It's Wednesday September 3 as I write this. I'm sitting in a bar in the Skydome Rennaissance Hotel watching Blue Jays batting practice. I hadn't really planned to be here, but here I am.

I came to Toronto for a convention and I stayed to teach a writing workshop at a local bookstore. The workshop is tonight at 7:30--so, sadly I will miss the game. But I was interviewed today on CBC Radio (the Canadian version of the BBC or NPR), and their studios are right across the street from the Skydome. After the interview I could have gone back to where I was staying and twiddled my thumbs, but why do that? I decided to walk down to the dome and see what was going on. It was then 3pm. I walked into the hotel and discovered a nice hotel bar that overlooks the outfield. I sat down and ordered a Shirley Temple and started to read Roger Kahn's October Men.

At 3pm the bar was empty and the field was occupied by a handfuil of groundskeepers who appeared to be rebuilding the mound and repacking the dirt by first base. At 3:30 three Jays infielders and a coach came out and started working on short pops--charging in to just catch the toss off their shoetops. How interesting to see that they actually practice that.

A few folks, all in Yankees shirts and hats, came in and took looks at the field, and then left. I finished my Shirley Temple. (In Canada, they make a Shirley Temple with a shot of orange juice in addition to the grenadine.) I ordered another one and moved from the bar down to the window. Another woman, from England but living in Toronto now, sat down next to me. We had a nice discussion about the etiquette of baseball and she peppered me with questions, among them, how many players are allowed in the dugout? And is it considered rude to throw at the batter's head? We watched the Jays play catch.

At 5pm, the Yankees exited their dugout en masse, and began their usual pregame stretching and exercises. A man with a Latin American accent approached me and asked if I knew what the lineup for tonight is. I told him I didn't know, which is true, but that Mussina and Escobar were supposed to start. Kelvim Escobar is who he was interested in, because he's from Venezuela. He then told me he was a friend of Luis Sojo.

By this time the bar was starting to fill up. Three nicely dressed older people sat down behind me, then greeted a young woman who came in to say he. Turns out she's Josh Phelps' fiancee and these are some of her in-laws, including Josh's mom's sister. Super-nice people. We spent a while trying to pick Josh out on the field and saw he was taking grounders at first base. Phelps has been mostly a DH this year as Carlos Delgado has been taking up most of the playing time, as you can well imagine. (Delgado has been leading the league in slugging, OBP, home runs and many other offensive categories throughout the year.) We had all seen the news report the day before about the Jays unveiling their new uniforms for the 2004 season. Everyone, me included, agreed they look pretty sharp though the gray is a bit drab. (It's supposed to be... it's your road uniform, after all.) The one weird thing about the new unis is that the name JAYS is spelled out across the chest in a font that is suspiciously similar to the way the Tampa Bay Devil Rays new uniforms just say RAYS. Looks almost like the same font. I think a new look for the Jays is not a bad idea, but do they really want to resemble the Devil Rays? I did NOT mention this to the Phelps family.

At 5:30 the gates opened and we watched as about a dozen young Yankees fans came running down the grandstand steps toward the dugout. The Jays left the field. Right now I'm looking down at Jeff Nelson, who is taking a spot to shag in left-center. Even from up here, he's obviously taller than your average bear.

It's difficult to see who is in the cage from this distance, so I am reduced to guessing by their swings. It looks like Bernie in the cage now--Karim Garcia before him. Garcia really looks like Giambi from a distance, until you see the swing. No one has quite the same bottom-hand wrist-flip that Giambi has, the one that always makes it look like he's going to hit himself in the back of the helmet at the very end.

Yes, that's Bernie--that wide stance, the way he pulls his foot back right before the swing. Now it's someone I don't recognize--is it Ruben Sierra? It's someone with a very dark face, who lifts his front foot high before his swing. Whoever it is, he just hit a shot into the middle deck in right, probably the hardest hit ball I've seen all afternoon.

Right below me, on the warning track, two guys are playing catch. If I am interpreting what I am seeing correctly, it's a Yankees batboy and a Blue Jays batboy. They look to be about 15-16 years old. The Jays batboy has a stronger arm, but also throws wide and high, making it an adventure for the Yankees guy. The Yankee just held up one finger for "one more." Now they are done. Wonder what that was about?

The lady from England just came back to ask me how innings work and what it's called when a ball goes over the wall. For the record, I told her each team gets three outs per inning ("Oh, so that's why they never know how long the game will take!") and when it goes over the wall on the fly, it's a home run. Then she wanted to know if you could call it "bases loaded" with only on second and third. No, you need them on first, second and third. "And if he hits a home run then? That's worth four points?" Yes.

Giambi, there he is now. He hit a low liner that just missed clearing the wall, then took a pitch! In batting practice! Then he took another one! The next one was a moon shot that sailed high and far, and hit the windows of the restaurant next to us in dead center. Wow. I hope this means he's getting his stroke back after he went something like 0-for-20 after getting hit on the hand.

Now Nick Johnson is in the cage. He has the swing equivalent of a "slow arm." Like a pitcher who looks like he's just lobbing it, but then the ball explodes, Nick looks like he is taking a lazy swing. Robin Ventura looked like that also. But then blammo, you see how far the ball goes... Johnson's swing matches his even demeanor. Giambi's swing has a violent look to it, a quick but not compact slash. I like Giambi's swing. It's not pretty like Ken Griffey's and not concentrated like Barry Bonds'. It's a little bit brash.

Now Mel Stottlemyre is out there talking to a group of three pitchers. Mel has his glove on, for self-protection during BP, I would guess. Now he is walking away. The three pitchers (Mariano? Gabe White? Who is wearing #41 now?) are still chatting. Soriano is in the cage now and he hits a fly in their direction. They don't move. It passes over them and into the glove of Andy Pettite. Most of the pitchers are in right and right center.

Nelson is still standing all by himself.

Tonight would have been the night to try to get autographs. It's now 6:10 and the crowd along the top of the Yankees dugout is only one person deep, with some gaps. Nelson is tossing every ball that comes his way to some people in the middle deck behind him.

Osuna just stole a ball from #41, leaping in front of him to grab the fly out of the air.

Why does Ruben Sierra wear a hard hat in the field, like John Olerud?

Soriano just put another one over the wall in left center. It's just about time for me to go. The game is about to start, but I've had my show.