ZEN DAYLEY: PUZZLING, VERY PUZZLING

Bingo, the baseball posts have a name-o. Welcome to "Zen Dayley," which not only plays on the name of a fairly good left-handed setup man whose Blue Jays career was cut short by vertigo, but also describes what baseball represents to so many of us: Zen. Daily.

• The Jays' hitting is all over the place. Entering last night's game, they were first in the American League in on-base percentage and walks, second in runs scored, but 13th in doubles, tied for 10th in home runs and dead last in grounding into double plays.
  
  The sample sizes are small, keep in mind. The L.A. Angels, who are supposed to lack power (and they do), were the only team with 30 doubles and 20 home runs.
  
  It's a puzzling team.


• Tom Tango's idea of limiting mid-inning pitching changes is kind of germane, seeing as John Gibbons burned through nine pitchers in the Rangers-Jays marathon the other night. (Only one change was made in mid-inning, but whatever, it need to be introduced somehow.)
  
  It slows down a ball game terribly, it creates a false justification for 12-man pitching staffs and it's a case of what happens when there's Too Much Information. The managers have all the lefty-righty splits. They're chasing a very slim percentage when they change pitchers because the next batter has a 20-point difference in how he hits lefties instead of righties.


• Mike Wilner's best Wilnerism of the Rangers-Jays mini-series: "Your argument comes from frustration and your facts are completely incorrect."
  
  Hearing that almost redeemed the reality of having nothing better to do than sit at home listen to AM radio after midnight.


• Ted Lilly getting racked for the Cubs yesterday and Toronto native Joey Votto doing the racking for the Reds with a three-run double and a home run is schadenfreudilicious.


• The kind thanks is flattering. Truth be known, The Tao of Stieb didn't need much help to have success during its first year.


• Trust ESPN to try to make the Houston Astros' Miguel Tejada look bad and end up coming off worse itself by trying to play baby Watergate.
  
  Finding out a Dominican ballplayer fudged his age is about as newsworthy as the discovery of an actress' before-she-was-famous sex tape. They're both products of a particular economic reality, nothing more.
  
  
  
  Tejada being born in 1974, not '76, is pretty far down on the list of Big Lies in sports.
  
  All those 250-lb. NFL linebackers who run a 4.5-second forty-yard dash? That's just clean living, weight lifting and working with a track coach. All those college basketball players in the NCAA Tournament that have given us so many vicarious thrills? They're serious scholars, burning the midnight oil studying toward useful degrees. Oh, and those Olympic athletes' first goal is to win a gold medal for their country. You bet.

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