I hope nobody took my tongue-in-cheek rant seriously yesterday. Just because I can't stand the Toronto Blue Jays, it isn't because I'm a stoogish American clown. Do you want to know the real reason I hate the Blue Jays? It's because during their halycon days, they had the most smug (or should that be "smuggest"?) TV announcers in baseball. Our cable has always had Canadian stations and other than constant news and winter hockey, they would throw an occasional Blue Jay game on. The announcers were so bad. It's okay to be a home team rooter (Phil Rizzuto roots for the Yankees but is consistently entertaining) but it's another to do it in such a smug, saccharine manner that it made me want to spit.

Announcers add so much to the game. Jim Kaat, Bob Uecker, Ken Harrelson, Sean McDonough and others around the league make watching their teams a joy and help build team loyalty. A good announcer can make a three hour stay in front of the TV a pleasant experience.

There is much to MLB that makes for a great experience. Groundskeepers present a canvas that the artists can work. Grounds can be an art themselves. I remember the grass in the old Minnesota ball park and how it had the wonderful checkerboard. I even remember the old Washington, D.C park where the Senators used to play. It was beautiful on TV. Yankee Stadium has become beautiful with the monument park. The new stadiums in San Francisco and other cities are gorgeous and far better than the cookie cutter, artificial turf-laden stadiums of the 70's.

Even a stadium's PA announcer can change the way a baseball game is "felt." No matter how crazy the hype is around the Yankees, Bob Sheppard has given every game played at Yankee Stadium a dignity and class found no where else. On the other end of the spectrum, it was always fun to hear the Twins announcer introduce Kirby Puckett.

For the Flagrant Fan, few can add to baseball more than the baseball writer. When I lived in New Hampshire, I would spend $1.50 for the Sunday paper only for the Peter Gammons column. I've been reading baseball since the wonder days of The Sporting News and have read many of the great sportswriters of our time. But none match Gammons. His columns are coffee on the deck on a Sunday morning special. The Internet and ESPN.com with his columns is the stuff of fantasy. Is life great or what?

When don't announcers, players, groundskeepers, and the rest help make baseball great? Spring Training games, that's when. I watched the Red Sox play an exhibition game. It's impossible to have any interest in games when the stats don't count, fifteen pitchers pitch and you can't keep score because the scorecard doesn't have enough lines. Sean McDonough and Jerry Remy were similarly bored and talked about everything but baseball. I'll stick to reading the Springtime gossip from now on.

All of which seems trivial right now as I just finished watching President Bushes' speech. Heaven help us all...