LATE AFTERNOON LINKS...

BASEBALL

• Remember Ryan Leli, the apparent Jerry Seinfeld lovechild who was busted for impersonating a journalist? He agreed to a plea bargain that includes been a three-year ban from going to Shea Stadium. Standard Letterman monologue joke: Three years without seeing the Mets play? The prosecutors' original plea deal was only for two.

• Blue Jays fans, rejoice! Alan Ashby, an original 1977 Jay, is the new colour man on radio broadcasts. It's great they got rid of the universally loathed Warren Sakwiw, but why go with Ashby? He's just going to get replaced by Ernie Whitt after two years -- again.

• The other Jays note is they will have a full complement of six farm clubs, having added a team in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Nice to see the Jays aren't being small town cheap by skimping on their farm system. (Thanks to Peter Toms for the tip.)

Unfortunately, the loss of the Pulaski Blue Jays there is no longer a team whose name is a play on a character from Old School, Joseph 'Blue' Pulaski. You're my boy, Blue!

• The Yankees are going behind the Great Wall to discuss setting up a baseball academy in China. Obviously this is more about smearing the Yankee brand to all corners of the globe than teaching the Chinese to hit the cutoff man... Speaking of Yankees headed to the Pacific Rim, Langley, B.C.'s Aaron Guiel, the outfielder-first baseman, has signed with the Yakult Swallows.

PERTAINING TO ICE

• Ted Saskin, the NHL players association boss, isn't out of the woods yet. Don't worry, a independent probe into the circumstances of a union boss' hiring is the beginning and end of the league's woes... oh, wait...

• For those of us who didn't have a full picture of how upset Canucks fans over the NHL's vote to keep the unbalanced schedule, Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province pretty much sums it up:

"No, this time it's not the number but rather the emotion behind the e-mail which stays with you. Other issues have sparked anger and outrage. Other issues have touched a public nerve. But few, if any, have generated the kind of response which followed Tuesday's vote by the NHL board of governors.

" ' This letter is to notify you of my resignation as a fan of your team and the NHL based on the mismanagement of Gary Bettman and the pure, unadulterated greed of a handful of Eastern-based owners,' read one which was addressed to Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini.

"And that was one of the more reasoned communiques."

• Next year the AHL will have a franchise called the, wait for it, the Lake Erie Monsters. Did they let Pierre McGuire name the team so he can describe every game as a "Monster performance." ... groannnnnnnn....

• Shame on me for not finding out till now: Sun colleague Rob Brodie kept a blog during the Canadian figure skating championships last week in Halifax.