This is probably like playing fantasy baseball, which readers of this site know I abhor, but what if the Toronto Blue Jays have finally put it all together and are ready to compete for real in the American League East? Doesn’t that division already have enough serious contenders?

Recent experience tells us not to take the Blue Jays seriously. We have heard one season after another how this is the year the Blue Jays have a chance to crash the Yankees-Red Sox party and then they fade. Last year, without fanfare, the Tampa Bay Rays supplanted the Blue Jays as the interloper in the East, dropping Toronto to an unaccustomed fourth place.

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Just when we need George Mitchell, he’s off in the Middle East trying to solve an irresolvable problem. Actually, Mitchell and I were in the Middle East at the same time, and I should have taken advantage of our proximity to ask him what he’s going to do, if anything, about baseball’s latest scandal.

For what Major League Baseball paid him and his law firm for his steroids investigation – $25 million or more – Mitchell can extend his probe and find out who was responsible for putting the new Yankee Stadium on steroids.

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The Chicago Cubs haven’t won a World Series in 100 years, and the Florida Marlins are working on their third World Series championship in 13 years.

Whoa, slow down. The season is only two weeks old. It’s far too premature to be talking World Series. I recall how in 1948, when the previously woeful Pittsburgh Pirates were playing extremely well at some point but early in the season, my father wrote a letter to Rosey Rowswell, the Pirates’ radio announcer, applying for World Series tickets.

“You’re too optimistic for me, brother,” Rowswell replied, and the Pirates finished fourth that season.

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