Also, Gregg Zaun will sit in with nerdy ginger Jamie Campbell on the Rogers Sportsnet coverage. Zaun has a unique manner of enunciating, and if last year's experience is anything to go on, we figure we'll be well into the LCS before we see his teeth.

Johnny Mac - Doubles Machine, Defensive Liability: We're tracking tonight's game online, so we can't attest to whether if John McDonald made eight spectacular plays. However, it's definitely strange to see in the boxscore that he hit two doubles (to "deep center" no less!), but that he also made an error. It's like the Bizzarro World John McDonald got penciled into the lineup by mistake.

Walk off madness!

You know, some nights, we're watching the highlights, and we see the Nationals or the Pirates win in a walk-off, and we think: "Good for their fans...they could use a little joy in their otherwise miserable existence."

Tonight, someone's thinking that of us. (Please stop us before we start singing "Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail.)

You know what? We'll take a win like tonight's 2-1 win over the Bronx Bombers any time. It's a walk off win over the Yankees. It brings us back to .500. And it snaps a five game losing streak.

Speaking of .500
A.J. Burnett has pitched his ass off since coming off the DL. A.J. has gone at least seven innings in all but one start since returning (and he pitched into the seventh that night), and for all of his trouble, he's still 8-7 on the season. Meaning that corpulent turds like the marble-mouthed Jim Kelley on Sportsnet can continue to refer to him as a ".500 pitcher".

Of course, the fact that A.J. dropped his ERA to 3.42 will be likely be lost on an arrogant fart like Kelley.

Blue Jays Fans Not Served Well By Toronto Media

Ok. So we have come to accept the fact that Toronto is a hockey town (although we think that it is not in line with the Leaf saturation in the media). But that is a poor excuse for providing subpar coverage of the only other major league sport in town (and possibly the only true major league sport in town). Here's a rundown of the players and how they rate in their coverage:

Newspapers (Online versions):

1. The Globe & Mail - The Globe does a pretty decent job of covering the Jays and baseball in general. Jeff Blair provides good analysis of the Jays and, when applicable, other major baseball stories. Blogs by Blair and MacLeod have rounded out the coverage nicely. Probably the best in this list.

2. The Toronto Sun - The Toronto Sun is probably a bit underrated. They do have unique angles in their stories on occasion but the columnists are not on par with Blair from the Globe.

3. The Toronto Star - Alan Ryan is adequate as a beat writer, but The Star is doing a disservice to its readers with Dick Griffin as their main baseball columnist. Griffin fancies himself a serious baseball writer so he often focuses on the "bigger" baseball stories such as the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry (God knows we need more articles on that subject). In the Internet Era we can read about any team we want to with the click of a mouse. So we're not sure why The Star would employ someone that has nothing but disdain for the local team as evidenced by his columns -- when he writes about them at all (5 of his last 6 columns are about teams other than the Jays). But his readers love him--- apparently.

Television:

1. Rogers Sportsnet - I suppose the channel owned by the company that also happens to own the Jays has more than a little self-interest in covering the team. To push the product, they broadcast 120 games, run Jays ads non-stop and produce a weekly kid oriented show where we see Greg Zaun eating breakfast or Aaron Hill playing guitar. Despite the favourable airtime, we don't get the kind of in depth analysis of the team and the game in general that we see for Hockey. If someone in a Leafs jersey gets a blister in July, there are 3-4-5 member panels assembled to analyze it and re-analyze it. We don't get more than a passing mention of what takes place with the Jays. This isn't covered off in the booth either by the broadcast team of Eagle Scout Jamie Campbell and whoever the dullest ex-Jay they can find to fill the other seat.

2. TSN - These guys only carry 20 games and offer no other coverage of the team apart from highlights on Sportscentre. Outdated onscreen graphics (what's up with those grey, faceless 3D figures occupying the field) and the team of Rod Black and Pat Tabler does not help their bleak situation. But the ratings are better than Sportsnet's for some reason.

3. CBC - Canada's public broadcaster signed on to carry 8 games this season with more in the works for next year. The team of former TSN and EA's Triple Play baseball's play by play guy Jim Highson, Jesse Barfield, and Rance "Mr. Excitement" Mullinks are the best of the three networks (not saying a lot). Ratings for Jays games on CBC have been the highest of all three networks. CBC doesn't carry any other Jays coverage other than these games.

Blogs:

Too many to name but it's clear that they are needed to fill the void for we, the baseball info starved fans in the Great White North.

The greatest Jesse since Barfield (or maybe the Beachcombers)

Like a young Mauro Gozzo, Jesse Litsch has stepped in to help salvage the back end of the Jays rotation. Litsch's next starts are not all going to go so well, but let's be grateful for this memorable moment, and moreover, for the win.

By the way, I'm not sure if anyone out there watching the game realized it, but Litsch used to be Devil Rays' bat boy. I mean, it was mentioned about 500 times in the innings I saw...but I guess not everyone would have been lucky enough to hear Jamie Campbell go on and on and on and on about this.

Sportsnet: You are forgiven

Guerre nucléaire has been averted.

We received a very thoughtful email from the folks who run the Inbox segment on Sportsnet Connected, who explained that their snub last Friday was due to the first day jitters by a new segment producer. Apparently, Ryerson ain't what it used to be.

As such, we have decided to call back the ICBMs, and lock up the launch codes. There will be peace in our time.

As a result of this new pax being struck, we had to find someone else to add to the old On Notice Board:

We have added the Devil Rays screamer, for being an annoying douchebag, for cheering for the Devil Rays, and for not updating his blog in more than a year. Heckler: You're on notice!

Getting Jobbed by Sportsnet

Alright, we'll confess. We're completely drunk on the attention that Sully and his girl Fitzy and their beer throwing tomfoolery brought to The Tao of Stieb, our little hoedown on the web.

So, when Sportsnet props up their anchorthingy in front of their 108,000 foot plasma, and she says"Hey kids, check out what Deadspin posted!", we've gotta say, it's a bit of a kick in the nuts.

(And by the way, what sort of segment is the Inbox anyhow? This isn't the first time that they've ripped something off Deadspin to fill two minutes of dead air.)

And so, The Tao of Stieb declares guerre nucleaire on Sportsnet. Only Martine Gaillard will be spared. Your idiotic peachfuzz mustaches won't save you now.

We're coming for Jim Lang first.

Guard your grills, and knuckle up Sportsnet. It's on.