At some point during Major League Baseball's Opening Week -- in the fog of having watched more games than I can clearly recall, or care to admit -- I became wildly jealous of the denizens of the diamond's dugouts, and not solely because they're placed on a pedestal, pampered and obscenely overpaid.

It's Opening Day in Toronto. All of which is to say that as of around 7 p.m., when 125-million-dollars-worth of terrific talent takes the field for the home side at the Rogers Centre, and knuckleballer R.A. Dickey lets fly (or lets float) that first pitch -- we will be finally able to utter those three beautiful words: Baseball Is Back.

At a live auction in New York City on Saturday night, the bloodied sock worn by Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling in Game Two of the 2004 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals was sold for (wait for it) $92,613. For a sock. Soaked in old sweat. Soiled with blood.

Let's stop pretending that we're so offended by our All-Stars cheating over an entire career and over an entire life. Steroids are to sports what sex is to the White House. The MLB is the biggest cheater in baseball. They're just better at hiding the syringes.

The Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a historic 12-player deal with the Florida Marlins. As last evening wore on, the hype and hoopla on Sports Talk Radio in The Big Smoke was ratcheted. Ah, but Toronto being Toronto, all that giddiness, all that love, all that manic mirth was short-lived. By the time I turned on Sports Talk Radio this morning at 6 a.m., confidence in the trade had turned to caution.

It ain’t easy keeping up with the New York Yankees and their payroll that exceeds $195 million (U.S.) a year. Of course, many try, which is why base...

Not to suggest that the world revolves around Kate Upton, but given all the hoopla and hype afforded in recent days to the star-spangled awesome actress and supermodel, an observer could easily conclude that the World Series most surely revolves around her. But as one writer put it: "an entire city breathlessly awaits an answer to what fans really want to know. Is [Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander] really dating supermodel Kate Upton?"

Somewhere, somehow -- in some corner of the baseball universe or the baseball-watching universe -- there is somebody who does not understand why everyone loves the Oakland Athletics. Moneyball is not the reason. It's not their salary or their ongoing rivalry with the concept of capitalism. That's too easy.

We may only have one Major League Baseball team, but Canada is no stranger to the good old game of baseball. Our historical ties to baseball date back...

Yunel Escobar has served his three-game suspension for writing a gay slur on his eye black last Saturday, and will return to the Toronto Blue Jays lineup tonight. Wait, didn't that happen, like, yesterday? We've barely had time to breathe, and now Escobar is returning?

Imagine walking into your workplace tomorrow morning, grabbing a marker from the supply closet, walking into the boardroom and writing the words "You are a Faggot" on the company white board. How do you think the boss would react? The Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escoba wrote those words in his black eye and received a three-game suspension. Three games? For offending every homosexual watching at home? For telling every athlete out there that even in 2012 you shouldn't feel comfortable coming out of the closet? The Jays should be ashamed of themselves.

Withholding the honour to Barry Bonds is petty beyond belief -- except that it's happening. The Hall of Fame guys are so damned sanctimonious and dogmatic that it curdles belief. Criteria for entry into the Hall should only be a player's record in the game, none of this drivel about "integrity" that the MLB is judging without proof.

This week, I sat down for lunch with Drunk Jays Fan Andrew Stoeten at X on Front Street. We spoke about everything baseball, from sabermetrics to Alex Anthopoulos, to exactly what a baseball blog and podcast can talk about during the off-season!

And, so, after the greatest night of regular season baseball in this 24-year-old man's history, the $41 million Tampa Bay Rays are in the post-season ...