ARRRRGH, A.J.! (AND OTHER NOTES)

The so banal, it's almost beguiling consistency of Roy Halladay is appreciated even more in this precinct after the absolute dud of a game A.J. Burnett turned in last night against the Seattle friggin' Mariners in a 7-4 Blue Jays loss. Eighty-two pitches and six earnies over four innings dug a big six-run hole that Toronto could not surmount.

This was on par with water torture, and yours truly wasn't even really paying attention to the telecast on the television down in the sports department about 15 metres away.

At least no ground was lost -- Boston and wild card-leading Chicago each lost -- but at some point the Jays have to start closing the gap, and right soon. The mantra here has been Half a game a week since last weekend, when the Jays took three of four off the then-reeling Yankees but by rights, could have easily swept this series.

Interesting note: the Toronto Star is perhaps realizing that summer is the time for baseball news, not the Leafs annual recycling of has-beens, might-bes and never-weres.

The past couple days have seen workhorse reporter Geoff Baker writing a colour piece to go along with his gamer; his latest was about the Jays fans who crossed the border in droves from B.C. for the Seattle series. That was commonplace back in the early '90s when the Jays were World Series contender Mariners played in the Kingdome

Seems like interest in the Jays is recovering among the 18-to-34 set -- just as The Geek foresaw way back on Opening Day.

OTHER BUSINESS

• Gee, who ever would have guessed that Lance Bass from 'N Sync is gay? Not that's there anything wrong with that. If that's his pleasure, by God, let's be happy for him.

Bill Simmons will be all over this: ESPN is actually going to have a one-hour pay-per view special on the making of the Madden 07 video football game. (Via Deadspin.)

This is apparently for real, and it's stunning even to yours truly, who played Madden 2004 all the way up until the 2015 season and has a Madden 06 game paused as of this very writing. A pay-per-view special about the release of a sports video game. Who's going to pay $19.95 US for that? Well, it might be worth it if they explain why certain members of the Detriot Lions are so much better in the video game than in real life.

Today is the 10th anniversary of Canada's Donovan Bailey winning the 100-metre dash at the '96 Atlanta Olympics. This gets its own post later today.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.