Batter up: Oakland Athletics

It's that mystical, wonderful time of year where you commit to a team which you know fully well won't win. This season, in honour of an popular Internet meme, we'll present 25 things about each team. Any wagering or fantasy baseball advice is for recreational use only. At bat: The Oakland Athletics.

1. The state of the franchise, in haiku: "All dressed up / no place to go / that is the Oakland Athletics."
   
   A's owner Lew Wolff has trashed the stadium in Oakland, but greater minds have noted there aren't many U.S. cities who are about to take on a Major League Baseball franchise. Their average attendance could drop below 20,000, which would get the franchise forcibly relocated if it was located in Canada.
   
   In other words, the A's are stuck. One modest bit of ass-talking: Repatriate them to Philadelphia, so the Jays can change divisions.
2. The sight of Matt Holliday (pictured) in an A's uniform stirs up nostalgic feelings for the days when only a few statheads knew about park effects. Holliday is going from Colorado (great hitter's park) to Oakland (terrible hitter's park). He has a career OPS of .803 on the road, which is much better than the .747 the A's leftfielders put up in 2008, but that's not saying much.
3. Oakland is projected to contend for the division title in the weak AL West, but there are a lot of ifs to contemplate, namely their starting pitching and whether they bounce-back from an abysmal 2008 hitting performance.
4. You know the old joke: The A's have Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez and Nomar Garciaparra, giving them the makings of an all-star lineup. But what year?
5. The A's have three future starting pitchers among the game's Top 25 prospects: Lefty Brett Anderson, righty Trevor Cahill and last but not least, the 17-year-old Dominican dandy, Michael Inoa, who was given a $4.25-million US signing bonus. Inoa might be the first player inducted into the Hall of Fame before he throws a major-league pitch, he's that good.
   
6. The A's middle-infield combo, Mark Ellis and Orlando Cabrera, only played together for the first time on March 25. Third baseman Chavez has been hampered by injuries all through spring training, plus Giambi might have to play some first base in order to get SWOP (sligger without a position) Jack Cust into the lineup as the DH.
   
7. Slap a sawbuck down on Giambi hitting more home runs than Holliday.
   
   
8. The 2009 A's starting rotation has garden-variety written all over it, unless one believes Justin Duscherer is going to put up a 2.54 ERA (the same as AL leader Cliff Lee) again. Left-hander Dana Eveland is the only holdover who made more than 25 starts this season, and he's just serviceable starter.
9. Sean Gallagher, the 23-year-old righty whom the A's got when they traded Rich Harden to the Cubs, is being played up as the breakout performer. He put up great minor-league numbers.
   
10. Catcher Kurt Suzuki batted 588 times last season, way too much for a catcher who's as active as he behind the plate, but can actually contribute something offensively. Tony Peña, at around the same age, had a similar workload with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the mid-'80s, and look what happened:
    

    1983: 580 PA, 4.8 runs created/game
    1984: 592 PA, 5.0 RC/G
    1985: 587 PA, 3.1 RC/G

    Peña had a bounce-back season in 1986, but was never very productive as a hitter again (although he lasted until he was 40 because he handled pitchers so damn well).
11. A's reliever Brad Ziegler has articulated why American ballplayers shun the World Baseball Classic. He was with Team USA for three weeks and pitched only 3 1/3 innings, not nearly enough work to get ready for the season. That's understandable; the American sportswriters being A-holes about the whole process is not.
    
12. Co-closer Joey Devine's listed height and weight (6-foot-1, 225 lbs.) and the fact he started in the Atlanta Braves organization immediately brings to mind Kenny Powers from East Bound & Down, but it's a glib comparison.
    
    Devine had a 0.59 ERA and 0.83 WHIP in 45 1/3 innings with the A's last season.
    
    Former closer Huston Street was flipped to Colorado in the Holliday trade. That might say something about Street's expendability.
13. The A's ageless wonder is 40-year-old reliever Russ Springer. Jim Rice, who just got elected to the Hall of Fame on his 15th and final try, was was still playing when Springer signed his first pro contract.
14. Stupid jokes suitable for the fishwrap, but not for this august forum: The A's have become a low-scoring team because GM Billy Beane, who's such a big soccer fan.
    
    Seriously, it's awesome to see Beane joining the movement of people who believe the two often diametrically-opposed summer games.
    
15. Whenever you see Bobby Crosby's name, do you think of Sidney Crosby? One can only feel sorry for Americans who do not follow the NHL, since they don't get to experience this phenomenon.
    
    Crosby is now the A's fifth infielder after being bumped from shortstop.
16. Not to make light of it, but Cust (.231/.375/.476, 33 homers last season) played in Ottawa in 2003-04, when the Lynx were at the beginning of their Long Goodbye. He's now with a major league franchise which would like to move but probably cannot. The bottom line is he's getting 500 at-bats.
    
    It's great to think like a ballplayer, sometimes.
    
17. First baseman Daric Barton (.226/.327/.348 in 446 times at bat) was really, really bad last season. He'll probably put up better numbers this season -- in the Pacific Coast League.
    
18. Frank Thomas' retirement raised barely a ripple. He is among a lot of still useful players who are out of work.
19. Lefty reliever Jerry Blevins has a name made for a post-playing career in broadcasting. He should try to cash in on that some day, but not too soon.
    
20. Along with wondering what Christ would have charged for bookshelves, our mind wonders if A's infielder Cliff Pennington (who's probably going to be a regular at various times this season) is any relation to the Cliff Pennington who played minor-league hockey in the 1960s. The other Pennington was on the last Kingston Frontenacs team to win a championship, so he would be about grandfather age.
    
21. The A's no longer have a Canadian on their major-league roster with the Harden trade, but their director of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, was born in this country. He's a PhD from Berkeley, which eithers take away or adds to the humour of that Seinfeld when an out-of-work George musts he could do "something in sports ... you know, like the general manager of a baseball team."
22. Centrefielder Ryan Sweeney is that ultimate look-the-part guy. He looks like a centrefielder and leadoff hitter. He's a bit of a seat-filler for the A's, but he's not going to end up collecting a Tony Award for Scarsdale Surprise.
    
23. Christopher Carter is a name to keep on mental file. Carter, the other player in the Dan Haren deal (along with Brett Anderson and outfielder Aaron Cunningham) produced an Isolated Power figure of .310 in High Single-A ball last season. That's crazy, even for the high-scoring California League.
    
    (Isolated Power is slugging percentage minus batting average. Anything above .250 is pretty serious.)
    
24. Finding out what Nomar Garciaparra has been up to is like trying to find the current whereabouts of Matchbox 20. He's on the A's now? Rob Thomas' band actually released an album in late 2007? Good for them.
    
25. Admit it. If you were a Jays fan of a certain age, it hard to really hate those 1988-92 Oakland teams, as arrogant as they came off. They have such nice uniforms, and knowing it's jade-green doesn't make you less of a man.
    

Laugh 'cause you can't cry; Top 10 comforting thoughts after watching Canada get curb-stomped by Italy

10. Unlike Guy Carbonneau, you still had a job to go to today.

9. Don't worry, almost no one (12,411 in attendance) saw it happen.

8. Downtown Toronto bar owners still stand to reap a windfall from the Leafs and Raptors playoff runs ... in 2025.

7. Something tells us you have probably seen your last Canada Bombs Out headline in the National Post.

6. Number 10 should be valid for another two, maybe three weeks.

5. At least the coach or manager didn't spoil the game for everyone by not starting Martin Gerber ... unless Martin Gerber is Swiss-German for Scott Richmond.

4. Stubby Clapp's pity pinch-hit appearance (glove tap: The Blue Jay Hunter) allowed everyone to coo like they do with a newborn baby. Ooh, he's so cute, and he's sixty-eight inches long.

3. Grandma was able to get reacquainted with jamiecampbell -- such a nice, polite young man -- three weeks earlier than usual.

2. Everyone still has their health, especially Scott Richmond.

1. Hey, you still have as many as 78 Blue Jays wins to look forward to this summer.

Related:
Shark Sandwich (Mike Wilner, Miked Up)
Canada bombs out (National Post)
Montreal media strike again (Ottawa Sports Guy)

WBC: What a ballgame, that is all

It is a little tough to be totally galvanized when you're looking to Mike Johnson — once cut by the Edmonton Cracker-Cats, for chrissakes — as your paradigm of hope.

Nevertheless, that roar at Rogers Centre — at least three OOLFers were in attendance — during Canada's sadistically close 6-5 loss to Team USA was awesome today. Canada hung in until the final out, when J.J. Putz got Jason Bay to fly out to right field on a 3-2 pitch.

It almost evoked what it was like in Toronto for an all-too-brief period in the early 1990s. The point is that generation who were tweens and teens during the Jays' salad days are moving — or were, before the R-word — into their prime earning years, and they're ready to redefine the often staid Toronto sports-watching experience.

Watching the game today, it became clear why it's bittersweet for Canadian footy fans, or maybe us nutters for university sports, when there is a halfway seminal moment. There is always that feeling that it's all a chimera, that soon the game will go back to being an afterthought among most casual fans. Fifty thousand people were there, including a healthy contingent of U.S. fans, which only adds to the atmosphere. It was tense throughout.

Anyway, there's not too much to add. Canada, considering it was saving Scott Richmond for a must-win game vs. the loser of tonight's Venezuela-Italy game, hung with Team USA better than a lot of people might have figured. As you know, Toronto's own Joey Votto was nails, going 4-for-5 with a homer and a run-scoring double that put Canada in position to tie the game in the ninth inning. Canada had Justin Morneau and Jason Bay coming up with the tying run 180 feet away and couldn't catch a break against the Americans' closer, J.J. Putz from the Seattle Mariners. Ooh, we almost had it.

Meantime, how about the Netherlands knocking off the Dominican Republic. Full marks go to Ron Rollins at Baseball Over Here, since he had the Dutch winning that game.

One last thing: Phillippe Aumont is all about speed. Filthy, nasty, bad-ass speed. He struck out Kevin Youkilis and Curtis Granderson with the bases loaded. Paraphrasing Kenny Powers in East Bound & Down, everyone wants a piece of Aumont's stuff, including Baseball America.

(One little Seamheady point: It was little amusing when Canada shortstop Chris Barnwell came up and Sportsnet's Sam Cosentino launched right into the party line that the Triple-A infielder was selected for his ability to get on base. Barnwell, who did on-base .375 in Triple-A one season, whiffed on three pitches vs. U.S starter Jake Peavy. Catcher Russ Martin ended up walking on a full count and eventually scoring the day's first run.)

Canada could use a fastball-throwin' sasquatch

Anyone who's watched the two Ontario-based NHL teams might find themselves agreeing with Derek Sanderson Jeter.

Top 10 Reasons To Watch the World Baseball Classic
by beisbolct

Batter up: World Baseball Classic, Pool D

The 2009 World Baseball Classic officially began in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Most teams, including these ones, get started on the weekend.

Next up: a preview of Pool D (San Juan): Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, and the Netherlands. This pool was much the same in 2006, except with Cuba instead of the D.R. This time around, none of these teams will face Cuba until the semifinal.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

• Opener: Saturday, March 7 vs. the Netherlands (11 a.m., all times Eastern)
• WBC 2006: 4th overall: 5-1 in group play, lost to Cuba 3-1 in semifinal.
• Players to watch: SS Jose Reyes (Mets), DH David Ortiz (Red Sox), RHP Edinson Volquez (Reds), 2B Robinson Cano (Yankees), SS Miguel Tejada (Astros), SP Pedro Martinez
  
• Who's missing: Adrian Beltre and some guy named Rodriguez.
  
• Pitching: Jose Arredondo, Juan Cruz, Damaso Marte, and Rafael Perez are varying degrees of dangerous out of the bullpen: Perez has had more strikeouts than innings in every major-league season. And with Volquez and Johnny Cueto, the Dominicans are probably No. 1 in "2008 pitcher performance minus 2007 pitcher performance." But they also have Pedro in camp, who considers himself "the old goat in this group."
  
• Hitting: Without Beltre or A-Rod, it's not as scary as it was a week ago. But it's still better than most in this tournament. Willy Aybar can fill in at third in their absence.
  
• Fielding: First base and outfield is a little less packed than second, third, and short (Cano, Reyes, Tejada, Hanley Ramirez can play too). Willy Tavares is probably in CF by default. Nelson Cruz can handle RF, but Jose Guillen and Moises Alou have never been great so Jose Bautista might show up in one of the corners by default.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: First place.
  
• Tournament potential: They're good enough to make the final four. They'll have to beat two of these teams (easy enough) then probably two more of Puerto Rico/USA/Venezuela. Their pitching may not carry them all the way to the final, though.
  

PUERTO RICO

• Opener: Saturday, March 7 vs. Panama (5 p.m.)
• WBC 2006: 5th overall: 4-2 in group play and did not make semifinals. They beat Cuba 12-2, but lost to them 4-3 in the second round.
  
• Players to watch: RHP Javier Vazquez (Braves), C Geovany Soto (Cubs), OF Alex Rios (Blue Jays), 1B Carlos Delgado (Mets), OF Carlos Beltran (Mets), other Mets named Carlos
• Who's missing: Not too many pitchers available. Only 17 Puerto Rican pitchers have made their major-league debut in the last 10 years. A big loss is Mike Lowell, third baseman, .279/.343/.467 lifetime hitter, and one of the best guys in baseball, who is recovering from hip surgery. He really wanted to play.
  
• Pitching: Behind Vazquez, it's kind of thin: Javier Lopez and Pedro Feliciano can contribute out of the bullpen, but with Ian Snell and Jonathan Sanchez 2-3 in the rotation, they'll need relievers more often than is convenient.
  
• Hitting: Soto was the 2008 NL Rookie of the Year and the starting catcher in the All-Star Game. Delgado is Delgado. Beltran and Rios add power. Mike Aviles came out of nowhere to hit .325/.354/.480 for the Royals last year and Felipe Lopez is also a decent hitter. They have legit major-leaguers at basically every spot, 1 through 9, and four of them need to be handled with care.
  
• Fielding: If Soto falters, then Yadier Molina, the best fielder among the Flying Molina Brothers, is solid behind the plate. Ivan Rodriguez is on the roster as well, although Soto is probably a better option to start. Lopez used to play shortstop but wasn't good, and Alex Cora should play there over Aviles. (Bernie Williams is apparently on the roster and should be kept away from an outfielder's glove.)
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Second-place behind the Dominicans, or first if they send Vazquez against them.
• Tournament potential: Maybe the semifinals if their pitching holds up. They can certainly ride their bats to Round 2.
  

PANAMA

• Opener: Saturday, March 7 vs. Puerto Rico (5 p.m.)
  
• WBC 2006: One of four teams to lose all three games, although they kept Puerto Rico within one and took Cuba to eleven innings. They were also memorably no-hit by 18-year-old Shairon Martis of the Netherlands in their final game.
• Player to watch: OF Carlos Lee (Astros)
  
• Who's missing: Mariano Rivera, possibly the best pitcher ever (you can make the argument)
  
• Pitching: Manuel Corpas is probably the best pitcher, but he rarely goes more than two innings. After him it's Manny Acosta, another reliever, and Bruce Chen, who could start but shouldn't. There are a remarkable number of A-ball players on this roster.
  
• Hitting: Carlos Lee and, um, Carlos Lee. Carlos Ruiz also has major-league experience. The president of Panama convinced him that they needed a catcher, but with a career OPS+ of 77, Ruiz won't cause opposing pitchers to pace nervously and talk to themselves (any more than they already do).
  
• Fielding: No clue. Lee's not great, that's all I can tell you.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Third
  
• Tournament potential: They'd have to upset and/or kidnap somebody to get into Round 2.
  

NETHERLANDS

• Opener: Saturday, March 7 vs. Dominican Republic (11 a.m.)
  
• WBC 2006: Their only win was the aforementioned no-hitter over Panama.
  
• Players to watch: Sidney Ponson, I guess. Shairon Martis isn't listed on the roster this year. Randall Simon hasn't played in North America for a while but will forever be known for this:
  
  You know Letterman would be all over this, too.
  
• Who's missing: Martis, Jair Jurrjens, and Andruw Jones.
  
• Pitching: Sidney Ponson, I guess. Rick VandenHurk is #2 on a weak staff. Rick VandenHurk's career ERA is 7.
  
• Hitting: Former Ottawa Lynx outfielder Gene Kingsale is there, but don't get too excited.
• Fielding: I hope Sharlon Schoop gets a lot of playing time behind the plate, because his name is Sharlon Schoop.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Fourth
• Tournament potential: Guess.
  

Once a former Expo, always a former Expo

Far be it that a former Expo from B.C. would have a hate on for a ballclub based in Toronto. Canadian Baseball Network notes Larry Walker was none too happy about the "boot leg lineup" the Blue Jays fielded Tuesday vs. Canada, compared to the one they put out vs. Team USA:

"Larry Walker trudged toward the Team Canada bus outside the Brighthouse Networks Field yesterday afternoon.

" 'How many regulars did the Blue Jays use against Team USA today?” Walker asked.

"The Jays had Joe Inglett, Aaron Hill, Adam Lind, Kevin Millar, Scott Rolen, Travis Snider, Raul Chavez and John McDonald starting against Team USA.

" 'The lineup they fielded against us was embarrassing,” Walker said. “There is only one major-league team in Canada now and that is the respect that the Blue Jays show our Canadian national team?

" 'They fielded a boot leg lineup. Only guy I recognized was Michael Barrett.'

"Against Team Canada, the Jays had a lineup of Inglett, battling Jose Bautista for a back-up job, Barrett, fighting Chavez for the No. 2 catcher’s spot and McDonald with minor leaguers Russ Adams, Scott Campbell, Jason Lane, Randy Ruiz, Adam Loewen and Buck Coats."

Hey, Canada needed to rest up before they roughed up Joba Chamberlain today; he lasted only five hitters, with all coming around to score in Canada's 6-0 exhibition win over a bunch of guys wearing Yankees uniforms.

Batter up: World Baseball Classic, Pool C

The 2009 World Baseball Classic officially began in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Most teams, including those from North America, get started on the weekend. (Where were you on March 8, 2006, when Canada beat the U.S.?)

Next up: a preview of Pool C (Toronto): Canada, the U.S., Italy, and Venezuela.

UNITED STATES

• Opener: Saturday, March 7 vs. Canada (2 pm ET)
• WBC 2006: Went 3-3 in group play: lost to South Korea and Canada, split with Mexico, and beat Japan and South Africa. And in a devastating blow to their opponents' chances at easy wins, 2006 manager Buck Martinez has been replaced with the competent Davey Johnson. (In a devastating blow to their own, Ernie Whitt remains with Canada.) Johnson said the team is better-prepared this time. There's no indication that he wanted to finish that sentence with "because Buck isn't around." However, there is no indication that it's anything else.
• Players to watch: Tons. RHP Roy Oswalt (Astros), RHP Jake Peavy (Padres), RHP J.J. Putz (Mets), C Brian McCann (Braves), 3B David Wright (Mets), 1B Kevin Youkilis (Red Sox), SS Jimmy Rollins (Phillies), OF Shane Victorino (Phillies), OF Curtis Granderson (Tigers), SS Derek Jeter (Yankees), 1B Adam Dunn (Nationals)
  
• Who's missing: Two top relievers, Joe Nathan of the Twins and B.J. Ryan of the Blue Jays, and Brad Hawpe of the Rockies (116 career OPS+)
  
• Pitching: Peavy and Oswalt are better than most teams' 1 and 2. In the major leagues. Peavy, the expected starter against Canada, also breezed through a March 1 outing: 33 pitches in three innings. They also have Ted Lilly (Cubs) and Jeremy Guthrie (Orioles), so that's four big-league starters (four more than some teams). Brian Fuentes (Angels) is out for at least the first round for personal reasons, but if he makes it back, he's one of the best out of the 'pen. Putz had some troubles against the Blue Jays on Wednesday, whereas Lilly apparently did not, for what that's worth.
  
• Hitting: On paper, devastating. You can see the list of hitters they have. The worst lineup would have Chris Iannetta (104 career OPS+) and Mark DeRosa (118, 102, 108 the last three years). It remains to be seen whether they'll all show up 100%, and whether any of them will blow off the game and go spent $26 on mineral water at Harbour Sixty.
  
• Fielding: You know and I know and Jimmy Rollins knows that Derek Jeter will play shortstop. This is not perfect, but not devastating. Other than that, Dunn should be kept out of the outfield, and Chipper Jones away from third (especially with Wright around).
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: First
• Tournament potential: This would be a 90-win team in MLB. Semifinals are almost a certainty. Once there, Cuba or Japan have the ability to stop them.
  

VENEZUELA

• Opener: Saturday, March 7 vs. Italy (8 pm ET)
• WBC 2006: Didn't advance past Round 2. They beat Italy, Australia, and Puerto Rico, then lost to Cuba once and the Dominicans twice. Only one of those teams is in this pool and they won't matter much.
  
• Players to watch: RHP Felix Hernandez (Mariners), RHP Francisco Rodriguez (Mets), RHP Felix Hernandez (Mariners), OF Magglio Ordonez (Tigers), RHP Felix Hernandez (Mariners), OF Bobby Abreu (Angels), 3B Miguel Cabrera (Tigers), RHP Felix Hernandez (Mariners), RHP Felix Hernandez (Mariners)
• Who's missing: Freddy Garcia and Kelvim Escobar and Carlos Zambrano, all starters, some better than others.
• Pitching: It's all about King Felix. Not having anyone behind him hurts. If they have to rely on the new, slimmer Carlos Silva, Venezuela may not advance past Round 2.
  
• Hitting: Abreu and Ordonez highlight this major-league lineup. There are no holes as long as Cesar Izturis is a gloveman and a gloveman only.
  
• Fielding: Cabrera has seen better days, even though he's just 25. But with Marco Scutaro and Melvin Mora, they have the infield covered and some of the outfield as well. Endy Chavez is pretty good in CF and he'll have to cover for Abreu in right. Carlos Guillen, a former shortstop and first baseman, apparently won't play unless he's in left field. On balance, their D is good but not great.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Second
• Tournament potential: Not quite the semi-finals. They have five or six stars, a great supporting cast, but not enough pitching talent to do any real damage.
  

CANADA

• Opener: Saturday, March 7 vs. USA (2 pm ET)
• WBC 2006: Where to start? They nearly lost to South Africa (South Africa (South Africa)) when Paul Quantrill forgot how to pitch. Adam Stern torched the Americans to give the team hope, then a pitcher whose name we are not allowed to speak shut them down in their last-hope game against Mexico. They were the only 2-1 team not to advance to Round 2 thanks to a pretty questionable tiebreaker system that is fortunately well in the past this time around.
• Players to watch: C Russell Nathan Coltrane Jeanson Martin (Dodgers), OF Jason Bay (Red Sox), 1B Joey Votto (Reds), 1B Justin Morneau (Twins)
  
• Who's missing: Someone with more than five major-league starts. Jeff Francis, Erik Bédard, and Rich Harden are all otherwise occupied.
  
• Pitching: Scott Richmond and...anyone? Well, Richmond has good control. Unfortunately this sometimes means "good control down the middle of the plate." Vince Perkins will start the second game: he's a former Blue Jay minor leaguer who once had potential but has missed a lot of time due to Tommy John surgery. Chris Begg is a longtime international rep who pitched well in Beijing and might get a start. Phillippe Aumont is intriguing, if only because of his age. The bullpen is full of names you don't know, but bullpens can be built that way and still be effective. Jesse Crain will be relied on for a lot. Steve Green has the U.S. game from 2006 to warrant attention in late innings. The other guys are in their mid-20s and still in Single-A or Double-A, so there's not much to say.
  
• Hitting: You know Morneau. Votto came second in Rookie of the Year voting in the N.L. last year and is another bopper. Aside from the four hitters above, Adam Stern and Pete Orr bring enthusiasm if not big-league bats and Mark Teahen can hit if not field. (Stubby Clapp, due respect, is fast approaching the Rheal Cormier Memorial Interchange on the You Haven't Played Pro Ball In How Many Years? Expressway.)
  
  The offence won't be a weakness, not with those four big hitters in the 2-5 spots and Matt Stairs somewhere else in the order. (Stairs should be higher and Martin should lead off, but it's Ernie Whitt.) The thing is, if there's one constant in Canadian ball, it's watching the many lefty hitters flail away against lefty pitchers. Get used to this.
  
• Fielding: With Bay in centre and Stairs in right, Nick Weglarz better practice his long-distance running. (Votto can fake it out there, but Votto-Bay-Stairs is probably cruel and certainly unusual.) And as much as Adam Stern contributed in 2006, his bat doesn't justify his glove in a starting role. In the infield, they're not hurting up the middle with Martin, Orr, and Chris Barnwell.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Third, but an upset is possible
  
• Tournament potential: If by some chance they advance to Miami, that'll certainly be it. Of the U.S., Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, how many could Canada realistically beat? If you didn't say "three" or "four" then there you go.
  

ITALY

• Opener: Saturday, March 7 vs. Venezuela (8 pm ET)
• WBC 2006: Their only win came against Australia: lost to Venezuela 6-0 and the Dominican Republic 8-3.
  
• Players to watch: 1B Frank Catalanotto (Rangers), OF Val Pascucci (Dodgers), 2B Davide Dallospedale, OF Mario Chiarini, M-A Dave Bidini (Peones)
  
• Who's missing: Mike Piazza is coaching, not playing, this time. Maximiliano De Biase was recently one of the best hitters in the Italian leagues but doesn't appear to be on this roster. Other than that, it's not clear who could make the team competitive.
  
• Pitching: Grilli's just a reliever, Mark DiFelice could probably soak up some innings, and any Blue Jays fan would love to see Lenny DiNardo on the mound against Canada. (You know, it would almost be better if the Italians brought over an entirely unknown group of hungry players from Serie B rather than populating the roster with these AAAA players.)
  
• Hitting: Dallospedale and Chiarini are pretty decent hitters in Italy; no clue how much you discount that against these American and Venezuelan pitchers. At least Catalanotto, Pascucci, Chris Denorfia, and Nick Punto aren't pushovers. Pascucci was too early in the Expos system to be an Ottawa fan favourite, but too late to save the Expos, and he's actually a very good hitter for someone who's never been given a chance. But overall this doesn't seem like a great lineup.
• Fielding: Outside of Dallospedale, not much is known of the Italian players. Joe Mazzuca, second baseman by trade, might have a spot in the infield, but he also may be behind Dallospedale and Punto. Catalanotto is best used at DH.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Fourth
• Tournament potential: You have to ask?
  

Batter up: World Baseball Classic, Pool B

The 2009 World Baseball Classic began in the wee hours this morning. Many of us are eager for any kind of baseball after a long winter and readily remember the awesomeness of March 8, 2006, when Canada beat the U.S.. Here is a preview of Pool B: Australia, Cuba, Mexico, South Africa.

CUBA

• Opener: March 8 vs. South Africa, 2 p.m.
• WBC 2006: 2-1 in the opening round, 2-1 in the second round, beat the Dominican Republic 3-1 in semi-final, lost 10-6 to Japan in final.
• Players to watch: 3B Michel Enríquez, 2B Yulieski Gourriel, OF Alfredo Despaigne, OF Frederich Cepeda
  
• Who's missing: RHP Yadel Marti, OF Alexei Ramirez, SS Yuniesky Betancourt (one punished for trying to defect, the others have defected), OF Alexei Bell (injury)
• Pitching: Marti was the Cubans' ace in '06, so that mantle falls on the shoulders, uh, arm, of 35-year-old Pedro Luis Lazo, who throws mainly a fastball and forkball. Left-hander Aroldis Chapman, 21, and 24-year-old righty Yunieski Maya will probably be called upon. Lefty Yulieski González, who was a late cut from the Olympic roster, is apparently back in the good books.
  
  Another greybeard, 37-year-old Norge Vera, who won starts at the Olympics where he was matched up against Japan's Yu Darvish and likely No. 1 overall draft choice Stephen Strasburg from Team USA, is back.
  
• Hitting: Cuba hit a collective .280/.360/.420 at the 2006 WBC, scoring 44 runs in eight games. Despaigne is leading the Serie Nacional, Cuba's top league, in home runs. Cepeda, an absolute bases-on-ball machine (curious to see how his strike zone judgment applies off the island), has usually proven very productive out of the leadoff spot. Throw in Gourriel and Enríquez and they have the potential to have a very good lineup.
  
  Veteran 1B Alexander Mayeta provides some lefty power. Twenty-three-year-old outfielder Yohenis Céspedes offers some intriguing potential (he hit 26 homers last year in the Cuban league, which runs about 100 games).
• Fielding: Veteran SS Eduardo Paret, who if memory serves was very good during the '06 WBC, is back. The Cubans are flexible with who plays where. Gourriel is actually a third baseman who moved to second due to Enríquez; at the Olympics, that meant second baseman Héctor Olivera Jr. had to play first.
  
  Ariel Pestano, a 35-year-old veteran, is regarded as one of the toughest catchers to run on, which could make for good game-within-the-game if Cuba ends up meeting stolen base-happy Japan later in the WBC. Cepeda's baseball-reference bio notes that he has had defensive problems.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: First
• Tournament potential: Semi-final
  

MEXICO

• Opener: March 8 vs. Australia, 9 p.m.
• WBC 2006: Went 2-1 in Pool B and 1-2 in the second round, but had the satisfaction of eliminating Team USA
• Players to watch: San Diego Padres 1B Adrian Gonzalez (pictured), Marlins 3B Jorge Cantú, Mets LHP Oliver Perez, SS-OF Jerry Hairston Jr., Blue Jays C Rod Barajas
• Pitching: Perez (10-7, 4.22 ERA with the Mets last season) is the ace of the Mexican staff, which gets a little thin beyond him and Royals closer Joakim Soria. One-time Ottawa Lynx Luis Ayala (please be accurate, he pitched for them six times) is available in the bullpen. Rodrigo López, who is 18 months removed from Tommy John surgery, is about the only Mexican pitcher you might have heard of.
• Hitting: Mexico, as you probably heard, tagged the Arizona Diamondbacks for 19 runs in an exhibition game, Wednesday which is impressive considering they were facing Brandon Webb, who is famous for being good. Gonzalez, whose slugitude goes unappreciated in part because he plays in a Death Valley park in San Diego, Cantú and Erubiel Durazo, this decade's clubhouse leader in the Can I Try My Career Over sweepstakes, are slotted in as their 3-4-5 hitters. They're supported by a lot of part-time major leaguers, such as Hairston Jr. (124 park-adjusted OPS last season) and his brother, outfielder Scott Hairston (who OPS-plused 115 last season when he hit 17 homers in 362 plate appearances for San Diego). The mix of hitters Mexico has seems to have spurred a lot of talk that could end up going to the final.
• Fielding: When your surest-handed infielder is the first baseman, that can be problematic. Mexico's double-play combo is Hairston Jr. at shortstop and Freddy Sandoval at second base, which is nice except none of them play those spots regularly. Cantú's iron glove is the reason he has been dumped twice in the past two years despite being a fairly productive hitter. In centrefielder, Alfredo Amezaga is a tremendous slouch.
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Second
• Tournament potential: Second round.

AUSTRALIA

• Opener: March 8 vs. Mexico, 9 p.m. (all times Eastern)
• WBC 2006: Went 0-3, outscored 18-4
• Players to watch: 1B-OF Justin Huber (pictured), LHP Travis Blackley (Diamondbacks), LHP Damian Moss, SS Brad Harman (Phillies), OF Mitch Dening, UT Daniel Berg
• Who's missing: RHP Ryan Rowland-Smith (Seattle Mariners), RP Grant Balfour (Tampa Bay Rays)
• Pitching: Australia has seven left-handers among the 14 pitchers on their roster (it must be some Southern Hemisphere-related phenomena). This includes Blackley and Moss, both of whom were going places before encountering arm and shoulder problems.
  
  Veteran Craig Anderson, a former Can-Am Leaguer who was with Australia when it won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, has also returned. Drew Naylor, who averaged close to a strikeout per inning in the low minors, is another bright spot of Australia's staff.
• Hitting: Australia was shut out by Italy and Venezuela in the 2006 WBC and produced a whopping .113 batting average. Forty-five minutes' research, give or take a half-hour, doesn't disabuse one of wondering where the hell the runs will come from if they're going to get past the group stage.
  
  The righty-hitting Huber, whose career was mishandled by the Kansas City Royals (shocker) before he ended up with San Diego, balances out a fairly left-handed lineup.
  
  Long-time minor-league outfielder Chris Snelling (.305/.384/.460 in the affiliated minors) has a fairly good minor-league resume. Dening hit .321/.375/.471 in the short-season New York-Penn League (and oddly enough, he's a lefty-masher who actually hits left-handed).
  
  Daniel Berg, who plays all four corner positions and can catch, adds depth.
  
• Fielding: Australia made six errors in an exhibition game vs. Japan. One game never proves anything, but ...
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Third
• Tournament potential: Won't go winless
  

SOUTH AFRICA

• Opener: March 8 vs. Cuba, 2 p.m.
• WBC 2006: 0-3, outscored 38-12 (eight of those runs were vs. Canada), failed to qualify for second round
• Players to watch: RHPs Alessio Angelucci (San Diego Padres, Rookie League last season) and Justin Erasmus (Red Sox farm system), LHP Hein Robb, SS Gift Ngeope (Pirates) SS Anthony Phillips (Mariners farmhand),
  
• Pitching: No one on South Africa's pitching staff has thrown at any level about Single-A ball, so having former all-time saves leader Lee Smith as their pitching coach will only get them so far. Erasmus is Boston Red Sox property, which speaks well for his potential, but he just turned 19 in January. They could be in for some long games.
  
• Hitting: South Africa doesn't have a position player older than 27 and only two are in affiliated ball, both of whom are middle infielders.
  
  Gift Ngeope, who is in the Pittsburgh Pirates' minor-league camp along with an Alaskan and two Indian pitchers (16 losing seasons in a row will make a team look far and wide for anyone who might develop into a remotely competent ballplayer), offers some appeal.
  
• Fielding: This area, based on what we saw the last time from South Africa (which subsequently failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics), could be even worse.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Fourth
  
• Tournament potential: Lucky to win one game; maybe they can take Australia, which it is all but assured of facing on Monday.
  

Aumont having his moments

Hull's Phillippe Aumont (the experts say mechanics need smoothing out) did a really nice job of freezing Adam Loewen with a slider during the Canada-Blue Jays exhibition game in Dunedin yesterday. It's amusing, one first-round draft choice striking out a former first-rounder who's switched to the outfield.

(You-had-to-be-there omment of the day, from Sportsnet's Sam Cosentino after a Jays hitter doubled off the right-field behind Matt Stairs: "Matt might not have been quick enough to get back to the wall, and he might not be tall enough to have reached it if he got there.")

Our kind of team, Ernie

Mike Wilner posted Canada's presumptive lineup for its World Baseball Classic opener late last night, or at least the first six hitters:

1. Chris Barnwell, shortstop: Triple-A veteran on-based .364 in the PCL with the Albuquerque Isotopes last season.
   
2. Russ Martin, catcher: He walked 90 times last season with the L.A. Dodgers, so he's a natural fit here. He could probably lead off, but putting the catcher there is too radical.
   
3. Joey Votto, DH: Probably the best spot to put someone who will be the best Canadian corner infielder/outfielder eventually.
   
4. Justin Morneau, first base: Lots of RBI opportunities, no more need be said.
   
5. Jason Bay, centrefield: Breaks up the lefty bats and presuming you believe in lineup protection, protects Morneau.
   
6. Matt Stairs, rightfield: Wilner said DH, but that is Votto's spot.

The bottom third would be the Kansas City Royals' Mark Teahen at third base, longtime quadruple-A player Peter Orr at second base and Cleveland Indians prospect Nick Weglarz in left field. Weglarz was No. 58 in Baseball America's top 100 prospects.

Remember, Canada's exhibition game against the Blue Jays is scheduled to be aired on Sportsnet today at 1 p.m.

Related:
Corey Koskie thrilled to take field with Canadian team at WBC (Shi Davidi, The Canadian Press)

Batter up: Previewing the World Baseball Classic ...

The 2009 World Baseball Classic begins in the wee hours of Thursday morning, which for some of you lot, probably elicits a huge shrug. However, some of us will take baseball any way we can after a long winter and haven't forgotten the awesomeness of March 8, 2006, when Canada beat the U.S.. Here is a preview of Pool A (Tokyo): China, Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei. A full schedule is here.

JAPAN

• Opener: Thursday, March 5 vs. China (first pitch flies around 4:30 a.m. Eastern)
• WBC 2006: Went just 3-3 in the first two rounds, but won the tournament, beating Korea 6-0 and Cuba 10-6 in the semi-final and final.
• Players to watch: RHPs Daisuke (Dice-K) Matzusaka (Boston Red Sox) and Yu Darvish, 2B-3B Akinori Iwamura (Tampa Bay Rays), some guy named Ichiro
• Who's missing: Free-agent DH-OF Hideki Matsui, RHP Kenshin Kawakami (Atlanta Braves), RHP Junichi Tawaza
• Pitching: Both Dice-K and Darvish have had some dodgy pre-tournament outings (really, it's surprising that Matsuzaka would show any inconsistency, he nevers does that during the American League season). Toshiya Sugiuchi, the classic plate-widener (left-hander whose best pitch is a change-up) probably figures to be an X-factor among Team Samurai's starting pitchers. Hisashi Iwakuma, who's sort of a Japanese equivalent to Roy Halladay (which is to say he had a 1.87 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and was the Pacific League MVP last season while playing on a fifth-place team) was solid in his last outing.
  
  Sidearmer Shunsuke Wanatabe, who was untouchable in the 2006 WBC, is back in the fold.
• Hitting: Ichiro is probably not going to pitch, or play shortstop, but will step outside his regular role by becoming Japan's No. 3 hitter, since they're knee-deep in hitters who are about bat control and base running, including the Cubbies' Kosuke Fukudome and Norichika Aoki, a two-time batting champ in Japan.
  
  The middle of the order, by our guesstimate, should include two veterans (Japan's one of the older teams in the tourney) from the pennant-winning Yomiuri Giants: lefty-hitting veteran third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara and catcher Shinnosuke Abe.
• Fielding: Defence is usually an immutable for Japanese teams since, basically, they don't pay lip service to glove work. They have the two best shortstops in Japan, Munenori Kawasaki and Hiroyuki Nakajima. Kawasaki started during Japan's title run in 2006. Nakajima, who has better power numbers, started at the Olympics where Japan failed to medal..
• Predicted Round 1 finish: First
• Tournament potential: Runners-up, although anything can happen in a one-game final.
  

KOREA

• Opener: Friday, March 6 vs. Chinese Taipei (another 4:30 a.m. Eastern start)
• WBC 2006: Lost to Japan in the semi-final, 6-0, after winning six straight games, including two over their rival
• Players to watch: DH-OF Shin-Soo Choo (Cleveland Indians, pictured), OF Hyun-Soo Kim, 1B-3B Dae Ho "Big Boy" Lee, LHP Kwang-hyun Kim, LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu, leadoff man and CF Jung Wook Lee
• Who's missing: Shortstop Jin-Man Park, who's been their McGlovin for a decade. First baseman Seung-Yeop Lee, who opted to stay at his Japanese training camp; former major-league closer Byung-Hyun Kim was dropped after losing his passport.
• Pitching: Remember the left-hander who shut out Canada 1-0 at the Beijing Olympics? That was Hyun-Jin Ryu, who also went eight-plus in Korea's gold-medal game upset of Cuba. Korea can pitch like nobody's business, thanks to young pitchers such as Hyun-Jin (21), Kwang-hyun Kim (20) and swingman right-hander Suk-Min Yoon (22). Righty Jung Bong, who pitched in the majors a few years ago, is also in the mix, or at least you have to assume he is, am I right?
  
  Sidearmers seem to be more popular than peculiar in Asian baseball. Korea has two good ones, Tae-Hyon Chong and Chang-Yong Lim, who (Canadian fans can relate) missed the Olympics because the Yakult Swallows would not give him his release. Lim, according to reports, got whacked on his right elbow by a batted ball during a spring training game, leaving his status is up in the air.
  
  Seong-Hwan Oh is another option out of the bullpen.
• Hitting: Choo, who on-based .397 and slugged .549 in a half-season with Cleveland, Dae Ho Lee and Tae Kyun Kim are envisioned as the 3-4-5 hitters for Korea, which will probably have to scratch out runs. Jung Wook Lee can flat-out fly and presumably impact games in the way base stealers used to in the baseball of the 1980s.
• Fielding: The left side of the infield could be problematic. Korea has turned over the entire infield which played error-free ball at the 2006 WBC. Park is a rock.
  
  Over at third, they might have to sacrifice D for some power. Cleveland's condition for Choo playing was that he would only play in the field once in the first round and twice in the second round and DH the rest of time. Having him DH and having Kim at first base means Dae Ho Lee, who is a Big Papi-esque 6-foot-3, 264 lbs., might have to play some third. Presumably putting someone that large at the hot corner could be a problem, but they need his bat.
  
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Second
• Tournament potential: Semi-finals, more likely a Round 2 exit
  

CHINA

• Opener: Thursday, March 5 vs. Japan (4:30 a.m. Eastern)
• WBC 2006: Went 0-3 and were outscored 40-6 in pool play
• Players to watch: C Zhenwang Zhang (a Yankees farmhand), SS-1B Yufeng Zhang, CF Lingfeng Sun, SS Ray Chang, DH Fenglian Hou, LHP Kai Liu, RHP Chenhao Li, RHP Jiangang Lu.
• Who's missing: C Wei Wang, who is still recovering from ACL surgery (he was injured in a home-plate collision with Cleveland Indians phenom Matt LaPorta at the Olympics)
  
• Pitching: This area is a wee bit of an Achilles heel for China, seeing as it was outscored 60-14 while going 1-6 in the Olympics. Li, who gave up only two earned runs in 10 innings in Beijing, along with Lu, have had a modicum of success in international tournaments.
  
  China's pitching staff seems right-hand dominant. Liu, who was signed by the Yankees in July 2007, had a rocky Olympics.
  
  Kun Chen's claim to fame is throwing at a brushback pitch at LaPorta during the Olympics in retaliation for taking out Wang.
  
• Hitting: Hou is about the Chinese's best hitter and will probably hit second or third. Yufeng Zhang, the player-coach of the Shanghai Golden Eagles, will probably hit cleanup. At the Olympics, Sun attempted to hit leadoff, but as our liveblog of the Canada-China game noted, wasn't succeeding.
  
  The bottom line is Ray Chang (.705 career OPS in a minor-league career which includes only 10 at-bats about Double-A ball) is being expected to provide pop in the middle of the order.
• Fielding: The aforementioned Zhang is apparently a pretty rangy shortstop. Chang also plays that spot but has played second base in the minors, so he could slide over to make room for him. Defence has let China down in the past.
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Third
• Tournament potential: Advancing out of pool play is way beyond them, but China is making strides, so put them down to beat a short-handed Taiwanese team.
  

CHINESE TAIPEI (aka Taiwan)

• Opener: Friday, March 6 vs. Korea (yup, 4:30 am)
  
• WBC 2006: Didn't advance past the first round, with a 1-2 record.
  
• Players to watch: CF Che-Hsuan Lin and 2B Chih-Hsien Chiang (both Red Sox farmhands), LHP Chi-Hung Cheng (former Jays farmhand), RHP Chen-Chang Lee (in Cleveland's system)
  
  Chiang has an infamous birthday video, but it's hard to figure out what, if anything, is infamous about it:
  
  
  
• Who's missing: Yankees RHP Chien-Ming Wang (foot injury), L.A. Dodgers LHP Hong-Chih Kuo
  
• Pitching: The China Post reports that Taiwan is lacking in pitching depth, not unlike Canada:

  "In a tournament that will limit pitchers to 70 pitches — good for up to about five innings — in first round games, pitching depth will be critical. The collapse of the squad's relievers in recent exhibition games has left a major question mark."

  Lee, who's a sidearmer, might be worth watching just out of curiosity. Their pitching staff is mostly young and untested.
  
• Hitting: Lin figures to be the leadoff man and centrefielder, with first baseman Cheng-Min Peng, the four-time batting champion in China (he hit .391 last season) likely anchoring the middle of the order. Kuo-Ching Kao, who can also rake it in the Chinese league, will also be in there somewhere. Who knows how well the numbers in that league translate to facing the best pitchers from Japan and Korea. The lineup appears to be rather thin, which can be expected with such a young team.
• Fielding: The same above-linked article also noted that fielding has been sloppy during pre-tournament games.
• Predicted Round 1 finish: Fourth
• Tournament potential: The only faint-hope scenario is that with the double-knockout format in the first round, they have a rematch with Korea and beat them.

Canadian who likes baseball actually allowed to commentate baseball

And the world, remarkably has not spun off its axis.

The FAN 590's Mike Wilner, who's something of a folk hero in these parts, let it be known that he will have the call of Canada's first-round World Baseball Classic games next weekend. He'll partner up with ex-Jay Paul Spoljaric, who'll handle the colour.

"It’s my pleasure to announce the broadcast crew for the Fan Radio Network’s coverage! I’ll be doing the play-by-play, and former Blue Jay and Team Canada member Paul Spoljaric will be providing the colour commentary.

I can’t tell you how thrilled and excited I am to be given this opportunity, and I couldn’t be more thankful to Nelson Millman for having the faith in me to give me this chance, and to Doug Farraway for being strongly in my corner."

It's a bit of crack in the glass ceiling. No disrespect to any of the play-by-play voices who have handled the Blue Jays since the days of Dan Shulman, but it's always seemed like the only way to get a shot was to be a hockey guy who was slumming or be a studio host who would learn on the job (Rob Faulds and the guy whose name should always be typed in bolditalics as a send-up of his faux folksiness).

It's not a huge deal, but Wilner has been on the Jays beat since his days as a U of T student in the early '90s, and it's always nice to see an assignment handed out on the basis of who's passionate about the sport. It doesn't happen every day in the media.

Zen Dayley: With a dry, cool wit like that, no wonder he won 355 games

The great pitcher Greg Maddux guiled his way to 355 career victories, so it's no shock he would put one over on his old ballclub.

Ballplayers can be pretty protective of their old numbers. As ESPN.com's Jayson Stark related, when Maddux's ex-L.A. Dodgers teammate Derek Lowe signed with the Atlanta Braves (the silver medal for losing out on A.J. Burnett), he joked with Maddux about taking his No. 31, which the Braves "haven't given ... to anyone else since Maddux exited."

It probably would have gone no farther with most people, but not with Greg Maddux.

"Jokester that he is," Lowe chuckled, "he actually called the Braves and told them he would let me wear No. 31."

Maddux even sounded so earnest when he made that call, the Braves totally bought his act. So GM Frank Wren decided he had to intervene.

"I was getting ready to sign with the Braves when Frank texted me," Lowe said, "and he said, 'We have a problem here. We're not really going to give out No. 31.' Was there any other number I'd like to choose?"

So Lowe said he'd take No. 32 if he had to. And you'd have thought that would have been the end of this. But it wasn't.

The Braves were still so unsure who was kidding and who wasn't that when Wren arrived at Lowe's news conference, he got a call from media relations director Brad Hainje. And the question of the day was: "Which uniform are we using -- 31 or 32?" The GM was pretty sure he had the answer, but not quite sure enough.

"So I actually went to Derek at the press conference and said, 'Derek, what's this about 31? Are you really going to wear 31?' " Wren said. "And he looked at me like: 'What the heck are you talking about?' "

So obviously, Lowe is running around this spring, wearing No. 32. But he also has his very own Braves jersey with No. 31 on the back, as the ultimate souvenir.

It times like that the reaffirm baseball kind of cultivates a sense of humour when other sports. Free-associating anything with the recently retired Maddux falls into treating athletes as a rhetorical device, but it's stories such as these which will be rehashed endless when he goes into Cooperstown in 2014.

This, that and the other

• Phillippe Aumont is going to throw a couple innings for Canada at the World Baseball Classic. At the rate Canada is going, you too might have to toe the slab for them.
  
• Josh Hamilton gave up chewing tobacco. Good for him.

(Link via It Is About The Money, Stupid.

Snark break...

Corey Koskie possibly making a comeback in the World Baseball Classic, what do you think about that? OK, the Crosby-Ovechkin stuff...



Ron MacLean straining for a pun ("It was one thing for Henry David Thoreau to simply on Walden Pond, but it's another thing to simply on Bell Centre pond and Don Cherry's "bitch" comments were the huh? moments of Hockey Day in Canada, but it works.

It's a small quibble, but does anyone else wonder if MacLean, who was broadcasting in New Brunswick, could have mentioned the Bathurst basketball team? It was true to the spirit of the day. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a hockey guy through and through, saluted the Phantoms.

Incidentally, a major eye-roll is due to Carleton University for inviting President Barack Obama to hoop it up with the No. 1-ranked Ravens on his state pop-in. Carleton should focus on getting the PM out to a game, especially if his alma mater, Calgary, is playing in the CIS Final 8 next month at Scotiabank Place. Granted, if he did, when would he have time to finish that book about hockey he "still claims to be working on?" (Dave Feschuk, Toronto Star)

The Dallas Cowboys absolutely must acquired Ray Lewis. Signing a guy who once faced a murder rap (plea-bargained) would improve the Cowboys' image.

This is nothing to joke about it, but dozens of people became sick recently due to air poisoning caused by a faulty ice-making machine at a rink in Quebec. Perish the thought that getting sick from what you were exposed to at the rink could be dubbed Spezzaitis.

That's playing hardball: The Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning, now a U.S. senator, sees great opportunity rising out of a Supreme Court justice having cancer:

" 'Bad cancer. The kind you don’t get better from,' Bunning went on. 'Even though she was operated on, usually nine months is the longest that anybody would live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.' "

There are some things you just don't say, man.

This post is worth nothing, but this is worth noting:

• It is only three weeks to March Madness, so start reading up on bracket-busters such as Utah State, even though it lost on Saturday.
• TSN.ca has a list of all Canadians playing NCAA Division 1 basketball. The next step: List female players, such as Ottawa's Steph MacDonald (Canisius), Jenna Gilbert (La Salle) and Courtnay Pilypaitis (Vermont), among others.
  
• Last, but not least, birthday wishes to my mother and brother-in-law, Kathie Sager and Amer Murad, who each had theirs yesterday, thus making it even more unforgivable that I forgot.

The Trippers...

It just doesn't matter! It just doesn't matter! ...

... what thinking is behind people in Toronto jumping for joy that Leafs defencemen Tomas Kaberle and Pavel Kubina have waived their no-trade clauses so they can be dealt away. Southern Ontario folk are not sentimental; they barely give a thought to Maple Leaf Gardens, and it's still sitting there.

... that recycled NHL coaches (morning, Michel Therrien) are getting booted to the curb for younger men who have been in the minors learning to be teach and coach. Only journalists would be shocked to learn you can get ahead by working on your craft instead of schmoozing.

... that there is some major facts-plus-fiction in any contention that Canadian Michael Janyk's World Cup bronze in a predictor of Olympic medals. Downhill skiing is random. Miss a gate, catch an edge, you're out of the medals. Please look up how many World Cup medals Kerrin-Lee Gartner during the 12-month build-up to her gold in Albertville in 1992. (Zero, although she had eight top 10 finishes.)

... that having two players share an award, even in an all-star game, should never happen in sports. It is a total dodge to say two people were exactly as worthy. That said, the NBA All-Star game was perfect for Shaquille O'Neal, since it's played at half-speed.

... if a Vancouver columnist writing about the UBC Thunderbirds basketball team forgets the CIS Final 8 is in Ottawa ("all this talent is threatening to meld into a unit capable of hacking through the horror of Halifax," emphasis mine).

... that Elgin Baylor's lawsuit against L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling is about the difference between tolerance and respect.

... that rainy weather did not put a damper on the Daytona 500. The U.S. economy is doing that quite well already.

... that the Kitchener Rangers looked more like a team headed in a positive direction losing to the London Knights in overtime than the Kingston Frontenacs did when they beat London. (A two-game win streak did little to pacify Save The Fronts.)

This post is worth nothing, but this is worth noting:

• Former major-league closer Byung-Hyun Kim is going to miss the World Baseball Classic after his passport went missing. The other 27 players on Team Korea are all suspects.
  
• There should be a rule that forbids sports columnists from using children or family members as a crude writing device. If you go there, you've lost already.
  
• LeBron James is better than Kobe Bryant. So it is written, so it is done.
• OK, so Tim Raines and Andre Dawson aren't going into Cooperstown this summer, the late Tom Cheek and Sun Media's Bob Elliott just missed going into the media wing ... but the newest member of the writers' wing, Nick Peters, is married to a Montrealer. So Canada at least some representation at Hall of Fame induction weekend, really.

Zen Dayley: Of Bonds, Bill Lee, Bud, ballparks and back-patting

Almost 14 months to the day that someone predicted he would never serve a day in jail, it appears Barry Bonds is accused of taking something that wasn't actually illegal.

That sounds like the classic MAD magazine definition of entrapment — "this guy is guilty of crimes he hasn't even been accused of." Yahoo! Sports is promising more relevations, but you can't blame people if they start wondering if the case vs. Bonds is as strong as the San Diego Padres' reasons for signing David Eckstein and Omar Vizquel for their middle infield.

This is more of a notebook-style Zen Dayley. Item the second is that MLB is giving lip service to the notion of participating in the Olympics if baseball and women's fastpitch are reinstated for 2016 (all four bidding cities say they will accommodate both sports). Selig didn't actually say how that would be accomplished, which makes one wonder if all the talk amounts to a belch in a windstorm.

This, that and the other

• Bill Lee's interview with the Toronto Star on Thursday was a scream. That's why they call him the Spaceman:

  " 'There's something inherently wrong with the Hall of Fame,' he offered. 'It's just a bunch of sycophants, apple polishers and everything else. Everybody's got faults; all but Brooks Robinson. Hey, Lucifer had wings at one time. Don Sutton was a cheater. No one cheated more than Gaylord Perry – except maybe Charles Barkley.' "

  Absolutely brilliant.
  
  
• It has been almost exactly one year since this site first co-opted Dan Rowe's phrase "uninterested ownership" to describe Rogers Communications' approach to owning the Blue Jays. It has, if one can be totally smug about it, made it easier to accept the Jays' winter of inactivity or not getting to hear Jim Hughson do play-by-play, which was a nice change of pace for the team's other TV voices. It is all water off a duck's back at this point.
• Geoff Baker, a former Star baseball writer who's now at the Seattle Times, is pretty candid about what it's like to cover a ballgame at the Rogers Centre, which he rated ninth out of 14 in the AL:

  "The press box food is pretty good, but the team is stingy on the portions. It's famous for putting up signs warning people not to take more than one cookie or pudding (most parks don't limit this). The press box is comfortable, but very high up. At night, the setting sun causes a glare around gametime that makes it tough to see your computer screen. The wireless access is among the worst in baseball despite the fact the team is owned by a cable giant. They also haven't figured out how to control the temperature in here and when they close the retractable roof after games, all the humidity gets trapped inside and turns it into a sauna. Getting to the clubhouse in this outdated, 1980s-style ballpark requires a hike down a long hallway, a ride on a terribly slow elevator and then a march down a very long basement concourse area. Security staff are not as bad as at Yankee Stadium, but tend to consider themselves as Canada's frontline to the War on Terror. No, that's not a joke. Well, it is, but it isn't."

Related:
Ever-drifting Spaceman cries out for integrity shift in Hall balloting (Richard Griffin, Toronto Star)
Bonds blockbuster: 'The Clear' was legal (Jonathan Littman, Yahoo! Sports)
Pressbox view of best/worst AL ballparks (Geoff Baker, Seattle Times)

The search to locate the World Cup of Hockey trophy is on

Those of you who subscribe to the theory Major League Baseball wants no part of the Olympics have some more ammo, courtesy the NHL:

"(Y)ou'll be happy to hear the NHL and the NHL Players' Association are working toward staging another World Cup of Hockey tournament in the not-too-distant future.

"According to an informed source, the sides are looking at two dates, the most probable being late August or early September 2011. Another possibility is February 2012. That date, however, is less likely because the 2011-12 NHL regular season would have to be shut down to accommodate the tournament. The owners aren't thrilled with the idea of dimming the lights during the season for any reason. They do so grudgingly to allow the players to participate in the Olympics. In this case, I believe they'd be wise to at least consider it." -- ESPN.com

In MLB's case, Bud Selig and the boys want to build up the World Baseball Classic and keep the revenues for themselves. It's more preferable than being a supplicant to the International Olympic Committee, which is full of foreigners who don't understand freedom, liberty or why the second baseman doesn't have to touch the bag when he's turning the double play.

One can see why hockey might be headed down the same road, where they're not buying the notion that participating in the Olympics serves any noble purpose. It's isolationist and greedy, sure, but the noblest purpose for the NHL these days is trying to stay at 30 teams. Given the ongoing COC-up over the crest on Canada's hockey jerseys, one wonders what side Hockey Canada would be on if the NHL decides to end the Dream Team experiment which began 11 years ago in Nagano.

One completely crackers suggestion for the Olympic hockey tournament: Once every four years, fold the world juniors into the Games. Teenagers represent their country in other sports all the time.

Related:
NHL, union continue World Cup of Hockey talks (E.J. Hradek, ESPN.com; via Kukla's Korner)