DIAMOND DREAMS IN THE DEAD OF WINTER

There's baseball on the brain -- it warms up the blood.

For yours truly, it starts around Christmas -- thinking about what the next season will hold, what the teams will look like come Opening Day in April. Even in the years when our beloved Blue Jays haven't been expected to do much, there's still a certain anticipation.

Ottawa, of course, has a Triple-A baseball for one more year, before the Lynx metamorphosis into the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs in 2008. It's a damn shame more people don't come out to the games in Ottawa once it warms up enough to sit outside for 2 1/2 hours. Hopefully the people with the money and influence (i.e., not me) take up the idea to bring in an independent-league team.

For now, it's kind of interesting to guess at who will be in the Lynx lineup when the home opener vs. the Charlotte Knights on Apr. 17. The team is now a Philadelphia Phillies farm club, so if you're interested, check out Phuture Phillies and get the lowdown on some of the big club's prospects.

The Lynx roster won't be set until a couple weeks before the season starts, of course, but the Phillies are bringing guys such as Pedro Swann (who played here in '03-04 and once had a cup of coffee with the Jays), Lou Collier (an integral part of the best team the Lynx ever had in 2002) and former Yankees outfielder Karim Garcia to camp. Some of the mainstays who led the Phillies affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to a division title last year should also end up in the capital. OK, so maybe it's not terribly exciting and there's a lack of a player-fan connection, but it should be decent baseball at affordable prices. (Do people in Ottawa realize that the folks in Winnipeg pay higher prices to watch their independent league team?)

The Lynx will be getting a good manager in John Russell (forever known for catching Nolan Ryan's sixth no-hitter in June 1990). Russell has been manager of the year in two Triple-A leagues, and was a shortlist candidate for the Texas Rangers job last fall before Ron Washington was hired. I've been trying to get him for an interview; hopefully next week.

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